Hello comics makers and readers! Here’s a roundup of news, events, and opportunities!
NEWS
Last week, the Coop committee chatted with The Mary Sue and Women Write About Comics about the Cooperative’s goals and plans. Read our interviews below:
How the New Cartoonist Cooperative Plans to ‘Disrupt’ the Comics Industry—and Why It Matters
The Cartoonist Cooperative Want to Disrupt Predatory Publishing Practices
The 2023 Minicomic Awards were held virtually on Salt & Honey’s Youtube channel with each winner receiving $1000 USD thanks to generous sponsors. The judges were Sloane Leong, Leslie Hung, and special guest judges Yuki Ota and Ananth Hirsh. The winners are:
AUTOBIO: <now I can never know you more than those white walls>. by Edgar
HORROR: Sediment – Bhanu Pratap
SCIFI: SPEIROCHORY – Karenza Sparks
FANTASY: Why don’t you like me? – Gaia Papoila
Romance: when it started – Leecie
To read the runners-up for each category, check out Broken Frontier’s coverage here.
OPPORTUNITIES
The MMC Arts Grant assists comic book creators with small grants to assist in the costs in self-publishing their work. The grant winner will receive funds of $1000.00 USD to support the project and self-publishing effort. Submissions for the 2023 grant are due by March 31st. Due to shipping timelines, items postmarked on or before March 31st will be considered as long as they are received by April 4th.
Strangers will be opening up submissions for new comics. From the submission guidelines, Strangers is looking for:
- Idiosyncratic solo anthology comics: Urourotown, Felt Tip
- Pulpy action comics: Krania, Jungleland, Dynamite Diva
- Hard edged science-fiction: Disco Lavante, Gun-Metal Affair, Book of Fuligin, God Bless The Machine
- Lastly and probably most important- Strangers operates on a 70/30 profit split (majority to the creator) after initial expenses are covered. Creators get to keep their copyright over their stories/ideas/characters/etc.
Read the full guidelines and submit here.
Emanata, Conundrum Press’s YA graphic novel imprint, is open for YA graphic novels submissions until June 1, 2023. “Emanata is mandated to focus on under-represented voices. For this reason, the imprint prioritizes submissions from Deaf and Disabled, BIPOC, and 2SLGBTQIA+ creators. While we will consider international teams, at least 50% of the team must live in colonial Canada.”
We Belong is a full-color comic anthology exploring Black queer stories in the science-fiction and fantasy genres. It will be curated and edited by veteran comics creators Viktor Kerney (Strangelore) and William O. Tyler (Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers, Stress Fracture). We Belong is a joint venture with Prism Comics, a nonprofit organization promoting LGBTQAIU+ comics, comics creators, and fandom. We Belong will be published by award-winning comics publisher Stacked Deck Press. We Belong will be accepting pitch submissions until March 31st, 2023.
EVENTS
Comics and Cognitive Science
Saturday, March 25, 2023, at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Dr. Neil Cohn will discuss his pioneering research on the cognition of comics and language. Then, Dr. Cohn and Chris Ware will sit down for a compelling conversation about their shared passion and exciting history with comics. The audience will have numerous opportunities to ask questions to both presenters during the event. Comics and Cognitive Science is a free, public event. Registration is required to attend.
