The Anthology Game

Welcome to the one-month anniversary of C-Log.  (I've decided that blogs are like babies.  Cute in their infancy but probably won't make that big of an impact or pay their own rent until they are old enough to go to college.) 

NEXT WEEK I'll have a guest blog by Meredith Li-Vollmer, a risk communication specialist for Public Health - Seattle & King County who spearheaded the project Comics 4 Health Coverage.

Title page in-process for an anthology
submission due later this month.

THIS WEEK is about my experienced with seeking publication in comics anthologies.

I'm excited to report that it can be done.  Since the cold Seattle night that I decided to Google "Comics Anthology Submissions," I've had five stories selected for publication, with two more under consideration.

I feel good about the chances of the pending submissions because I researched the anthologies thoroughly and feel my art fits well with what the editors are trying to do.

Which is the sweet spot - the fit.

There are not a lot of open calls for comic book anthologies, period.  Of those, a high percentage of them are for genre fiction, mainstream horror and/or manga themed publications.  That's great, if that's the kind of work you're making, but my stuff is more in the autobiographical vein.


So, I did A LOT OF RESEARCH.  And this is what I've found:

• Again, there's not a ton of open calls for submission out there.
• Some of the best ones I found were buried deep in the editor's blog (so keep digging!)
• Many calls for submission are out-of-date.  I have an embarrassing story about making a comic for an anthology that was already published.  The story has a happy ending, because the comic is being printed in another journal, but you can bet I triple-check dates, now.
• There are at least two lists of open calls that seem to be current and relatively accurate.  They are kept by Cloudscape Comics out of BC and Indie Ladies Comics.  

My super-secret weapon for taking over comics by 2015.

After a few months of submitting to anthologies, I began keeping a spreadsheet.

This is a practice I started after missing the call for inclusion in Dirty Diamonds #5, which I really REALLY wanted to be in, but am not, because there was just so much time left until the deadline.  And then I forgot about it.  And then the deadline passed.

There is actually a second page to the spreadsheet, which lists stories after they get published, so that I have a record of my publication history.  Why so organized, you ask?  Because in my past life, as a poet, I got grants, publication, residencies and the like, but never did anything with all that good stuff.  My peers were getting book deals and performance tours and I was working as an arts administrator and not making a case for myself as an artist.  I feel that I squandered a lot of creative capital. 

I don't know how many shots you get at doing what you love, but I'm not going to waste it this time around.  Both the research and the spreadsheets have been helpful in getting my stories out there and have even led to inclusion in invitation-only anthologies.

I'll keep posting about this topic as I learn more and come across new developments.  If you are aware of any other resources that would be useful in the quest for publication, and care to share them, feel free to email me or post in the comments below. 

Blood Root: Free Download of Intelligent New Horror Comic

This week, an independent press out of Los Angeles introduced an awesome new contribution to field of contemporary horror comics.  It's called Blood Root, and it's being produced by Shing Yin Khor of Sawdust Press.

Shing is an artist in her own right, creating comics such as Center for Otherworld Science and autobiographical short stories, as well as fine art sculptures of creatures she calls "Gravebeasts."  The Gravebeasts are alarmingly cute despite their nomenclature (You can find images of them here), which seems to be Shing's driving aesthetic.

You won't find slasher fiction or torture porn in the pages of Blood Root.  Instead, Shing has curated works that represent "a very specific type of horror . . . slow, moody and psychological" consisting of "a bunch of strange little stories with amazing art and a diverse range of characters, by a similarly diverse slate of creators."

The title itself is the popular name of the flowering plant Sanguinaria.  "I wanted to name the anthology after something both sweet and sinister, and a pretty and poisonous flower fit the bill."  The stories themselves range in subject from seemingly shape-shifting sea creatures to Haitian Vodou traditions.

From "The Family That Eats Together" by James Neish

I contacted creator James Neish regarding his heartbreaking contribution to Blood Root.  (You can visit his Facebook artist page here.)  He said he "wanted to dedicate something to Hayao Miyazaki in his year of retirement, so this short comic is inspired by his work, which has molded my approach to storytelling through the years."  James currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia but met Shing when they attended school together in the Philippines.  

I've never met Shing Yin Khor in person.  I've only corresponded with her via the internet, regarding a story I submitted for consideration in Blood Root.  I'm already impressed, though, by her inclusion of truly diverse artists representing a variety of styles, from a variety of countries, and her professionalism in dealing with me as an artist is even greater inspiration for me to step up my game as a comics creator.
 
Blood Root Number One is available online as a pay-what-you-want (even free!) digital download here.  If you're like me, and enjoy holding stories in your hand in a print publication, you'll be able to purchase a beautifully printed edition for $8 here after the 4th of July.  Which reminds me of another vital bit of information:  Blood Root contributors get paid a healthy licensing fee for their stories, so know that your payment goes to supporting good artists!

I'll be writing about Blood Root again in the future, and I definitely want to further explore the idea of how the internet is creating a comics community without borders or boundaries.  So come back later and join me in exploring that topic.

Until then, go check Blood Root Number One out!

Quick Update:  I almost neglected to mention that this issue of Blood Root has a lovely, scientific illustration of the Sanguinaria plant by hometown Seattle artist Angela Boyle!

Cat Door Monster – A Gone Girl Comics Issue #2 Preview

This week marks the one-year anniversary of Gone Girl Comics, my first mini comics offering.  Issue #1 - “Some Seattle Stories” - received great reviews from The Comics Journal and The Comics Bulletin, and I’m working on Issue #2 as we speak.

In keeping with themed publications, Gone Girl Comics #2 will be built around “Urban Animals.”  While I haven’t always lived in gigantic cities, it’s safe to say I’ve spent most of my life in paved environments, surrounded by buildings.  My primary contact with nature has been via creatures that can survive in the fragmented habitats that urbanization creates. 

A page from "Cat Door Monster."

So I have comics about spiders, beetles and birds, including a story about my very weird encounters with crows.  I’m especially excited about a story involving beached whales.  Yes, whales do beach themselves on the shores of the  “citified” coastal American Pacific Northwest.  Sad as this is, what excites me about the whale story is that it is a collaboration with Tracy Lang, an artist who is renowned for her printmaking skills and also happens to be a fantastic writer.  It’s a story that will break your heart open.

On the more humorous side of tragic, Gone Girl Comics #2 features "Cat Door Monster."  It’s a story about fear disguised as a story about cats.  It’s an awesome artistic achievement for me because it dispatches with the obligatory cat comic and the obligatory monster comic simultaneously.

You can read the entire story here, on inkt|art.

It's worth taking the time to check out the rest of the inkt|art site as well.  inkt|art showcases women comics creators—specifically those who work from a fine arts perspective.  I love the editorial focus of inkt|art and think it adds another much needed perspective to the dialogue that’s happening around women in comics.

I mentioned that "Cat Door Monster" was both comic and tragic.  Most of my work is autobiographical and the cats in the story are real pets.  As the story is one of my first attempts at humor, it pains me to report that the “1,000 year old cat” (Grey Kitty), who makes a guest appearance on the first page, passed away just a few weeks after I finished these drawings.  His elderly owner played “Taps” on the trombone when they buried him in the yard. 

Rest in peace, Grey Kitty.  I hope you’d find your appearance in Gone Girl Issue #2 a fitting tribute.

Next Tuesday:  New developments (and free downloads!)  from Los Angeles, California-based Sawdust Press!

Welcome to C-log!

Hello!

Welcome to C-log, the weekly Gone Girl Comics Blog by Noel Franklin.  I’ll be reporting from Seattle, WA every Tuesday about comics, art, the creative process, fellow cartoonists and the communities we weave.

June 25th marks the one-year anniversary of my first mini comic - Gone Girl Comics, Issue #1 - Some Seattle Stories.  While this was my first serious comics effort, I consider it a marriage of the years I spent jumping back and forth between visual and literary arts.  Bringing images and words together with the goal of making great comics felt RIGHT, and that's what I'll be doing from here on out.

By way of introduction, Gone Girl Comics is a self-published mini-comic that I plan to produce annually.  It contains comics short stories loosely based around a theme.  The first one, "Some Seattle Stories," was selected because of a drawing I created of the OK Hotel - a performance venue that featured prominently in my life in the mid-90s.  The initial drawing inspired me to complete a graphic history of the venue and also explore the incredible energy from that time in comics form.

I had only drawn less than 10 pages of comics prior to beginning Gone Girl Comics #1, so I stayed away from stories of substance - mostly.  I was afraid I wouldn't do them justice, as my skills aren't fully developed yet.  However, at the last minute, I created something of a tribute story for Joaquin Tavares, a Seattle musician who was murdered in 2006.  It's called "Seeing Stars," and you can view it here.


I've been busy since Gone Girl Comics' debut.  2014 will see my first print publications in newspapers, journals and anthologies.  The pending publications (which you can check out here on my website) are part of why I'm kicking off C-log.

I do plan on writing about much more than my own art and want to foster a creative dialogue, SO, feel free to post thoughts, questions and ideas in the comments section below. 

ALSO, hang in there with me as I learn the technology.  If there are glitches on the blog or on www.noelfranklin.com I will try to catch them and fix them as fast as I can.

See you next Tuesday!