One Page Winner – Ghost City Comics Competition

By Dustin Cabeal

Single page comics are incredibly difficult. They’re extremely challenging in that the goal is to put everything out there on a single page. It is not impossible by any means, but really what it comes down to is was it effective with the page space.

Pound for Pound has a boxing theme. It’s only a page, and if you click the link above or below you can read it for yourself, so I’m not going to tease the story. The narration is short and straightforward and conveys all the little details we need to know about the story. Why this man is in the ring and what motivates him. It’s effective storytelling in that it gets all of this across to the reader by the bottom of the page.

The writing has a slightly, and I do mean slightly, easier job than the artist because the artist must pick every panel carefully. They have to pick how many panels and control the entire pacing of the story. Pound for Pound manages to beautifully build up the artwork towards that last panel making it impactful. That’s important when you only have one page to tell your entire story.

Here’s the crazy thing about a Pound for Pound and you’ll have to bear with me for a moment. I was almost going to knock a point off the story because I felt it played it safe by going with boxing. It seemed like the easy thing to do because I have read other one-page stories about boxing. Then it occurred to me, shit… I’ve already read Pound for Pound. I don’t know where, but staring at that last panel, I dawned on me why it was familiar finally. If anything, that’s a credit to this story because I may not have remembered the name, but I recalled that last panel. It was powerful enough to stay with me.

I’m giving it a perfect score because it’s 100% effective in telling a story, giving it emotion and building the artwork up to that last panel. You may read it and think it’s simple or basic, but I assure you that it’s one of the tightest pages of comics you’ll read this year, so give it a shot.

Score: 5/5

Pound for Pound – Winner – One Page, Ghost City Comics Competition
Writer & Letterer: Chas! Pangburn
Artist: Juan Gedeon
Colorist: Carlos Cabrera