Committed Comics is always looking for talented and driven creators. We are not looking for people who think this might be a fun way to occupy a month or two of their time. If that is you then do us both a favor and go away. The first rule of submitting to Committed Comics is “DON’T SUCK!” and the second rule is BE COMMITTED!!!!
SO If you are a serious creator and looking to submit to Committed Comics then follow the guidelines below. If a submission packet is received that does not follow the guidelines laid out here it will be tossed in the garbage.
- Full Name (not a nickname or your street name)
- Contact information (Address, phone number and email address)
- Age
- Position you are interested in
Committed Comics will NOT review any digital submissions
(web sites, jpg, pdfs or any other type of attachments).
If you contact us via social media/email to send your work that way it will be ignored.
Once you compile the above cover letter mail your submission to:
Committed Comics: Submissions Department
7345 164th Ave NE Suite #145 PMB#326
Redmond, WA 98052
We get quite a lot of submissions so please keep in mind that if you don’t receive a response within 60 days then we can’t use your talent at this point in time.
WRITERS
People forget how important they are to the comic book industry. Yes, the market is very visually driven, but what do you think keeps the readers coming back month after month…a good story.
A story has to be original, and the dialogue has to sound real. A comic with great art and a bad story usually fails and vice versa. The writer and the penciler have to be in perfect harmony for a series to achieve greatness.
If you are interested in submitting to Committed Comics as a writer please write no more then a five (5) page story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. If you are going to use unknowns (your own creator owned characters) please ensure that there is enough description for our editorial staff to know your characters. DO NOT send in a five page excerpt of a longer story. That does not give us a clear indicator of your ability. Please make sure your story has actual dialogue between characters, too often now we have gotten 5 page stories that only have text boxes or inner monologue.
In addition please ensure that your writing is broken into sequential page layouts and is clear and concise.
SCRIPTERS
This position is different than the writers position as they artwork is already created for this project and there is a loose synopsis/rough story but no actual dialogue written. It would be your job to fill in the spoken work (and any text boxes as well). This is commonly referred to as the “Marvel Method”, because this is how the Marvel Bullpen worked in the 60’s and into the late 70’s.
This is a challenging position because you have to craft a well told story in a limited amount of space. You do have the freedom to create the voices for the characters in the dialogue but you have to make sure you get from point A to point B as detailed out in the pages layouts/rough story.
Just because you can write a good story doesn’t mean you are cut out to be a scripter. It’s not an easy task…
PENCILER
Committed Comics is always looking for talented Pencilers. We are only looking for Pencilers who can produce high quality sequential work. If you are a penciler and you only have pin up/ cover work then do not send us your portfolio.
A penciler must be able to follow the four points outlined below:
- Ability to tell a story through the images you put down on the page.
- Versatility in your ability to draw
- Human/animal Anatomy
- Consistency through panels
The first is obvious: if you can not give the reader a clear idea of where your story is going without text then you may lose their interest. A person who glances at your story should get a basic idea of what the story is about. Besides story telling, your samples should demonstrate good drawing – knowledge of anatomy, perspective, and convincing environments and backgrounds.
The second point listed above focuses on the different things you should be able to draw. If you only know how to draw super heroes and not regular people then do not bother to send in your submission. We are seeking pencilers who understand that even in the course of a super hero comic book you may need to draw regular people. Your samples should show your command of the human figure in a variety of activities: everything from simple conversation to a frenetic fight scene.
Concentrate on what’s inside the panel borders, not on the overall design of the page. Complicated page layouts, figures jutting through the borders, and other visual gimmicks usually hurt the story telling. The third point listed above is human/ animal anatomy. I mentioned it in the first point but it is so important that it needs to be noted again. As a penciler you need to fully understand the muscles in the human body. Even if you are going to be drawing in a simple animated style (or even Manga style) you need to know the structure of the human body.
You need to know what muscles are where and which ones to eliminate to achieve your animated style. This point also focuses on the different types of people or animals that may come across your drawing table in the script. Make sure that you have some understanding of the characteristics of different ethnicities. That way you can draw different races and creeds and have your readers understand who is who. Last point about human anatomy may sound silly but it is a common mistake, make sure your characters have the same amount of fingers and toes through out your story.
Animal anatomy is also important in your stories. The last thing you want is a picture of a tiger and having it look like a bear. Remember if the reader does not know what animals or people are in your script it will make it harder for them to follow the story.
Lastly, the name of the game is consistency. All of your panels need to have the same detail and line work through out the book. One bad panel can ruin a beautiful page to the reader and even worse…your editor. When drawing out your panels make sure you follow the written story and also follow what would logically happen in a sequential pattern. For example: If you have a door open inward, make sure for the rest of the time you draw that door it always opens the same way. Also make sure your line weights are consistent through out your work. Also make sure your artwork isn’t too “sketchy” and that the lines that need to connect to show the detail and depth of the panel connect.
Pencilers who are submitting to Committed Comics should have no less then three (3) pages of a sequential story and no more then five (5). All artwork should be 11 x 17 inch paper folded once and put in an envelope – Do NOT send submission pages in an 11×17 envelope. Never send in originals, always photocopies! If you would like you may include one (1) pin up or cover composition piece.
INKER
An inkers’ job is finish and embellish the penciler’s work. It is much more then just going over the existing lines on the page with black ink and filling in the areas that are suppose to be black (that is called spotting the blacks). An inker should take the line artwork that is there and give it depth, shading and form.
When an inker works on penciled pages they should make sure that all of the lines that need to be connected are connected and that the foreground characters are clearly visible from the background. It is also the inker’s job to make sure that the light sources put down by the penciler are correct and to keep that consistent through out the pages. Much like the penciler the inker needs to know human anatomy, page layouts, and making sure the images are sequential and making sense.
A good inker can make an average penciler look great and vice versa a bad inker can make a great artist look really bad. As mentioned before the inker needs to add depth, shading and form to the artwork.
- Depth can be achieved in several different ways, most often by varying line weight and the amount of blacks in the foreground, medium ground, and background in a set pattern.
- Shading is brought about by the use of where you place the heaviest amount of ink. Usually, a penciler will denote where they want a shadow to fall. Your job is to fill that area with black and add any additional detail to that area.
- The inker achieves form by connecting the penciler’s lines and rounding out any harsh edges or vice versa.
When sending in submissions to Committed Comics, it is strongly suggested that you do not send in your own pencils with inks. The reason for that is it’s difficult to separate problems in your pencil drawing and problems in your ink rendering. When sending in your submission, send in a photocopy of the pencils along with your inks.
That way, the editorial staff can view what the pages looked like before and after. In addition to not inking over your own pencils Committed Comics would also prefer to see inking samples over penciler’s who do not draw so tight. Meaning that if you as the inker do not see a reason to add or change anything to the pencils don’t send it in.
Inkers like pencilers need to send in three (3) to five (5) pages and one pin up / cover piece. As mentioned above don’t forget to include the pencil pages as well. The art should be 11×17 folded once and placed in a 9 x 10 envelope.
INKER PACKET – PDF format 3.60 MB
COLORIST
Good digital colorists are in very short supply and Committed Comics is always open to looking at sample packets. The colorist should have a basic knowledge of what colors complement each other and which ones contrast against each other. In addition to using pleasing colors, the colorist should also understand that their colors are applying clarity and mood to each panel.
As a colorist, you also are responsible for making sure everything in the panel is clear. When coloring characters and objects, it is important to make sure the reader can understand what each object is. This does not mean that every single object must be rendered in its “natural color.” Sometimes to make an important object stand out or to clarify the difference between two objects, one object must be colored unnaturally.
Once you understand the importance of coloring things clearly, then you must place in the mood. The best way to get mood across is by using different color schemes. If the story is getting darker in tone, then make sure to reflect that in the colors. Along those same ideas, if the story is cheerful, make sure that the colors match. There may be times where you will have to combine the two ideas. For example, if a brightly colored super hero is entering a dark moody situation, make sure to reflect that with out losing the colors of the hero’s costume. Just make sure that the hero’s costume still corresponds with the lighting and shading in the situation.
Printers print from CMYK files and many of the special effects used in coloring will not carry over correctly from RGB to CMYK. Therefore, when you finish coloring a page, it is best to change the mode from RGB to CMYK. Even after doing that, the final print may be slightly different then how it looks on the computer screen. This is due to the fact that the computer screen is back lit and when the images are printed out there’s a variety of ink saturation on the page.
Again like the inker and the penciler constancy is very important. You must make sure that the colors you choose are the same from panel to panel and that nothing changes to the point where it makes no sense or is too harsh on the eyes. Make sure you do not over render your characters as well. Over rendering makes your characters and items in the panel makes them look like they are either made of plastic or wrapped in Saran Wrap®.
Digital colorist also need to work with the letterer to ensure that the color pallet they choose is not too similar or contrast to strongly. Colorists are also responsible for making sure that the files they give to the editor are going to print well. That means they have to be trapped correctly and the saturation levels are correct. That also means flattening out the artwork and removing any unnecessary channels or layers. If you do not know how to achieve this then you need to purchase this book: Digital Prepress for Comic Books.
A digital colorist submission packet must contain the following: Six (6) pieces of sequential work and two (2) cover/pin up samples. As mentioned above a digital colorist may send in a PC formatted CD of their work along with the printed copies. Please ensure that all of the files on the CD are in Tiff format and that they are all sequential pieces. No pin up/cover work will be review digitally.
REMEMBER: The only time a digital file will be reviewed is if you sends us a CD of additional work (The submission must still contain printed copies of the work).
COLORIST PACKET – PDF format Compressed 2.24 MB
COLORIST PACKET – PDF format Full Size 19.3 MB
LETTERERS
Letterers are the artist that transforms the writer’s written word to visual art. People don’t quite understand how important they are. A lot of people just assume that letterers are just typesetters…and to some degree they are, if the book is all narrative text boxes. We know that most comic books are not just full of text boxes and they have dialogue and special sound effects and that’s not just a copy and paste process.
A good letterer is never noticed, meaning that is the letterer does their job correct the text and artwork flow together seamlessly. A bad letterer is noticeable for sure. If the letterer has the luxury of working on colored line art then it is imperative to ensure that the color of your text boxes or dialogue doesn’t interfere or clash with the surrounding image. If only black and white artwork is available then the letterer has to have a good understanding of neutral colors and read the script carefully to pick up on any direction.
The standard program to use for lettering is Adobe Illustrator or any program that can produce vector based text. Once the text is overlaid on the line artwork then the fonts need to be converted to lines and saved as an EPS file. We are always on the lookout for quality letterers who understand the look of text, fonts and spacing. If you are interested in submitting to Committed Comics as a letterer please complete the sample pages below. In addition please include a tear sheet (1 page example) of some of your sound effects and special effects.
Necessary Resources:
Digital Prepress for Comic Books ISBN: 0967542308
DC Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics ISBN: 0823010309
Additional information:
Todd Klein’s website: http://kleinletters.com/LetteringTop.html
(Todd is one of the best in the comic book industry.)
COMPLETED SERIES
We have a joke in the Committed offices about accepting series pitches. We’re only looking for two things…
1. Be Good
2. Be Done
It’s not quite that simple but that is a pretty strong indicator of what we are looking for. Now you don’t need to have 100% of the book completed but at the same time we don’t want a two page outline.
Somewhere in the middle is ideal, for example if you are doing a 4 issue mini-series, have at least one fully completed issue with scripts and layouts completed for the remaining three issues. This is so the editorial staff has something of substance to review and see how the series will unfold. It is also important for the editorial staff to see how best to market the series.
In addition with your pitch being in the process of being completed, please be realistic. Committed Comics produces comic books for the general public. We are not interested in publishing niche products. By niche products we mean ultra violent or ultra sexual titles. We’ve heard it all before; “Why not take this project? It’s just like Preacher (or some other violent or gruesome title)” or “Porn sells great so why not make porno comic books?” To those people it’s simple: You’re not Garth Ennis (or the big name that makes doing a series like the one used in the example possible) and if we wanted to do adult stuff we would have an adult company. So if you’re going to use any variation of that argument then do us both a favor and save your postage.
What we are looking for are titles that have market appeal and can be produced in a realistic manner. We are NOT looking for any monthly titles. It takes a tremendous amount of money and people power to keep a series title going and it’s not realistic for a small company like us to take on that endeavor. Along those lines if you have a 50 issue mini-series that too will be tossed into the garbage.
Now with that said we don’t want to discourage people from sending in their project…but if you are going to do so and don’t have as much of the work completed then please be creative. One creative team that we are working with was signed because they presented an 8 page completed mini story and a very concise and direct pitch. Another creative team came to us with the first issue completed and loose scripts for the rest of the series which they were going to work on regardless if they had a publisher or not. So as long as your project has some form of forward momentum we are open to reviewing it.
Committed Comics is open to producing all forms of comics (black and white, color, painted and so on). They just have to be two things:
1. Be Good
2. Be Done
Once you compile your cover letter mail your submission to:
Committed Comics: Submissions Department
7345 164th Ave NE Suite #145 PMB#326
Redmond, WA 98052
If you don’t already have Pre-Press skills then we hightly suggest you purchase the following book Digital Prepress for Comic Books (ISBN: 0967542308). Honestly if you are trying to put together a series pitch and you don’t own this book already then you better be willing to hire a Pre-Press company. If you’re not willing to buy the book or hire a pre-press company then seriously don’t bother sending in your work…
If you are looking to hire a Pre-Press company then contact Dream Nexus Designs. They are a full service studio for hire and they offer professional digital pre-press services.