Submitting B&W Magazine Gag Cartoons to a Magazine That Publishes Only Color Cartoons

I got a good question from a reader about submitting cartoons to magazines.

"I'm wondering, when you send cartoons to a market that publishes colour cartoons, do you submit full-colour cartoons or do you send black/whites and colour them if one is chosen? It's just that sending colour copies is a bit expensive and, frankly, I don't really know how to colour. However, if I ever make a sale, I'd figure something out."

It reminded me that when I started, I made the decision to only send finished cartoons. Nothing rough. All inked and toned, black and white finishes.

But not color.

Even adding some gray tone takes time. I developed an "assembly line" method, lining up all of my inked cartoons in a row on the kitchen counter (space was hard to come by in Brooklyn, NY), and applying a gray tone to each:

Above from Raconteur #1; my true story "The Petty Indignities That Ruin My Life."  You can read the whole thing at the link.

But ... if you KNOW that the publication ONLY publishes color cartoons, the question is: should you labor over your batch of ten or twenty cartoons, adding color to each and every one?

And since you know that you will only sell a fraction of the batch, you also are aware, as you push the watercolor brush or push the pixels to add the color, that a lot of this time will be wasted. 

One cartoonist that I know and admire INSISTS on coloring all of his cartoons. He told me that they just don't look finished to him unless they are in full color. I am in awe of his work and his energy to do this. 

Do I color all of the cartoons that I submit? No.

Should I color all of the cartoons that I submit? No. And the editors do not expect it.

If I did, I wouldn't have time to brush my teeth, mow the lawn and do this here blog, y'know?

If and when you get a sale, the editor will email you, asking for the kind of file they want. Usually, it's:

"300dpi, CMYK color. By Friday."

Now what is that you said about not really knowing how to color? Yipes!

Well ... that's another blog entry.