SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED
“Once Upon a Time…” is our second Anthology, and you guessed right, it’s going to be a folk/Fairy Tale themed anthology.
If you participated in the Ghost Tales anthology, be aware that things are going to be slightly different this time round, so don’t assume anything at the moment.
The Theme:
The theme for “Once upon a time…” is obviously Fairy and Folk Tales. We chose this because when we did a public poll and it was one of the ones people voted most that they wanted to participate in, after ghost stories.
Here is the challenge though, we are all familiar with the mainstream typical stories such as Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding hood, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the other popular classics. They have been done over and over again and unless you have some masterfully twisted version of the very well known stories, there is no point in doing them again.
We want you to dig into lesser known or culturally relevant folk stories from various cultures from all over the world. We want folk stories from many different countries all in one book so people can see how different cultures influence the different types of story telling. You can tell a classic if you like, but you’d better tell it in a mind blowing way noone would ever predict or it’s not getting in this book.
Please be careful of copyright infringement and be sure you are taking the essence of the story and telling it in your own words. Also make sure the story is free from copyright (over 100 years old, public domain or author-less). Because these stories are often published, and re-told and published and re-published you need to make sure you are taking it from it’s original version and not someones adaption/publication.
Example, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is very different from the original story, if you used Disneys telling as your reference point, you are going to get yourself in legal trouble and us along with you. You will be required to sign a contract stating that you have researched this point and you will take sole responsibility for any infringements.
Specifications:
We are accepting 5-20 page completed short comics with the following specifications:
-Black and White (Greyscales/*Screentones[see note below])
-Your files must conform with the template (Download template)/Final page size should be have a 4.5″x7″ Live area and the trim should be 5″x7.5″ with the total page size being 5.5″X7.75″
- PNG or TIFF (LZW compresssions, IBM compatible)
-Pages must be fully lettered and ready to print, we wont be editing your artwork
- Rating will vary (G-18+), while we don’t want blatent pornography, we do know that fairy tales were originally targetted to adults and we do not intend to make this graphic novel safe for children. So we will be accepting stories that have the original contents (ie cannibalism, pregnancy, sexual references and violence) and references from the first editions. We aren’t looking for a pile of “Happily ever after” stories, but they are welcome as well.
Having said that, we will judge each story on a case by case basis, we will expect them to be tastefully or artfully done without making it pornography.
The finished graphic novel will have a final size of 5.5″X7.75″, this is commonly referred to as “Manga” sized books.
*Screentones are alright as long as you understand screentones in print and how they differ from the screen
Compensation:
As a participating artists you will be given 2 free copies of the completed book and will be offered future issues at wholesale +SH (“Artist Pricing” we will call it) for re-sale or gifting.
As this anthology is more a collaborative artist project, artists do not receive a share of profits sold by other artists or Gurukitty studios sales. If you wish to gain some financial benefits for yourself you need to sell your own copies of the book and you will keep 100% of the profits of your own sales. However, Gurukitty Studios will promote the locations where artists are selling this anthology as well as artists online shops. Gurukitty Studios will cover all costs and labor for preparing the book for publication apart for individual comic submissions which need to be submitted in compliance to the technical specifications.
Additional notes:
This anthology is going to be 5.5″X7.75″, perfect bound, in black and white with a full colour cover.
Teams or partnerships are welcome.
You may submit as many comics as you like but only be featured once.
Because we require you to sign a contract, you must be either over 18 years old, or have a legal guardian sign the contract if your submission is accepted.
Submitting:
Deadline for Submissions is March 30, 2012
To submit to this anthology please send a JPG preview of all pages in a ZIP folder to submissions@gurukitty.com
If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post.
Also, if you are a writer in search of an artist or vice versa, or want some partnerships we have a forum for you connect and meet.
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which contract do we have to sign if we are under the required age?
It’ll be the same contract, you’ll just have to get a guardian to co-sign it as well. I’ll be making the contract public shortly and you’ll be able to show it to your guardian and get a sense of how it works.
Nice, put me on the email list for this, I’ll work on a submission for you.
Quick question, can I put a storyline in this book that I’ll be using elsewhere (online, in print later)?
Yes you can, you can view a copy of the contract here: http://gurukitty.com/ouat/ouat-contract.pdf
We just ask that you wait until this one is available for the public before publishing elsewhere.
Even if it’ll be part of a continuing serial in the future?
Yes as long as the submission is whole by itself and not a “to be continued” situation
Just to clarify, as I can’t see it anywhere here – would you accept international submissions? I’m in Australia and I figure it’s worth checking before I get too excited.
Yup, we welcome international submissions.
Hooray!
I am majorly interested in this. Like, supremely.
This looks fantastic! I’m excited already ^-^
I read a really old German to English book when I was really young about a werewolf in medieval times. I don’t remember the book completely, but since it was a folk tale, would that be ok?
Yep, any folk tale or fairy tale is welcome
Just a quick question about publishing rights – if we submit something and it doesn’t get accepted, will we maintain the right to publish it on our own? And if so, will we also have to wait until the anthology is out?
If you submit something and its not accepted, you arent bound to us at all. Its only if you are accepted that we ask that you hold off publishing it elswhere. That said, we are leniant, we arent going to stop you from some amazing publishing opportunity elswhere if the books not quite out yet. We are flexible. But if you arent accepted, theres no hitches.
What are the size/quality requirements for the preview?
About 600px width, jpeg. I should be able to read it easily without the files killing my email.
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Quick question: Are Native American legends fine to use for story reference? The specific stories I’m interested in drawing are from a book that’s within public domain.
Yes absolutely. The More culturally diverse this book can be, the better.
Hey, two quick questions about parameters.
1. Would you prefer that we be retelling a specific story with specific characters, or can we draw from something vaguer like a folk custom?
2. Do you want the stories set in the past/present, or is the future also OK? By that I mean something in the style of this story: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/12/glitches
Thanks!
1. Would you prefer that we be retelling a specific story with specific characters, or can we draw from something vaguer like a folk custom?
Folk custom would be fine, better than fine even. We don’t want just another collection of Grimes fairy tales is basically what it winds down to. We want an anthology with stories that have fairy and folk tale feel and story types, but we dont want the same stories hashed out over and over. So some lesser known folk story would be very very welcome. The manner that they are retold can be as vauge as you like.
2. Do you want the stories set in the past/present, or is the future also OK? By that I mean something in the style of this story: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/12/glitches
This is actually a good example of what we mentioned in the writeup for this anthology. It’s clear the idea is based on Cinderella, but that is made up to be completely different from other re-tellings, that is the kind of thing we are looking for. It can be set in any time or place that you like, past, present, future, wherever
Hi!
I was wondering if you knew of any sites that offer royalty free typefaces, and which fonts you would recommend for a comic?
Blambot fonts would be the best place.
Could you at all ballpark a timeframe for the production of the book? I’m wondering if 5 months from the submission deadline to the release of the book is completely out of the question or not… /has no idea how long these things usually take
Thats a difficult thing to judge, because it depends on so many factors. Itll depend if all the subissions conform to the templates and lots of other factors. An August/September release date is possible, but not too likely. The more likely release is December/ January. We do update regularily so just watch the website.
Okay, thanks! I was thinking 5 months was probably a little fast..
Sweet! I know the perfect tale.. *starts submission*
I’ve got a couple of questions:
Are we allowed to twist the faerie tale to our own ends? Make some changes? And do you accept anything that’s BL? (but not graphic or anything).
Thanks
BL?
Yes, twist it as much as you like.
Oh like BoyLove or shonen-ai?? Do you know what that is?
Oh yes, we dont discriminate.
Homosexual or Heteralsexual (or anything in between) as long as it’s within the books guidelines for the books rating, all the diversity of the world is welcome.