I want to give you Systemics, who showed so much great work in the Murderdog Contest, a chance to get more involved in the site. For the next couple of weeks, we will be posting a comic each week for you Systemics to rewrite / remix / reimagine.  You send them over to me at systemcomic at gmail dot com, and the best one gets posted on the site.

To start, we’ll be using The System 99. I even posted it here wordless (if that’s where you’d like to start).  We’ll post the winner next Friday, the 25th. Happy Systeming!

I did a bad bad thing.  A while back, I asked everyone for their interpretation of Jimmy the Murderdog.  And while I posted a few, I never really posted the whole set. Gave people credit.  Oh, and for that matter, gave out the rewards.  Because I promised rewards and stuff.

So here we go, I’m making things right.  I’m fixing this. You can find all the entries to the contest here on this page. You can also find the results of the contest there as well. I wound up giving them this hackneyed location so the images would have enough room to be seen properly, but if you want to post about them come back to here.

SEE THE JIMMY THE MURDERDOG FAN ART CONTEST ENTRIES

As for future times I’ll ask for things, I promise you they won’t take me so long the next time. But go and enjoy these, people worked somewhere be tween a little bit and moderately hard on them.

Last year I went to SXSW, and it was awesome.  This year, I made it my goal to submit a panel idea and try to go as a PANELIST this year.  I wound up with an idea that is half-comics and half-my day job.  It’s called Dirty Little Secret: Your Personal / Professional Life Online.

Go read about it on the site if you like, but it would be better if you went, registered (free and doesn’t matter if you’re attending SXSW) and vote on the thing.  If you comment on that post, even better!  If you do both of those things, and comment here, I’ll send you a CUSTOM image created just for those of you who do my bidding!  It’ll be awesome, I promise.  Link.

July 8th, 2008.  I write the first ever System comic*.  In the weeks that followed, I began writing two comics a day, all in hopes of having a 30-comic archive by the time I went to Connecticon, in order to proudly have a comic after a year of having no reason to refer to myself as a webcomic artist.

*Don’t get snarky with me, I back dated the first couple posts so I could move things along faster.  As such, I’m calling today the “anniversary”.

We’ve come a long way since then.  Thanks to some humble links from friends made along the way, support of family and friends, and of course the excessive free time of you Systemics, The System has grown into part of both your life and mine.  I’ve done a lot of thanks for all your help throughout the site, but I will do it once more because it couldn’t be a what it is without you coming back.  As my way of saying thank you, we’re having a new contest on the site.

Jimmy the Murderdog Fan Art Contest

Grown out of a hair-brained idea written in a room with high temperatures and no ventilation, Jimmy the Murderdog has become a sort of mascot for The System.  Here’s your chance to show your love for the murderdog that shows only murderous tendencies to others.

1. Draw your interpretation of Jimmy the Murderdog.  It can be a sketch, a refined drawing, or even an all-out comic.  It can be impressionist, a realistic interpretation, or made out of stained glass.  Really, just go nuts with it.
2. Email it in to: systemcomic at gmail, subject: HE’LL GET YOU.  You have until Midnight (the end of) Sunday, August 2nd.
3. The winner (chosen by me based on however I’m feeling) will receive a Jimmy the Murderdog T-Shirt, a Jimmy the Murderdog 13″ x 19″ poster, and a The System pin set! And, of course, all other Systemics will know that you, as winner, reign supreme.

Want some ideas to get your creative juices flowing?  Luckily for you, I’ve received to “star entries” from some fellow internet peeps.

This first one is by Charles Snow of Sordid City Blues.

Our friend Noah over at Skull A Day has gone a little more elaborate outside the box, with this amazing photograph.  Hey, I never said you had to draw it.  Click the image to see it bigger, btw.

Hopefully this opens your brains to some possibilities.  Remember, comic, drawing, or anything else you come up with to interpret Jimmy the Murderdog.  Email me with questions.  So get to work, Systemics!