Cool Contests & Twisted Reader Tales!

Comics Buyer's Guide Contest-Aug. 2006

The latest (August 2006) Last Kiss writing contest produced an astounding number of entries-far more than ever before. Many were hilarious. We also had plenty of near misses, groaners, gross outs and just plain bizarre submissions. In short, it was a fascinating and fun contest to judge. A major reason for the big increase in submissions was that the contest was co-hosted by Comics Buyer's Guide. The winning entry by Pam Moeck will appear in CBG #1623 (shipping in early Sept. 2006) along with some great runner-up submissions by Andy Dunn, Sal Felix, Johnny Lowe, and Christopher Moshier.

But there were plenty of other fun submissions that are well worth reading and we're presenting a few of them here. More to come later!

Fun and Bizarre Stories:

Andrew Simpson's "Such Passion, Such Desire"
Harry Borgman's "Some Women Blush"
Laura Drake's "Liar! Cheat!"
Hanna Juel, 15: "A Rose is a Rose...is an Emma is a..."
Kevin Boze's "Role-Playing Romance"
SFC (Ret) David James's "One Way to Bridge the Generation Gap"
Harry Borgman's "I've Got a Little List"
New! Christopher Murphy's "Playing Doctor with the Beverly Hickbillies" 

Stories for Comic Geeks:

Gordon Pyke's "That Slim Supergirl Look"
Richard Gretsch's "Did You Get Rid of..."
Jack Abramowitz's "What Would Peter Parker Say?"
Henry Mietkiewicz's "Mint Condition Bed Buddies"
Mike Pascale's "An Infinite Crisis of Inside Jokes"

Contest #4: Finished!

Congratulations to Ed Quinby! His story, "Never Say, Never Mind," is the grand prize winner in the contest to rewrite a one-page 1960's romance story, "Clumsy." Ed's story will be printed in a future issue of LAST KISS. In addition, he'll receive a page of original Ernie Colon artwork from the LAST KISS #4 story, "I was a Prisoner in the Penitentiary of Love!"

This was by far the hardest Last Kiss contest to judge yet. Entries were narrowed down to a field of finalists and a couple of them came within a hair of being selected as the grand prize winner. Each will be receiving a lettered print of their comic book story. They are, in alphabetical order by creator:

• Mark Arnold's "The Magician"
• Thriftshop Debutante's "Hit & Mrs."
• Chris Martin's "On the Tobacco Road to True Love"
• Bill Mongelli's "Beelzebub's Bride!"
• Tom Takach's "Elly Queen"
• Kor Watkins' "Flat"

Contest #3: Finished!

The LAST KISS writing contest in issue #3 produced lots of great stories from readers. Several of the best submissions are printed in LAST KISS #4. But there were plenty of other cool entries. Here are a few of the best:

• Paul Dixon's "The Long-Awaited Reunion!"
• Michael Lash's "Sacri-farce!"
• Chris Martin's "Code Non-Blue"
• Dennis Yee's "Mr. Right! (or Hop on Pops!)"

Contest #2: Finished!

In Last Kiss #2 readers were asked to re-script the first panel of an underwater Charlton love story, "The Ugly One." John Lustig selected the winning entry (by Andy Dunn) and then rescripted and completed the rest of the story. It appeared in Last Kiss #3. There were lots of other great entries, however, and we thought you’d enjoy a peek at a few. Ken Feduniewicz wrote "The Tasty One!" The prolific Tom Takach submitted a bunch, including: "Albacore No More!"; "The Mystery of Davy Jones' Locker!"; and "Time in a Bottle!"  Breaking a sea chest full of contest rules, Myls Putnam re-scripted the entire three-page story, drew new art and loaded the script with in-jokes about comic books. Such wanton rule breaking can’t be rewarded, but we couldn’t resist showing you our favorite panel from his "The Undino."

Gay League Contest: Finished!

The Gay League of America web site (a great comics site whatever your sexual orientation) asked Last Kiss creator John Lustig to organize and judge a writing contest for its members. John supplied a page of old romance comics and then League members rewrote the dialogue to come up with new Last Kiss-style stories. John selected two winners: Roy Johnson's "Roger Dodged Her" and Carlos Smart's "Healing the Clueless Heart" which appear on this site. His third selection, Ed Natcher's "A 'Family' Matter" will appear in Last Kiss #3.GLA honcho Joe Palmer also selected two winning selections and has posted them on the League site.

More Twisted Stories from Readers: Finished? Maybe Never!

Here are "Last Kiss" tales that readers wrote, lettered and posted on their own web sites. Some were done long after the contest deadlines, but so what? They're still fun! WARNING: Although artwork in these stories was used with the permission of John Lustig, Lustig is not responsible for the text of these fan-written stories. Some of the stories may contain language, concepts or views that offend you. And some may make you laugh until you squirt milk out your nose...a good trick if you’re drinking beer at the time.)

Stories by C.X. Nemec:

• The Price of Love (Last Kiss contest #1)
• The Ugly American Goes Underwater (Last Kiss contest #2)
• Janice Turns Over a New Leaf (Last Kiss contest #3)
• New! The Things I do for a Cup of Coffee (Last Kiss contest #4)
• New! The Law Is on His Side (based on "In the Arms of the Law" from Last Kiss #4)