The first contest (single panel) starts Monday, June 11th and the comic strip starts on Monday August 27. The winners will be announced on November 5th – the day before the general presidential election.

More details will be posted at a later date, but here’s what I know:

The first contest starting in June is a single panel contest. It will run 10 weeks and operate much like previous contests with deadlines for contestants to upload their cartoons twice a week. Judging will come from the public in conjunction of the judges’ votes. Uploading twice a week allows contestants to keep their work relevant to the political news of the week if they wish. The second contest starts on August 27 and is for the political comic strippers. Same operating procedures as the first contest.

Judges will be looking for writing, cleverness, relevancy to issues, use of humor, originality, craft, and ability to convey ideas with as few words as possible.

I’ll be posting more details as they become available.

The Cartoonist Studio’s second annual “So Ya Wanna be a Cartoonists” has declared a winner. This year the winner goes to Greg Wallace, an illustrator and caricature artist, who’s feature Nothing is not Something bested over 125 other cartoonists over 10 weeks of voting by fans and professional cartoonists. As the winner, Greg’s feature will be run on GoComics and wins an ebook publishing contract through The Cartoonist Studio’s new publishing company Crazy Goat Publishing.

Runners up to this year’s competition goes to Tom Burton (Leadbellies) and Steve Casino (Glumboy and Crumpet)

A few more of Greg’s work:

Congratulations, Greg.

The grand prize this year is being sponsored by Universal Uclick who will run the winner’s work on GoComics.com and the winner will be paid any money advertising money generated on their GoComics.com page. The Cartoonist Studio is also offering an electronic book publishing contract.

There are also prizes for two runners-up.

After all this, I came up with a fun little quiz, and as this is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it seemed an appropriate time for it. I’m going to post sets of boobs drawn by myself and my sister Chix and let’s see if you can match who drew which ones.

Next Saturday I’ll post all the cartoons by all the Chix so you can see where the boobs came from and who drew them!

The winner receives an original drawing from Stephanie.

Of Walch’s work, Judge Jerry Scott said, “Olivia’s panel is really current and smart. Her ideas are fresh and funny, and the drawings are consistent and likable.” Gene Weingarten was impressed with her jokes. Richard Thompson also reviewed her work and wrote, “This Sunday is ingenious and funny, and pushes metahumor about as far as it can go.”

Walch is studying math and biophysics at The College of William and Mary and is a cartoonist for the student newspaper, ‘The Flat Hat.’

Her work for the contest can be viewed on the WP’s site.

Comics Riff’s Michael Cavna has announced his comic contest has been whittled down to five. Finalists are:

Hoxwinder Hall by Daniel Boris.

Real Time by Bob Erskine

Forever Endeavor by Thomas Mullany

Stupid Inventor by Zachary Snyder

Imogen Quest by Olivia Walch

The final five now submit Sunday cartoons for a second round of voting in July.

• Hoxwinder Hall by Daniel Boris
• Real Time by Bob Erskine
• Galapagos by Dave Gau
• Over Nite Sensation by Dave Mitchell
• Forever Endeavor by Thomas Mullany
• The Rock Head by Paul Scolaro
• Stupid Inventor by Zachary Snyder
• Big Daddy by Joe Sutliff
• Old Blugg Inn by Mark Thompson
• Imogen Quest by Olivia Walch

Voting ends on Tues., June 22, at 5 p.m. (EST)

Correction: I reported that the contest garnered a little over a 100 submissions, but Michael Cavna, who is heading the contest, notes in the comments that there were about 500 submission total. The above report has been modified to reflect the new information.

Here’s the prize:

The winner, to be announced on or around July 15, will get an opportunity to create a comic strip to be published daily for one month in the print Style section and in the Comic Riffs blog of The Washington Post. The winner will also receive one-on-one consultation with a judge, and potentially be asked to participate in an online discussion and interviews. We’ll set you, our promising artist, on a path to become the next rising cartoonist, exposing your work to a national audience and giving your cartoon a chance to be the strip that everyone wants to read.