Black Ship Books is seeking comic creators and aspiring comic creators of all stripes to join us for the long-awaited issue two of Horror Haikus!

The book, coming to digital comics platforms and print-on-demand later this year, will bring together winning writers creative teams from last year’s Halloween competition together with 10-14 new stories. Matching the parameters of issue one (and the competition), Black Ship are seeking one-page black-and-white (or grayscale) stories in the horror genre, broadly construed.

In keeping with the Japanese haiku form, each story will contain seventeen lettering elements—any combination of word balloons and captions (creator credits don’t count)—mirroring the number of syllables in a haiku. Those in search of inspiration can consult our initial volume of Horror Haikus, published in 2011—from that collection, “Sins of the Father,” “Sterile Procedures,” and “Scissor Lad’s Final Cut” are available free online—as well as the stories from the competition linked to above.

Contributors are expected to form their own writer-artist pairs. Priority will be given to stories with letterers assigned, but it may be possible for us to arrange to have your story lettered if needed.

Writers should pitch their scripts to evan@blackshipbooks.com and should, as soon as possible, also send in art samples from their proposed artist. Acceptance/rejection will be communicated to the teams within two weeks of receipt of both script and portfolio. Black Ship will take submissions on a rolling basis, so scripts should be sent in as soon as possible!

Think critically. Think creative.

Evan Henry

Editor in Chief, Black Ship Books