A Brewer cartoonist is hoping to snare a national contract with his spiderlike character in an online comic strip.

Josh Alves’ Araknid Kid is one of 10 strips vying in a monthly competition for a regular spot on DC Comics’ Zuda Web site (www.zudacomics.com).

The Araknid Kid, who communicates in picto-speak, battles evildoers with his web-shooting trapeze bar and his ability to stick to walls. The Kid was a minor character in Alves’ old series “Zeek and Dent.”

It’s just a happy coincidence that a character with spider powers, not unlike Marvel Comics’ flagship character Spider-Man, is competing for a spot of DC’s Web site, according to David Hyde, publicity director for DC.

“It was entirely unintentional and we selected the comic because it was good, but if they can have a Marvel DCU, I guess it’s cool for us to have a Spider :),” Hyde wrote in an e-mail.

Alves downplayed the connection as well: “Any character that can crawl on walls and shoot webs is going to be related,” he said.

Alves, 25, has been preparing Araknid Kid since DC first announced Zuda, a user-generated Web site. The winner of each monthly competition earns a contract to produce 52 more weekly installments of their Web-comic.

Alves is taking part in the second monthly competition, and the first to be entirely user-submitted. The first monthly contest included strips solicited by DC.

Ron Perazza, DC’s creative services director, explained, “We scoured around for a lot of talented writers and artists – some were working professionals while others had never been previously published – and asked if they’d be interested in submitting an idea to Zuda. Thankfully, some of them took us up on the offer. … Since we didn’t tell them what to submit, the ideas were completely new and exciting and we were very happy with the results.”

To enter the competition, Alves submitted an eight-page comic for review, a brief summary and a longer description of the overall planned direction of the series. His was selected from a field of “lots,” according to Hyde.

The December winner will be determined largely by online voting: “Primarily it’s the vote – the vote is the No. 1 decision-making tool and the single action that will have the most effect in determining which comic is the winner,” Hyde explained.

“However there are other things that can help one comic or another get a edge, like the rating. The rating is a more subtle tool that lets people rate each comic on a scale from one through five stars. While a user can only vote for one comic at a time, he or she can rate them all. This is a crucial tool in close races where more nuance is needed in order to accurately capture reader opinion. We’ve also got the ability to favorite a comic, leave comments and opinions, send it to a friend or even just read (and re-read) a comic. Everything counts to one degree or another in determining the overall popularity of a comic. The vote is obviously the main indicator, but we’re looking at the rest of this information as well.”

Alves, who works at the Bangor Daily News as a graphic arts technician, is running seventh in the early voting.

He realizes that such a national platform can help him in terms of exposure.

“It means a lot,” Alves said. “I hope to continue the series whether I win or not. I might approach other publishers if I don’t win. I’m likening this to ‘American Idol.’ You don’t need to win to benefit from it.”

For more behind-the-scenes news about Araknid Kid, check out www.joshalves.com/araknidkid.

Check out Araknid Kid at his competition at: www.zudacomics.com