What is Centerstorm?

Centerstorm is a community site for artists and writers with it’s focus on round robin comics. In other words comics that are the product of many artists each doing a page or few in turn. In addition we have a gallery for stand alone art and we welcome written works.

What’s the point?

Centerstorm’s aim is twofold. We allow artists and writers who have the desire to create comics but lack the time to be a part of ongoing projects and get more exposure for their work than they could on their own.

We also allow artists to learn. Even though we aim to quality comics, no one is going to yell at you if you give it your best effort. There will always be people around to give you feedback before and after you post your work.

Interact and learn more about us at the Forum FAQ.

What if i just want to read comics?

That’s alright! We appreciate our readers even if they don’t post any work.

Each title can be accessed by clicking on its thumbnail picture. Once inside the individual comic page you will see a listing of pages and the artists who created them. Once you select a page to start from, you can advance to the next by clicking on the page itself. If you want the listing again, you will find it minimized at the bottom right corner of your screen.

There are more comics than just the ones listed on the frontpage. Click “More Comics” near the bottom right to see them all. We have 33 titles and thousands of pages to read.

You will notice that most of them are not finished and that brings us to the next topic.

What if I want to contribute?

Good for you! Comics with available signup slots have their sign up icons lit as opposed to greyed out. Also, this FAQ page as well as your personal page “My CSO” have links to allow you to sign up as well as to allow you to submit your finished work. The links will take you to the sign up page for that comic where you can see where you would be in the queue and how much time you would have to draw.

If you are unsure about the quality of your work or where to go with the story, post what you have on the BBS and we will help you out. Pages will only be removed if they irrepairably throw the comic off course, contain inappropriate content or we know they are well below what you are capable of. Only a couple pages out of thousands have ever been turned down.

Once you are finished drawing your pages , post your work using the icon below the comic you are contributing to or use the links on this page or “My CSO”

If for some reason the automated system doesn’t like you or your browser, mail your work to a moderator or post it on the BBS.

What makes a good impro submission?

A good impro comic submission not only takes the story in an interesting direction, it follows logically from the previous pages. Characters should look and act consistent from part to part. The best course may be to just build on where previous pages were going as opposed to doing something wild.

What are the different comic sections?

Improvisional are active comics that you are welcome to participate in. After the person ahead of you posts his or her pages, see if you can come up with the best way to continue the story.

A Member Comic is a closed project. It can be drawn by one person or by a small group. Members can invite others to participate.

Members that have created enough quality pages for CSO’s existing comics will be able to post their own creations on our add free server!

Finished comics are just that. No signups, no new pages. Enjoy reading these classics!

Inactive comics. Sadly interest often drops in an improvised comic and it has to be pushed to the back burner in favor of newer titles. If you wish to resurrect one of these titles and you or your group is ready to draw at least 8 new pages for it, contact an admin and will pull it out of mothballs for you.

How does the Gallery work?

The gallery is Centerstorm’s collection of artwork, both fan arts and unrelated works by our members.
Members can submit fan art for any series they like using the “upload pic” button at the top of the page.
Regulars will be able to post unrelated works in their own user galleries.

What is My CSO?

MY CSO is your own part of the CSO website. Upload an avatar to represent you on the site, choose the way you want to browse CSO and view your favorite comics.
From this page you can also sign up for a title and submit your finished work. Your participation history will be there for you and others to see. Finally There will be a Bio section where you can tell CSO visitors all about yourself . Tell people how they can find you for a good game of Counterstrike or let other artists know you are looking for help with a project.

What is this “Community” thing?

This button is appropriately named. It leads to the BBS and the heart of Centerstorm. It is highly recommended (but not required) that you come here before you sign up for any of the titles. The Colab section is there for you to get and exchange ideas regarding where the stories should go. Read about what previous artists were trying to do with their parts while planning yours and once you are finished, post a bit about your own creation.

The Colab section as well as the Art Post section are good places to get and give critiques. Don’t take critiques roughly and don’t be too rough with your critiques.

There are also sections for general topics and pointless but fun games you can play on a BBS.

Be respectful of other members, no flaming/trolling, and we will get along just fine.

Votes and Ratings

You can rate every submission once your are logged in. Your rating as an artist is derived from the average rating the artist recieves on his submissions.

The voting and ratings will become more important in the future so please use them. More details on this soon.

Finding available sign ups (spots)

At the sign up page, There is a list of comics available for sign ups on the left. If the comic you want to do a page for is full, you can sign up for another comic. If you add the comic you wanted to do a page for to your favorites, you'll be notified by e-mail when its updated and be able to sign up for it before anyone else does.
Also, in myCSO, you'll have a list of your favorite comics. If a spot is open, it'll say so underneath the title.

The NEXT SPOT means you can start drawing immediately.

The QUEUE SPOT means you have to wait until the artist in the NEXT SPOT finishes his part (or gets dropped for not submitting his pages before the deadline). Once that artist is finished, you'll recieve an e-mail notifying you of this. At that point, you'll be in the NEXT SPOT and will be assigned a due date.

Submit your page

There are 2 main methods to submit your page and 1 manual method.

Submit Icon
The fourth button underneath the thumbnail of the comic is the submission icon.

myCSO
In your myCSO section, there is a list of comics you have signed up for. Next to the title will be a link to submit your page for that comic. If you are having problems accessing your myCSO page, please let us know immediately.

If you have problems with either of these methods, manually post your pages here.

Getting Dropped

Once you have missed your deadline, you get dropped from a comic. If there is no one signed up after you, you can sign up again. If there is someone after you and you have drawn some pages already but just barely missed the deadline, you may contact the artist thats after you and with their concent, add your pages by 1) posting at the forum 2) letting a moderator know (Trent, Gelatin Guy, Carrie O Kaye or Babdon) via PM. The moderator will then 1) upload it for you 2) or reinsert your name in the list so you can upload it yourself.

IMPORTANT: If you were dropped by mistake due to a bug in the automated system, please contact us immediately by replying the drop email you recieved.

History

bleh. i'll put this up later. Basically, we started in 2001 taking the flame passed on from Impromanga and have been doin' our thang since.

Administrator & Moderators

Babdon, Carrie O' Kaye, Trent, and Gelatin Guy
(Also, beware the CSO Ninja's, Senta and Stormie)

Copyright disclamer

Centerstorm Online is granted the right to display all works submitted to the website. All works remain the property of their respective creators. Permission from the creator must be obtained before any material from this site may be used elsewhere.

No work will be used for profit without an agreement with the creator.