Submissions

Night Owl is looking for professional artists who can deliver high quality art and meet deadlines. Show us your skills.

If you are a comic book artist looking for freelance work, please read the following information in its entirety before sending any portfolio samples. For Night Owl to review your submission, we require that you follow these submission guidelines.

When submitting materials to us, only show your best work. Don't waste people's time if you have not fully developed your craft as an artist. If you are not ready to do professional level work right now, then it is better to wait until after you have mastered the fundamentals and taken the time to create something exceptional that will stand out from the crowd and impress editors. Keep practicing your craft. Take art classes if necessary. Learn from the professionals.

Pencillers & Digital Artists:

Send us no less than 5 pages of sequential art. Demonstrate your ability to tell a story using sequential panels and pages. Choose a story that allows you to showcase not only your strong points but utilizes a wide range of settings, situations, and character types. If possible include the written script pages you worked from.

You may also include pinups and splash pages if you wish to show off additional samples. But remember that storytelling and backgrounds are as important as dynamic characters. If you send us great pinup cover art but not enough sequential pages or bland backgrounds you will most likely not get hired. Give us a showcase of all your skills as a well-rounded artist. Know your basics. For characters: Anatomy, facial expressions, body language and details. For settings: Perspective, buildings, and background details.

Don't submit art that you have copied or traced directly out of your favorite comic book. If you are going to submit images of popular characters, you can stay true to the style, but put the character in your own setting, pose, etc.

Email us a URL link to your website where your art portfolio samples can be viewed and downloaded. No email attachments please.

Inkers:

Send us no less than 5 pages of sequential art. We will need to see the penciled pages as well, so be sure to send them in addition to your ink samples. Please pick storytelling pages that show a wide range of textures and techniques. Choose the type of artist you feel you are most comfortable with, but be sure the pages or single pieces you use contain backgrounds along with figure work.

Email us a URL link to your website where your art portfolio samples can be viewed and downloaded. No email attachments please.

Colorists:

Send us no less than 5 pages of sequential art. We will need to see the original line art you are coloring as well, so be sure to send them in addition to your color samples. Include pages with scene progression, action and quiet moments. Show us you can utilize color to evoke a mood, are conscious of and consistent with lighting and can clearly separate a scene.

Email us a URL link to your website where your art portfolio samples can be viewed and downloaded. No email attachments please.

Artists Attending Conventions:

When preparing your art portfolio for editor review at a convention, please keep these tips in mind:

1. Don't show us pages you rushed through or drew in the hotel room last night.
2. Don't show half-finished work. Sketch pages are not portfolio materials but they are useful back-up materials and we may ask to see it to flesh out our knowledge of you, but they do not make a finished portfolio. If there is a particular piece you like, finish it. This goes for half inked or half colored pages, as well.
3. Keep it at 10 pieces or less for the presentation portion. If you have been published, definitely show that work.
4. Put your best pieces of work at the front of your portfolio, then the second best, third, fourth, fifth, etc. Remember that it is the first impression that counts the most, so you want to start off with a bang!
5. Include dynamic shots (pinup/splash pages) and panel-to-panel sequential artwork (for storytelling ability). For pencilers, storytelling pages are crucial. At least 5 consecutive pages are necessary to see that you can tell a story visually.
6. It is nice if you can show a finished piece of art, something that has been penciled, inked and colored, but we need to see the skill you are representing. If you have finished pieces, but want to be a penciler or inker, let us see your contribution to the finished piece separate from the other influences.
7. For inkers and colorists, we need to see the source work beneath your work. Inkers, have copies of the pencils you inked over. Colorists, show us the black and white line art before you added the color.
8. When presenting your portfolio, look and act professional. Be ready to answer questions about your art, how you work and your influences. Be ready to be critiqued. This is like a job interview in the real world. We are judging you as a person along with your artwork. Are you somebody that we want to work with on a daily basis?
9. Leave-behinds. We don't require these, but we may ask to keep a photocopied packet of your work so it's best to be prepared. If you cannot make it during our portfolio review times, this may be the only way to get your work in front of an editor. Copy the pieces in your portfolio and label each page with your name and contact info (e-mail address and phone number).
10. Listen and take the advice you are given to heart. If you are told to work on your anatomy or your perspective, then work on it. There is no need to be defensive during a review. Just understand that time is limited and we want to give you as much feedback as we can during that time. Going back and forth over a comment or critique you don’t agree with is counter-productive and indicates that you might be difficult to work with in the future.

Writers:

Unfortunately, Night Owl does NOT accept any unsolicited story ideas/scripts from writers. At this time we are NOT looking for any new concepts or writers to hire. Below are some words of advice about breaking into comics as a writer and how to gain access to publishers. For most newbie writers, there are 3 ways to break into writing comics professionally:

1. Submissions -- This is sending in your original spec scripts, or story ideas/scripts for established company-owned titles such as Spider-Man or GI Joe. This approach rarely ever works, but some people have gotten in this way. This tends to only work if you have industry connections and hit the right person at the right time, which is rare.
2. Self-publish -- This is one of the more successful ways of doing it, but requires some self-financing to make it happen. This strategy involves hiring an artist to illustrate your independent comic book, then printing and distributing it. This is how guys like Brian Michael Bendis and Robert Kirkman made themselves successful. Good stories are good stories, and that’s what everybody is looking for. Even with only internet or convention distribution of your book, you can get attention and build a fan base.
3. Any industry job -- This is getting a job at a comic book publishing company doing basically anything. Many writers such as Peter David, Kurt Busiek, and Jim Krueger had sales or advertising jobs at these companies to get their foot in the door prior to getting any paid writing work on books.