So lads, I'm thinking of submitting a comic to image. I have some cold feet having come off from a cartoon pitch rejection, so I just had s question for the people who read image comics: do they publish a lot of more cartoony art? What's the level of weird shit they'll publish?
I ask because I'm not sure about wether I should submit the idea I had for a cartoony medieval horror show, a little bit like pic related, or if I'd have better luck working on something else that would catch the eye more both in stylistic terms and in terms of content.
Yeah, pretty much made all of these the same night, but I can make a much nicer looking comic out of it, something a little more prince valianty in terms of coloring and obviously not scanned in with no cleanup lines
Jace Howard
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Alexander Russell
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Daniel Brown
This ine, in retrospect, I'd like to change.
He's supposed to be a crazy guy who says his katana is excalibur, but it just looks too much like samurai jack's sword
Daniel Allen
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Colton Sanders
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Jayden Rogers
And that's that.
So you think they'd take this sort of thing, granted with a cleanup job? I don't know if I'd be wasting my time making a cartoon idea into a comic one when I should be making a comic idea for a comic pitch.
Jose Ortiz
Any color planned?
Ayden Green
I haven't done any color tests but yes, I'd like to make some kind of mixture of what traditional medieval paintings look like mixed with bold naturalistic old 90s marvel sword and sorcery type coloring, with a healthy mixture of Bosch. Mostly looking at prince valiant for inspiration.
If I did it black and white I'd probably try to go for a more berserk feeling
Grayson Gomez
I can't help you with what you want to know, but have a bump.
Nicholas Gutierrez
Th-thanks
Gavin Price
This is a sampler of the kind of comics Image publishes. Mind you, this is a VERY limited sampler as I omited a ton of series (they obviously publish way more than 6 books), but it should give you an idea of the kind of artstyle and coloring Image goes for.
Brandon Reed
Hurm... well, I think I could probably get there as far as art goes, but now I'm worried they won't take a more compressed style of comics compared to the decompressed... more "cinematic" stuff?
Matthew Nelson
I'd love to see these fully detailed and colored. You've got something really special going on here
Wyatt Reed
Well, that depends really. There's all kinds of comics at Image, including some that are a bit more compressed.
Honestly, at the end of the day all you really need is a full creative team (writer, artist, colorist/inker (if applicable), letterer, etc) and an interesting enough pitch.
Wyatt Anderson
What if it's just you though?
Like, I can letter, draw, and write, I mean I've spent the last few weeks drafting scripts upon scripts of cartoon scripts. So I hope that counts for something, at least.
But I can understand if that makes it less attractive to a publisher since a one man band might strain the deadline of making things by the week. Do you think it actually hurts my chances to not have anyone else involved?
Thank you
Hunter Collins
Image tends to publish from more established writers who have some work at the Big Two under their belt.
If I were you, I'd submit to like Oni Press or something. You have a pretty appealing artstyle here and a nice gimmick, which is good for small press books like at Oni.
Gavin Williams
That might help, actually. People who can both write and draw are pretty rare in comics. Of course, when I saw "write and draw" I mean "write and draw well", there's plenty of wannabe writers out there who are better off doodling than using a typewriter.
But if you think you've got what it takes I'd say give it a shot, even if they reject you there's other companies that might be interested in your pitch (Dark Horse, Vertigo, etc.)
Jace Long
Would it be in poor taste to pitch to both at the same time? My game plan is to pretty much just finish the first issue and pitch to see how they like the whole product.
Also, isn't onipress more kid oriented? This has a lot of harsh medieval stuff like kid punching, and some titillating hellraiser bait, I dunno if they're down with that.
Cameron Scott
Is that supposed to be Bruce Campbell from the European army of darkness ending?
Lucas Nelson
Don't bother submitting to Image until you've already drawn the first issue.
They want to publish comics, not concept art.
Jonathan Thompson
Nope, pitch to as many as you can. It's exactly like applying for jobs.
Oni does some kid stuff but they also do stuff like of course Scott Pilgrim that's definitely not for kids. They're also the most open to doing stuff from new names. Every year they have a contest where unproven names send their comics in.
I'll tell you, it's fairly unlikely that a major publisher will pick up an unfinished work. If you don't have a portfolio, they have no way of knowing if you follow through and finish your comics. Most people self-publish at least a handful of comics before seeking a publisher for one.
Daniel Jenkins
YES SOMEONE ELSE GOT IT
Well duh doi, I just wanted to know wether I've got a better shot making a first issue for this or something more traditional looking for a comic
Carter Campbell
Find someone who can vouch for you.
Graham is well known for bringing new talent into image, but his tastes range from furry porn to really psychedelic / epic stuff.
Josiah Bailey
Were you the one in a threat who was waiting on a response about your pitch a few weeks ago? If so sorry to hear that it didn't work out.
By the way how'd you land that pitch?
You can pitch to two places at the same time but try not to spam your pitch. It reeks of desperation and editors usually find that to be grounds for rejection. They want to feel like you crafted the pitch for their company and not just sent it out to anyone who might think about publishing it.
Also Oni isn't more kid oriented. In fact most of their stuff isn't. But they're not open for submissions right now. You'll have to send a letter of inquiry to one of the editors and THEN send a pitch. But right now they're not taking anything unsolicited.
Nathan James
That contest doesn't reopen until 2018 and it's been closed since June 2015. They got too overwhelmed.
Gabriel Turner
Yeah, the tongal/project greenlight one. It was open to the public.
Pretty sure what did me in was that I made the pitch video the day of the entry, learned the editing program while I did it, and found out my computer doesn't have enough space so it couldn't shit out anything more than a sub par quality video with small resolution.
But hey, it was actually pretty invaluable experience, I learned how to make videos.
Andrew Torres
These are neat. Would love to see them animated Over the garden Wall style. What's the plot?
Luke Morales
A luddite serf orphan, a weird little pagan witch girl, her plague doctor sister, and a crazy old man who thinks he's King arthur, chase after a monster hunting stranger in a wandering cloud of myst in what eventually becomes a primordial quest to rid the world of evil/metaphorical dragons that stand for evil, and follow the stranger on his quest to kill the summoner of all monsters.
On their adventures they meet such charming characters like
Satan The black goat of the woods Carnivorous faeries Those weird things in medieval paintings that re just dudes with faces on their chest Sea serpents Space goblins that fuck with the stars so they can't find their way out of the woods Jesus christ of Nazareth The francs Saladin And lots of screaming talking frogs
Austin Butler
nah image isn't that limited. they publish a shitton of styles, they are the most freeform company after DC's vertigo iirc.
Style alone will get you nowhere. what you need is a generally idea of what you want to do. you won't get anything published without an "objective" in the form of plot and themes.
this is of course assuming you know the basics of comics and paneling and don't only know how to draw.
Tyler Jenkins
This has to be the stupidest premise I've ever heard of.
I love it.
Hunter Diaz
I'd honestly read the shit out of that. I also like the concept art you have drawn and would love to see more of it and more refined, medieval art is the shit. I agree the king could use some work but I like the Ash inspiration.
John Lopez
Oh its fucking goofy, I'm happy with that. It's a mixture of legit serious gothic horror mixed with ye Olde shitposte and dragonball.
Well, I guess I'm convinced then, I'll go make a first issue and pitch it around.