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Welcome to MATT CHATS, a weekly interview series in which I talk to a creator, consumer or seller of comics. This week I spoke with Gabriel “Gabo” Bautista, who is working on several projects right now including The Life After for Oni Press and Albert the Alien for Thrillbent. During that time he also managed to fit in Jupiter, a series of 100 micro-stories set on the largest planet made up of just one drawing and one page of text each. His Kickstarter campaign has been funded, but it’s still running so you can jump in and get an early copy of the hardcover and push it closer to its stretch goals. I spoke to Gabo about creating Jupiter, setting rewards for the campaign and more.

I first encountered your work with The Life After, and what immediately struck me was the panel density. What was your reaction to a script that asks for a lot of panels per page?

I’ve always been a fan of using a lot of panels! The idea of slowing down time by shoving more panels on a page has always intrigued me, so when I first read Fialkov’s script I was elated. There is that 50 panel two-page spread that we had in the first issue. The monotony and slight repetition of each panel really drives home the idea that Jude does the same damn thing day in day out, like many of us have suffered or currently suffer in our day to day lives.  I’m all for a page full of panels as long as there is a good reason for it!

Did working in that kind of style influence the creation or development of Jupiter?

Jupiter was mainly influenced by two things: a challenge by Kenneth Rocafort to do a daily drawing in a Moleskine daily planner, and constant dreams of futuristic settings that I feel intimately connected to. The rest sort of just ran its course on its own, I just sat back and let my hands do the work.

What’s the appeal of a story told in one image and a page or less of text?

I’ve always been intrigued by the synopsis’ you find on the back of books, especially sci-fi and fantasy novels with those amazing painted covers. Being able to squeeze a whole concept into just a paragraph is the idea I wanted to harness for this project.  The fact that you can open the book to any page and be immersed into that world for a brief moment is what I find appealing. That and it’s great for people like me who has short attention spans haha.

Do you find micro-stories to be more or less challenging than longer-form projects? Why?

I’ve never taken on the task of writing something longer than a few pages, but I feel micro-stories are easier in that it doesn’t take a lot to belt one out, its almost like playing a quick game of poker vs a round of Magic the Gathering. While Magic is way more complicated and requires more time to complete, poker in itself is full of strategy and complications that take years to master, only its much faster to play.

For me, developing a story comes pretty easy. Sometimes I feel that perhaps my brain produces way too much of whatever chemical causes someone to make things up, but I sure as hell am grateful for it.

Is there any way you’d prefer Jupiter to be read? All at once/one at a time/some other way?

I’ve never really given that idea any thought. I suppose it could be read from beginning to end, but at the same time I love that Jupiter is like a sketchbook where you can flip to any page and be sucked into that scene in just a matter of seconds.

Would you ever sell the Moleskin daily planner that contains all of the Jupiter drawings?

I’ve had a lot of friends suggest I put it up as one of the reward tiers, putting a price of a couple thousand on it, hoping maybe some crazy rich person would pledge for it. At the same time though I’ve had other friends who scold me for thinking about it, saying I should keep it as long as I can. I’ve never been big on keeping my art, hell sometimes I just give it away at conventions, but the idea of giving away or selling a book with over 100 drawings in it is a bit hard to process. To be honest my biggest fear would be that the pages would get separated and distributed, and at the same time I would love nothing more than for people to have a little piece of Jupiter to themselves. I’M TORN. WHAT DO I DO? It’s literally just collecting dust in my studio! [Laughs] Maybe in a few years I’ll start tearing out the pages and gifting them or selling them. WHO KNOWS. I have to keep reminding myself that we are simply guardians of art until a new owner is found.

You offer high-level of backers a significant influence over the content of your book, particularly at the $250 level. Was that an easy decision to make, or did it feel more like a necessary evil in order to get funded?

It was 10% “necessary evil so I could get funded.”  I figured people would be clamoring at the chance to be in the book. “TO BE IMMORTALIZED,” I kept repeating in my head. Overtime though, I’ve realized that the people who becoming part of the book WILL be immortalized, in my heart.  Cheesy, ain’t it? I’m serious though! Those people who pledge at that level believe me and Jupiter enough to become a part of it, they trust in me to do a great job in taking their likeness and converting them into a legend of Jupiter. It’s super awesome, and they are super awesome. Ultimately though, I always wanted to have this be a THING in Jupiter, taking a few people and turning them into legends… It’s neat!

After 100 drawings and 100 stories, how connected are you to this world?

There’s a lot of it that I don’t remember. I look at the images and fragments of the stories come to me. Sort of like when you’re looking at an old photo of yourself hanging with friends.  You might know when it was taken, what might have been going on in your life then, but you probably don’t remember it as well as you’d like. My connection to the world of Jupiter I’ve created is similar; I don’t try to force things into it. Instead I let those things come out when they want, and hope to hell they make sense and that I can jot them down before I forget them.

What’s the scariest part of the project for you?

The scariest thing for me was not being able to fund it. After Day 2 of the Kickstarter, the fear was completely obliterated.

Now that the campaign is funded, are you thinking ahead about future stories?

I’ve been planning this for a while; the illustrations in Jupiter are actually from a 2013 Moleskine daily planner. I’ve got a 2014 thats nearly half full, and a 2015 that I’m currently filling. The next book will be slightly different, though; some of the stories will be written by guest writers (some of which will be some notable comics people!) I’m looking forward to seeing what people write to a piece of art that’s already been created.

Jupiter is just one of many projects you’re working on. How do you balance it all?

I have no damn idea. I can’t deny that I’m late on some projects and have had to pretty much cancel or put other projects on hold, but Jupiter has been done for several months, and I just needed to get it out of my system.

What keeps you cranking out pages, day after day after day?

BILLS, MAN. BILLS. I literally have no choice, if I slow down or slack off I will be sleeping on the streets. No greater motivator than the risk of going homeless if you goof off too much. Also the fact that I’m getting old. I see all these young cats in the comic game making power moves, and I’ve just barely reached the big leagues at 34? I don’t have time to mess around, I need to keep moving, keep drawing. Draw or Die.

You can find Gabo on his website and on Twitter, and back his Kickstarter campaign for Jupiter for a few more days. Don’t wait.

Call For Submissions: Loose Change Magazine 

Submissions portal.  

Loose Change, a journal of new writing from the WonderRoot Center for Arts and Social Change in Atlanta, is relaunching in January with the sexy-smart, mesmerizing work of Eric Baus, Pam Brown, Laura Carter, Bhanu Kapil, Douglas A. Martin, Miranda Mellis, Deborah Poe, and Kate Schapira, among others, and is still accepting submissions. 

We are interested in work that comes out of various traditions to move them forward, break them apart, reinvent or explode them. We want familiar modes made new and strange forms that renew us. Please review our submission guidelines before sending your previously unpublished work. We only accept electronic submissions through our submissions manager. In addition to our regular issue, we are also accepting submissions for a special portfolio, “Sexted Up—Wording In—Gen(d)re Qweery,” to be included inside the issue, and we will be happy to consider writing and art submitted to this category for our non-themed main section and vice versa. We look forward to receiving your work.

Loose Change on the Wor(l)d! Submit your challenging and ambitious best by November 15.

Submissions link.

The Citron Review is now accepting submissions for our Winter 2014 Issue. The Citron Review is an online literary journal edited by alumni of the esteemed Antioch University Los Angeles Creative Writing Program.

We seek submissions of resonant beauty in the form of micro-fiction, flash fiction, poetry, and flash creative non-fiction. We accept submissions on a rolling basis. We encourage you to review our full guidelines on our website at The Citron Review before submitting via our submissions manager. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but it is expected authors notify us immediately if their work is accepted elsewhere.

River Styx 2015 Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest

Enter online.

$1500 First Prize plus one case of micro-brewed Schlafly Beer
Judged by the editors of River Styx
Submissions open August 1, 2014
500 words maximum per story, up to three stories per entry.
 
Entry fee: $10 or $20. $20 entry fee includes a one-year subscription (3 issues). $10 entry fee includes a copy of the issue in which the winning stories will appear.
Include name and address on the cover letter only.
All stories will be considered for publication.
Previously published stories, including those that have appeared on websites, blogs, and personal home pages, are not eligible.
Though submissions are anonymous, judges will remove from consideration any entries they recognize as having been written by writers with whom they have worked or studied.
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners and honorable mentions will be published in the spring issue.
Contest results will be announced in April.

Enter by mail or online via Submittable. To enter by mail, include an S.A.S.E. for notification of contest results and a check payable to River Styx Magazine. Entries must be received by December 31. Mail entries to:

River Styx Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest
3547 Olive Street, Suite 107
St. Louis MO 63103

Call for Bizarro
Closes September 15, 2014

Please send up to three unpublished 500-word or shorter pieces of bizarro or one that is over 500 words. Please send bizarro (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, genreless, unpublishable, etc.) as a doc, docx, rtf, jpeg, or pdf file. When sending a pdf file, please accompany it by a doc, docx, or rtf file when possible. All submissions should include a 100-word bio in third person and an author image for consideration. A single document is preferable. With no particular aesthetic, we are looking for interesting, engaging, challenging work, work that will make us laugh, cry, dance, discuss, or swear.

All authors are responsible for editing their own work before submitting. Unedited or sloppy work will not be considered.

We acquire first rights or one-time rights. Copyright reverts back to the author/artist after publication. We ask that whenever an author or artist republishes work that first appeared here at Festival Writer that we be given acknowledgement for that specific work or version of that work. If your work appears on your own website or blog, it is considered published.

Email submissions to:

festivaloflanguageATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

with bizarro, Yourlastname" as the subject line.


Authors will be notified by the end of October. Selected works will be published in a special issue.

Online submission deadline: September 1, 2014

300 Days of Sun, a student-run print literary journal, is seeking prose, poetry, and nonfiction submissions from Southwestern authors. All topics are open, but we will give some preference to writing about the Las Vegas area.

To submit, use our online Submittable form.

We have three calls for submissions right now. One is for our website: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, visual art, video and audio. The second is for our Microfiction magazine. Those are ongoing at this point.

And the final one is for an anthology on the theme of the loss of a parent. Deadline for the anthology: Sep. 30, 2014

For more information, please visit our official submissions page. Thank you!

Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal is open to publishing previously unpublished poetry and fiction by new,emerging, and established authors. We are happy to embrace all experimental genres, but we are slightly more biased towards literature whose deepest emotions,when given the opportunity to inhabit with ours, creates a strange yet familiar sensation of déjà vu. Works where imagination and a strong imagery guide reality to examine the creative chaos beyond its straitjacket cliff.

There are no deadlines to meet, since we accept submissions throughout the year. The guidelines aren’t too complex, and therefore, we would request you to adhere to them in order to engage in a fruitful aesthetic interaction with the journal.

General Guidelines:

• All the submissions must be sent to: hermeneuticchaosjournal[at]gmail[dot]com (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . )
• The subject line must mention the following- Poetry/Prose Submission-Name of the author.
• Include a cover letter and a short, third-person bio which tells the readers about the writer.
• We accept simultaneous submissions.However, we request you to inform us promptly in case your submissions find acceptance elsewhere.
• We also accept multiple submissions. However, please submit your poetry and fiction as separate emails.
• Poetry/Fiction previously published in a personal blog can also be submitted for consideration after a slight noticeable modification of the original. In such cases, please include the blog link along with the submission(s).
• We may also sometimes reprint pieces which possess the power to establish a strong aesthetic and emotive bonding with the readers, but do acknowledge the place where it was first published so that we can include the same.
• We do not accept erotic, political and polemical musings.

• Poetry in both prose and verse are welcome.
• Brevity should be the code of conduct. No long poems.
• The poems should have a strong sensory appeal with an enthusiastic linguistic freedom. We want poems where words contemplate the interpretations of instincts and deeper strokes of human dilemma.
• Please send no more than 5 poems attached as a word document.
• Milton was one of the first poets to understand the beauty of blank verse while composing Paradise Lost. We want your creative outputs to experience the same liberation as well.

• We look for works that describe the journey of the emotions, and not the incidents which engender it. The inspiration comes from Virginia Woolf,Sylvia Plath and Margaret Atwood.
• Each fiction should not exceed 500 words.
• Please send no more than 2 fiction pieces attached as a word document.

Call for Flash Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Poetry: Star 82 Review

Star 82 Review is an art and lit online and print magazine looking for your best original unpublished work and lyrical language featuring the displaced person and the humorous oddness of everyday life. We’re looking for up to 1000 words as well as photos or images you’ve created that tell a story. Combinations of art and writing (erasure texts, tiny stories with photo, etc.) are most welcome.

See the guidelines on our submissions page.

Email questions to Alisa Golden at: 

editorATstar82reviewDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )
 

I AM: TWENTY-SEVEN is a yearlong curated art project consisting of twenty-seven pieces about the age of twenty-seven. All pieces will be posted and archived on the project's site. This project is curated by Rachel Ann Brickner, writer and Managing Editor of Weave Magazine.

Deadline: JUNE 1st, 2014
(Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis every three months.)

Guidelines:

Submit anything. Really! Anything. A story (one sentence or many pages long), video, song, comic, photo essay, painting, collage, memoir, poem, riddle, infographic, et cetera. As long as it somehow incorporates the experience of being twenty-seven (explicitly or not). You can be of any age to submit. The more diverse, the better.

Send your submissions to:

twentysevenzineATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Questions and ideas for the project can be found here.

More about I AM: TWENTY-SEVEN on our website.

The Citron Review is now accepting submissions for our Spring and Summer 2014 Issues. The Citron Review is an online literary journal edited by alumni of the esteemed Antioch University Los Angeles Creative Writing Program.

We seek submissions of resonant beauty in the form of micro-fiction, flash fiction, poetry, flash creative non-fiction, digital art and photography. We accept submissions on a rolling basis. We encourage you to review our full guidelines on our website at The Citron Review before submitting via our submissions manager. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but it is expected authors notify us immdieately if their work is accepted elsewhere.

Submittable link.

Call for submissions for re-launch of Dead, Mad, or a Poet. Fiction, poetry and articles for a Pagan literary magazine. Submit by January 15. Guidelines here.

Our focus is on fiction, poetry and art by a certain subset of modern Pagans, but we will happily accept work from other folks, Pagan or no, if it suits our sensibilities and aesthetic. We do not publish oathbound material, nor do we support the proliferation of fake “traditional” material which actually has a known or knowable source. We may publish liturgical poetry presented to us by the original author, but we do not publish spells or rituals unless they have independent literary merit.

We print previously unpublished work, except by arrangement. Previous publication includes the Internet, so if you have posted your work in your personal blog or other fora, please remove it before you submit it to us.

Poetry: Image-rich, sensuous, and strange. It should sound like the fairies would like it. Send 3-5 poems per submission.

Fiction: Fiction by or about Pagans, re-tellings of myth or fairy tales, original work in a mythic or fairy tale style, or anything that wouldn’t look out of place with them at a party.

Art: Digital formats, please. More specific information forthcoming.

Non-fiction: Craft (as in writing) essays, Craft (as in witch) essays, folklore, mythology, history relevant to our other interests, or any combination of the above. We welcome solid scholarly work with cries of glee, but personal musings are also perfectly acceptable.

Poetry may be any length; fiction should be less than 10,000 words. Microfictions are delightful. Send as an attachment (.doc, .rtf, or .odt file) to an e-mail with the genre, your name, and the title(s) of your work in the subject heading to:

submissionsATdeadmadorpoetDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

You may submit as many times or in as many genres as you like, but please wait until you receive a response before sending your next submission. We do not accept simultaneous submissions.

Rock & Sling, a journal of witness, seeks prose submissions for our next issue, Spring 2014. Rock & Sling views literature as a means of witnessing to the truth of human experience, often (but not necessarily) as it relates to faith. We seek essays and stories that challenge our assumptions, that expand, clarify, argue, rail, surprise, stun. We seek prose that shocks with its quality, not with its shocking tales.

We welcome lyric essays, personal narratives, hybrid forms, microfiction, short stories. Nondenominational prose.

To prevent our undue anxiety, please submit work by November 20.

Visit our website for full submission guidelines.

2013 Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest

Prize: $1,000 and publication in Quarter After Eight
Submission Deadline: November 30, 2013
Entry Fee: $15 for three pieces, includes a one year subscription

Submit up to three previously unpublished pieces of 500 words or fewer: prose poems, short-short stories, micro-essays, etc. We accept both electronic and paper submissions to the contest. All entries will be considered for publication in Quarter After Eight. For further details go here.

Quarter After Eight also welcomes general submissions in any genre. We are currently reading for our 20th issue forthcoming in early 2014. Quarter After Eight is dedicated to the exploration of innovative writing and regularly publishes new and established writers. For more information visit our website. 

Thanks!

New literary journal called Blue Lyra Review is currently open for Fall & Spring submissions. We are an online journal but we will print an annual best-of issue. beginning Dec 2013.

Our aim is to bring together the voices of writers and artists from a diverse array of backgrounds, paying special homage to minorities including Jewish writers and those from communities that are historically underrepresented in literary magazines.

Profits earned from this will be donated to the charities listed on our Web Site.

You can submit poems, nonfiction, fiction, artistic images, or translations through Submittable.

Nonfiction:
We’re interested in 500 – 4,000 word (maximum) personal essays, memoirs, creative non-fiction which have a strong story at its core, and where the author shows up on the page with passion, a personal stake, or meaningful reflection. Sorry, but essays over 4,000 words will not be reviewed. We are open to all topics but are especially interested in nature- or Jewish-oriented pieces. Make sure your submission has your contact information (name, address, phone number, email) on the attached (brief) cover letter ONLY. Please do NOT have any identifying information on any page of your submission except the cover page!

Poetry:
While poetry is full for issue 1.2, please begin submitting for Spring issue 2.1! Whether narrative or lyrical or experimental or prose poetry, we are simply looking for something that moves us. Please attach 3-5 poems at a time in a single file with a .doc, .docx, or .pdf extension, and put your name and poems in subject line (Silverman – poems). Don’t send just one poem unless it’s a long poem (more than three pages). We want to get a sense of your style as a writer, and one poem is not enough to do this. Make sure your submission has your contact information (name, address, phone number, email) on the attached (brief) cover letter ONLY. Please do NOT have any identifying information on any page of your submission except the cover page! Type the titles of your poems, separated by commas, in the Title box.

Fiction:
The most important thing is that it needs to be based more on truth than experimentation for experimentation’s sake. It can be light or it can be serious, but for it to be worthy, it must reflect life, with some fundamental human idea. Fiction should be organic and natural, and accept its premise (whatever it may be) without a wink or a nod. We’re currently looking for works that thrum on all cylinders and that are confident in a unique way. We’re interested in solid stories with weight, regardless of length (anywhere from 200 to 7,500 words). Send your submissions in .doc or .docx format with your contact information (name, address, phone number and email address) on your (brief) cover letter. Please make sure that you put the word count on the first page of the submission or in the cover letter! Please do NOT have any identifying information on any page of your submissions except the cover page. You may submit 1-3 micro pieces, but any pieces 500 words or longer must be submitted alone.

Translations:
We are looking for translations that read as if they were originally written in English, rather than as "translations." We especially prize translations that "honor" the music of the original text. In addition, translators should choose poems of high literary merit. We consider previously unpublished translations of poetry from any language. Submissions should include 3-6 poems, and should include both the original and the translation. Biographies of both the author and translator should be included in a cover letter, as well as a short paragraph on the process of translating these particular poems and/or why this particular author was chosen. Translators are expected to have acquired copyright permission to publish (online and in print) the original poems, if they are not in the public domain, BEFORE submitting.

Simultaneous submissions to other literary journals are okay, but please do not send more than one submission until you have received a response to your first submission.

Send original, unpublished material only.


JOB OPENING: We are looking for a web editor and copy editor—hopefully a Web & Copy Editor rolled into one to manage layout, fix any problems that arise, and add post content (poetry, nonfiction, art, fiction, interviews, etc.) for each issue, as well as to maintain the website (keep information up-to-date). After the web editor receives the content to add to the website, we hope he/she can accomplish this within 2 week time frame with issues being released 3 times per year.

If a candidate is talented and ambitious and would like to revamp the web design, that is welcome (but not necessary). This, like all positions here are volunteer positions.

Qualifications:
**Some HTML knowledge preferred.
**Must have done web editing in some capacity before. We use WordPress for our website. It’s pretty easy. We are not married to this and would be open to change.
**Must be fairly good at grammar and formatting.
.
Application Materials:

**A very brief letter explaining your past experiences editing and designing websites with any links to websites you’ve worked on in the past.
**Send all application materials to:

 bluelyrareview(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending email). Put “Web/ Copy Editor Position” in the subject line of your email.

The Citron Review is now accepting submissions for our Fall 2012 Issue. The Citron Review is an online literary journal edited by alumni of the esteemed Antioch University Los Angeles Creative Writing Program, listed as a top five low residency program in Poets and Writers and Atlantic Monthly.

What should you submit? The Citron Review accepts submission of Micro-Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction. We are looking for works that have that unmistakable magnetic pull. Stories that make us jump up from our seats or throw our head in our hands and cry, yes! Make us feel, make us think, be captivating, be moving, be infinite.

General Information: To submit to The Citron Review, please use our submissions manager.

You can also see full guidelines on our website.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but it is expected authors must notify us immediately if their work is published elsewhere.

We are now open to unsolicited submissions through our submission manager.
Submissions for Volume 5 are open from November 1, 2011 to December 1, 2011.

Poetry: submit 4-8 unpublished poems.
Fiction: submit a handful of flash pieces or a single short story totaling not more than 15 double-spaced pages of unpublished work.
Mixed Genre: not more than 15 double-spaced pages of whatever it is.
Grocery List: you decide the boundaries - make it interesting.

Regarding bios: we don’t care about those until we have accepted pieces. At that point we will give you all the props you deserve.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, of course. Just let us know at kmasullivan [at] yesyesbooks [dot] com if a portion of your submission needs to be withdrawn due to acceptance elsewhere.

Submit your work here. Good luck!

The Citron Review is still accepting submissions for Fall and Winter 2011 Publication.

The Citron Review is an online literary journal edited by alumni of the esteemed Antioch University Los Angeles Creative Writing Program, listed as a top five low residency program in Poets and Writers and Atlantic Monthly.

What should you submit? The Citron Review accepts submission of Micro-Fiction, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction. For word count specification, see guidelines below. Ultimately, we are looking for works that have that unmistakable magnetic pull. Stories that make us jump up from our seats or throw our head in our hands and cry, yes! Make us feel, make us think, be captivating, be moving, be infinite.

General Information: To submit to The Citron Review, send your work to:
submissions(at)thecitronreview.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail), with a subject heading of "Citron Review Submission: (Genre)."

In the body of the e-mail, please include a short bio in the third person (by way of introduction--no more than a paragraph) and the text of the submission. For photography and digital arts, please attach as a standard web-readable file (.jpg preferred, but .gif, and .png, are fine as well). We have no thematic requirements for submissions, but do require all work to be of the highest quality.

For Micro-Fiction: Submissions should be no more than sixty words. You may submit up to five micro-fiction selections per quarter.

For Flash-Fiction: Submissions should be no more than one-thousand words. You may submit up to two flash-fiction selections per quarter.

For Poetry: Submissions should be no more than 30 lines. You may submit up to five poetry selections per quarter.

For Creative Non-Fiction: Submissions should be no more than 1,000 words. All genres of non-fiction (memoir, essay, articles, reviews etc.) are acceptable. You may submit up to two Non-Fiction selections per quarter.

Reading of Submissions: We read submissions quarterly. Typically, we will respond to you at the beginning of each month. However, in times of high submissions (in the case of contests and the like), our turnaround time may be a bit longer. You can expect a response in less than a month, in most cases. If you have not heard from us in six weeks, please feel free to contact us for an update.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but it is expected authors must notify us immediately if their work is published elsewhere.