ARCANA TAKING SUBMISSIONS FOR DARK HORROR ANTHOLOGY 2

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Summer may be just around the corner, but Arcana is already thinking about this coming Hallowe'en as they announce plans for their 2nd annual Dark Horror Anthology book. The first book was a scream and debuted last year featuring a ghostly Ashley Wood cover. The book contained horror stories by Arcana talent and lucky winners who submitted completed stories online at Arcana’s forum.

Some of the highlights from the book were an all-new Koni Waves short story entitled Hog Wild by Mark Poulton and Jon Landry, La Famiglia by Dead Men Tell No Tales creator Dwight MacPherson, The In-Between Space by Aaron Thomas Nelson and Bones by James Nadiger. One of the great success stories of the anthology was Landry, who’s first published work was featured in the Dark Horrors Anthology. Jon would later get hired by Top Cow to be the artist on City of Heroes! Who will this year’s success story be? It could be you! You just need to enter.

Submission Guidelines and Rules are as follows. Arcana will solicit the Dark Horror Anthology for an October 2007 release date. They want YOUR stories and YOUR art to be showcased in this book so please submit them by July 31st at the official Dark Horror Forum! Here’s what they are looking for:

Submit a completed story: pencils, inks, lettered, etc. Arcana is not responsible for finding artists for writers and vice versa.

Story must be at least 6 pages and no longer than 20 pages in length. If you cannot tell your story within those page lengths, please try to submit another story that meets those requirements.

Stories must have a beginning, middle, and end. No previews here please.

Dark Horrors is an anthology of horror. Stories should be of a horror nature.

Stories must be submitted online and 1-3 pages along with a quick premise will be required for the staff to evaluate. If interest is piqued they will contact you to see more.

Creators keep ALL rights and can even republish these stories.

Have as much fun as humanly possible writing these. It'll come across in your story.
Pinups will be accepted in the book.

This will be a black and white book printed identically to Arcana's ShadowMagic (this book is not 'manga style' but will look similar to a manga book; 120 pages and b&w).

Aspiring creators this is your chance to break into the biz. Get your creative teams assembled and prepare to scare!

For more information, please visit Arcana Studio at:

www.arcanastudio.com

[khuxford]

Ugh...the plight of a writer...always having to convince a decent artist to hitch their wagon to the writer's script.

[delltechdude]

Gah! And my horror loving artist buddy is on vacation!!!

[mwumbalope]

Definitely getting something in for this anthology!! Very excited about it!

[ronn sutton]

Anyone considering submiting to this DARK HORRORS anthology might want to be aware that contributors got screwed around several times by Arcana last year. In lieu of payment, contributors were promised 25 "comp" copies of the published book. When it was time to mail them out, writers & artists recieved an email saying a substanial portion of the printrun was destroyed in shipping and so each contributor would now only get 10 copies. Contributors were also told that they would recieve other books and comics published by Arcana to try to make up the difference. When my parcel arrived it contained only THREE copies (two of which I had already promised away) and included one single Arcana comic, that was already three years old.

I'd suggest that if you're thinking of contributing, you might want to reconsider. The printing and binding on the first book was bad, and everything was reduced to digest-size (making it nearly impossible to read).
Fortunately my strip was an older one that another publisher had already paid for, and it has since been rescheduled (in colour) for another magazine.But I completely regret my invovlement in the first DARK HORRORS anthology..
---RonnS
www.ronnsutton.com

[connorfan]

I'm not sure an artist would have enough time to get a good horror story penciled inked and lettered. I mean this is less than 2 months for alot of work. Unless someone is already working on something I dont know how people are going to be ready for such a short deadline.

[khuxford]

Originally Posted by connorfan

I'm not sure an artist would have enough time to get a good horror story penciled inked and lettered. I mean this is less than 2 months for alot of work. Unless someone is already working on something I dont know how people are going to be ready for such a short deadline.

You're talking about shorts, though. Submissions probably shouldn't go past 5 pages. That can be done in 2 months.

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by ronn sutton

Anyone considering submiting to this DARK HORRORS anthology might want to be aware that contributors got screwed around several times by Arcana last year. In lieu of payment, contributors were promised 25 "comp" copies of the published book. When it was time to mail them out, writers & artists recieved an email saying a substanial portion of the printrun was destroyed in shipping and so each contributor would now only get 10 copies. Contributors were also told that they would recieve other books and comics published by Arcana to try to make up the difference. When my parcel arrived it contained only THREE copies (two of which I had already promised away) and included one single Arcana comic, that was already three years old.

I'd suggest that if you're thinking of contributing, you might want to reconsider. The printing and binding on the first book was bad, and everything was reduced to digest-size (making it nearly impossible to read).
Fortunately my strip was an older one that another publisher had already paid for, and it has since been rescheduled (in colour) for another magazine.But I completely regret my invovlement in the first DARK HORRORS anthology..
---RonnS
www.ronnsutton.com

While I'm sure it sucks that you didn't get what you wanted out of it, I would think there's a lot of people that would do it just to get published and build a portfolio.

Did you ever try working it out with them? If so, what happened?

[prddad]

Does anyone know if they accept multiple submissions, or only one? I've tried to get to their website since last night but keep getting errors (hopefully that's not a sign Thanks

[ronn sutton]

Originally Posted by Godfather

While I'm sure it sucks that you didn't get what you wanted out of it, I would think there's a lot of people that would do it just to get published and build a portfolio.
Did you ever try working it out with them? If so, what happened?

Well, it pretty much went down the way I described. The publisher and I had some back & forth emails, at which point he volunteered to send me slightly more than 10 copies (but still fewer than 25). As I mention he only sent three. Its not a matter that I didn't get what I wanted, but rather that I didn't get what was promised on three separate occasions. I just think anyone considering contributing should know that they are dealing with someone who is unlikely to keep his word. Or at least that was my consistant experience with Sean O"Reilly.

But I've moved on. For anyone who cares to see any of my other work, I have pencilled strips upcoming in FEAR AGENT from Dark Horse, LIBERTY GIRL from Heroic, an issue of BUCKAROO BANZAI from Moonstone, a free giveaway comic promoting the dvd documentary VAMPIRA: THE MOVIE (about a1950s actress Maila Nurmi, best remembered from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space"), and of course I finished my 46th pencilling assignment for Claypool's ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK which appeared in that comic's final issue, #166, a couple months ago. My website has over one hundred pieces of artwork on it. You're welcome to look.

----RonnS
www.ronnsutton.com

[MDeVito]

it's not working because they got rid of that URL its arcanacomics.com now Im not sure why they sent out the PR with that address.

[JPiotrowski]

Originally Posted by khuxford

You're talking about shorts, though. Submissions probably shouldn't go past 5 pages. That can be done in 2 months.

I thought the post said: "Story must be at least 6 pages and no longer than 20 pages in length. If you cannot tell your story within those page lengths, please try to submit another story that meets those requirements."

Well, I suppose they also said: "Stories must be submitted online and 1-3 pages along with a quick premise will be required for the staff to evaluate. If interest is piqued they will contact you to see more."

So does that mean you have to have it all completed before you submit or do they plan on you working on it as they review it?

[hlbimage]

Looking forward to this. Hopefully it'll run smoother for everyone than last year.