Hypothetical situation: As a writer, an artist asks me to write them a short (appx 4-8 pgs) script for their portfolio, specifying a Marvel character. I write the script, they draw it, send me the art as a .pdf or some such. Making no attempts to profit off this comic, and not intending it a pitch of any sort, but just as an example of my writing ability, can I send that comic to an editor at Marvel, or will it just get binned? Thanks!
Yep, counts as an unsolicited submission. In all honest, we wouldn’t even look at it as samples of your friend’s artwork.
But that doesn’t mean those same pages couldn’t be used as samples to show to editors at Dark Horse, IDW or other publishers. Comics is comics, and if they’re good pages, it doesn’t matter who owns the characters when you’re showing samples.
