Thursday, May 1, 2014

Manga Comic

So for the Manga comic I got a really ridiculous, raunchy idea that with my literally no experience in drawing Manga style I don't think I could pull off with drawing it. I did a sort of proposal for what it would be since I don't really know the language tropes in Manga enough to write dialogue. Anyway, I had fun with it!

The Magical Fruit Bakery
Comic Proposal
Short Series #1-#5 Issues

Synopsis
Sakura is the owner of The Magical Fruit Bakery. They bake pies and all their pies are made from magical fruit. But recently the magical fruit tree has not been making any fruit! The fruit collectors she sends have been coming back empty handed and say that they don't know what to do! So she decides to go on a journey herself to find out why the magical fruit tree isn't bearing any fruit. She leaves her pie bakery in the hands of her collectors while she is away. She travels by foot to find the magical fruit tree and when she finally comes to see it is is wilting and has no flowers! When she tries to approach it three tiny lizard people dressed as lizards pop out of the ground. They call themselves the Lizard Wizards. The Lizard Wizards say that only the most talented baker with the truest love for pies can save the tree. To prove herself she must bake each of the Lizard Wizards their favorite pie. She gathers the ingredients for the pies and bakes them all up in the kitchen in the Lizard Wizard's house underground. When the Lizard Wizard's taste her pies they all agree that she is the baker that can save the tree. They take her back to the magical fruit tree and tell her the secret. The tree is actually a giant beautiful woman that wanted to become a tree. She is now immortal and bears magical fruit and looks like a tree. But every hundred years she begins to wilt because she runs out of seed and needs to be filled with the seed of the truest baker. Sakura agrees to be the baker to help the tree bear fruit again. The wind picks up and leaves and magic swirl all around the tree and it turns into a beautiful naked woman with the longest flowing green hair. Sakura, who looks like a lady but is a hermaphrodite, has sex with the tree and deposits her seed in the lady tree. After that the tree kisses her and thanks her and whispers her name to her, which is a secret, then turns back into an actual tree. When she turns back into a tree she is sprouting flowers and growing fruit! And to their amazement it is the best fruit that has come from the tree in all time! Sakura thanks the Lizard Wizards and heads back to her bakery to make the most delicious pies ever made.

Characters

Sakura: A hermaphrodite baker who owns a bakery called The Magical Fruit Bakery that only makes pies from magical fruit. She has blueberry colored hair because that is her favorite pie. She ties her hair up in a bow. She is the baker with the truest love for pies in the whole world and the only one who can save the magical fruit tree. She wears a bakers outfit all the time and a really short shirt and knee socks.

Fruit Collectors: The fruit collectors work for Sakura at The Magical Fruit Bakery. They collect the fruit from the magical tree. They, however, do not know how to bake and are all kind of lovable idiots. They are all ladies that wear aprons, but the aprons have boob windows so their boobs are hanging out all the time. They all have different colored short hair.

The Lizard Wizards: The Lizard Wizards are three tiny lizard people. They walk on two feet and can talk. They are the keepers of the magical fruit tree. They each have a favorite kind of pie; Red's favorite is apple pie, Green's favorite is key lime pie, and Purple's favorite is blackberry pie. They live under the magical fruit tree in the ground.

The Magical Fruit Tree: The Magical Fruit Tree bears the most delicious fruit in all the land and it is magic. The tree was once a living woman. The woman wanted bear the most delicious fruit. The Lizard Wizards granted her wish and made her into a tree. Now she is immortal, but needs to be filled with seed by the baker who has the truest love for pies every hundred years. Only then does she go back to her human form for a short time. Only the baker's who fill her with her seed know her true name.



Four Directions Comic

Since the directions comic was kind of about a place I decided to experiment with photos in comics. I took some photos in the different directions from lying in the grass in my favorite place on campus.


Image Comics Submission Guidelines

Image Comics has done many of my favorite books over the years so I thought I'd check out their submission guidelines.

So basically Image only wants new, original ideas for books. They don't accept any writing samples. They want proposals for a new comic series or graphic novel. Image only does creator-owned material so you aren't going to get a job at Image doing art or writing for a book that is already out there. In fact they make it very clear that they want the creative team that pitches the idea to be the ones working on the book. You simply are not allowed to hire other people than the people you originally state will be working on the book. Also because Image hires based on creative teams and a whole idea they don't pay page rates. They pay by the book and take a small fee for publishing and the rest goes to the creative team to split up as they please. Though it is a creator-owned work they want to make it clear that they will have some ideas to impart to make the book better and more marketable so don't get married to the title or exact format you originally pitch.

Ok, now to the specifics of submitting. Here's everything you have to submit in a proposal:

  1. A typewritten cover letter with all contact info at the top of the page. They just want a basic introduction of who you are at this point.
  2. A typed, one page, synopsis of the overall story. They want to know they entire story or story arc, not just one issue.
  3. Photocopies of fully inked and lettered pages. They don't want original art as they will never be able to return it. They want at LEAST 5 pages of the book and would love to see more if you have them.
  4. Color is optional. They don't need it to be colored, but if the book in final form is going to be colored then it is recommended, but not required, that you send it in colored.
  5. Include a cover mock up. Have a good logo that is easy to read from across the room. They want to see that you have good design sense.
Send submissions to:

Submissions
c/o Image Comics
2001 Center Street Sixth Floor Berkeley, CA 94704

or email them to: submissions@imagecomics.com

They want you to be honest and don't really want flattery. Don't talk about other publishers or such and don't have testimonials. Just let the work speak for itself. 

They are a huge publisher so while they say they try to get back to everyone who submits they can't always do that. If you don't receive a reply within a month of your submission consider the proposal rejected. If they are interested in your proposal they will absolutely get back to you within a month.

Also Image Comics doesn't own any intellectual properties and the creators will always get to keep that and will always own their work. Which for people who are worried about publishers stealing ideas is very comforting.

Overall, Image seems like a good place to submit if you have a team, are very self motivated, and have a big idea that is original. I really like Images model of accepting creator based work because it really keeps the market fresh. The most popular comics in recent years have come out of Image and I think that is because they really support the creator.