Keenswim 2005

[Glarryg]

http://keenswim.keenspace.com

It begins! This is the official "casting call" for submissions to Keenswim 2005, continuing the tradition of such events as Bikeeni Summer and Keenlace. I'm going to try something that I don't think has been done before and invite both 'Spacers and 'Spotters to join the same event, in an effort to generate exposure for the entire Keeniverse. Here's the rules:

1. Have an established comic on Keenspot or Keenspace.

2. Draw your character(s) engaging in summer-related merriment, be it at the beach, in the backyard, in New Orleans, wherever. Keep it fun, as always. Color and grayscale are both acceptable. Try to use about the same size/memory limitations you use for your comic; remember, a gigantic picture that stretches off the edge of the screen and takes a half hour to load will turn the audience away.

3. Crossover art is strongly encouraged! We'd love to see the Checkerboard Nightmare hanging out with Ugly Girl, or the Newshounds playing beach volleyball with the Newscast. Get together and collaborate! I only ask that you actually work with the creator(s) off all the character(s) you "cross over" with, so that nobody's intellectual property gets stolen.

4. Send your pics to keenswim2005@yahoo.com with an obvious subject line (using the words "Keenswim" and "submission" would be a pretty easy way to make sure I don't delete it as spam). In the body of the message, give me your name as you want it to appear on the site, your comic's name and URL, and the name(s) of the character(s) in the pic. A brief description of what's going on in the pic is optional; I can add one myself if you don't want to.

5. As moderator, I reserve the right to refuse any pic if I feel it is not up to the standards of the event. Likewise, a picture that is too big or too memory-heavy, one that looks like it was scrawled off during math class with little or no attention to quality, or one that is pornographic or otherwise offensive may be refused or returned to the creator for editing. Them's the breaks.

6. Get drawing!

*EDIT:* Visit http://keenswim.keenspace.com to see the finished product.

Have fun with this, and submit away!

Glarryg

*EDIT:* Clarification of Rule #3

[josh l.]

Uh... Who ARE you?

[The Layfield]

Uh... Who ARE you?

Don't question him! He has 1 post!

[Glarryg]

Sorry. I've been on 'Space for a little while, but didn't bother to sign up here until I got this gig started. It's the fullfilment of something that was mentioned in this thread not too long ago.

Glarryg

[carsonfire]

Oh, yeah! I remember that thread!

Um... who are you?

[Glarryg]

Don't worry about it. People talked about the event (moreso here, I guess) but nobody volunteered to do it. I'm the volunteer.

Glarryg

[Airsick Moth]

He's going to steal our properties! That we must defend!

[Glarryg]

I'll get you, Straub, and your little patently topical, gleefully satirical intellectual property, too! Aah ha ha ha ha ha ha haa!

[carsonfire]

We're just having a little fun with you, since you're a new poster, here.

However, I am anxious to see a site mockup. If you're just going to post pinups, then, heck, I can do that on my own website. Show us a clever theme, or something.

[Tanukitsune]

I thought Keenspot had stopped doing that Bikeeni thing...
There wasn't one in 2003 or 2004...

[Howard Tayler]

I thought Keenspot had stopped doing that Bikeeni thing...
There wasn't one in 2003 or 2004...

Basically, it wasn't a Keenspot supported event. One of the 'spotters had to put the whole Bikeeni site together himself. If memory serves, Josh did it one year, and Cars did it another. All Keenspot did was link to it. Needless to say, the effort put out by the spotter in the barrel wasn't rewarded in proportion to the time spent in the barrel.

If Glarryg is willing to do the work to put together a decent hub with thumbnails, etc, AND if Keenspot is willing to link to it prominently somewhere (like maybe give it a newsbox day in mid-August, and again in September when the college kids are back in school) then I'd say "go swimming with him!"

--Howard
p.s. Is it pronounced "Gee-larry-gee" or "GLARRig?" You kids and your fancy intarwebs handles these days.

[Airsick Moth]

Hey, thanks for mentioning Ugly Girl. I wondered what it was and looked it up, and I kind of like it. Chex would hit it.

[carsonfire]

I thought Keenspot had stopped doing that Bikeeni thing...
There wasn't one in 2003 or 2004...

Basically, it wasn't a Keenspot supported event. One of the 'spotters had to put the whole Bikeeni site together himself. If memory serves, Josh did it one year, and Cars did it another. All Keenspot did was link to it. Needless to say, the effort put out by the spotter in the barrel wasn't rewarded in proportion to the time spent in the barrel.

That's a little backwards.

I created Bikeeni in 2000 (the name might have been suggested by Tatsuya Ishida in his more clubby days, or Chris Crosby, I forget who), and wasn't looking for "reward" other than promotion of our comics. While "swimsuit issues" are not a new thing to print comics (I had Radio Comix' Hit the Beach in mind, in particular), my goal was to create more permanent promotional pages for the comics, other than the newsbox, which, while powerful, is a sometimes thing, and the Keenspot homepage, which at the time represented each comic with not much more than a "pog".

Although very rough around the edges, I was very proud of that first years' effort. It was an event that was quickly copied and parodied (Keenspace that year even did a take on my film negative layout), and (as you can see) inspires imitators even today.

Alas, it never really could generate the kind of traffic that the newsbox does. And it *is* a lot of work. So much work that I'm sure that I've griped internally (in one of my weaker "where's the money for rent and food coming from this month?" moments) that I never got much thanks or recompensation for doing things like that, but that's unfortunate, as it does tend to betray my earlier altruistic motives. My own pinups for Bikeeni 2000 weren't even very good (or particularly completed) because I was spending more of my time hand-coding the site and pestering cartoonists for the required promotional material to go along with their pinups.

I did Bikeeni another year after that (couldn't spend nearly the same amount of time on it) and the results just didn't seem to justify the continued work. At that point, I wasn't even so worried about traffic from Keenspot. I was trying to use Bikeeni to generate more outside traffic that Keenspot didn't yet have... trying to get Bikeeni linked and listed with real bikini sites, that kind of thing. But that kind of fizzled. I don't have the resources to create that kind of promotion myself.

The next year, it was picked up by John Myers, who was still doing The Mr Chuck Show, and the year or two after that Josh Lesnick. And they did it because -- I believe -- they still saw it as a fun and worthwhile effort.

[Howard Tayler]

Thanks for the clarification, Cars.

The upshot of my post stands: If you guys have found somebody to assemble the site, and if Keenspot will prominently link to it, then it's worth submitting art to, regardless of how Glarryg pronounces his name.

--Howard

[carsonfire]

Self-indulgent post

I mentioned that my own Bikeeni pinups in 2000, when I was the webmaster, weren't so good.

Two years later, when Josh Lesnick did Bikeeni 2002, I took the opportunity to redraw one of them. For me, it's fun to look back and see how far I came in two years.

http://bikeeni2000.keenspot.com/elflife_glynhial.html

http://bikeeni2002.keenspot.com/pinups/ ... life3.html

Still, as bad as the first one looks, the second one looks just as bad to me now.

[carsonfire]

if Keenspot will prominently link to it

That's the mighty big IF, of course. There are lots of these Bikeeni-like sites that pop up here and there.

I linked to the Keenspace parody in 2000 from our own Bikeeni site, but as far as I can remember, Keenspot has never promoted a Keenspace bikini site in the newsbox or linked one on the Keenspot homepage.

The best Glarryg can hope for, most likely, is that participants will link back because their pinups are there. The participants themselves are more likely to create traffic for him, than he will generate for the participants.

Unless, of course, he can show that he's doing something a little more special, and going to more effort than simply asking for other people to submit stuff. So far, he's just asked people to submit stuff.

[carsonfire]

I'm not trying to take the wind out of Glarryg's sails, btw... I just haven't seen the sails raised, yet.

[TdotOdot2k]

I still have to send the guy all the ones I did, and all the future ones I'll do. I'm not at home this weekend though, so I'm not sure if I can do that

One note that struck a lot of nerves over at keenspace, when he says "established" webcomic...he doesn't mean a popular one, cause his has only been around for a couple of weeks.

I forget exactly what his exact definition of established was, but it sounded a lot worse than what he meant.

[John T]

It was an event that was quickly copied and parodied (Keenspace that year even did a take on my film negative layout), and (as you can see) inspires imitators even today.

Ah, THOSE were the days. Ice-Breaker, represent!

[josh l.]

Two years later, when Josh Lesnick did Bikeeni 2002, I took the opportunity to redraw one of them. For me, it's fun to look back and see how far I came in two years.

I did 2003, actually. But I didn't finish it because I'm an asshat. ^^;

The 2003 URL doesn't seem to work though, probably 'cause my directory was removed from Keenspot. Alas!

[Glarryg]

Is it pronounced "Gee-larry-gee" or "GLARRig?" You kids and your fancy intarwebs handles these days.

It's pronouced "LOO-vull."

Yeah, in reference to what TdotOdot2k said above, I should have used the word "existing" where I used the word "established." Oops.

And I've been thinking about a theme, and what's come to mind is a travelogue. If interested parties want to send in pics, adding a location for the characters (e.g. if your comic is set in Hawaii, then say "Hawaii," but if it's set in Hawaii and everyone's vacationing on Mars, then say "Mars") would be great. That way we'll be taking a tour around the Internet's cartoon "hot spots" and see the vast stretches of the Keeniverse through the course of the summer.

Seriously, though, I've always said "GLARRig." Fewer syllables, and it rolls off the tongue easier.

Glarryg

[mcDuffies]

if Keenspot will prominently link to it

That's the mighty big IF, of course. There are lots of these Bikeeni-like sites that pop up here and there.

I linked to the Keenspace parody in 2000 from our own Bikeeni site, but as far as I can remember, Keenspot has never promoted a Keenspace bikini site in the newsbox or linked one on the Keenspot homepage.

The best Glarryg can hope for, most likely, is that participants will link back because their pinups are there.

Actually, since Keenspace newsbox works different, Glarryg won't have any problems in making a newsbox for the event. Also, I don't think we'll have much troubles talking Kelly into putting a link to the site somewhere relevant. If you add linking from participants to that, how does it sound?

The participants themselves are more likely to create traffic for him, than he will generate for the participants.

You're putting it totally wrong. Nobody's creating traffic to Glarryg because it's not Glarryg's comic. He has other comic and, being on different site, it won't have much to do with the event. Think of the event's site as a sort of public property, and Glarryg is just a person who was kind enough to volunteer to maintain that public property.

But why are you thinking so much through pageviews and cross-promotion? Before the event was officially made, before Glarryg took it over, before anyone even know there would be an event, there was a couple of dozens of entries posted back at Keenspace forum. Surely people weren't posting them to generate hits.

[STrRedWolf]

Actually, since Keenspace newsbox works different, Glarryg won't have any problems in making a newsbox for the event. Also, I don't think we'll have much troubles talking Kelly into putting a link to the site somewhere relevant. If you add linking from participants to that, how does it sound?

The SpaceKini crossover? I will have no problem linking it on the front page. If folks want to, the newsbox can be modified slightly to add a link there.

[carsonfire]

You're putting it totally wrong. Nobody's creating traffic to Glarryg because it's not Glarryg's comic. He has other comic and, being on different site, it won't have much to do with the event. Think of the event's site as a sort of public property, and Glarryg is just a person who was kind enough to volunteer to maintain that public property.

What I meant by that is that that's where the traffic for the people on the site will come from -- each other -- and not Keenspot promotion.

This is realistic pessimism. *Obviously* the goal is to get hits for participants, and to have some fun, too...

I'm just sayin' that Glarryg's site will have to prove itself, just like every other site of its kind. If it's really jumpin' and impressive, maybe Keenspot *would* want to promote it, so it can say "look at what these guys at Keenspace are up to!"

[TdotOdot2k]

Actually, since Keenspace newsbox works different, Glarryg won't have any problems in making a newsbox for the event. Also, I don't think we'll have much troubles talking Kelly into putting a link to the site somewhere relevant. If you add linking from participants to that, how does it sound?

The SpaceKini crossover? I will have no problem linking it on the front page. If folks want to, the newsbox can be modified slightly to add a link there.

Give this man a trophy. He's a winner.

</brownnose>