AS FEATURED IN
What do hit TV series The Walking Dead, Watchmen, Umbrella Academy & The Boys and films like Old Guard and Extraction all have in common?
THEY ALL
STARTED
AS COMICS
Hard Truth
99% OF SCRIPTS NEVER GET MADE.
Most scripts never get read by more than a handful of people. Even studio-commissioned and contest-winning screenplays very rarely get 'produced'.
Real Opportunity
WE WILL MAKE YOUR SCRIPT A REAL COMIC.
This contest is different. Winners get their scripts made into comic books or graphic novels and published by one of the top indie comic labels.
Endless Possibility
NOT JUST PUBLISHED. OPTIONED.
These comic properties will be optioned by leading Hollywood production companies and read by top industry producers, agents, managers and financiers.
2026 PREMIERE SPONSORS
Script2Comic is proud to announce two premiere sponsors for 2025! AMP Comics and Tambura Pictures have signed on to sponsor the this year's contest. What makes this special is these two companies recently wrapped production on a film adaptation of the forthcoming thriller-horror graphic novel WIDOW starring Abigail Cowen (Winx, The Ritual), Golden-Globe and Tony Award nominee Lou Diamond Phillips, and Academy Award nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, Little Children).
These two powerhouse partners are not just making comics, they are making films! ​
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AMP Comics is a creator-centric independent publisher dedicated to bringing exceptional stories to life across multiple platforms. As the official publisher of the Script2Comic Contest, AMP has already partnered with Kodansha Japan—the powerhouse manga publisher behind worldwide hits like AKIRA and Attack on Titan—to publish Kyojin, the 2025 Script2Comic winner.
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The publisher's impressive slate includes the comic reboot of the beloved 1980s TV series The Greatest American Hero, an official selection for Free Comic Book Day 2026, as well as their first feature film, WIDOW, which recently wrapped production starring Abigail Cowen, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Jackie Earle Haley, based on their forthcoming graphic novel. Their series LoveStruck was optioned by Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort (Deadpool) for development as a TV series and is the new official publisher of SHE BITES, the hit indie comic that was picked up for TV development by Westbrook, the producers of hit series Cobra Kai and Bel-Air.
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Led by CEO Don Handfield—a seasoned comic creator, film producer (The Founder, Kill the Messenger), and TV creator (Knightfall)—AMP Comics is distributed through Universal Distribution, Lunar Distribution's Massive Indies initiative, and Simon & Schuster in the bookstore market. With a commitment to quality, transparency, and creator satisfaction, AMP Comics continues to bridge the gap between independent publishing and mainstream entertainment.
Official website: https://www.ampcomics.com/
​​Tambura Pictures is a production company founded by Eshan Kamarsu dedicated to cultivating authored, audience-facing stories across film and television. We believe that everyone carries a unique cultural lens shaped by heritage, community, and lived experience—and while these differences shape who we are, they also reveal shared emotional truths that connect us all. Guided by this philosophy, Tambura Pictures explores diverse cultural perspectives through impactful cinematic storytelling that resonates with audiences around the world.
Official website: https://www.tamburapictures.com/
2025 PREMIERE SPONSOR
In 2025, our contest was sponsored by KODANSHA Ltd. - Japan’s leading publishing house based in Tokyo, having delivered stories into ready hands across the globe with a wide variety of content from comic books to novels, fashion magazines, news journals, and picture books for children, as well as TV anime, movies, series, and video games since 1909 in the spirit of “Inspire Impossible Stories.” KODANSHA is globally recognized as the licensor of some of the world’s most loved comic book IPs, including AKIRA, Attack on Titan, and Ghost in the Shell.”
​Our winning entry, Kyojin, by The Mul Brothers will see their book adapted into a comic book series alongside the newly launched Kodansha Studios and published in the US, and potentially as a manga or an animated series in Japan by Kodansha.
Official website: https://licensing.kodansha.com/​​​​​
PREVIOUS WINNERS
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TIMELINE
Deadlines, entry fees and judging timeline for the 2026 Script2Comic Contest.
Entries open February 3rd, 2026. (All deadlines are at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.)
Script2Comic Contest proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world's #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.
Early Bird - $55
Enter by February 28th, 2026
Standard Entry - $65
Enter by April 30th, 2026
Late Entry - $75
Enter by May 31st, 2026
Last Minute - $85
Enter by June 30th, 2026
Quarterfinalists
Announced October 15th, 2026
Semifinalists
Announced November 30th, 2026
Finalists
Announced December 15th, 2026
Winners
Announced January 31st, 2027
Feedback - $95
Available at time of entry. Professional screenplay coverage: 3-5 pages of expert feedback from experienced industry readers.
PRIZES
Grand Prize
2020 Grand Prize Winner by Hedwig Hale optioned by Westbrook Studios (Cobra Kai, Bel-Air)
Grand Prize
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Your story will be made into a limited series comic by Kodansha LTD and published by AMP Comics in the US.
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Your comic series will be put into active development for either film or television by manga powerhouse Kodansha, inspiring impossible stories since 1909.
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Winner will have a chance to be made into a manga by Kodansha and published internationally as well as considered for development into an animated series.
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Grand Prize winner receives 30 individual copies of their work.
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+ More!
From Page to Panel to Screen: Winners Get Published AND Optioned. Each year we select 4-6 winners to have their work adapted into comic form and optioned for development as a TV series or film. Our past sponsors include MOSAIC (Talladega Nights, The Dark Tower), PictureStart (Together, Borderlands), and Kodansha Japan (AKIRA).
3rd Place
1st Prize
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Your story turned into a one-shot comic and published by Amp Comics or another leading indie publisher.
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Your comic optioned by one or more of our production sponsors and put into active development.
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20 individual copies of your published work.
2nd Prize
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Your story made into a comic or anthology excerpt and published.
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Your comic will be optioned for film and television by one or more of our production company sponsors and put into active development.
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10 individual copies of your published work.
3rd Prize
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Your story made into a comic short story and published in an anthology.
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Your property optioned for film and television by one or more of our production company sponsors and put into active development.
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10 individual copies of your published work.
2020 Grand Jury Prize Winner by Arun Narayanan
Special Jury Prize
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This is a special sometimes awarded by the jury of judges or sponsors. This prize winner will be made into a comic, graphic novel, children's book or anthology excerpt that will be published by AMP comics or another publisher.
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The Special Jury Prize-winning property will be optioned for film and television by one or more of our production company sponsors and put into active development.
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10 individual copies of their work.
JUDGES
Here are just a small sampling of the films and TV shows produced by our current and previous industry judges. We will soon announce a new line up of top industry professionals who will judge the 2024 Contest.
2026 GRAND PRIZE JURY
Evaluated by Hollywood and Comic Book Legends: For 2026 we are implementing a jury system for our Grand Prize voting, consisting of top entertainment and comic book industry veterans from comics, TV and film. More jury members will be added as the season progresses!
Jim Bissell - Production Designer
Jim Bissell is an Emmy winning, and Academy-Award and BAFTA-nominated production designer whose distinguished career spans television and film. He won an Emmy Award for Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1980), which led to his discovery by Steven Spielberg and a BAFTA nomination for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).
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Bissell's extensive collaboration with George Clooney includes Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night, and Good Luck (earning him an Academy Award nomination), Leatherheads, The Monuments Men, Suburbicon, and The Midnight Sky. Additional credits include Jumanji, 300, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. In 2015, he received the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Tawnia McKiernan - Director
Tawnia McKiernan is a prolific television director with over two decades of experience in the entertainment industry. She began her directing career in 1996 on the syndicated television series Renegade, where she co-directed alongside her father, legendary writer-producer Stephen J. Cannell.
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In 2002, McKiernan was hired to direct multiple episodes of the critically acclaimed series NYPD Blue. She subsequently directed episodes of numerous high-profile television series, including ER, Bones, Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Grimm, Monk, The Walking Dead, Cobra Kai, NCIS, and Bosch: Legacy, among many others.
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Committed to preserving and honoring her father’s legacy, McKiernan is currently working on a documentary about Stephen J. Cannell’s life and career.
Eshan Kamarsu - CEO
Tambura Pictures
Eshan Kamarsu is a filmmaker and the founder and CEO of Tambura Pictures, where he leads the company’s creative direction, development slate, and production partnerships.
As a producer, Kamarsu is overseeing a growing slate of films and television projects across genres, including the upcoming horror-thriller WIDOW, Tambura Pictures’ first major production.
In addition to his producing work, Kamarsu is an active writer and director whose films place genre at the center of the audience experience, while drawing from Indian culture—through mythology, folklore, history, and lived experience—to shape story and character, often led by Indian-American protagonists.
Don Handfield - CEO
Amp Comics
Don Handfield is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and comic book creator with over two decades of experience developing IP across film, television, and publishing. He co-created History Channel's Knightfall, wrote for Amazing Stories on Apple+, and produced the critically acclaimed The Founder starring Michael Keaton.
As founder and CEO of Amp Comics, his work has been adapted for major studios including Maximum Effort, Westbrook Entertainment, and Amblin Entertainment. An educator at UCLA, Chapman University, and UNCSA, Handfield's forthcoming book The Three Ring Method for Story (Simon & Schuster, 2025) presents his innovative framework for narrative development across all platforms.
Eric Williams - Manager / Producer
Zero Gravity
Eric began his career at Paradigm and then moved to Writers & Artists Agency as a Literary Agent. He transitioned to management in 2004, where he began growing the management division of Zero Gravity. Specializing in representing screenwriters and directors, Eric has a passion and reputation for discovering and breaking new talent, and represents exciting up-and-coming artists in addition to well-established industry professionals.
Eric’s diverse client list has included writers and/or directors involved in Hollywood studio blockbusters such as Frozen, the Harry Potter franchise, the Saw franchise, The Accountant, Sherlock Holmes, Underworld, The A-Team, Annabelle, Animaniacs and many others.
Eric was instrumental in packaging the Emmy-winnimng series Ozark on Netflix.
Michael Calero - CEO
Massive Publishing
Michael Calero is the Sacramento, California-based CEO/Co-Founder of Massive Publishing, as well as the creator and writer of the hit-series Quested and American Psycho, respectively. Besides his written contributions to the craft, Calero is also an accomplished artist, having contributed artwork to some of the highest-selling series of the past year, including Sean Murphy’s Zorro: Man Of The Dead, The Plot Holes, Wesley Snipes’ The Exiled, Ninja Funk, Crashdown, and Alpha Betas. He has also contributed to DC Comic’s Batwoman, Aspen Comics “Fathom”, Marvel’s trading card lines, and many other series over the years.
Artist Facebook/instragram: @michaelcalero
CRITERIA
Judges assign a score based on the following elements (10 points each):
1. Concept
The basic premise of your story -- what it is about.
2. Plot
What happens in your story -- how the events unfold.
3. Characters
How compelling and unique are your characters.
4. Theme
The universal message your story conveys.
5. Dialogue
Unique voices, buried subtext, real emotion.
6. Market Appeal
Commercial potential and audience demand.
7. Pacing
The timing of plot and character development.
8. Structure
Does your story have a satisfying beginning, middle and end.
9. Presentation
The style and format with which your story is on the page.
10. Emotion
Does your story make people feel something. Good, bad or ugly.
SPONSORS
CONTACT US
1005 Broxton Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024
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