Superhero Artist Wanted

[ph_comics]

We are looking for hardworking people capable of penciling and or inking a one to eight page comic script for inclusion in our black and white quarterly anthology.

Most of the scripts are either finished or in the final stages but are done by writers trying to break into the business. We would be looking to get a fairly quick turn around time of a month for most of these projects.

The idea for the anthology is to cultivate new talent and to established the Post Human company.

Which leads me quite nicely to the point where most of you will hit the delete button "This is a non paying gig!". Sorry but we are planning to give any and all profits made from the sale of this book to a charity.

However, with that in mind, we will be launching several waves of Mini-series over the course of next year under the Post Human banner and these will be done on the work for hire basis. But only those artist we have worked with previously on the anthology title will be considered.

The anthology itself will be the back bone of our company and will come out quarterly showcasing the best and brightest talent from around the world.

The best we can offer any artist at the moment is guaranteed publication and a few comp copies of the book.

With that all said and done I would like to take the time to thank you for reading this and I hope at least some of you are still interested in working with us.

I look forward to your replies.

Regards

David Jones.

Samples to post_human_comic@yahoo.co.uk

P.S The charity the money will go to is www.mariecurie.org.uk as it is personally close to my heart.

[DavidXBrunt]

Yeah, skip the introductions and polite stuff like that. Just go for the sales pitch and that'll do the trick.

[pauljholden]

Maybe I'm misreading the post but, I do the creators keep the copyright of the things they're doing for you?

- pj

[ThryllSeekyr]

I would like to have a go at this endeavor as this is the type of work that I think that I would enjoy doing. Even if it meant only doing it for peanuts. AS long as it counts towards something.

Though, I haven't even been in this buisenss professionally, let alone attempting to do open myself.

I love drawing and sketching even if I'm not considered to be of the same caliber of actual comics book illustrators. Just have look at what I have done on the competition thread.

I will have a go.

Another thing is that I 'm not local to the UK or America.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I would like to have a go at this endeavor as this is the type of work that I think that I would enjoy doing. Even if it meant only doing it for peanuts. AS long as it counts towards something.

Though, I haven't even been in this buisenss professionally, let alone attempting to do open myself.

I love drawing and sketching even if I'm not considered to be of the same caliber of actual comics book illustrators. Just have look at what I have done on the competition thread.

I will have a go.

Another thing is that I 'm not local to the UK or America.

[House of Usher]

Dear Mr David Jones,

You may or may not be aware that many of the artists you are interested in recruiting are already hard at (unpaid) work drawing strips for small press anthology comics.

You might consider introducing yourself to them at a convention, where you will be able to find them promoting the comics they've worked on.

Your proposition sounds to me like blackmail: "work for us for free now, and we may (or may not) offer you a paying gig in the future." That doesn't sound like an attractive offer to me. If I was an aspiring comic book artist, I would rather continue to contribute to the titles my friends and I had created ourselves than offer it to someone who has no obvious love of comics but is purporting to start up a 'business' in a by all accounts declining industry.

The main thing I object to about your proposition is the stipulation that only artists who have given their efforts for free will be considered for paid work in the future. You must realise that is a declining roster of talent. Suppose you get 10 artists volunteering. Say 5 of them want the paid work you might be offering. Say you really need 8 artists - where are the other 3 going to come from? At some point you are going to want to widen your pool of talent, and you will have to overturn your stipulation that contributors will have to have worked on your charity book for free first.

If you are serious, it seems to me that you should be doing one of two things:

1. Start up a new small press anthology in an already crowded maketplace, and invite submissions from all interested parties to contribute their work for free, with the proviso that all contributors retain the copyright on their work.

2. When you have tested your market and are prepared to produce comics commercially, paying your contributors ('work for hire' is the phrase you charmingly use), why not look at the small press for examples of artists' work as a basis for choosing artists you'd like to employ? Then you would remove the necessity of them contributing to your company's free comic in the first place, thus removing a lot of the suspicion from the deal.

[DavidXBrunt]

Plus you should be aware that whilst there are a lot of talented artists here involved, or interested in being involved with, small press projects there are already more than enough scripts to go round. The average artist here could build up a stock pile of work on the many established titles and be sure that they are working with people that they already know.

In short you need the artists much more than they need you.

[Emperor]

Got a website? I did a quick search but only found Karl Slominski.

I was wondering why you weren't looking for writers too (as you can have all the artists you like but if the stories suck...) and I found http://groups.yahoo.com/group/studio-ni/message/317">this call for writers (closing date was 1st July which explains why you just need artists) with some interesting stipulations:

? Published writers need not apply.
? We will consider stories with gratuitous sex and violence but they are subject to taste and decency.

I do think there is a niche for a British superhero comic (as long as it isn't just doing it in an American style - just not so well) so I will be keeping an eye on this (keep us updated). This of course may not be The One but I think its certainly worth a giving it a shot.

[Dog Deever]

Heh heh, this thread is hilarious! I love it when strangers get disparaged!

Anyway, there might be a few around who're not involved in the Fanzines yet, and i suppose getting anything published may be reward in itself. Losing any copyrights would be a bit rough though.

Anyway, I pish all over Superhero nonsense- except Black Siddha.

[Emperor]

Losing any copyrights would be a bit rough though.

The call for writers I linked to above is clearer on this:

Post Human Comics is looking to create a brand new small press anthology comic based around creator owned Superhero stories.

So, although it might need clarifying, I don't think anyone has too much to worry about. Granted talk of companies and profits has the whiff of commercialism I'm sure if FutureQuake could shift 20k+ units they'd not turn down the chance (it does make me wonder at the business model though). The 2000 AD forum is small press-friendly and that seems to be what they are in the end.

DavidXBrunt is right though - artists are always in short supply and most round these parts have been kidnapped/bribed for other projects already. I know Rich has taken to offering peeks at his third nipple if people will draw for him and things can only get more cutthroat.

Anyway I wish you well and I'll be interested to see how things develop.

[ph_comics]

PHEW!

It was not our intention to offend anyone or to "black mail" anyone either. You can always just say no thanks and pass by on the other side of the street.

Anyway. Thanks to everyone who replied. We do have a website but its not up yet, we are holding off until the first issue is done (The end of the month) but we have enough scripts and artist for another couple of issues, only not in equal measure, hence the reason we are trolling for more willing participants.

The forum was/is ours but that was just us playing with freebies and we meant to delete it we have just been a little swamped.

ThryllSeekyr please feel free to drop us a line at post_human_comic@yahoo.co.uk.

Well anyway, I am sorry to have upset or offended anyone. I hope you will all take a look at the books once they come out and no hard feelings.

Regards

David Jones

[House of Usher]

Good luck with it. I see that your charity project is to be a quarterly publication, which I suppose takes care of the problem of widening the talent pool, but I still have doubts about artists having to contribute unpaid material to the quarterly before being considered for mini-series. As long as you're not closing the doors to talent that way, then fine, I guess.

I hope you'll keep us updated. I'd like to see the end result, and I know there are anthology fans (and contributors) on this message board.

[DavidXBrunt]

Yeah, good luck with it. You earn any amount of bonus points for the reply.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Your name really David Jones.

Also the name of the chain of upmarket department stores selling clothing, kitchen apllianaes, furnititure, books, toys, computer, musics dvd, games.

[House of Usher]

...not to mention the little English fella out of The Monkees, and the the real name of David Bowie. And the formal version of the name of the fella whose locker lies at the bottom of the ocean, where drowned sailors, sunken ships, and lost treasure all end up.