comic book idol

For those that don't know, Comic Book Resources is coming up on their THIRD Comic Book Idol. A competition for amateur artists, where ten of them go through a series of challenges and each week it gets wittled down to one. And that one, wins some cool prizes usually gets some real comic work and they live on happily ever after.

More details can be found at the website and its FAQ.

Yesterday, I went through 160 submissions (since the deadline is upon us) and while we await the announcement of the Top 10, I thought I would share mine. This is pretty much a repost of a MB comment I left yesterday, but I wanted to post it here.

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So I just spent the last couple of hours looking through all of the submissions and I thought I would share my ten. Not all of these are perfect, but they are the ten that I would like to see more of.

In no particular order:

WILL SLINEY
He was the first one that I liked (after about 2-3 pages). I'm not 100% on his faces, but he does some really solid work. His Iron Man pin-up is awesome.

ALEXANDER STOJANOV
This guy was the first one that posted? I overlooked him the first time, but after looking at everything today, he made it through. I love his wide shots. He would be perfect for a widescreen Ellis adventure. Example.

SEAN IZAAKSE
This little Juggernaut/Iron Fist fight was pretty cool.

CAIO OLIVEIRA
One of my nuttier picks, but his style and take on Wolverine cracked me up. The trio of pages with the DC girls was real good too.

JUAN (couldn't find a last name on his gallery)
This guy was just a solid comic artist. Nothing too original in his style, but I'd like to see him do some pages in this contest. Another example.

JEFF CLEMENS
I really liked this guy. Just a fun, solid clean artist.

NICHOLAS PITARRA
Probably my wackiest pick. Just a really interesting style. GREAT detail. And although I wouldn't expect to see him on a mainstream superhero book, I would love to see him to do some of the challenges, that's for sure. Although he did do some cool Authority pages. More Authority here. And another non-authority example.

KAMERON GATES
Heavily stylized, heavily cool. I suspect that with pin-ups like this and this. Well, and this too. He will be one of the early fan favorites. But he can do sequential too!

T. WING III
This is one of those guys that I liked instantly. Really really cool stuff. I hope he/she makes it, because I want to see more. Here's another.

MARK TORRES
The characters are stiff, blocky and not very life like at times, but that is definitely part of his style. His design is unique and for the most part, this is pretty damn good. I bet he'll have some fans if he makes it into the ten. Another.

I had a few honorable mentions, but I'll just leave it at the above.

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This contest is always a lot of fun, and it looks like there is some talented folk this year.