1. T&Cs – By entering this competition you agree to accept and be bound by these terms and conditions.  The Promoter shall not be liable for any loss, damage or consequential damage of any nature whether in contract, tort including negligence or otherwise caused by acceptance of these terms or in connection with the prize or the competition.  
ROI residents: These terms and conditions shall be governed by Irish law and the Courts of the Republic of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction. NI residents: These terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of Northern Ireland and the Courts of Northern Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

2. Entrants – This competition is open to anyone aged 16 and over who is a resident of the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, except for employees of The Irish Times (the Promoter), The Comics Lab or, their families and any other company connected with the competition. In the case of a team entry, both parties should be resident in Ireland or Northern Ireland. Only 1 (one) entry per entrant subject to point 6 below will be accepted.   All entry instructions form part of the rules.

3. Dates – Graphic stories entries will be accepted until 17.30pm on Friday 8th March 2019 (closing date). The winning entrant and runner-up will be notified by email by Saturday 6th April. The name of the winning entrant and runner-up will also be announced and printed in the The Irish Times Ticket (Saturday 6th April 2019).

4. Prizes – The following prizes:
(a) €100 (one hundred euros) to the winning entrant; and (b) €50 (fifty euros) to each of the two runners-up, will be awarded. The prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter.

5. Copyright/Ownership – Entrants will own and retain any copyright in their entries. Where an entry is produced as the result of the collaboration of a writer and an artist (i.e. joint authors). The Promoter will accept the joint authors of the entry as joint entrants.

6. Entries can be with or without words, in black and white or colour, and fiction or non-fiction. 

Each entry must be:

(a) in English;
(b) an original work of which the entrant is the author (or joint author in respect of point 5 above) which has not been previously professionally or commercially published and is not in breach of any third party right; (c) complete in itself (i.e. not a fragment of a larger work).
(d) designed to run as a four-page story across two double-page spreads (four pages in total) in The Irish Times Ticket. 

Each page of your story will appear in Ticket in these dimensions: 250mm (W) x 310mm (H) within Ticket page, which is 275mm (W) x 340mm (H)

(e) entries should be submitted as:
4 x JPEGS, 150dpi, RGB.

Each JPEG should be named as follows:
Page01_first_name_surname_title_of_story
Page02_first_name_surname_title_of_story 
and so on.

The winner and both runners-up will be asked to provide high resolution files suitable for printing as follows:
PDF / 300dpi / CMYK - All blacks should only be 100% black (Keyline & Text)

7. Unacceptable Entries – Entries which are illegible or received after the closing time & date will not be accepted.  Responsibility is not accepted for entries lost, damaged or delayed as a result of network, computer hardware or software failures of any kind. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.  

8. Events –  In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative of equal or greater value.

9. Judges – The competition will be judged by 3 judges who will look for emerging talent and seek to identify writers/artists of high quality and original graphic short stories. The judges’ decisions will be final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to their decisions or the competition.

10. Winning Entrant – The winning entrant [and two runners-up] grant[s] the Promoter, The Comics Lab and Dublin Comics Art Festival (DCAF) all necessary and relevant permissions in relation to the publication of the winning entr[y/ies] in the Ticket, on www.irishtimes.com and and at the DCAF festival. The winning entrant [and runners-up] also agree[s] to the promoter’s use of his/her name[s] and photograph[s] in relation to publicity material.  The competition winners may be required to participate in unpaid publicity arising from this competition.
 The Promoter, The Comics Lab and DCAF each reserve the right to edit the winning [and runner-up] entr[y/ies] in respect of the above publication.

11. Data – By entering the competition, all entrants will be deemed to have accepted and be bound by the rules and consent to the transfer of their personal data to the Data Controller for the purposes of the administration of this competition and any other purposes to which the entrant has consented. Full details of our privacy policy can be found here.  

12. Promoter and Data Controller: The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times Building, P.O. Box 74, 24 - 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2.