Submissions

We are now taking submissions for POWER & MAGIC: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology Volume 2.

The POWER & MAGIC SERIES is all about queer witches of color as icons of female power. Witches represent rebellion, transcendence, healing, feminine monstrosity, so-called “deviance,” and interconnectedness -- with the cosmos, with their bodies, and with each other. These anthologies exist as a space for women of color to explore gender, power, struggle, selfhood and community, all in the context of compelling fantasy comics for young adult readers (and up)!

Submission Period

Submissions will be open to the public from February 11th - March 10th (11:59 PM Pacific Time).

Who Can Participate

To submit to POWER & MAGIC Volume 2, both of the following must apply to you:

You are a person of color.
You identify -- whether fully or partially or complicatedly -- as a woman. This can include cis women, trans women, bigender people, two-spirit people, demi-girls, questioning-but-leaning-woman-aligned, etc. Sex assigned at birth is irrelevant. We’re looking to represent womanhood as a spectrum rather than a fixed point.

For team submissions: At least the writer must meet the above criteria. If you’re a member of a long-standing comics partnership that includes a white writer and an artist of color, you may pitch together so long as the partner of color plays an equal-or-greater role in determining the story. If two submissions are equally matched, the team whose members all meet the criteria will be prioritized. Use #CovenSearch on social media to find teammates!

Age Restrictions

All contributors must be 18 years or older. All content must be suitable for readers as young as 14 years old.

Specifications

Comics from 2 - 10 pages long (must be an even number)
6” x 9” trim size (template will be provided)
Bleed? Yes.
Black & White or Grayscale (no screentones, please)
600 dpi
.PSD final files

Timeline

Selection Process (Feb 2019 - Apr 2019)

Open Submissions: 2/11 - 3/10 (4 weeks)
Selection Period: 3/11 - 3/24 (2 weeks)
Acceptance Emails/Pitch Feedback: 3/25
Paperwork: 3/25 - 4/1 (1 week)

Creation Period (Apr 2019 - Sep 2019)

Script: 4/1 - 4/21 (3 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 4/22 - 4/28 (1 week)
Thumbnails: 4/29 - 5/12 (2 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 5/13 - 5/19 (1 week)
Pencils: 5/20 - 6/23 (5 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 6/24 - 6/30 (1 week)
Inks: 7/1 - 7/21 (3 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 7/22 - 7/28 (1 week)
Toning & Shading: 7/29 - 8/11 (2 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 8/12 - 8/18 (1 week)
Lettering: 8/19 - 9/1 (2 weeks)
Feedback/Edits: 9/2 - 9/8 (1 week)
Final Files Due: 9/15
Kickstarter (October 2019)
Payment (November 2019)

Compensation

Contributors will be compensated at $106/page plus any Kickstarter bonuses unlocked through stretch goals. Contributors also receive a minimum of 10 complimentary copies of the anthology, royalties on all digital sales proportionate to their page-count contribution, and royalties on any future print runs of the anthology after the first printing sells out.

Rights

Creators will cede exclusive first worldwide print and digital rights to their stories for a full calendar year from the date of publication, and non-exclusive worldwide print and digital rights in perpetuity. Ownership remains with the creators.

What We WANT

Previously unpublished stories.
At least one protagonist must be a queer woman of color (or woman-aligned).
At least one character must be a witch, and at least one witch character must be a queer woman of color (or woman-aligned).
The queer woman of color protagonist(s) must be human or human-appearing.
Any era, any location, any type of witch -- real or folkloric or invented.
Fantasy elements! How fantastical or understated is up to you.
Peaceful stories, sad stories, triumphant stories, funny stories, failure stories, action stories, love stories -- the full spectrum of humanity is welcome. The catch: it must end “positively.” Everything doesn’t have to work out, but we’d prefer for stories to end on a note of hope or new understanding or resilience, etc, even if things go wrong.

What We DON’T Want

No fan works. No auto-bio. No prose. No one-off illustrations.
Comics that are already finished or that you’ve already started drawing.
Meet-cutes (“Two people meet and crush at first sight, the end”). A meet-cute may occur within the story, but it can’t be the whole story.
Horror: Your story can use fear and danger as plot elements, but if instilling fear/existential dread in the reader is the overarching goal, this is the wrong anthology.
Tolkienian fantasy: no elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. We won’t freak out if you make something up that’s very loosely(!) inspired by any of these (unless it replicates the problematic elements of Tolkien’s work, in which case your work will not be accepted).
Cursing is permitted as long as words aren’t used literally (i.e. “Shit, you scared me!” as opposed to “Let’s go shit in the woods!”) and are used very sparingly when used at all. In general, we’d prefer not.
No porn. No references to specific sexual acts. No explicit nudity whether sexual or non-sexual (sorry, folks). “Consensual fade-to-black sex between legal adults” is fine.
No depictions of abuse (sexual, physical, psychological) whether pictorial or written. Characters may vaguely reference (in non-graphic language) abuse that they have suffered in the past if doing so serves the story or is integral to the character.
No gore. People can get hurt, bleed, die, etc, but not in a grossly over-the-top way that fetishizes violence.
No slurs, no racism (not even “gnomes hate all faeries” fantasy racism), no misogyny, no transphobia, no ableism, no xenophobia, and no white supremacist nonsense in general. (And please, no stories whose sole purpose is to teach that these things are bad.)

Ready to pitch? FILL OUT THIS FORM.

Here’s what you’ll need to complete it:

A working title and page count for your comic (doesn’t have to be exact).
A synopsis of your story, including a beginning, middle, and end. Spoil everything, but try to keep it under 500 words.
Preliminary sketches associated with your pitch: character ideas, important creature designs, environment concepts (the latter is especially important if your portfolio lacks strong examples of background art), etc. These don’t need to be final or polished pieces! Just detailed enough to give us an idea.
Links to any relevant publishing credits (whether you’re writing the comic, drawing it, lettering it, or doing everything yourself). Self-published works and webcomics count as credits! Choose examples that best reflect the style you intend to use for this comic. You may simply include a link to your portfolio if you have no pre-existing credits, but please note that folks with sequential storytelling examples will receive preference.
Tell us about yourself, your cultural and artistic background, and why you want to be in POWER & MAGIC Volume 2. Short and sweet is best!