Core Principles

Equity of Access

When comics professionals are underpaid and overworked, arts education is increasingly expensive, and editorial jobs are largely centralized in a city with prohibitively high rent, the industry becomes limited to those with resources and increases barriers to entry for people from marginalized communities. We will use our funding to:

• Provide free resources for emerging professionals.
• Establish grants for editors and creators.

Supporting Emerging Artists

Comics is a largely decentralized profession with many different publishing practices. It is also often viewed as a “dream job.” These factors mean that emerging artists may inadvertently accept exploitative page rates or punishing deadlines, believing that they are the norm. We hope that by providing open resources and access to a network of experienced professionals, we will be able to improve working conditions for emerging creators and reduce the likelihood of burnout.

Fostering Community

Emerging comics professionals can benefit in many ways from a robust community of peers and elders. Through our work, we hope to:

• Support community spaces.
• Create networking opportunities.
• Provide a way for established artists to lift up those entering the industry.

Open Communication

We believe that open discussion of professional methods, compensation, and working experiences will allow comics professionals to negotiate stronger contracts and create stronger work.

Learning Together

Our goal as an organization is not to act as a final authority on any subject, but to foster a space where professionals can learn from each other and lift each other up.

Creators First

We do not support AI models that scrape artwork from artists without their explicit consent.