š! #39 open call

Can you still keep up with the bad news? Now that COVID-19 has officially become a pandemic and people are stocking up on toilet paper and pasta worldwide is it time to panic? Well, the best you can do is wash your hands, socially distance yourself, and stay at home. Not yet the worst-case scenario for introvert comic artists. While you might spend some of the next weeks in quarantine, this could be a good opportunity to draw some comics! For this reason, we are launching a new open call!

Please send us your comics to the theme 'The End'. As always the interpretation of the theme is completely up to you! We are hoping to publish our very best issue so far, just in case it's our last one.

Full details of participation:

- Theme: The End

- Page count: 4-14 

- Language: English
- Format: DIN A6, width 10.5cm × height 14.8cm
- Bleed: In case you want your comics to be full bleed make sure to add 3 mm cut off space all around the comics (in this case the width of each page should be 11.1 cm and the height 15.4 cm). Don't place texts and important details close to the page borders (Bleed explained in a graphic).

- Colors: Yes, CMYK, b/w works are also welcome

- Resolution: 300 dpi (1200 dpi for b/w works)
- File format: preferably tiff or pdf

- If we publish your comics, you'll get a virtual hand shake and 10 free copies of the anthology

- Submit only low-resolution jpgs for our consideration (but big enough to read (approximately 900 pixels in width)! The big resolution files as described above we'll ask you to send later.) Please don't send zip files, don't use google drive, dropbox or the like, we only want preview files now as simple attachments.
- Please include a very short description of yourself and a link to your site/instagram

- Deadline: 27 May 2020
- Send to komiksukonkurss@gmail.com

Additional notes: 

- After receiving your work we'll write you a confirmation e-mail within 14 days. If you don't hear from us, write us again, maybe your mail got lost or the internet got shut down.
- The decision what we'll publish will be made until 1 July. We'll mail you if you're in!
- We'd prefer if you don't publish the full comics on- or offline before we print it. 
- Please don't send comics which are made for a bigger format. If your comic is unreadable in A6 format, it will not be published!

- We are always happy to feature experimental approaches in storytelling and art. Don't limit yourself!
- If you have any questions, just write us. Best if you write a comment below, as other people might have the same question.

And one more note: Apart from global news, 2020 has been already very difficult for us. Since the new year shipping costs have doubled or even tripled - not a good situation if you plan to distribute 1000 copies by yourself... And we also handed in this issue to get funding. But the Latvian state culture capital fundation thought this topic is not of "current relevance" (we wish they were right) and decided not to support it. Despite all these rather dark circumstances we decided to publish this issue anyway. And you can help, even if you don't plan to send a comic, you can consider buying any of our previous issues and therefore support the printing of the next one. You can find our books on komikss.lv and follow us on twitter, facebook and instagram.

Looking forward to your submissions. Stay safe!

_________________

UPDATE: We have some unforeseen delays. We hope to make the final selection and inform all artists by the end of July. Thank you for your patience!