”Mother!” Is an anthology published by Hivemind Creative Co-Op meant to be produced by mothers working in the comics and art industry about motherhood. We seek to help mitigate the chronic under employment of mothers and offer an opportunity exclusively to them to tell their stories and place their foot firmly into or back into the industry.
What We Want-
Authentic Expressions – Whether the good, the bad or the ugly, we want stories and creative works that showcase the experience of real mothers. Stories can be in any genre, horror, comedy, slice of life, fantasy etc.
Themes of Motherhood – Mothers as creatives can create a beautiful and wonderful diverse body of work, but we are specifically looking for work on the theme of motherhood.
Diverse Perspective – We are open to creators from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds. The motherhood experience looks different depending on their circumstance. We want lots of points of view represented in this collection.
Stories and Art from Mothers – Creative Teams that have at least one mother in either the artist or writer role, or solo creatives that are mothers.
Four page comic stories – This anthology is meant to be a little more short form than our bigger tent pole showcases. We anticipate this is a niche market. We also are shooting for a May publication (in time for Mother’s Day in the US) and will begin crowd funding in early 2026. Keeping the page count lower will help us keep the crowd funding goal low during the time when our audience will be recovering from holidays and a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty. It is also the number one goal of Hivemind to treat and pay our creatives fairly so it is imperative that we keep realistic goals to make sure that happens.
Illustrations, artwork and Single Page Creative Writing – We like to break up our sequential artworks with book ends of single illustrations or writing, sometimes paired together. You can be creative but the end product will be in single page standard American comic dimensions.
Quality Work – Anyone from any stage of their career is welcome to apply, but we are focusing on work that will look polished and complete in the final product.
Timeliness – Publishing requires meeting specific deadlines. We are always open and honest about what those are at every stage of the process and we need our creatives to meet them.
What We Don’t Want-
Teams or solo creators that don’t include a mother – This is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish. Any submission MUST include a “mother” on the team or it will be rejected. This cannot include a “pet mom” “friend group mom” or “work mom” but actual people with lived experience as a mother of humans or would be mother of humans. Ignoring that requirement will annoy our Creative Director and could potentially affect your future acceptance to an anthology put out by Hivemind. Please Please Please do not antagonize the Creative Director.
Work that is off theme – if you are a creative who is a mother but do not have an idea for a piece about motherhood, we encourage you to wait until another anthology opens up that does inspire you. Again, ignoring the basic requirements for submissions is more likely to aggravate the submissions team than score you an opportunity.
Ghosts – If you are accepted as a contributor you must be ready to commit to the project. If we start the process and never hear from you again, you will leave us and your fellow creatives in the lurch. Obviously life happens and communication is key. But at the time you agree to participate, you should be prepared to see it through.
What we can offer –
Mother! Will be crowdfunded and independently published. The initial funding goal is set based on making sure every contributor gets paid. Hivemind has successfully run a crowd funding campaign in 2025 and has experience making it happen. Our current page rate for sequential work is $100 USD per page. That split is $60 USD to artist and $40 USD to writer. Single page creative writing is offered $40 USD for the piece. Single illustration and artwork selected is offered $60 – $100 USD depending on the work. If certain stretch goals are met, we can do a print run for distribution. Each creator is also entitled to a profit share of the book. After the print and distribution costs, the profit is split equally amongst creatives and paid out quarterly. Each creator is also entitled to one print copy of the book as well as the ability to purchase more at cost. If additional stretch goals are met, each creator will be given a bonus.
Hivemind requests the rights for first and exclusive publication for one calendar year. Creators may include excerpts on social media and publicly available portfolios. Projects may only be presented in their entirety privately as part of portfolios during that time period. After that calendar year, Hivemind will have the right to reproduce the entire collection as it stands in perpetuity abiding by the profit share model. Rights to the story and intellectual property will remain with the individual creators or creator team. Those individuals may post and republish the work as they see fit after that calender year. Further publication or adaptation of the work by outside parties will be between those parties and the creators attached. Parties that reach out to Hivemind about individual pieces will be directed to those creatives. Parties reaching out to Hivemind about the anthology as a whole will be met with the entire team for discussions. No deals would be cut without proper compensation to every creative and every creative signing off on those deals. Hivemind has small operating costs but the overall goal is to support artists and that is always the first priority.
Creators selected are also invited to join our discord server. This helps with communication, but you will have access for up to one year. As a creative collective, we have members there to help with guidance in industries, critique space, portfolio building and more as well as just a collaborative and supportive space.
*** Rules & Guidelines ***
-Submissions will be open from December 1, 2025 until January 5, 2026 11:59pm PST.
-Comic stories need to be 4 pages in length.
– Creative Writing should be 500 words or under. Or what would be considered “one page”
– Stand alone illustrations and artwork need to be in vertical format
-Final page size will be 7″x10.5″ with a .25″ bleed and a 6.25″x9.75″ live area. Comic stories can include double page spreads
-Images should be submitted as jpegs with the largest dimension being 4000px or less for the application.
-Writing submissions, scripts and samples should be submitted as pdfs
– Files should be named ‘CreatorLastNameFirstInital_Title_Thing’ ex: SnyderN_TheGarden_RoughDraft.pdf
SnyderN_TheGarden_ArtSample1.jpeg
-Creators can submit as a Creative Team or Sole Creator, Illustrator or Single Page Writer.
-Multiple entries are allowed but limited to two per category, three submissions total, and must be submitted on separate applications. As this is a smaller anthology, only one may be selected. We want your best work, not all of your work.
-Subject must be based on the theme of motherhood.
-The intended audience is 16+, submissions should not have excessive gore, explicit sexual content, or over use of adult language. Absolutely no use of hate speech, or slurs.
-Submissions must have at least one mother on their team. A “mother” for the purposes of this anthology is defined as follows: a person who has given birth, who adopted or fostered and occupies a domestic position similar to that of mother, someone who may have experienced pregnancy or child loss, and people who would be identified as a mother by society at large even if that does not match their gender identity. LGBTQ+ identifying individuals can and should be recognized as mothers and are welcome to apply. The submission form will include a question for a creator to specify how they relate to the title of mother. These submissions are only reviewed by up to three team members and are not shared to the public or the Co-Op at large. Failure to abide by this rule will mean an automatic rejection and potential hinderance from joining Hivemind anthologies in the future.
***What You Will Need to Submit***
Creative Team/ Sole Creator –
-Artist Blurb/Bio, Writer Blurb/Bio
-Logline for your story
-Rough summary of the story. You may also submit thumbnailed or sketched pages if you think more visually, but we have to understand the story you are telling.
-Link to Portfolio -or- completed samples previous comic work -or- a sample of previous comics writing and artwork -or- rough draft.
-Who is the person on your team that is a mother and how do they relate to that title.
Illustrator –
-Rough Sketch of Concept
-Artist Statement on concept
-Artist Blurb/Bio
-Link to Portfolio -or- 4 art samples
-How you relate to the title of mother
Writer –
-Summary of work, or rough draft.
-link to portfolio -or- 3 writing samples in the same style of submission
-Author Blurb/Bio
***Timeline For Project***
-December 1st: Submissions Open
-January 5th: Submissions Close
-January 12th: Acceptance emails are sent
-January 19th: contracts are issued, work begins
-February 13th: half way check in
-February 28th: Completed work is due
-March 4th: Kickstarter is launched
-First week of April: Kickstarter is closed
-Two weeks after kickstarter ends: Kickstarter releases funds, payout begins and books are ordered.
-May 4th: books and rewards ship, digital copy is posted.
Hivemind Creative Co-Op 