posted by Series Editor Bill Kartalopoulos
The Best American Comics is part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's series of annual "Best American" titles. Like all titles in the "Best American" series, each annual volume of The Best American Comics presents a selection of outstanding works principally chosen from a pool of submissions collected during the previous year by a Series Editor, with final choices for inclusion made by a different Guest Editor each year.
Eligible work must be submitted to the Series Editor in order to guarantee consideration. The Best American Comics has an open submission policy; any artist or publisher may submit work to Best American Comics, and all eligible work that is submitted will be considered. We only require one copy of an eligible comic in order to consider that work.
New, North American comics first published during each volume's selection period are eligible for consideration. This includes work from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Please note that all work must have been published for the first time in some form during the eligibility period for each volume. We do not consider unpublished work. We do consider work that has been published in any format and at any scale, including self-published work and work published online. Digital comics can be submitted as print-outs or via e-mail; we (greatly) prefer low-res PDFs, but can also accept links if necessary. If you have a question about formats or eligibility please feel free to get in touch via e-mail, and the Series Editor will make best efforts to respond in a timely manner. Responses, however, are not guaranteed. If a submitting artist or publisher is not sure about the eligibility status of a work, it is best to submit the work with as much information as possible about its publication status so that we may determine if it meets our eligibility criteria.
We accept work all year long as part of a rolling submission process. We strongly encourage artists and publishers to submit comics as they are published throughout the year so that we can have sufficient time to carefully consider each work.
As always, the ongoing robust diversity of this series depends greatly upon your ongoing submissions. Thanks so much for giving us a chance to consider your work.
Please send work, labeled with contact information and date of publication, to:
Bill Kartalopoulos
Series Editor
The Best American Comics
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
3 Park Avenue, 19th floor
New York, NY 10016
| Volume | Eligibility |
| Best American Comics 2019 | New, North American comics first published between September 1, 2017 - August 31, 2018 |
| Best American Comics 2020 | New, North American comics first published between September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2019 |
| Best American Comics 2021 | New, North American comics first published between September 1, 2019 - August 31, 2020 |
PLEASE NOTE: We do not have a hard submissions deadline, but cannot guarantee consideration of work received after mid-September during each review cycle.