Award-winning publisher Fanbase Press, in association with Eisner Award-winning writer/professor Frederick Luis Aldama (Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at UT Austin) and Emmy Award-winning writer/producer/director Peter Murrieta [Wizards of Waverly Place (Disney Channel), Mr. Iglesias (Netflix), Rafael Garcia: Henchman (comic book with Starburns)], is launching an annual digital comic book anthology to highlight the works of emerging Latinx comic book creators and help pave the way for up-and-coming sequential artists.  

The Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators digital anthology will be open to submissions starting in February 2022, welcoming original comic book content – ranging from cartoons and comic strips to comic book short stories – from young Latinx creators who are seeking to make their mark.  

“A kid in the cookie jar, I can’t get enough of today’s resplendent plenitude of emerging Latinx comics creators,” notes anthology co-founder Frederick Luis Aldama.  “Let’s celebrate together this in-the-now renaissance in the storytelling arts!”

Fanbase Press, an award-winning comic book publisher known for titles including the Eisner Award-nominated Quince, and the Foreword INDIES Award-winning Quince: The Definitive Bilingual Edition, seeks to create an inclusive space for Latinx comic book creators to perform in, excel, and be celebrated.  By launching this annual anthology, Fanbase Press – as well as Aldama and Murrieta who have long worked to break down barriers for Latinx creators across entertainment mediums and educational sectors – hope to utilize their resources to advocate for, promote, and prepare creators for successful careers in the comic book industry.  Publishers, studios, and other outlets looking for the next great creative talent will need to look no further than the Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators digital anthology each year.

“One of the things I love more than anything is comic books and the worlds they create that show what’s possible, what is, and what should be,” adds anthology co-founder Peter Murrieta.  “It’s my deepest desire to share stories with people and to find new storytellers to shine the spotlight on. With Barbra, Bryant, and mi compa Fred, I know they want that, too. And we are ready to bring it. Let’s go!”

For its inaugural edition, the theme of the Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators digital anthology will be “Emergence,” with creators encouraged to address and reflect on what “Emergence” means to them in the content of their submission.  

The Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators anthology will be released through digital platforms including Hoopla, Comics Plus, and Kindle Plus each February.

In recognition that the creative process can be time consuming, especially when other commitments may be vying for a creator’s time and attention, below is an advance look at the Call for Submissions (which will open in February 2022) to provide creators with additional time for their submission development.

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Call for Submissions

2022’s Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators

Open for Submissions:     February 2022

Deadline for Submissions:    May 1, 2022

Submission Guidelines

• All comic creators submitting their work must be between the ages of 18-30 years old. 
• The creators submitting their work must themselves be of Latinx descent.  We welcome submissions from creators with all Latinx backgrounds and cultural heritages. This includes creators who self-identify as Latinx or Latine, as well as those who challenge these terms or prefer to self-identify with other community-specific terms.  For a creative team submitting their work, at least one of the creators must be of Latinx descent.
• The creators submitting their work must not have previously had a full comic book published.  Creators who have self-published or had work published in prior anthologies are welcome to submit their work for consideration, so long as the comic(s) that they are submitting to this anthology are original and unpublished. 
• The submitted comics must be original work by the creator and not previously published. 
• If accepted to the anthology, the submitted comics may not be republished in another anthology or work for the period of one year following their initial publication in the Outstanding Young Latinx Comic Creators anthology.
• The focus of the submitted comics must include a focus on the theme of “Emergence.”
• The submitted comics may be anywhere from 1-10 pages in length.
• The submitted comics’ content may be submitted in English or Spanish.
• All comic formats are acceptable (e.g., cartoons, strips, etc.); however, the comics must be contained within the following dimensions at the time of submission in order to be considered:
  • All artwork must be formatted to fit 6.625″ x 10.25″.
  • All pages must accommodate a .125″ bleed all around.
• The submitted comics must be provided in TIFF format.  (Please contact OYLCCanthology (at) gmail (dot) com if you are unable to submit your work in this format.)

Acknowledgments

By submitting their work to the Outstanding Young Latinx Comic Creators anthology, comic creators understand and acknowledge that:

• There is no submission fee required for submitting your comic book for consideration;
• The submitted work has not been submitted for publication to other venues and – if accepted – may not be republished in another anthology or work for the period of one year following its initial publication in the Outstanding Young Latinx Comic Creators anthology;
• Permission is provided for the submitted work to be published, reproduced, transmitted, displayed publicly, and sold in all forms, including electronic, in all languages and media throughout the world;
• No financial compensation will be provided to creators if their comic is selected for inclusion in the anthology; however, creators will maintain all rights to their work; and
• The anthology will be published through digital media distribution platforms, including Hoopla, Comics Plus, and Kindle Direct.  

The Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators anthology is welcoming of all individuals and groups, with mindfulness towards making publishing more equitable for folx whose identities reflect disabilities, learning styles, lived experiences, race/ethnicity, age, class, gender, sexual orientation, and country of origin, as well as cultural, political, religious, and other affiliations.

Accommodations are available for any creators requiring assistance with the submission process. Please contact OYLCCanthology (at) gmail (dot) com for assistance.

The deadline for submission of comics is May 1, 2022.

Questions?  Please contact OYLCCanthology (at) gmail (dot) com.   

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ABOUT FANBASE PRESS
Founded in 2010, Fanbase Press celebrates fandoms and creates new ones! As an award-winning comic book publisher and geek culture website, Fanbase Press produces new and distinctive works, as well as daily reviews, interviews, and podcasts, that span the pop culture spectrum and give voice to the themes, ideals, and people that make geekdom so exceptional.

Fanbase Press’ previous titles – including the 2018 Eisner Award-nominated Quince, the 2020 Foreword INDIES Award-winning Quince: The Definitive Bilingual Edition, the 2019 IPPY Award-winning A Geek’s Guide to Cross-Stitch: Journeys in Space, the 2014 Bram Stoker Award-nominated Fearworms: Selected Poems, The Sequels, Nuclear Power, The Margins, The Gamma Gals, Something Animal, Identity Thief, The Arcs, and Penguins vs. Possums – are available in print at www.fanbasepress.com and on Amazon, as well as digitally through Hoopla, Comics Plus, ComiXology, and Kindle Direct.

ABOUT FREDERICK LUIS ALDAMA
Frederick Luis Aldama, a.k.a. Professor Latinx, is the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and Affiliate Faculty in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas, Austin, as well as Adjunct Professor & Distinguished University Professor at The Ohio State University. He is the award-winning author of over 48 books, including the International Latino Book Award and Eisner Award-winning Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics. He is editor and co-editor of 9 academic press book series, including editor of Latinographix, which publishes Latinx comics. He is the creator of the first documentary on the history of Latinx superheroes and founder and director of UT’s Latinx Pop Lab. He is the author of several children’s books, including The Adventures of Chupacabra Charlie (published in English and Spanish) and the forthcoming Con Papá/With Papá.  

ABOUT PETER MURRIETA
Peter Murrieta, the recipient of the Imagen Foundation’s Norman Lear Writer’s Award and Director In Residence at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School, is a multiple Emmy-Winner known for award-winning series like Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias and Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place, which notably launched the career of global superstar Selena Gomez.

Over the last two decades, Peter has produced over 300 hours of television, including hit shows One Day At A Time (Netflix), Lopez (TV Land), Superior Donuts (CBS) and Cristela (ABC). His extensive experience and commitment to creating shows that serve as star vehicles for LatinX actors that also achieve mainstream success is second to none in the industry. Peter, who’s Mexican-American, created the acclaimed WB series, Greetings from Tucson, a groundbreaking series that was one of the first ever to feature a diverse, bi-racial family, set in Peter’s native Arizona.

More than any other producer in Hollywood, Peter has developed projects that have contributed to the careers of the industry’s biggest Latino stars, including Selena Gomez, George Lopez, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Cristela Alonzo, Mario Lopez, Justina Machado and the legendary Lupe Ontiveros, among others.

Peter currently has a first-look deal with Universal and his first novel, Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta, which he co-wrote with the novelist Jeffrey J. Marriote, is now available on Amazon.

*Outstanding Young Latinx Comics Creators logo by Clarissa Thorne Designs