To Be Continued #8

Mr. McMambo didn’t mean to bring you down. At least, bringing you down isn’t all I was trying to do. True, I’ve been telling you for a whole month, over and over, that you’ll never break into comics, no matter how good you are. Granted, fellow (and unfortunately much funnier) web columnist Gail Simone recently suggested that I change the title of my column to “Crushing Your Dreams.” And yes, maybe deep down I am just trying to scare you off because there’s already too much good competition for the jobs I want. Damn, did I say the last one out loud?

Ahem.

My point is, you’re still here, right? At least, there’s a couple of you left. Maybe you’ve realized that most of the things I tell you are simply the ravings of a broken and bitter man. But you also understand that, hidden within my endless, muddy stream of useless bitching is the occasional nugget of pure gold. For your sifting convenience, this week, all of the gold will be highlighted. Feel free to skim the rest, or skip it entirely.

The three elements to getting your first assignment:

1. Know somebody.
2. Be lucky.
3. Be useful.

Last time I told you my own real-life breaking in story, here are a few more, to illustrate the principles above. All of them assume you have the talent to do the job, once you get it.

Sam Kieth was the first professional I actually saw get his first job*. This unique and very talented penciller had been drawing a self-published, low print-run, black and white book about guys in battle suits who smacked each other around. The name of it escapes me at the moment. Terranauts? That’s probably not it. Anyway, he sent in some Xeroxed pencil samples, which went right into The Big Pile. However, just before it disappeared, never to be seen again, Gregory Wright rescued a copy of the comic book Sam had included with his submission. Comic book editors like comic books. If your submission includes a printed copy of your work, the chances of it getting read go up exponentially (all the way from “snowball in Hell” to “miniscule”). When editor Bob Budianski complained about not having anybody to draw a new toy book he’d just been assigned, one with lots of machines and battle armor in it, somebody remembered Sam’s comic. He got the gig. Next thing you know, he’s drawing Deadman all weird and a star is born. He was lucky (his submission didn’t get tossed), he was useful (Bob needed an artist who could draw machines right that moment), and thanks to his comic, if he didn’t exactly know somebody, several people at the office knew him.

John Rozum, writer of Xombi, X-Files and Scooby-Doo, was friendly with several Marvel Comics staffers. One day, while hanging out at Marvel, he saw a submission on editor Craig Anderson’s desk with a Post-It note from Tom DeFalco, asking Craig to take a closer look at the attached pitch. John, who is evil, removed the Post-It from that pitch, stuck it to a What-If? pitch of his own and left it on Craig’s desk. Craig bought John’s story a few days later. I don’t know what happened to the other guy. I guess the point of telling this is so you know that you can substitute being diabolical for being lucky.

Slingers and Captain Marvel penciller “Chriscross” literally broke into comics. Forcing his way into Milestone’s cramped offices, he demanded to see someone who could hire him. This is not a good plan for most people. In fact, I was going to toss his ass out on the street, until I noticed a couple of things. First, he’s actually bigger than me. This almost never happens, outside the realm of professional wrestling (and I’m not talking about the little guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin or Goldberg, either. I’m talking about the guys who are so big they have to wear overalls and pretend that they’re hillbillies). The second thing I noticed is that Chris’ samples were good. Real good. Also, I happened to need somebody to pencil Blood Syndicate right that moment. See a pattern yet?

The other half of the Blood Syndicate team, Ivan Velez, Jr. got hired because I was a fan of his self-published comic, Tales Of The Closet. I went and found him. So don’t sniff at that small-press gig you’ve been offered. True, the check probably won’t clear. But editors read a lot of that stuff. You can use it to make your mark, even if it isn’t necessarily the project of your dreams.

Okay, I’ve already beaten this horse half to death. Before I move on, let me beat him one last time. Let’s say you’ve lined up that editor and s/he’s all primed to look at your fill-in pitch. Here are three “don’ts” and a “do” that’ll help you make that sale.

1. Don’t pitch a multi-part story.
Unless they asked for it, they don’t need it. You’re trying to make yourself useful, remember?

2. Don’t “blow up the Enterprise.”
This one is also sometimes described as “putting the toys back the way you found them.” In other words, don’t make radical changes to the premise, no matter how cool they might be. If you do blow up the Enterprise, you better fix it by the end of the story. See almost any episode of “Voyager” for illustrations.

3. Don’t cherry pick.
If the regular writer has been developing a subplot where the hero’s girlfriend is dying of cancer, you are not allowed to kill or cure her in you fill-in. I’m guessing the regular guy already has plans along those lines.

4. Do try to write a story that restates the central themes of the title.
The easiest fill-in sale you’ll ever make is a story that does this well. Pitching Spider-Man? Show us that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Kurt Busiek routinely writes the best fill-ins in the business, or at least he did back when he was still writing them. He marries an accurate analysis of what a title is really about with a solid conflict that tests, then reaffirms that premise.

Okay, I’m running long again, let me leave you with a bit of folk wisdom I like to call DeFalco’s Law. Tom used to say that Marvel already has all the average creators it needs. If you want to break in, you have to be better than average. Tom’s right, if you want a job, especially as a writer, you have to offer something that they can’t get elsewhere. Fortunately, you already have it, your individual voice and experience. So let’s apply ourselves, shall we?

Until next time, this is To Be Continued…

*No he wasn't. Actually this story is about a completely different artist. See column #10 for details.


Dwayne McDuffie is the creator of the Milestone Universe and Damage Control. He has just realized that somebody reading this might know where he can lay his hands on the first 3 volumes of Another Rainbow’s Little Lulu hardcover collection that he’s missing, right? Oh, and you can go to his web site to see what a comic book script looks like.

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