Your Story Belongs on Zimbabwean Shelves
There is a generation of readers in Zimbabwe growing up hungry for stories that look like them, sound like them, and come from their own continent. And across Africa, there are extraordinary creators making exactly those stories. What has been missing is the bridge between the two.
ARM Comics is building that bridge — and we’re inviting you onto it.
Who we are and Why We’re Making this Open Call to African Comic Book And Manga Creators
ARM Comics is a comic and manga publisher and distributor based in Zimbabwe. We exist because of a simple conviction: African comics deserve to be read widely, sold sustainably, and made by African hands. Our ambition is to become the publisher a generation of Zimbabwean childhoods grows up on — and to get there by championing not just African settings, but authentic African storytelling craft.
We work across three arms: publishing original stories, distributing comics into Zimbabwe and the wider SADC region, and helping African work reach markets beyond the continent. This call is about the second of those — bringing finished African stories to Zimbabwean readers.
The Open Call to African Comic Book and Manga Creators
If you are a creator, studio, or publisher anywhere in Africa with a completed comic or manga, we want to bring it to readers in Zimbabwe. However, we will take submissions for work that is close to submission if release dates are clear.
You do not need to be Zimbabwean. You do not need to relocate, redraw your work, or hand over the rights to your story. ARM Comics is reaching out to you if your book is finished and you’d like it read in a new market. Consider this a personal invitation.
As we push for African comics, we’re looking for complete, self-contained stories. This could be a finished volume, a completed arc, a body of work hat is ready to be printed and put into a reader’s hands. Comics or manga, any genre, any African visual tradition. The most important thing for us is that it is done and it is done good.
How it works — and why it’s low-risk
For most creators, the barrier to a new market isn’t ambition. It’s cost and risk. We’ve built our model to remove both.
- You keep your work. You retain ownership of your comic and its intellectual property. Always.
- Non-exclusive. Licensing with us never stops you publishing or selling anywhere else. Zimbabwe becomes an addition to your reach, not a restriction on it.
- Profit-share, not a gamble. We work on a profit-share basis: shared costs are recovered first, then earnings are split transparently. You’re never asked to fund your own distribution.
- Physical-first, with a discovery funnel. Ultimately, print is our primary format — real books on real shelves and at events — supported by free online serialisation that helps new readers find your story before they buy it.
- Your comic reaches readers through Zimbabwe’s conventions and events — including Otakukon, the anime and comics festival where our community already gathers — through retail, and across the SADC region.
What to send
To put your story forward for distribution in Zimbabwe, send us:
- A short introduction to you or your studio
- A synopsis of the story and its genre
- Sample pages, or a link to read the work
- How many completed volumes, chapters, or pages are available
- Where the work is currently published or sold, if anywhere
- Email submit@armcomics.co.zw with “African Submission” in the subject line.
The Bigger Picture behind Calling on African Comic Book and Manga Creators
Every story we bring to Zimbabwe makes the case a little louder: that African comics are not a niche or a novelty, but a body of work worth reading, collecting, and passing on. If you’ve made something complete, and you want it read here, we would be honoured to carry it.