Having installed a marketing guy, Avatar is now sending out press releases, and the first one is announcing a talent hunt for artists!

Want to work on an Alan Moore or Warren Ellis project?

Avatar Press is looking for artists for a number of projects over the coming year, including Alan Moore and Warren Ellis comics. Also needed are artists for licensed books that require the ability to draw good likenesses, artists for future Lady Death series, and over a dozen other high-profile projects.

“We currently have 22 artists working on comics for Avatar Press, and we’re still not where I’d like to be in terms of having artists available to assign to upcoming projects,” says Avatar Press EIC William Christensen. “We are focused on making inroads into addressing the scheduling issues we have had in the past, but one thing I need to do to continue to make progress on that is to hire more artists. I’ve got a number of already-written or in-progress upcoming projects currently without artists attached that I’d like to get firmed up on the schedule, so Avatar is looking for pencilers or penciler/inkers who can work in a variety of genres.”

Penciler/Inkers or pencilers may send their submissions or links to their samples to submissions@avatarpress.net.

“I want to take a moment here in this release to be clear about how this process works at Avatar, and what we are looking for,” adds Christensen. “Some of these points may be a little blunt but I’d rather put it out there than have someone spend time on working up a submission and be disappointed down the road.”

Additional notes on submissions:

* We are currently looking for penciler/inkers or pencilers. We are not in the market for additional writers, colorists, or letterers at this time.

* We are currently not in the market for “cover-only” artists.

* You will be paid a page rate for your work at Avatar. While we do not pay Marvel/DC rates, it is a page rate and not a back-end deal, and is within the range of competitive indy rates.

* Samples can be e-mailed, but please send individual files, not a compressed archive file containing lots of files.

* Please send a range of your work. We have titles in many genres.

* If we have an immediate interest in your work you will be contacted. If we’re currently not interested, we may not have time to critique your work and may not get back to you. That said, if we like your stuff and have a place for you, you will hear from us.

“All that boilerplate aside, there are a number of opportunities for artists to work with high-profile writers at Avatar,” Christensen concludes. “With the caliber of projects we have coming up, a few industrious artists will have the perfect opportunity to show the world what they can do.”

Please send your submissions to submissions@avatarpress.net.