Monday 4 March 2013

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - ISSUE 3: LADIES & GENTLEMEN (AND COMPANY)

Ladies and Gentlemen comic, Lord Kitchener needs you, comic art

Good morning/afternoon/evening to you, fine ladies and gents. With the unprecedented success of our first two books, Water Closet Press is in the process of creating a third. And, being the sociable and comic loving creatures we are, we are keen to have you take part.

For Issue 3 we’re planning a printed anthology based in the Ladies & Gentlemen universe, and we're looking for submissions. This is where you come in. 1-5 page complete comics (black-and-white or colour), alternative covers, pinup art, poetry, short prose fiction (with or without illustrations)... whatever it is you want to do, we want to print it!

If you are an artist looking to make a comic but have no script or writer, get in touch. We'll do our best to get you connected to a writer in the same boat (as they very often are), or we'll craft you a script ourselves. The goal here is not only to tell a bunch of great stories, but also to develop a network of comic creators within the Small Press community.

THE RULES

We want this project to be as open as possible so we won’t limit you with too many rules. Having said that...

1) The Gent. He never speaks or is seen without his mask. Ever.

That's basically it. We would also ask if you’re thinking of submitting that you respect our characters and don't dramatically kill them or maim them or give them insane back stories that will be impossible to work into future plots. Just be sensible.

Other than that, it's your toy to play with. Use any of our existing characters as a springboard for your own imagination, or feel free to ignore them and/or invent new ones to interact with and explore the world of The Gentry. If you already have your own comic project, why not do a cross-over? Or re-imagine things from a "What if...?" perspective. It doesn't have to be an adventure story... even if it's a whimsical look at a day in the life of The Moth's hat, we're looking for variety and innovation. Any style, genre, and theme will be accepted. We don't want to see imitations of our work, we'd rather see yours.

THE IDEA

Here at Water Closet Press, one of our favourite things about serialised comics is the process of collective storytelling. The idea that stories are immutable and sacred scripture carved into stone is an illusion. Narratives change over time, growing and transforming with each manifestation. They are made alive in the hands of others.

This folkloric potential is one of the most appealing aspects of hero-genre comics in particular, and it's something we would like to reflect in Ladies & Gentlemen... but we can’t do it by ourselves. We want to put it in your hands - the hands of the Small Press community in the UK and beyond - and have you participate in its telling.

SUBMISSION & DEADLINE

If you have an idea for a story or artwork you'd like to do (or anything else up your sleeve), simply e-mail us at thewaterclosetpress@gmail.com and we'll go from there. Want to contribute but haven’t read Ladies & Gentlemen? Fear not! Issue 1 can be read in full online, and we have several other short stories you can browse to familiarize yourself.

We are aiming to release the book at the London MCM Expo. We had fantastic results launching there last year and met a great bunch of people. Since the date for the convention itself hasn't been announced yet, we are going to say that the absolute deadline for completed submissions is the 1st of October 2013.* We're hoping that this will give people enough time to work at their own pace and produce something they are proud of.  *(EDIT: We will no longer be attending MCM.  The deadline has been changed to 1st of NOVEMBER 2013 and we will be launching the anthology at Thought Bubble instead).



WHAT DO YOU GET IN RETURN?

That's a good question.  Unfortunately we are not able to pay for entries at this time, however...

1) Your work gets printed in a high quality UKcomics publication.
2) You will receive the number of issues equal to the number of pages submitted.
3) As a contributor you will also be able to order copies from us at print cost (which should be significantly lower than retail price), sell these at your own leisure and retain the profits.
4) Finally, you'll be getting fantastic exposure at the conventions we attend and through our social media/blogging, and vice versa.  Small Press cross-pollination!

The collection will be a minimum of about 30 pages of Water Closet material, but our goal is to get enough entries to push that to around the 80 pages mark. Obviously once we have received enough synopses from interested parties we'll have a better idea of the book's size and cost, etc.


Sound good?
Let's make some sweet comics!

~ Rik and JC

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