The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is a current (as of September 26, 2006) webcomics competition, featuring 56 webcomics. Competitors each donate $20 to a communal pot totalling US$1120 that will be awarded to the person who goes the longest without missing an update. In order to remain in competition, each participant must update their webcomic with (typically) at least two panels of their own original work Monday through Friday. (More complete rules are available at the official website.) As of September 26, 2006, 22 participants remain eligible to win the Daily Grind.

Notable participants included Scott Kurtz of PVP and Greg Dean of Real Life, who are both now out.

Since the start of the Daily Grind, the original prize has been supplemented by additional money raised by selling advertising. Some of this money has been set aside to provide a second place prize of $130, a $50 donation to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and $50 to the ACTOR Comic Fund.

Remaining Competitors as of September 26, 2006

Joseph Bergin III <br />
Jennie Breeden<br />
Stephen Burrell<br />
D.J. Coffman<br />
Paul Gadzikowski<br />
Jamie Dee Galey<br />
Ali Graham<br />
Edward J Grug III<br />
Brad Guigar<br />
Tim Hulsizer<br />
Brandon Lewis<br />
Tyler Longmire<br />
Tom McHenry<br />
Michael Payne <br />
Eric Poole<br />
Phil Redmon <br />
Andrew Rothery <br />
R. Smith <br />
Ive Sorocuk<br />
Mike Stevens<br />
Jam Torkberg <br />
Bela Whigimill<br />

Viewership and Comics

The Daily Grind has brought attention and increased viewership to several of the comics participating, notably Jennie Breeden's The Devil's Panties, which was added to Keenspot in September. Viewership to most of the comics has also received periodic boosts when news of more popular comics, like PVP, Real Life, or Superosity being eliminated circulated through the web comic community.

Criticism

There have been several criticisms of the Daily Grind.

One common complaint has been the lack of a quality criterion—one could theoretically win the Daily Grind despite having a poorly drawn strip. However, many of the competitors view the competition as a motivation to develop and improve their skills and discipline, and the monetary prize as secondary.

Originally, the Daily Grind was intended as an amateur contest. Some participants criticized the decision to allow the participation of well-known webcartoonists such as Kurtz, Dean, and Chris Crosby (of Superosity), who had been producing webcomics for years (and making money in the process) without interruption. But other competitors were glad for the participation of notable webcomic "names" as it added to the prestige of the contest and to traffic to their own comics. Eventually this debate proved moot as the pro cartoonists either experienced difficulty updating on time or had guest artists draw strips, which led to their disqualification from the Daily Grind.

External links

Official Site (Contains links to current and former competitors)

Crown Commission Forum (Contains the forum for the Daily Grind Challenge)