Good afternoon, Steemit! It’s time! The winner of the Trial By Comics “Superheroes” week, thoughts on the contest as it evolves and the announcement of the new theme!

I expected Trial by Comics to gradually gain participants over the first few months. I also expected the level of competition to exponentially increase as the competition reached further throughout the Steemit community. Both have happened, far earlier than I imagined. This third week of Trial by Comics was incredible! Logging in and browsing the trialbycomics tag repeatedly exceeded my expectations and left me awestruck of the talent and creativity here in our little corner of the internet.

Alright, alright. Some thoughts here on the contest, specifically. As you all know, this week’s theme was “Superheroes”. When I chose that subject as a theme, I was referring to traditional superheroes [i.e. Superman, Batman, Spider-man, etc.]. The entries, though, challenged my own definitions of “…what is a superhero?”, ultimately weighing on my decisions in choosing a winner. That being said, let’s not stand on ceremony.

The winner of week 3 of Trial by Comics “Superheroes”, and 50.000 SBD is, @eyedrip for his entry, “Frida”. This is exactly what I meant by challenging my definition of a “superhero”. It wasn’t what I had in mind when I made a decision for the theme, but there’s no reason a comic book interpretation of Frida Kahlo couldn’t be a superhero. I took it a step further and Googled “Friday Kahlo comic book”, and was surprised to see several other interpretations by comic book artists around the world. That solidified by decision. Congratulations, @eyedrip on your beautiful comic art!

@eyedrip

Special thanks to @vermillionfox for matching the Trial by Comics reward pool this week, bringing the prize to 50SBD! @vermillionfox is an adored artist and anime enthusiast here in the Steemit community, and a regular contributor to the photography initiatives with her “Musings” posts. Before you go any further, follow @vermillionfox.

As Trial by Comics grows, I’ll be adding tiers. This week, though, there were so many knockout entries that I have to acknowledge some merit awards, even without a monetary prize. Those three merits as are follows. All of which were a hair thin margin of winning this week’s “Superheroes” theme.

Honorable Mentions

@mr-monk

@beekart

@yusaymon

Here are some of the other entries from incredible Steemit comic artists that all deserve a follow if you’re looking to fill your feed with brilliant creators!

@siucatti

@steemitadventure

@to-the-infinity

@evilhippie

@danielkiessler

@saleg25

@artlover

@vvinca

@bryan-imhoff

@freshblock

@neopatriarch

So, what’s the theme for this coming week? You guessed it. Super-villains! One thing I’d like to note is @eyedrip’s victory is more the exception than the rule, as far as entries based on real-life personalities or public figures. There’s a point of view associated with “actual” people. Someone that draws their interpretation of Dick Cheney as a super-villain may be put at odds with someone […or a judge] that reveres him as an American hero. That said, feel free to enter anything or anyone you’d like, but there’s a bias for “traditional” comic and graphic novel “super-villains”, by definition.

Guess what? 50.000 SBD award for the winner of this week […and next four weeks] thanks to a generation co-sponsorship of Trial by Comics by my friend, artist and new Steemian, @danielkiessler! He’s been killing it here since joining the community, as you can see in his recent post “HALLOWEEN / “I WANT YOUR SKULLS…!!” (Part 2 of 2)”. He asked me how he could be more active and effective in the Steemit community and I suggested sponsoring Trial by Comics. He didn’t hesitate at all and will be matching my prize award for the next month! Give him a follow at @danielkiessler.

Deadline for “Super-villains” is Sunday, September 24th 5:00UTC 12:00a.m. CTS

Rules

• Up to three entries per trial round [weekly].

• Original artwork only

• Winners will be chosen based on quality of work, submitted before deadline and ability to adhere to the weekly trial theme

• Must resteem the contest post you’re participating in

• Must include #trialbycomics hashtag [please note the change because this is how we will find your entry]

The winner will receive 50.000SBD. I am looking for a regular weekly sponsor to match this reward to offer 50.000 SBD on a week to week basis. If you’d like to contribute to the prize or match my own, please contact me as a sponsor, but note that sponsors cannot participate in that weeks #trialbycomics!

If you’re interested in participating and have any questions, please leave a comment. If you’re interested in contributing to the reward pool or co-sponsoring Trial by Comics, like I said earlier, I’d love to introduced tier rewards and 35.00 SBD would give us a second and third place tier.

That’s it! Start drawing and get those entries in by next Sunday. Thank you again, all of you, for making Trial by Comics such a success in a very short amount of time. For more comics, art and photography, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!