From A.j. Michel: SP 22: Six Categories -- Call for Entries

From A.j. Michel: SP 22: Six Categories -- Call for Entries

In the beginning of the novel Microserfs*, Douglas Coupland has each of his characters list their dream Jeopardy! categories, fields of expertise such as “Career anxieties”, “Cats”, “Psychotic loser friends”, and “Macintosh products”. I can’t remember much else from this nearly twenty-year old novel, but these character “introductions” remain stuck in a shadowy corner of my memory. I’ve mentally made lists of my ideal Jeopardy! boards, with categories like “The Simpsons, Seasons 1 to 8” and “Postage” and “Job Dissatisfaction”.

It’s your turn to list your six ideal Jeopardy! categories that showcase your unique knowledge, quirks, neuroses, talents, habits, whatever.

Email the following to syndprod@gmail.com with the words Six Categories in the subject line.

1. Your six ideal Jeopardy! categories. These should be single words, short phrases, or very short sentences. Brevity is the soul of wit and all that. (Please nothing racist, sexist, overtly sexual, distasteful, etc. If you want to list off sexual things you’re really good at, go fill out an OK Cupid dating profile.)

2. For the credit line, your name and electronic contact information as you want it to appear. For example: Jane Doe - www.janedoe.com or John Doe - john@johndoe.com.

Deadline is DECEMBER 12, 2012. This is a firm deadline. Entries will be printed in the order they are received. You’ll receive a copy of the finished zine as compensation.

Disclaimer: This zine has absolutely no connection to Douglas Coupland, Microserfs, or the television program Jeopardy!

*A long excerpt of what became the novel Microserfs is available here:www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.01/microserfs.html

CALL for ENTRIES Meta Comics Issue! Deadline: 6/30/2011

 

 

ABSOLUTE DEADLINE: JUNE 30, 2011!!

CALL for ENTRIES

Syndicate Product: 

THE META-COMICS ISSUE

The META-COMICS ISSUE will include comics and essays ABOUT comics and sequential art. You certainly DO NOT have to be an artist to contribute – essays are very much welcome and encouraged!

Some potential ideas:

• The creative process of drawing comics: Where do your ideas come from? Why do you draw comics?
• Comics-related disasters: From the cat knocking over the ink bottle to basement floods that resulted in floating longboxes.
•  __ broke my heart: As a comics reader, the most soul-crushing, genre-destroying, why-the-hell-am-I-still-reading this storylines you’ve endured in mainstream comics. Why did you stop reading some titles?
• Creative space: Where do you draw? What rituals do you perform? (E.g., Lynda Barry always begins a drawing session by writing out the alphabet a few times with a brush and ink.)
• Reading comics: Are there comics that left you so emotionally wrecked that you’re scared to read them again? Flipside: are there books you have to re-read every year?
• Collecting comics: Are you a Wednesday regular? Did your mom throw out your collection when you went to college? Have you ever sold off parts of your collection for rent, food, or more comics?
• Comics and relationships: Friendships and romances found or lost over comics.
• Memories of stores past and present: Good and bad stories from the comic shop. Did/do you work in a comic shop?
• Inspirations: Artists, teachers, storytellers?
• Tangentially related ideas: Terrible, little-seen comic book movie/TV adaptations. Tales from actual comic book conventions.
• Previously self-published comics (either print or web) are welcome if they relate to the topic.

SPECIFICATIONS

Comic artists: Final art size should reduce to around 4.5 x 7.5 inches. Four pages maximum (but if it’s really good, this can be negotiated). B&W only. Send art as 300dpi TIF files if grayscale scans, 600dpi TIF if bitmap scans. Also, once entries are in, I may be looking for small illustrations to accompany some of the essays.

Writers: Between 400-1200 words is acceptable. If you need to go longer, please do. If the writing is good enough, people will want to read it to the end. I'll let you know if a piece is simply too huge, rambling, unwieldy, or needs editing. Send essays as OpenOffice, MS Word, or plain text files, or paste the text into an e-mail.

Contributors will receive a copy of the final project.

Due date and where to submit: Deadline is JUNE 30, 2011. Submit your entries to syndprod@gmail.com. If you want to mail them, send them to: A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050.

COMING CLEAN - Deadline now 11/1/2009!‏

The deadline has been extended until NOVEMBER 1, 2009!

Call for Entries: COMING CLEAN

After zines about the laundry (Laundry Basket), grocery shopping (12 Items or Less), and cooking (Potluck), this was inevitable. The next issue of SYNDICATE PRODUCT is all about cleaning... house cleaning, washing the car, even picking up the yard debris. (However, it's NOT about laundry, as that's already been done. It's also not about packratting, as that's also been done.)

A few possible ideas:
+ apartment or house move in/out cleaning stories
+ making your own eco-friendly cleaning products
+ I hate to BLANK (dust, vacuum, clean the gutters)
+ biggest cleaning disaster
+ living with a hoarder or a neatnik
+ the most disgusting abandoned item found in the back of the fridge or shoved in a cabinet
+ what I learned about cleaning from my family/friends/ex
+ my biggest cleaning challenge is BLANK

Specifications:

Writers: I'm not going to get too hung up on length for this issue, but I would say between 400-800 words is a good size. If you need to go longer, please do. If the writing is good enough, people will want to read it to the end. I'll let you know if a piece is simply too huge.

Comic artists: The zine will be Digest Sized. Final art size should reduce to 4.5 x 7.5 inches. You can have two pages, but this can be negotiated if needed. B&W only, the zine will be photocopied. Send art as 300dpi TIF files. Also, once entries are in, I may be looking for small illustrations to accompany some of the stories.
Contributors will receive a copy of the final project.

Due date and where to submit: OCTOBER 11, 2009*. Submit your entries to syndprod@gmail.com, either by simply pasting the text into an e-mail, or as an OpenOffice, MS Word, or plain text document. If you want to mail them, send them to: A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050.
* Due date subject to extension if needed, as it usually is.

Call for Entries: COMING CLEAN

After zines about the laundry (Laundry Basket), grocery shopping (12 Items or Less), and cooking (Potluck), this was inevitable. The next issue of SYNDICATE PRODUCT is all about cleaning... house cleaning, washing the car, even picking up the yard debris. (However, it's NOT about laundry, as that's already been done. It's also not about packratting, as that's also been done.)

A few possible ideas:
+ apartment or house move in/out cleaning stories
+ making your own eco-friendly cleaning products
+ I hate to BLANK (dust, vacuum, clean the gutters)
+ biggest cleaning disaster
+ living with a hoarder or a neatnik
+ the most disgusting abandoned item found in the back of the fridge or shoved in a cabinet
+ what I learned about cleaning from my family/friends/ex
+ my biggest cleaning challenge is BLANK

Specifications:

Writers: I'm not going to get too hung up on length for this issue, but I would say between 400-800 words is a good size. If you need to go longer, please do. If the writing is good enough, people will want to read it to the end. I'll let you know if a piece is simply too huge.

Comic artists: The zine will be Digest Sized. Final art size should reduce to 4.5 x 7.5 inches. You can have two pages, but this can be negotiated if needed. B&W only, the zine will be photocopied. Send art as 300dpi TIF files. Also, once entries are in, I may be looking for small illustrations to accompany some of the stories.
Contributors will receive a copy of the final project.

Due date and where to submit: OCTOBER 11, 2009*. Submit your entries to syndprod@gmail.com, either by simply pasting the text into an e-mail, or as an OpenOffice, MS Word, or plain text document. If you want to mail them, send them to: A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050.

* Due date subject to extension if needed, as it usually is.

Syndicate Product 13.0, The TV Issue (review by Davida)

Full disclosure – I contributed to this issue. However, I always enjoy A.j.’s compilation issues and pop cultural analysis, which one of the reasons I contributed. One of my favorite pieces was Celia Perez’s youthful recollections of being obsessed with the mini-series “North and South”. She and three friends even went so far as to write letters to one another in character. She also contributes a piece on telenovelas. Ken Bausert recalls the first TV his family bought and still has the “portable TV” his brother came home with around 1949. Kris (of Extranjero) writes about viewing 9/11 on a small B&W TV in rural Ireland. Eric Lyden contributes some fun facts and Gianni Simone attempts to explain Japanese reality TV. A.j. delves into TV music and how you no longer even need a TV to watch TV.
$3/Digest/28 pgs
A.j. Michel
PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050
syndprod@gmail.com
www.syndicateproduct.com