How does one get a newspaper to look at submitted comics, and how should they be presented?
My friend in the U.K. has four or five published books and merchandise with his comics. He's extremely talented, but his comics do not appear in any U.S. newspapers. We have four pages of comics in the Rocky Mountain News and many people I know don't read the majority of them because they just aren't funny. I sent an email with 20 sample comics to the address I was given by the Entertainment desk at the newspaper.
How do I get the email to be read - what should be in the subject line? How do the comics need to be sent? In a file? Thumbnail sketches? How many should be submitted? I was told on the phone by a very curt and harried individual - "as many as needed to tell if its funny or not". That didn't tell me much.
My good friend at CNN said that newspapers will only consider comics submitted by an agent. I am guessing that politics plays a huge part in this.. where everything has to be submitted exactly so, regardless of the quality of the work or it will not even be considered - and where WHO is doing the submitting also makes a difference.
I'm at a complete loss. Any suggestions would be appreciated.