Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 04:25:13 -0500 From: [f--hb--e] at [user1.channel1.com] (Gregory Fishbone) Subject: Mythic Writer/Artist Guidelines This is the project I'm currently putting together for Mythic Press -- not a comic book in the traditional sense, but a prose alternative that contains several comics elements, including serialized story lines, "cover" artwork, and an exploration of the superhero genre in new and original ways. We're looking to have the first issues read to solicit in May, for delivery in September. What we need most right now are stories and artwork, as outlined below. We are on a low budget, but there will be advertising space available in the magazine, and a comics-oriented readership, so it would seem natural to trade ad-space for artwork, or ad-space for ad-space. Let me know if you have any interest, and feel free to distribute these guidelines to any writers and artists who might be interested as well. Direct all questions to [f--hb--e] at [user1.channel1.com.] Thanks. --Greg Fishbone --- These guidelines are as of April 7, 1996 and supercede previous versions of the guidelines. If you're reading this and it's not early April, 1996, please contact Greg Fishbone at the email address above to find out if more current guidelines are available *before* you prepare anything for submission. These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice. *** MYTHIC HEROES A serialized superhero anthology, coming soon from Mythic Press! (with a little luck and lots of help...) Picture if you will a collection of ungraphic superhero stories, accompanied by illustrations, in a comics-style format, available in comic book stores all across the land. Reinventing the pulp magazine for the 90's! In order to make this vision a reality, what I need most is material -- well-written original stories and fantastic artwork to accompany it. And if you can't draw or write, I need advertising reps as well! Feel free to forward this file to anyone you think might be interested, and let me know if you have any questions. *** MYTHIC WRITERS' GUIDELINES: To get the monetary issues out of the way first, this *will* be a paid gig, but the money won't be much more than a few dollars per episode unless the book does a lot better than I'm expecting. At the very least, you will have something published that you can hand out at parties, and a professional credit that might help get your foot into other publishers' doors. If you are already a comic book writer, you might want to use this as an opportunity to explore a new format, to polish your storytelling skills, or to tell an interesting story that for some reason might not work as well in a visual form. A Mythic Heroes story arc is six episodes or less, with every episode being about 3,000 words (give or take a couple hundred). The book will be published twice monthly, but you do not have to write at that pace -- your series arc won't debut until after you have completed the final issue. You may wish to continue your story with one or more additional arcs, each of which may be submitted after preceding arcs have been accepted for publication. Just keep in mind that there is no guarantee that additional arcs of any given story will be published after the accepted arc has run its course. There is no Mythic Heroes shared universe to worry about, and thus no need to worry about matching the continuity of your story with that of others. Your arc may take place over the course of a single day, or over a decade or more. If you want to crossover with another writer or two, details can be worked out at that time. You are free to set your story in any type of world you can imagine -- realistic, futuristic, historical, four-colored, or what have you, as long as you write it *well*. You may not set your story in an established universe (the "Marvel Universe", the "Superguy Universe", the "Star Trek Universe", etc.) unless you own the rights to that universe. You can adapt stories that you have written for story universes to fit them into the Mythic Heroes format, but only if you remove all references to characters and settings that are not your own. Likewise, you can not take someone else's characters or story, change the names around, and pass it off as your own. The key here is originality. Since this will be a prose story, there will need to be something inherently interesting about the plot and/or characters to attract the readers. You will also need to know the mechanics of writing and storytelling. Our editorial staff is small and overworked, and will not be able to find every punctuation and spelling error in every story, so we would appreciate getting your manuscripts as error-free as you can make them. We are buying publication and reprint rights only -- all trademarks, merchandising, and adaptation rights will be reserved to you. Let us know as soon as possible if you want to write a series for this project. Your proposal to [f--hb--e] at [user1.channel1.com] should contain the following (note that we are accepting *only* electronic submissions at this time): * An overview of the series. This should be a short paragraph of three sentences at the most, one ideally, that gives a basic idea of what the series arc will be about. * Descriptions of the major characters, including enough physical description for an artist to work with. If you want to include sketches or templates, I'll give you an address to mail them to. * A detailed synopsis of each episode in the arc (remember, there should be six episodes or fewer, and one-shots *are* acceptable). You may also want to suggest actions/poses for the "cover art" of each episode. * Any ideas you have for a series logo to be used on the front and episode covers. * A draft copy of the first two episodes (roughly 3,000 words each). What I'm going to look for in selecting stories is originality and variety. If your story is selected for possible publication, I will send you a contract to sign and go into greater details at that time. These guidelines are still very rough, so please send me any questions you have about any aspect of this project. *** ARTISTS' GUIDELINES: The art in Mythic Heroes will consist of a color cover for the book and black and white covers for each individual story. You will be taking the character descriptions supplied by the author(s) you are drawing for, and bringing those characters to life. Again, there will be pay and reimbursement for art supplies and postage, but it's not going to make you independently wealthy. All artwork will be sent back for you to keep. If you are just starting out, a published page will look good in your portfolio and on your resume. And if you are already a professional with a title in production, we can discuss a trade of artwork for advertising space. If you want to draw either color or black and white "cover art", send us a description of your style and professional credits (if any), and we will give you an address to send copies (not originals!) of your work. If you are proposing a penciler/inker team for cover art, be sure to include samples from each member of the team. You can contract to draw any number of pages you want to on assignment, or to draw for a specific series, or to draw a certain number of pages per month. We are willing to be flexible to meet your needs, but keep in mind that we will be depending on you to meet the deadline set on any assignment you agree to take on. Direct all inquiries to [f--hb--e] at [user1.channel1.com.] *** ADVERTISING REPS: Mythic Heroes is going to contain ad space, and some of that space is going to have to be sold in order to keep the magazine afloat. Anyone who wants to help will receive one quarter of the value of every ad he or she sells. Let me know if you are interested, and I will send you rate sheets and promotional materials as they become available. --- [f--hb--e] at [user1.channel1.com] Greg Fishbone, Dead Author's Society "A body at rest tends to stay at rest until blueberry waffles are placed in the toaster." --Astatine's Second Law of Motion