Alberta Comics: LOVE – Open for Submissions 

The award winning Alberta Comics Anthology is back for a second volume!

This time we’re exploring the positive aspects of love in all its passionate, heartfelt, transformative, reflective, supportive, all-consuming, nurturing flavours.

Stories can be in any genre, including humour, fantasy, biographical, historical, science-fiction, horror, romance, adventure, mystery, slice of life etc.

Why only the positive aspects of love you ask?

There is so much pain and suffering in the world at the moment, and powerful stories rightly addressing them. This anthology will be a collection of joy, light and fun amidst the darkness and stress.

Who Can Apply: Comics artists and writers currently living in Alberta, born in Alberta or lived significant parts of their life in Alberta. People working together must include an Albertan writer or lead-artist. New and experienced comic creators are encouraged to submit. Creative and technical support for creators will be available as needed.

Your comic can be a maximum of 5 pages in length and should incorporate its title and the comic’s creators on the first page. Make the title and credits part of the design of the first page.

Publishing Fee: For the exclusive first publishing rights to your story for one year (from the anthology publication date) we will pay you $100 per story page, and one give you a copy of the anthology, one for each participating creator.

Once the anthology has been available for a year, you will also be able to also publish your story yourself, submit it to other anthologies, or put it online for free if you desire.

Publisher: Renegade Arts Entertainment

Editors: Alexander Finbow, Emily Pomeroy, Shea Proulx, Hartley Rose

Timeline

Submission deadline: March 18th 2024

Confirmation of Acceptance: by April 19th 2024

Finished scripts and thumbnails: June 14th 2024

Final Files Delivered by: Sept 13th 2024

Published: Spring 2025

Specifications: Standard comics page (6.625 x 10.25 inches with 0.125 bleed) CMYK TIFF or PDFs at 400 dpi, text/balloons in 100% black, NOT CMYK black, we’ll help you figure it out, don’t worry.

We’ll be considering stories as long as five pages, and as short as one, we’ll also consider single panel comics too. Artists are encouraged to delay the completion of artwork until after submissions are accepted, and editorial notes are received as some changes may be requested. In the interest of creating a well-paced anthology with a mix of themes, lengths and styles that is enjoyable as whole. Remember, your final story should incorporate its title and the creator’s names on the first page.

All creators should be willing to help us with promoting the book and potentially a crowdfunding campaign to help grow reader awareness too. The struggle to get good books to new readers is hard.

Anthology title: Alberta Comics: LOVE

Caveats: Albertans are a diverse group whose experiences of love are beautifully varied, and so we’ll be assembling a collection with a variety of styles, characters, kinds of relationships and creator’s voices that reflect this reality. 

Though this anthology is being produced for an adult audience, it is being published for distribution to bookstores and should not feature gratuitous sex or violence , or be too sweary. If we had to give it an age rating, 15+ would probably be about right.

Stories in which characters are the victim of harassment – be it sexual, racial, homophobic, ableist, body-shaming, or otherwise – had best be treated with the sensitivity these issues demand.

Submissions Please include a story pitch, one or two sample images in a style representative of what the finished artwork will look like, an estimate of how many pages the comic will cover, and optionally one or two pages of a script or rough thumbnails.