Good responses so far

I've received quite a few good responses from my request for artists. I have to say, I appreciate it, and I'm glad I've been able to create a little buzz.

As of yet, I've not cemented any arrangement to work with anyone. I'm waiting for preliminary sketches of a couple of my character outlines from several folks, hoping to find one (or more) who "gets" my concept and is excited about the project.

For anyone who's interested, what the contest requires is a page of story concept from the writer and a page of art from the artist. My understanding is that these could take several forms. A synopsis of the story, or a page of script, or character outlines and a general story concept from the writer. A page of character sketches, a page of finished character concept drawings, or a finished comic book page with or without letters from the artist. If I'm understanding the contest right, they'll look at these and narrow it down to fifty semi-finalists who will travel to California with more work to pitch to the judges there. I'm assuming this will be anything up to and including a full comic book ready to be sent to the printer. These fifty will be narrowed down to three, which will be posted on the web and judged by the public.

I'm working on two separate story pitches. One is a dark fantasy interacting with modern characters. There will be characters as wide ranging as Auberon/The Erl King, Titania/The Witch Queen, and Puck to more normal characters like Detective Jeff Mabry, Cassandra O'Neill, and Gustav "Gus" Stratman. If it works out the way I want, it will be interesting and fun to read on a "Strange Tales" or "Tales From The Crypt" level, and it will be graphically interesting, both dark and sinister and light and cheerful depending on the scene's setting or characters focused on.

The other pitch is a fairly standard reluctant superhero story, with a twist. There won't be any tights or secret identities, although the reluctant hero will act behind the scenes and in secret. He's basically a troubled teen, slacker, gets in trouble all the time, and suddenly finds himself gifted with superpowers. He uncovers a terrorist plot, and must try and convince the authorities of it or try and stop it himself. His only friend is a comic book geek from school who idolizes him for his rebellious ways. His friend will be the one urging him on to use his powers as a superhero, and our hero will resist as much as he can.

That's basically it. I'm excited about both of them, and honestly think that with the right art, both of them have a shot at winning. However, I must admit to being far more intrigued by the dark fantasy idea.

So what's anyone think? Do either of those sound interesting for a graphic format? With the right art, would you read a book based on either of those premises?