Welcome to Comic-Con! We want to sponsor you!

Welcome to Comic-Con, your home for all news related to deviantART's involvement in Comic-Con International: San Diego.  If you're a comic artist or an appreciator of the comic arts, we invite you to join our group to get the latest updates about this incredible event.  But first, we'd like to start off with exciting news!

As part of deviantART’s sponsorship of Artists’ Alley at Comic-Con International: San Diego, we will be providing two scholarships to emerging artists — one web-based comic artist and one traditionally-based comic artist — who will be guests of deviantART at Comic-Con. The chosen artists will spend two days at Comic-Con, where they will be able to cruise the convention floor, attend panels, and be introduced by Comic-Con to prominent artists in the industry, with a chance to pick their brains and gain artistic inspiration right from the source.

The recipients will each receive:

• Airfare for a two-day trip to San Diego, CA from their home base
• Hotel accommodations
• Day passes to Comic-Con
• A $50 per diem for food and other expenses

These scholarships will go to two emerging artists who are:

• Highly talented graphic artists looking to expand the reach of their work.
• Committed to the graphic comic arts.  Show this by boasting your educational qualifications, experience in gallery shows, self-published works, or the quantity and quality of your work.

These scholarships will not be awarded to anyone who is professionally engaged or employed full-time in the graphic comic and publishing industries.  We're looking for unknown and under-appreciated artists with amazing skills.

All applicants will be reviewed via a deviantART Portfolio.  If you have not made a Portfolio previously, check out this blog on instructions to creating one.  Membership in deviantART is required to make a Portfolio.


Your Portfolio must contain:

• Only one Gallery of up to 18 images selected from your existing work.  All other galleries will not be considered.
• Your contact information, including your full name, email, and city and country of residence.
• A very brief description of why you're an emerging artist and why Comic-Con should choose you for the sponsorship.  Insert this description in the Artist’s Bio page in the Portfolio.
• Your resume or CV, noting your educational and art experience.  Do not attach your resume to your Note.  Attach your resume where indicated on your Artist’s Bio page in the Portfolio.
• Applications are due July 8, 2011 at 6:00PM Los Angeles, CA time.

To be considered for the scholarships, submit your Portfolio to this group via Note.  In the subject line, write "Comic-Con Sponsorship", and paste the link to your Portfolio in the body of the message.  You may use your existing deviantART Portfolio as long as it contains all the necessary elements listed above.  There is no fee to become a member of deviantART, for the use of the Portfolio tool or to submit your work for consideration.  Any emerging comic artist located anywhere in the world who is over the age of 18 can submit a Portfolio for consideration. Travel accommodations will not be extended to any other individuals apart from the scholarship recipient.

We are very excited to report that Dave Elliot, aka DeevElliott, has graciously agreed to review the submissions and to pick the two recipients.  Mr. Elliott is a super-accomplished international publisher and editor who has done extensive work in the comic, graphic novel and fantasy art world with Atomek, Tundra, Heavy Metal, Image, Radical, Marvel, and DC among others.

For those who are unfamiliar with this event, Comic-Con International: San Diego is the largest comic-book and popular-arts convention in the world. Held at the San Diego Convention Center from July 21st to the 24th this year, Comic-Con draws a worldwide audience of entertainment enthusiasts of every kind, filling the convention center to its brim. With panels, seminars, and workshops with comic-book professionals, along with art shows, portfolio review sessions, and exhibits, attendees walk away with cheer in their hearts, bags of swag in their arms, and some tired, well-exercised feet.  For more information, check out the Comic-Con website here.


If you fit the qualifications listed above, send us a Note with a link to your Portfolio!  Emerging artists, we want you to join us at Comic-Con!