The first Rubber Chicken Funnies anthology, WEIRD ILLUSTRATED, will be published some time this summer.

We are looking for weird comics from 1 to 4 pages for inclusion. Mundane and ordinary comics should be submitted to some other anthology.

Printed submissions should be printed on 11.5x17 sheets.

Digital submissions (which is definitely the prefferred method) should be submitted as a greyscale zipped photoshop file, 11.5x17 600 dpi. These files will probably be too large to email. I recommend sending them in on a cd or dvd.

Please, no originals unless you never want to see them again.

Send submissions to:

Steven Stwalley
Rubber Chicken Funnies
2326 McKinley St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
submissions@rubberchickenfunnies.com

Submission is open to all... anyone can submit whether or not you have ever drawn a line on a piece of paper or not.

Artists retain all rights and ownership of the works, and are free to pursue publishing them in any other venues. Submitting a story does not guarantee that it will be published.

The page rate is a miserable 10 bucks a page for accepted entries, and at least one copy of the published book (it is possible we may give out more depending on the printing cost). In addition, contributors will be able to purchase additional copies at cost.

Rubber Chicken Funnies is paying to publish the work in the anthology, and retains the right to reprint the work in reprints of the book, and to use images from the strips for promotional purposes.

The deadline for submissions is May 23rd.

Some general guidelines you may want to consider:

1) Take your time with your submissions. Even if I find a strip amusing, it is unlikely to be accepted if it looks like it was drawn up in a half an hour. Basically, neatness counts. Sloppy or illegible lettering and unintentionally confusing storytelling will greatly hurt your chances of inclusion in the anthology.

That said, I'm a strong believer that excellent comics can be produced by people with limited drawing ability. While I am certainly not on the lookout for poorly drawn comics (quite the opposite), simply drawn comics that communicate effectively and engage are definitely very eligible for consideration.

2) Avoid clichés. Avoid the obvious. Avoid reliance on pop-culture references.

3) While I do often find poop, dick and fart jokes and their ilk funny, I see reliance on this sort of humor as a crutch... the equivalent of a male stand-up comic putting on a dress for laughs. It may be funny, but it is probably an easy laugh, so unless it is really hilarious, or serves the purpose of a larger story, it will probably hurt your chances of getting published in this anthology.

4) What is "weird" for this anthology is totally open to interpretation by the artists. It could be autobiography, horror, humor, journalism, meta-comics... whatever seems appropriate for the comic you want to create. The main goal should be to blow the reader's mind.