CONTRACT

Each creator has been emailed the contract for their work in the anthology. Please have every member of your team sign the contract (using the Adobe Fill & Sign function) and return it as an attached document replying to the email.

Please do this by the end of the week.

If you add a team member at any point, they will also need to do the same.

CONTENT NOTES - IMPORTANT

We are looking for GREAT STORIES. Entertaining, wowing, surprising, shocking, fiction experiences. We are not looking for didactic messaging, proselytizing or soapboxing. Whatever your great entertainment makes us think about and wake up pondering the next morning, so be it. That’s art. But we do not want to be hammered over the head with a message. Just seduced by an amazing yarn.

We do not want political statements. Centuries of sci-fi and fantasy have taught us the greater power of clever, engaging storytelling in guiding thoughts over overt political messaging. Stories blatantly political on any side will be asked for revision. Metaphor is the artist’s mightier sword. Dark or light tales, we’re looking for fun.

We do not want anything promoting targeted negativity or hate.

As far as “content appropriateness” goes, we are fine with anything from E to the 17+ M rating.

Containment Breach is a 17+ series. Each story can be whatever it wants to be, but the books will be listed under this rating.

Some scenes depicting nudity or sex are fine, so long as they service the story and are NOT PORNOGRAPHIC.

Justice Steward Potter famously wrote in Jacobellis vs. Ohio that he would not get caught up attempting to define pornography, but that “I know when I see it.” We reserve the right to call it the same way. So, if some nudity or sex works for moving your story forward, tastefully go for it. Beyond this, keep your tentacles to yourself.

As far as GENRE goes, we want a variety here. Go with the genre that feels best for your tale.

QUALITY

We give our best to our stories and to our contributors. You will be given an editor who will be attentive to your ideas and a positive guiding presence. We expect the same level of professionalism in return. We may ask you to step up to your A-game, should we feel it necessary, and will be right there to support you the entire time. Should we feel your team is not willing to put in the effort necessary for making their best possible comic, we reserve the right to cut it from the anthology at any stage.

YOUR INDIVIDUAL CREATIVE PROMPT AND THE OVERALL THEME

You’ve been emailed your individual creative prompt as provided by another anthology team. Some of the provided prompts were vague, some quite specific.

As we are making TWO volumes of Containment Breach at once, two different themes are at play. Please be sure you know which book you are working on.

Volume 3: Monsters, Beasts and Bastards

The idea is simple: Tell a story about any of these three things or any combination therein. Interpret as you like. You choose the genre, come up with a gripping and exciting 4 to 10-page story, and away we go.

Volume 4: Of Clouds and Ether

Containment Breach is looking upward in this one, considering the ethereal and the sublime, the cosmos, space and time, orbital resonance, quantum mechanics, celestial bodies, celestial beings, dark matter and the magic of the worlds within the ether. Think anything from “La Belle Dame sans Merci” to Interstellar. You choose the genre, find your gripping and exciting 4-10 page story, and away we go.

THE CREATIVE PROMPT

Each team will submit an intriguing creative prompt to Christian De Matteo and will in turn receive one created by another team.

This prompt must be an ingredient in the story you are creating for the theme of your assigned volume.

You can incorporate the creative prompt however you like. We will list your assigned prompt beside your story in the anthology, giving readers an additional dimension of enjoyment in reading it.

Production Schedule for 2022

(Applies to creators working on both Volumes 3 AND 4.)

- Wednesday, July 13th: Script due to Editor

- Wednesday, July 20th: Revised Script to team (post editorial approval of changes)

- Wednesday, August 3rd: Layouts/Thumbnails to Editor

- Wednesday, September 7th Line Art (Inks) to Editor

- Monday, September 19th: Colored art to Editor

- Wednesday, September 28th: Lettered pages to Editor

- Friday, October 7th: Final Submission must be in

Professionalism and KINDNESS

This is a BIG ONE. Fugitive Poems is a passion project for James and Christian, a labor of deep love. It’s a happy place we’ve created for ourselves and other amazing indie artists like you. We will always treat our creators with respect and dignity and expect the same in return.

Should an ongoing interaction become unpleasant, we will enact our “No Ego Policy” and politely sever the relationship, ending that team’s participation in the book.

Be kind, be joyful, be open. We are.