Guidelines for Writers

Thanks for checking out our guidelines! We welcome submissions from writers of any level of experience, whether or not you have a background in comics. Please do read these carefully. If you have any questions, contact us at info@mindcontrolcomics.com.

These are the guidelines for writers. If you are an artist, see below.

What to Submit

When you first contact us, send us a pitch and two pages of your proposed comic script to go with the pitch. The pitch is a one paragraph summary of the story that you would like to write. Give us enough detail that we have a good idea of the story and how it will work in comic form.

Each "issue" of our comics is 10-12 pages. Poser comics are generally one to three panels per page, and drawn comics four to eight. Please indicate in your pitch if you think your story would work better for drawn or Poser-based comics.

We generally need scripts for one-shots (a single issue comic) through a three-issue series. Focus your pitches on stories that can be completed in that length; epics are a very tough sell.

Please do not point us at an existing story or body of work and say "What about that?" First, we much prefer original writing, and second, we want to see how it will work in comic form. Even for an existing story, break it down visually for us.

If you are coming into comics with no background, we highly recommend Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics as a great place to start.

And for some of the best pitches ever written (although long for one of our pieces), check out Mighty God King's "Why I Should Write Dr. Strange." (Really, that was just an excuse to work a link to that blog because it rocks.)

So, remember: For each proposed comic, send us a pitch and two pages of script.

How to Submit

Send the pitches and script pages to subs@mindcontrolcomics.com. Please just send the pitch and script pages in the body of the email; no attachments, please. Put the working title of the story in the Subject: of the email.

Please be patient! We'll acknowledge pitches when we get them, but we can't promise a quick response time.

What Happens Then?

If we accept the pitch, we'll ask you to send us a script. We'll work with you to get your script into shape. Accepting a pitch is not a promise to buy the final script, although we don't anticipate turning down a large number of scripts that were based on accepted pitches.

Very Important Points

So, What's in It For Me?

We pay $10 per page of accepted script, upon publication. (That's for a full script; work we adapt pays less.) You get a membership to the site for the month in which your story appears; if you are already a member, we'll extend your membership by one month for free.

We pay by check, or if you are located outside the US, by PayPal. If you turn out to be a prolific author for us and are expected to get more than $600 from us in one year, we'll need you to fill out a form W-9, and we'll have to report your income to the IRS, so keep that in mind.

We'll need your real name and address for payment purposes, but we'll be happy to publish under a pseudonym if you wish.

We buy perpetual, unlimited world-wide exclusive graphic-format rights to the script. You are free to publish (or sell) a story based on your script.

Guidelines for Artists

We're always excited to work with new artists. Here are some details and commonly-asked questions; please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions that are not answered here.

  1. We generally commission work of 10-12 pages. For the first time we work with an artist, we generally do a one-shot or two-issue story.

  2. All of our work has extensive nudity and hard-core sex, just so's you know.

  3. Our usual process is to first assign a general story outline, and agree to character sketches for the principal characters.

  4. We then send a script. We like to see pencils, just to make sure that we didn't miscommunicate in any way.

  5. You send us art!

We pay on completion, on-time, and without drama.

If you are interested in working for us, please contact us with the URL of your portfolio. We also would like to know:

  1. What work do you deliver: Pencils, inks, fully-colored? We do also have some limited openings for inkers (who don't do the pencils), colorists and letters.

  2. Your page rate. All the work we commission is based on a page-rate, and we do it as a work-for-hire.

  3. Your typical turn-around time for a project of 10-12 pages. If you work methodically, that's OK! We want you to take the time to do your best possible work. We value quality and reliability far more than speed; we can work with long lead times.

  4. What do you particularly like to draw, or is there anything you've always wanted to draw? Although all of our stuff has mind control themes, we otherwise have a lot of flexibility as to how to assign work, so we like to match the work with the artist.

We looking forward to hearing from you!