My ultra-top-secret artist is on board now for what is shaping up to be a pitch to Dark Horse's New Recruits program. All I am at liberty to say about this artist right now is that he absolutely rocks.

(And that, dear reader, is an understatement along the lines of "The Beatles? They had a couple of good songs.")

Okay, I lied. Thanks to Samantha at Dark Horse, I learned that New Recruits is not the way to go for this project. So, we'll be submitting via the regular Dark Horse submission process.

In the interest of helping any other aspiring creators who may find themselves in a similar position of reading Dark Horse's submission guidelines and then reading about the New Recruits program and saying to themselves, "Wha-- huh? Where am I? What day is it? Do I submit through New Recruits or the regular way?", here is an excerpt from the Dark Horse Creating Comics message board in which Samantha very kindly helped me make sense of this (and I quote):

New Recruits is the place to submit completed projects - projects for which you have completed most, if not all, of the work. It is better suited for one-shot projects, like single volume graphic novels or short stories. New Recruits submissions are reviewed annually... with the best submission(s) earning publication. Last year, we published the best of the best in an anthology called New Recruits, vol. 1.

Regular submissions, on the other hand, cover a much wider territory - writing samples, art samples, comic series pitches...etc. They are evaluated year-round, rather than at one point during the year. Use our regular submissions process if you want to submit work from a project that is unfinished, any kind of 'sample' of your work, or something you don't want to wait that long to have reviewed.

Please note that Dark Horse does not review unsolicited scripts, story ideas, or proposals pertaining to properties currently published by Dark Horse or any property not owned by the submitter. Such material will be destroyed without review.

So, there you go. If you want to pitch a limited series, as I do, you should use the normal submission channels.

Thanks to Samantha at Dark Horse for letting me quote her on this.