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One main difference from previous X-Day competitions is that the set of sub-categories is being refined, and it will be semi-dynamic, with a possibility of changes during the Submissions period. Also, there will be a lot more opportunity for people, whether the creator or the X-Day Manager or other site visitors, to give feedback to make sure competing entries are placed in the correct sub-categories, leading to more fair competitions.
The category set will for the most part not differentiate based on the subject of entries, but rather it will mainly be based on the method of creation or the amount of work involved. For example, fan art will have separate sub-categories for line art vs colour, and it may separate pictures with one character from those with several, but it will not separate male and female subjects, and it will not separate comic from movie versions.
The sub-categories are listed below, with a complete description (and sometimes examples) of eligible entries. When you submit your entry, you must choose both a main category and the most appropriate sub-category for it to compete in; each entry may only be in one sub-category. So read the descriptions and make your choice as to where you want to compete. Note that you may change the sub-category of an entry after it is submitted, in case you make a mistake, or the sub-category list changes.
Note that all art pieces must be done completely from scratch by the artist (or artist team, which are both credited) unless the sub-category explicitely states otherwise.
Note that anything designated "hand done" requires that all the artistic work happens outside of a computer, such as using a pencil or pen or paint brush or crayons, with the computer being used just to scan the image into the computer for electronic display; the only kind of changes that may be made in a computer are those that compensate for the scanning equipment's failure to capture the original properly, such as changing the brightness or contrast or doing colour correction to better match the original; cropping is also acceptible, of course.
Note that any of the following may be separated further such as into single and multiple character pieces, or they may not be.
These are drawings, typically with pencil or ink, which are composed of two solid colours, usually black ink on a white surface. They are often called "line art" and any shading is done in the same solid 'black' as the lines; there are no multiple shades of gray. Examples of this are typical black-and-white comics like in daily newspapers, or the original art that is made for coloured comics. When well done, some may look like they are in multiple shades of gray at a distance, but when you look closer they clearly are composed just of 'black' lines. Note that pencils-only and inked images may become separate sub-categories. Examples: Gambit by Frost, A Night At The Creeds' by Mel Miller, Gambit and Rogue by Lindsay K.
These are drawings, often in pencil or charcoal or paint or oils, which incorporate multiple shades of a single colour, usually gray. They should look like multiple shades of grey even close up, and there often won't be any part of the drawing surface that isn't covered (except at boundaries). Note that this sub-category may be further divided by eg: pencil vs paint vs oils. When done well, these may closely resemble grayscale photographs or television. Examples: Emma by ice princess deluxe, Nightcrawler by Arminda.
These are drawings, often in pencil-crayon, with or without pencil and/or inks, which incorporate multiple colours, but each colour is solid. Examples of this are typical weekly colour newspaper comic strips, or "four-color" comic books from several decades ago, or some older TV cartoons. Examples: Surfer Kurt by Mirage.
These are drawings, often in paint or oils but may include pencil-crayon, which incorporate multiple colours and the colours are in multiple shades. When done well, these may resemble colour photographs or TV shows. Note that this sub-category may be combined with the previous one. Examples: Logan's Snapshots by ice princess deluxe, Beast and ShadowCat by Dex.
These are drawings like in 'Hand Done: Black and White', but after scanning them into the computer, a computer program is used to add colour to them. The finished result may resemble 'Hand Done: Solid Colours', but the coloring was done in the computer rather than by hand. Some works in this subcategory may have computer added backgrounds or fill patterns taken from other sources, which may be of reasonably high quality; however, the categorization is based on the fact that the character art itself looks flat and non-shaded. Examples: Deadpool & Siryn by Angela Vale, Jean by Miguel Sanjurjo.
These are hand done drawings which are coloured or otherwise enhanced in a computer. This subcategory is much like 'Hand Drawn With Computer Colouring: Solid Colours' except that the coloring job employs gradianted or shaded colors; the art tends to look more realistic and not so flat as a result. Examples: Phoenix by Jill Johansen, Colossus in Heaven by SilkeP.
These are hand done drawings which were coloured in a computer. This subcategory is like the other HDWCC, but here a collection of two or more related images is submitted as a single entry. To qualify your image collection for this subcategory, every image must be based on the same hand done image. An example entry could have a character where each version has their clothes in a different colour. It may become mandatory that multiple images colored from the same original must be submitted here if more than one will be submitted, but that isn't the case yet.
These are for two-dimensional images that were made from scratch entirely in a computer, with nothing being done by hand and scanned. Whether or not there was any attempt to add 3D-looking attributes, these were made entirely in a two-dimensional editing program.
These are three-dimensional images that are made from scratch entirely in a computer, and made using programs especially for creating and rendering 3D images. Examples: Dark Phoenix by DkPhoenix, Summers and Significant Others by DkPhoenix.
These are for small pieces of art, which are intended to be used as 'web dolls'. Sometimes these are intended to be used as personal avatars online, but they are often done just done for the art. To qualify, the art should be in a GIF file (which is limited to 256 colors), and it should be no more than 200x200 pixels in size. Animated or not doesn't matter. If the image contains other elements besides the character, which is rare, then the image size may be larger as long as the portion holding the character fits within about 200x200. If the character is larger, then it must go in a different art category than 'web dolls'. This specific sub-category is for web dolls which were done from scratch by the submitter; they may be hand done and scanned, but often they are generated in a computer. Examples: Stormy Storm by survivorx.
These are for web dolls which take a 'base' or outline that someone else or a computer program has made, and then they manually edit it to look like the character they want. Since the same pre-defined bases are reused constantly, web dolls based on them have a tendency to resemble each other. Note that web dolls made entirely by 'drag and drop', with no manual editing, are not allowed to compete in X-Day.
'Image Manipulations' involve taking images that other people have created, either photographs or comic artwork, and altering them in some way. Entries in this sub-category look like portraits or photographs of people. Often it is a photograph of a real person that is manipulated to look like a comic character, but sometimes it is an existing comic image that is manipulated somehow. Examples: Stephen Dorff as Gambit by Mel Miller, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Rogue by ChrisD, Mystique in Sojourn by Jessica.
Entries in this sub-category would look like movie posters or comic covers or otherwise advertisements for something. They may involve single or multiple images, but they should all have some kind of text. Examples: Accidental Interception by Puguita, Scott by Nadine, Infrared Wallpaper by Puguita.
These are collages of multiple images, either photographs or comic art, which tend to have a common theme or character in them. Examples: Missions 'R' Us by Lyssie, Longshot by Ana.
Note: When a story comes in multiple chapters or parts, all of the parts are submitted as a single entry; the total word length of of the set determines what sub-category it is listed in.
This is an incredibly short work which is 500 - 1499 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 1500 - 2999 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 3000 - 7499 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 7500 - 17,499 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 17,500 - 29,999 words in length.
This is a standard format narrative which is 30,000 - 69,999 words in length, for Novellas, or which is equal to or greater than 70,000 words in length, for Novels; it often comes in multiple chapters. Note: this sub-category may be split into two if there are enough entries over 70,000 words.
A series is a plot arc compsed of stories that are, in themselves, complete works, and that depend on one another for sense to a lesser degree than book chapters. In order to qualify as a serial, the work should have at least four stories. Duologies or trilogies should be treated as one story with two or three parts, and submitted as a single work with a combined wordcount and entered in the appropriate category.
This is a serial where each part is written by a different author; also, the submission rules are different in that Round-Robins MUST be complete, while other serials only need 4 or more installments.
This category is about taking recognizable X-characters and removing them to a different setting. The mutant element should not be present, so we would see versions of the characters we otherwise know without mutations. The category is also for crossovers with non-Marvel characters, such as DC characters or various television series.
Because good parody or slapstick is hard to write, and because it rarely manages to compete successfully against "serious" fiction, it has its own category. Note that this is NOT simply a "funny" story. To qualify, the story must be improbable (or outright impossible), and that improbability must played for laughs. Note also that works in this category should be less than 7500 words long; if yours is much longer, it should go in with the normal works.
Each entry is a poem, which for example may tell a short story or be a set of disjointed thoughts. This category is for those under 30 lines long.
Each entry is a poem, which for example may tell a short story or be a set of disjointed thoughts. This category is for those over 30 lines long.
This is where entries fashioned as lyrics and intended to be sung will go; they also should be of the non-comedic variety. Lyrics may be split / organized based on whether they are original or sound like existing songs.
Like 'Song Lyrics' but the songs are meant to be humerous or nonsensical. The Lyrics sub-categories may be combined.
This main category is new, and is for miscellaneous types of creative works that didn't fit in the other main categories and hence were largely ignored before. Some of these items simply weren't common before, but the ability to make them has since come into the mainstream.
This is where costumes that are meant to be worn by a person go. It doesn't matter whether they were made for a costume ball or halloween, or whether it is for an adult or a child. At least some of the clothing items need to be manually assembled or modified; simply throwing together items made by someone else are not allowed to compete.
Physical dolls such as of plastic or ceramic or cloth or clay go here. Currently so do dolls derived by transforming off the shelf dolls/toys.
Single-page comics go here.
Multi-page comics go here.
This is where fan-made independant films or movies go, should we get any. Currently they will all go here, regardless of length, or of whether they are animated or not (Flash et al excluded). If we get enough entries, the sub-category may be split.
This is where movies made for Flash go.
This is a narrative in pure sound, like radio plays.
This is where sampled music goes. MIDI is currently collected here too.
Note that, at this time, only the web presence of various fan communities or discussion groups are being evaluated here. For email discussion groups, it is their websites being rated, and those websites are sorted into categories based on the subject area as usual. News groups like RACMX are not listed at all, unless they have an associated website. Web based discussion groups like bulletin boards have their own sub-category, where all primarily discussion-based web sites must go, regardless of their subject matter.
These web sites are dedicated to exactly one character, although they may have smaller amounts of info on others. If there are multiple characters which are more or less different versions of each other or that have a strong connection, such as Phoenix, those can go here too. Examples: subliminal RACHEL SUMMERS, Rogue Unlimited, LornaDane.com.
These web sites are dedicated to exactly two characters, each of which is treated with about the same importance, although they may have smaller amounts of info on others. The two characters can have a personal relationship with each other, such as Gambit and Rogue, or they could be adversaries, like Xavier and Magneto, or they don't have to have any connection (does this exist?). Examples: The Love Machine v3.0: Site for Rogue & Gambit of the X-Men, Big, Blue and Furry, The Wolverine and Jubilee Page.
These web sites are dedicated to a group or team of characters having at least three members, with most characters being treated with about the same importance. The site may focus on more than one similar team, but it should still be conservative, such as just New Mutants and Excalibur; sites that try to cover every team in detail don't belong in this sub-category. Example: Generation neXt.
These web sites attempt to cover all the bases, such as doing all the teams and all the characters, whether focusing on story summaries or reviews or character / team information. Use this category if you cover too much to qualify for 'Groups or Teams', and you focus on older information. Examples: Chronology.Net, Mutatis Mutandis.
These web sites are primarily focused on researching and reporting new happenings in the community, such as new products that Marvel is planning to release, or what their hired talent is doing. These sites are generally cutting edge, being updated regularly with breaking news. They are not focused on past issues, and typically won't offer details on characters or older books. Examples: X-Fan, ComiXtreme, Newsarama.
This sub-category is for websites whose most important feature is that they host a collection of fan fiction, or alternately that they are homes for communities of fan fic writers. Examples: Subreality / CFAN, Alternate Marvel, The Marvel Fanfic Writers Guild.
This sub-category is like 'Fan Fiction Archives', but it archives art instead. Note: this may be combined with the previous sub-category.
These are sites who provide games that you can play online or download to you computer, multi-user or otherwise. Example: X-Assault.
These are discussion forums where people talk primarily by posting to a web based threaded bulletin board, which are often powered by the free Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB) software. All web sites whose most important feature is a public bulletin board go here. Example: Stormfreak's Haven.
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This site has been designed to be fully useable on any web browser; you should be able to navigate to all site pages, use all input forms, and read all of the site text, including all Fan Fiction. However, this site is graphics-oriented and will look better in a relatively new web browser that supports images and cascading style sheets; obviously, you also will need graphics support to view the Fan Art. The site should be fast even to dial-up modem users.
This web site displays and/or incorporates creative works by a wide variety of people; each work is Copyright (c) by its contributor, and they are credited in each place where their work is displayed in full or in part. Portions of this web site that do not have explicit credits, including the main organizational design, textual history or instructions, visual layouts, graphics, and program or database code, are Copyright (c) Darren Duncan and/or Shannon Pipik.
This site is not affiliated with Marvel Entertainment Group, who are the trademark and copyright holders of the 'X-Men' and associated characters. Any references made on this site to said property constitutes fair use.
Site last updated 2004 June 11.
