Submission Guidelines
Please READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS before submitting anything.
Dark Horse Submissions Policy
Dark Horse accepts two types of unsolicited submissions -- Art Samples or Story/Series Proposals from writer-artists or writer and artist teams.
Dark Horse does not accept any submissions that include material generated by computer Artificial Intelligence programs.
SUBMITTING ART SAMPLES:
DO NOT send a Submissions Agreement with art samples, only with story/series proposals. Make sure your last name is a part of the name of each of the files you send. Make sure your full name and email address are included in the text or on the images that you send. Text files (aside from your email) should be PDFs or Microsoft Word-readable files (RTFs, etc.). Image area for each art scan should be 1000 pixels wide by 1500 pixels high. Jpeg or pdf formats are preferred. If you are sending inking samples, make sure you also send a copy of the original pencils. Make sure your submission is under fifteen megabytes in size.Send art samples only to dhartsubmissions@darkhorse.com
SUBMITTING STORY OR SERIES PROPOSALS
Due to the volume of submissions we receive, you should expect to hear from a Dark Horse editor regarding your submitted only if an editor wishes to hire you for work.
All unsolicited story/series proposals must have a full creative team on board. Writer-only proposals will not be reviewed. To submit a proposal to Dark Horse, the following items MUST be included:
SIGNED SUBMISSION AGREEMENT
Dark Horse has the highest regard for creators and for the ownership of original properties, and this agreement should in no way be misconstrued as license for Dark Horse to appropriate your creations. This agreement protects Dark Horse from any liabilities involving coincidental similarities to works-in-progress or other submissions.
Story proposals arriving without a signed agreement will be deleted without review. Download a copy of the agreement HERE.
A new agreement must be submitted with each new proposal, and must be signed by all involved creators and copyright holders.
Please note that Dark Horse does not review unsolicited scripts, story ideas, or proposals pertaining to properties currently published by Dark Horse or any property not owned by the submitter. Such material will be destroyed without review.
LOGLINE
One or two sentences. This is the elevator pitch, the most distilled, condensed version of your story possible. From reading the logline, one should be able to determine an idea of who the main character is, what the main character wants or is trying to accomplish, who or what is trying to thwart the main character, and the consequences of failure for the main character. Something like this:
To save the future of mankind a soldier travels back in time to stop a cyborg from killing the mother of his best friend, the leader of the human resistance!
SYNOPSIS
While the logline is designed to pique the interest of a reader, the synopsis serves to satisfy the readers curiosity by revealing a bit more about who the characters are, and some of the complexities of the plot. But the goal here is still to keep it short (probably not longer than 300 words for a four- or five-issue series).
COMPLETE OUTLINE
Succinctly tell the entire story: beginning, middle, and end. A short-story outline should be no longer than a page, an outline for a multi-issue series or graphic novel should be no longer than a page per issue. Indicate issue breaks where applicable. An outline should say exactly what happens in the story, noting plot and character specifics. Do not leave the resolution of the story in question.
SIX CONSECUTIVE PAGES OF ART FOR YOUR STORY
Consider this proof of concept for your proposed story. Proposals without samples of completed pages will not be reviewed. Dark Horse wants to see what your story will look like. They need not be the first six pages, but they must be consecutive. Send no more than six pages. If you have additional pages, let us know that they are available upon request.
DO NOT SEND:
- Character profiles
- Reviews of your past work
- Screenplays, novels, or other long prose works
DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS
Send all components of your proposal email as attachments. Links to download sites or websites will no longer be accepted. Please send the signed Submission Agreement(s) as a separate attachment in your email.
Send Proposals to: dhsubsproposals@darkhorse.com
Make sure that the word PROPOSAL appears in the subject line of your email, along with the title of your story.
