Marvel’s nascent Epic imprint, as most comicsy folks know at this point, is purported to be the House of Ideas’ attempt to give newbie and up-and-coming writers and artists a crack at getting their work published by one of the biggest companies in the business. It’s a pretty good deal, but between the company’s fuzziness on what the status of creator-owned books would be, the kerfluffle over recruiting comics journalists as potential writers, the apparently heavier editorial hand being used on the books than was advertised, and general antipathy to the current Marvel regime, the move has generated a surprising amount of animosity in some quarters. The snarkiest among the comics punditosphere have speculated that, what with the volume of pitches an open call for submissions is sure to generate, it’s all some sort of Machiavellian plan to overwhelm rival companies’ editorial and submissions departments with the slightly retooled rejects that are likely to come their way once the rejection notices start getting sent out from Marvel HQ.
Well, once company appears to have quietly headed the stampede off at the pass by creating its own open-call system. While reading the latest issue of Hellboy’s Weird Tales from Dark Horse Comics, I noticed a full page ad featuring DH publisher Mike Richardson in Uncle Sam regalia, informing us all that we’re wanted to write, draw, or otherwise do somethin’ for the Dark Horse army. The ad directs prospective talent to this “new recruits” page, which spells out the submission guidelines for the DH cattle call. Unlike Epic, Dark Horse is asking that submissions have their team essentially completed, i.e. writers and artists must submit in tandem. They’re also looking for more than just a first-issue or “pilot” script, which is what Epic claims is sufficient for full consideration; they want ten finished, consecutive pages of art, the full script from which those pages originated, and tight plotting outlines for the remainder of the storyline. But other than that, DH offers far fewer storytelling caveats than Epic, which essentially encouraged talent to revamp existing Marvel characters in a very specific, origin-oriented, chronologically-told fashion (and to a certain extent discouraged them from trying anything else). No guidelines are given for the type of story the company’s looking for, which could mean a crop of genuinely creator-owned new titles might result from the program.
One of the most enticing aspects of Dark Horse’s program is their guarantee that, provided their instructions are followed to the letter, every single submission will be personally evaluated by head honcho Mike Richardson. Like Bill Jemas at Marvel, Richardson is the buck-stops-here guy at his company, and decisions are ultimately his to make. By bypassing Dark Horse editorial (not to mention DH’s frustrating “next, please” portfolio reviews at conventions), this process can help weed out a lot of contradictory advice to writers and artists and save people on both sides of the equation a lot of wasted time. Of course, the flipside is that Richardson, like Jemas, is a busy man, and may not be able to devote the right level of attention to the stories and art that end up on his desk.
It will be interesting to see what kind of projects stem from this initiative versus those in the Epic camp. It’ll be equally interesting to see how other big companies–particulary DC, home of the now-notorious post-lawsuit “no unsolicited submissions from anyone, period” policy–react.