Print Express launch Comic Printing Competition

By John Freeman on July 5, 2012

The folk at British online printers Print Express love designers, writers, artists and anything creative and they’ve been running a number of competitions to help support interesting, creative people. Now they’ve decided to do something a little bit special – and if you create comics (but haven’t yet had any professionally published), then this competition is for you.

If you send Print Express a e-copy of your comic, they’ll pick a winner from their favourite entries and produce a small number of professionally printed books of it (enough copies for you to give to some friends, or you can use the extra copies as portfolios).

“We’ve run some competitions for writers in the past,” a spokesperson told us, “but this is the first time we’ve ever run a competition for comic artists so we’re not quite sure how to get the word out. If you think the readers of downthetubes would be interested in entering our competition, we’d love it if you’d be kind enough to mention our competition on your site.”

We’re happy to oblige. To enter, please email your comic as a PDF to: comics@printexpress.co.uk – or, if you find it easier, email them the link to your comic on your site or blog.

The full details of the competition are here on their blog, but the rules are as follows:

Please, nothing stronger than a PG rating
The comic must have been created by you, and you must have the rights to it
You keep the full rights to your work
Print Express would like to post a few images from your comic on their blog, so only enter if you’re happy with them granting them that right (they won’t publish it anywhere else, other than in the books they send you).
There’s no entry fee and the competition is open to everyone
Only one entry per person, so please only send us your favourite
Deadline is 8th August 2012

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.