Symbiotic Holiday Giveaway *UPDATED*

UPDATE: Participants now need to answer within 70% to 100% accuracy on the questionnaire to qualify for the drawing! See below for details.

Seasons greetings and happy holidays, fellow Venomaniacs! It's that special time of the year again when everyone is gearing up for the coming winter holidays and to celebrate, The Venom Site and A Dose of Venom is hosting a special giveaway in the spirit of giving back to our loyal and most fanatic followers.

We're not called "The Venom Site" for nothing, so what will you be competing for? How about one of the hottest symbiotic toys of 2014? That's right, we're talking about the Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends Infinite Agent Venom action figure from Hasbro!

This is the latest installment of Marvel's super-posable symbiote action figures and Agent Venom's second action figure after the highly popular Marvel Select Venom (Flash Thompson) figure from Diamond Select Toys. This action figure scales perfectly against its Marvel Legends brethren from the same Ultimate Green Goblin BAF (Build-a-Figure) series: Carnage and Eddie Brock as Toxin (both called "Spawn of Symbiotes" on their respective packaging, with Toxin as a variant chase to Carnage). Agent Venom was sold exclusively at Walgreens, putting him in high demand among collectors.

Carnage figure possesses custom painting.

The figure features four weapons including three pistols and a small machine gun, and a detachable four-tendril back piece, which has three weapon-holding hands to add to the base figure's two weapon-holding hands. The posability on this figure surpasses its Marvel Select predecessor despite its smaller stature, which gives it a higher range of flexibility in display.

Marvel Select Agent Venom (left, possesses custom painting) vs.
Marvel Legends Infinite Agent Venom (right)

One winner will receive this must-have action figure mint-in-box along with a super secret complimentary gift provided by A Dose of Venom Lead Editor himself, Orion "STARB0Y" Petitclerc (yours truly). So how can you get your hands on these awesome gifts? Well, you'll have to have your knowledge of symbiotes tested, of course!

Below, you'll find a link to a Google Forms survey, where you'll have to complete a trivia questionnaire. The questions will range in difficulty from beginner to advanced, so make sure you're current on your general symbiote history and canon! Fill out the survey completely including your full name (real name only), mailing address (not a PO box; US and Canada residents only), and contact information to enter the giveaway. (All private information will not be shared and will remain confidential. Please provide accurate information, as it is vital for delivering your prizes in the event that you are the winner.) You must complete the entire questionnaire within 70% to 100% accuracy of answers to qualify for the drawing. A qualifying winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted upon the final decision to verify the validity of his/her contact information. All expenses will be paid for by the giveaway host; no entry fees are required to qualify. One entry per person. The winning entrant will be announced here on A Dose of Venom shortly following the end of the giveaway period: November 7, 2014 through November 30, 2014. Please submit your questionnaire answers by the end date to qualify.

Take the trivia questionnaire here!

Happy holidays, and good luck! Don't forget to check back at A Dose of Venom every Friday for new content, and follow The Venom Site for all of your symbiote news, reviews, and point-of-views!

Symbiote September 2014 Contest Results

September 2014 ended last Tuesday, and with it the second annual Symbiote September art contest and challenge. For 30 long days, participants drew one symbiote character every day in honor of one of Marvel's most popular alien species and its all-star members: Venom, Carnage, Toxin, and many more. Though the turnout was less than spectacular with only three fully-committed participants (including myself)—which were two more from last year's count—and one or two occasional participants, this year's event was by far much better.

This year's event focused primarily on each artist's creativity, and suffice it to say everyone delivered! We only had two contestants in this year's contest, which worked out quite nicely for determining who received which of the two prize packages—a brand new feature to this year's contest. So without further delay, it's time to announce the winners of the two prize packages!

GRAND PRIZE

Winning Artist: Christian Rafael McDonald, deviantART username blacksuitchris

Christian has been a comic book fan for a long time. Born with Asperger's Syndrome, Christian immediately had a vivid imagination. His first comic was Venom: Lethal Protector #5 and it started his love for comics, art, writing, and symbiotes especially. This lead into Christian's dream to become a comic book writer and artist with established writers and artists such as Cullen Bunn, Dan Slott, Mark Bagley, and Declan Shavely as inspirations, and he hopes to work on Spider-Man and Venom comics. Christian tried his best to perfect his skills by both constantly drawing and writing fan fiction to perfect his craft, but it's his friends and family that are key to his dream to join the comic book industry. Recently, Christian joined the YouTube channel DYKComics as its writer/researcher, and through this he now has better connections to artists who, too, are fans of comic books.

Prize: The complete 3-part AXIS: Carnage series debuting in October and the complete 6-part Venom: Lethal Protector series on comiXology.

HONORABLE MENTION

Winning Artist: Rich W.S., deviantART username AraghenXD

A known symbiote geek, Araghen can’t get enough when it comes to drawing them and giving some lesser known symbiote hosts new life through art and fan fiction. It’s only irony, though, considering it’s coming from a guy who once admitted that Venom scared him as a child.

Prize: The complete 3-part AXIS: Carnage series debuting in October on comiXology.


Congratulations to our two winners! Don't forget to check out the entire #SymbioteSeptember2014 gallery on deviantART and give the other participants some love. If you missed out on the fun, don't worry! Symbiote September will return next year, and it will be bigger, badder, and even gooeyer than before. Upwards and onwards!

Check back every Friday here on A Dose of Venom for new Venom-licious articles and follow The Venom Site for all of your symbiote news, reviews, and point-of-views!

Symbiote September 2014

Hello Venomaniacs, Carnage Kids, and symbiote fans of all shapes and sizes! I am pleased to officially announce the commencement of the second annual Symbiote September art challenge. What is Symbiote September? I'm glad you asked.

I started Symbiote September last year as an effort to increase symbiote fan community interaction by creating a month-long artistic endeavor in which participants draw an assigned symbiote character each day through the month of September using deviantART's excellent social media/portfolio platform for artists. We had a small turnout last year, as was expected, but everyone who participated had a ton of fun drawing their favorite symbiote characters and getting a chance to flex their creative muscles by making new symbiotes.

This year I'm continuing the new tradition and expanding upon it. Last year's daily character roster focused on getting into the swing of Symbiote September by drawing and illustrating fan favorite characters from the Marvel Universe. This time around, we'll be diving into the creative realm and design brand-new characters and symbiotizing other characters outside of the Marvel Universe. Again, we're retaining the one character per day format and utilizing deviantART as the primary art submission platform, but this time Symbiote September will be expanding to Tumblr as well.

Also, Symbiote September will again be divided into two functions: the Challenge and the Contest. The Challenge is open to everyone who'd like to participate in Symbiote September at a casual capacity—meaning you can participate on whichever days you'd like. The Contest, however, is reserved to those artists who are serious in completing every day of the challenge within the time constraints for the honor of having his/her art judged by the community against his/her peers. What will you be competing for? How about having YOUR art featured on A Dose of Venom and officially recognized by The Venom Site? Sounds cool but not quite substantial, right? Try on a digital comics prize package, then! Read the rules and details for both the Challenge and the Contest below to get the full details on participation and qualification!

THE RULES (For the Challenge)

The rules of the Challenge are simple:

Symbiote September 2014
schedule preview

• Check the SM-WoS-FanClub group blog on deviantART or the Symbiote September Tumblr page for information on each day's featured character.
• Sketch, draw, or illustrate the character assigned to each day.
• Scan/take a picture of your creation.
• Upload it before 11:59 p.m. PST* on the assigned day to:
• deviantART: Title your new deviation "Symbiote September 2014 - Day __". Submit your deviation to the "Symbiote September 2014 Challenge" favorites collection of the SM-WoS-FanClub group. (Note: The Challenge collection allows for only 1 submission per day, per deviant. If there is a mistake or you require special arrangements, contact me via a note.)
• Tumblr: Submit your piece as a new picture/photo upload and tag it with the hashtag #SymbioteSeptember2014 (make sure you type it exactly as it's written here!), and link it to the @thevenomsite and Symbiote September Tumblr blogs for extra exposure.

If you need a visual reference of each Marvel symbiote character, visit my Venom Family Tree deviation, Comic Vine, and the Marvel Database Wikia.

*The deadline is important for those competing in the Contest. Read past the prize listings below for more information on the deadline and how it affects you.

THE RULES (For the Contest)

The rules for the Contest are the same for the Challenge, except:

• To qualify, you must submit all 30 character submissions during September—one for each day. 
• Upload them to:
• deviantART: Instead of submitting only to the aforementioned favorites collection, you will also need to submit your entries to the "Symbiote September 2014 Contest" gallery folder at SM-WoS-FanClub. (Note: You do not need to be a member of the group to submit to this folder; however, membership requests are always welcome. Also, just like the Challenge collection, the Contest folder allows for only 1 submission per day, per deviant.)
• Tumblr: Include in your picture description, "For the Symbiote September 2014 Contest." This note will help us determine which art pieces are to be included in the feature polls.

Each day, the community will vote on the previous day's Contest entries to choose the best illustration of each day. The polls will remain open until seven days after the end of the Contest on September 30, 2014. Contestants may vote in the polls, but if you are competing, please do not abuse this privilege (i.e. creating multiple accounts and voting for your entries). Once a list of the top 30 entries has been compiled from the poll results, a panel of judges—including myself (OrionSTARB0Y) and The Venom Site—will pick two winning entries from two separate contestants for Grand Prize and the Honorable Mention Prize. What are the prizes? Here's the low-down:

One (1) GRAND PRIZE winner will receive:

• Their winning piece featured on a special article on The Venom Site's own A Dose of Venom blog, plus the winner's autobiographical statement alongside their piece.
• A digital comics prize package, including:
• Official Marvel digital download codes for the complete 3-part Axis: Carnage series debuting in October (redeemable through marvel.com/redeem and awarded per day of release).
• The complete Venom: Lethal Protector series on Comixology (gifted to the winner's provided email address within seven days of the winners announcement).

One (1) HONORABLE MENTION PRIZE winner will receive:

• Their winning piece featured on a special article on The Venom Site's own A Dose of Venom blog, plus the winner's autobiographical statement alongside their piece.
• The complete 3-part Axis: Carnage series debuting in October on Comixology (gifted to the winner's provided email address upon each release date).

To be eligible for the prizes, you MUST draw each and every day in September within the previously mentioned parameters. Contestants must submit their entries before the daily deadline of 11:59 p.m. PST to qualify; those who are only taking the Challenge and are not competing for the prizes can upload their drawings after the deadline if they are unable to upload their drawings before then. If you are only taking the Challenge and cannot make the deadline, don't sweat it! If you're competing in the Contest and for some reason cannot upload your entry before the deadline, you will need to contact me via deviantART or Twitter (@OrionSTARB0Y) so we can make arrangements.

That's it! That is Symbiote September for you. Excited to get drawing? Are you gunning for those excellent prize packages? Tell us below in the comments section and check back on deviantART and Tumblr every day starting Monday, September 1, 2014, for information on your next daily assignment! Don't forget to use #SymbioteSeptember2014 in social media, too. Spread the word!