Call for Submissions: STRANGE TIMES #5 – MY BEST JOKE!

Everyone has a go-to joke! What’s yours?

Strange Times #5 will highlight all of them! Contributors are welcome to contribute their finest single piece of humor to bring the house down…and help make a zine that everyone will love!

What is your best joke? Is it a gag? A “dad joke”? A story joke? An observation that makes everyone laugh when they stop to think about it? (Is it a running series of jokes?)

How will you present your joke? Will it be a meme? Will it be a narrative? Will it be a stand-up comedian with flop sweat streaming down their face? Will it be created with photography? Illustration? 

Logistics/specs/deadlines for Strange Times #5:

• The zine will be full magazine size (8.5″x11″) in black and white (greyscale is OK). Contributions should be 7.5″x10″ or scalable.
• Contributions can be mailed to Phoenix Productions (message me for an address) or Facebook DM’d/emailed to me.
• Every contribution needs to have some element of illustration. Text-only submissions will require imagery to accompany.
• Graphics should be 300 DPI, JPG or PNG files. I can work with PDFs but find them cumbersome.
• It is presumed that most pieces will be one page long. That’s not to say that we can’t go longer if you need to set up that perfect punchline. Just check with me to see if we can make it work.
• This will be an ALL-AGES zine. I love my “adult” humor as much as the next person, but not this time. 
• While there will be a contributor page, we will eschew the standard biographical material and instead ask contributors to submit one funny fact about themselves with a self-portrait (drawn or photographed) in a square format using the above specs. 
• Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2024. Target publication date is June 1, 2024.
• Contributors will receive one complimentary copy of the zine upon publication. Additional copies will be available via Amazon.

Returning to help assemble this issue is Strange Times #1 spotlight artist Alan Groening, who will be contributing a piece or two of his own. Alan, if you haven’t noticed, is one of the funnier guys in small press publishing. I’m thrilled that he’s coming back and can’t think of a better topic!

Sharpen those pencils, and your wits, you wisenheimers! Can’t wait to see what you have!