How To Submit A Comic Book Pitch to Dark Horse

Back by popular demand!
Today I am going to cover the submission guidelines for Dark Horse Comics, one of the the largest publishers of creator owned comic books.
The Submission guidelines are made conveniently available on Dark Horse's website: www.darkhorse.com/Company/Sub...
They are simple!
1. Provide a signed submission agreement.
2. Provide a logline (a one to two sentence elevator pitch)
3. Provide a story synopsis (a more detailed overview of your story)
4. Provide a complete outline (a beginning, middle, and end in a few pages)
5. Provide 6 pages of consecutive artwork (fully inked and lettered)
Artwork credit 27:14 - Buğra Batuhan Berah - IG / bugracomic
While these steps are simple enough to observe, pitching isn't simply the act of gathering up the minimal materials a submission requires, but it is a detailed process to hone your craft and prove you have what it takes to enter the big leagues.
Having tried my hand a few times in the past to pitch my ideas, I have learned a few lessons on what I think a top-tier publisher wants to see in their applications, and I provide some valuable insights that can give you a better chance at being considered.
Thank you to the viewers of my recent "How to Pitch to Image Comics" video for helping me climb past 150 follwers on the channel. Please remember to subscribe, and tell me what topics you'd like to see covered in the future.
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[@caterinagerbasi1594]

tell the kitty Hi. also thank you for the info! its always important that every 2-3 years there is a new place where we can point to everyone about how the comics are being done nowadays. I think the point you touched on having basically the whole thing done is very good.

[@creatorowned851]

Hey I appreciate it, thank you for watching!

[@thenightstocker4268]

Every single comic review video says that everyone is ‘out of stories’ and there’s ‘no good stories’….. so why the hell doesn’t anyone just take story idea submissions??

[@lowlowseesee]

Solid advice 🥇🥇🥇🥇

[@rochyroach]

I love this guy.

[@creatorowned851]

Hey thank you! That is very kind.

[@jakescott504]

Thank you

[@creatorowned851]

Glad I could help out 🤘🤘

[@MrHazz111]

Thanks for the video, information like this is hard to come by! A quick question, I've partnered up with an author friend to pitch any of these companies (but preferably Dark Horse) a graphic novel trilogy. Would this be harder than just pitching a single trade? We have a good idea of what the first book will be, and a general idea for the next two. Would this impede the submission process as they want to know the whole story?

[@creatorowned851]

I don’t think the difference between 1 or 3 volumes will be a factor, I would just recommend you follow their criteria that you have the first volume outlined and that you explain *roughly* where the story can go in the larger beats. It helps that you have an end in sight and know where you want to end things. Again my big advice is this should be a project you want or can see through without help. If you’re well into development I think it would increase your chances of showing your commitment.

[@vermontmike9800]

So basically Dark Horse will not accept manuscripts that include illustrator directions, is that correct? That eliminates many writers unfortunately. Do any comic book publishers accepted writer-only manuscript submissions.

[@TheOdiousMonk]

Thanks! A full graphic novel sized 6-issue arc is really expensive. Do these big publishers love Dark Horse or Image ever work with you to do crowdfunding for a title to raise funds? I've seen small of the smaller publishers do this, but I'm curious about the bigger ones like image and dark horse.

[@creatorowned851]

In my observations Image simply prints and distributes your book for a cut of the profits leveraging their retail relationships. It is entirely creator owned work so they do not invest in projects. I have another video discussing that a bit. Dark Horse I would assume is similar, with the exception of the books they license (like Star Wars) the creative teams probably get paid a rate. I often say you should do whatever you can to make your book on your own ability. It’s possible by doing smaller projects a publisher will approach you (for instance a web cartoon artist named C Cassandra getting her first book through scholastic) but you would have to demonstrate a proven track record and modest following to get that sort of attention

[@creatorowned851]

Regarding your questions on crowdfunding yes some publishers like BOOM! are following this practice, but they don’t accept open submissions. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mp3FhWRomM5qpcUsi=g8Jm7Rmk5jBwK42w

[@TheOdiousMonk]

@@creatorowned851 Thanks for the thorough replies man!

[@SHIELD-dk5od]

hello, I have not watched this video, but I would like to ask, dark horse accepts proposals from an individual author (author) and this publishing house to provide the rest of the staff such as an illustrator to finish this comic

[@creatorowned851]

@@SHIELD-dk5od they do not accept author only submissions. They take art samples or artist/writer team submissions.

[@Turn-the-Page]

Hi, Robbie. Thank you for this video! My question is about Marketing de comics. In case Image or Dark Horse accept my submission, would they help with promoting the book in any way?

[@creatorowned851]

My assumption is yes, I was just reading an image comic that had a bunch of quotes from press so they must have a PR person. This is something I will have to research!

[@Turn-the-Page]

@@creatorowned851 thank you for the answer! Maybe a video about the comparison between self-publishing and submission to a publisher would be interesting for the channel. Keep up the good work, man! Cheers!

[@landofthesilverpath5823]

Nice video! You're working on a project currently, correct? Can you tell us a little about it?

[@creatorowned851]

I definitely plan to share more about my project in the future, but once it’s closer to that phase. I have been leaving Easter eggs in some of my recent videos however ;)

[@volver987]

Question about the Logline. I am making a comic that has two parts to the story. One in the past, and one in the present. Do you think it will be okay to do an A and B Logline to keep it from being confusing?

[@creatorowned851]

@@volver987 if those two things intersect I would include it. If it’s just two separate stories like on story and a prequel just pitch the first part maybe. I’d look at similar stories to what you’re writing (for example IT or Yellowjackets where they balance two timelines between the same characters) to see how others refer to the kind of story you are trying to tell.

[@volver987]

@@creatorowned851 Ok thank you! Ill have to rack my brain for a similar stories. Cant think of one off the top of my head.

[@nikilithamcimbi9391]

hi... do they accept digital artwork

[@creatorowned851]

They do! They leave the criteria on their webpage

[@ivanmartinez498]

hi my best friend and i have been working on a comic together for close to 10 years. we are finally ready to pitch it to these bigger companies. we imagine it being done in 3 acts and there is a lot of story to it. my main question is should we pitch just the first act of the story to them or all three acts? this would be at the very least 200 pages worth of issues because we have every chapter planned out

[@creatorowned851]

@@ivanmartinez498 you would want to let them know what the entire length of the story will be, but it makes sense to clarify it will be in 3 parts. However a trade is typically approximately 168 pages (28 pages x 6 issues) so you might be closer having one volume in total

[@ivanmartinez498]

@@creatorowned851 sorry i mean to say that we have 200 chapters/issues planned and they specify that in the outline we make sure it is a page per issue. would this be too much?

[@creatorowned851]

@@ivanmartinez498 that’s an ambitious run, though I’ve estimated my own comic could go on about 150 issues if it makes it that far. Even the walking dead only made it 193 issues. I would pitch the idea broadly, and what aspects of the narrative the first volume (6 issues) achieves and just say it will be an “on-going book.” ANYTHING can happen between issues 1 and 200. The book might simply not sell well and get canceled. You want to make sure the publisher knows you have a strategy to hit milestones that are achievable and won’t leave you or the reader in a bad place if things suddenly stop on the project.

[@creatorowned851]

For context Robert Kirkman famously claimed regularly TWD would go “at least 300 issues” he claimed he would do the project forever and easily could have. 1 issue is 1 month of your life. 200 issues is something 16 years

[@ShamanTiers]

Darkhorse is barely an indie publisher 90 percent of their annual sales is manga, they're predominantly known for selling license comics like aliens, buffy and previously star wars. The indie stuff makes up a small small small fraction of what they really put out and what really sells, Unless your stuff is just ground breaking or a movie script turnt into a comic you problem won't hear back from them.

[@creatorowned851]

This is true, “Indie” being used as a broad term to basically refer to anything outside of the big two, it’s about as indie as sub pop records lol. I’d like to do a follow up video covering smaller publications like Vault and Mad Cave

[@wowiegerarcas8307]

shoutout to my girlfriend, TWINKLE ANNE. also to my family. GERARCAS FAMILY. HAHAHA