Eagles Initiative talent competition axed due to low number of entries

Organisers of the Eagles Initiative talent competition, launched last year, have abandoned this year's competition.

The Eagles Initiative was launched in May 2010 as an independent offshoot of the Eagle Awards (see news story) to find and promote new creators in a worldwide talent search. With many industry professionals graciously agreeing to donate their time to judge a shortlist of twelve entries to form three prize winners, and with Stan Lee as its patron, it was a bold experiment and the team behind the project expected many thousands of entries, with a top prize of £1000 on offer.

"Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, I have had to reluctantly cancel this years Eagles Initiative competition due to low turnout," announced organiser Barry Renshaw.

"Though many entries were of a very high standard, there were not enough submissions to make the competition viable.

"It's a decision that is bitterly disappointing to me and everyone involved," he added, "especially after the amount of time and effort put into it, but considering the poor response it was the only option."

All registration fees are being refunded and as per the guidelines, all submissions remain creator owned and of course will not be published by the Initiative. Entrants have already been informed.

Among those who had agreed to participate as judges were Tom Brevoort, Mike Carey, Howard Chaykin, Chris Claremont, Mike Deodato Jr, Steve Epting, David Finch, Geoff Johns, Denny O’Neil, Trina Robbins, Bob Shreck, Gail Simone and Roy Thomas.

The plan was for  all 12 short listed entries to be made available both digitally and in print in the form of an internationally distributed anthology.

While admitting to be "personally gutted" by the cancellation, Renshaw added "we will be looking at developing smaller more localised projects in the future. We still believe a proactive and progressive approach to finding and developing new talent is important and the Eagles Initiative will pursue that mandate in the future.

"In the meantime I want to take this opportunity to personally thank all the industry professionals for offering their time for free to be a competition judge, and for lending their support to what I still believe to be a unique opportunity for undiscovered talent."

• Eagles Initiative web site: www.eaglesinitiative.com