Submissions

Submission Guidelines

Please read everything before submitting anything.

Arledge Comics only accepts creator-owned story or series proposals from writer-artists or writer/artist teams.

What we want to see

What constitutes a good fit for Arledge Comics?

  1. Our library emphasizes inclusive titles to elevate marginalized creators, their stories, and their voices.
  2. Our readership ranges from early reader to teen/general audiences. So please keep your story ratings at or below a Teen+ Rating.
  3. We’re primarily interested in complete stories – should these be graphic novels, trade paperbacks, or compiled webcomics.
    • Specifically: graphic novels, comic one-shots, collected editions such as trade paperbacks, webcomics not yet collected in print.
  4. We love Own Voices stories, and we’d be honored to help you tell your story.
  5. Our library is evolving, and we’d love to see your early reader and picture book proposals.

What we don’t want to see

  • Submissions containing or created using artificial intelligence (AI) generation at any stage of production. We have a zero tolerance policy for AI content.
  • Proposals or scripts for movies, television, or animation. Sorry, we’re in the book business.
  • Serials. Arledge Comics publishes yearly, so if you have your heart set on monthly releases, we won’t be a great fit.
  • Portfolios. We put out open calls should we ever have work available. Sorry, we don’t keep portfolios on hand.
  • Incomplete pitch submissions or incomplete creative teams. If you’re in need of a creative team, may we suggest:

Our Rating system

Please refer to the following rating system in order to determine if your pitch is a good fit for Arledge Comics.

AA – ALL AGES – Appropriate for readers of all ages.
Y – YOUTH – Appropriate for younger readers. May contain cartoon violence and/or some comic mischief.
T – TEEN – Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.
T+ – TEEN PLUS – Appropriate for readers age 15 and older. May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.
M – MATURE – Appropriate for readers age 17 and older. May contain intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers. These are probably still very good stories, but they’re not ones we’re interested in publishing.

How to submit a pitch to Arledge Comics

  1. Ensure that your proposal is a good fit for the Arledge Comics library. Do so by reading about our library and what we do and don’t publish.
  2. Fill out our submission form which can be found below. You will need a full synopsis prepared and a small number of completed pages for your pitch.
  3. Our editorial team reviews pitches on a rolling basis, and we endeavor to reply to all submissions within one month of receipt.
Submission Form

Publishing with Arledge comics

Arledge Comics was founded – and continues to be run – by independent creators. We’re a small but dedicated team that works tirelessly to produce inclusive, quality content – either in the form of comic series or comic anthologies. To date, we’ve run nineteen successful Kickstarter campaigns for our projects, and we intend to continue to use Kickstarter to fund original titles, anthologies, and to act as a pre-order system for creator-owned titles.

We’re a small press, so we can’t offer an advance; however, we never make a dime unless you do. We provide support for creators through the production process, handle pre-press, and also offer some design services free of charge to our creators. After the preorder period, we’ll handle printing, marketing, and distribution of your book.

Arledge Comics is partnered with Emerald Comics Distro to provide regional distribution of Arledge Comics’ titles to comic book shops in the Pacific Northwest. We’re also partnering with Ingram to bolster our distribution reach. Between our own online stores, Ingram and Emerald Comic Distro’s online system, this provides wholesale opportunities to comic shops and bookstores worldwide.

Our goal is to make publishing more accessible to independent creators.