Newsletter #56: Breakin' In

And entering. And staying a while. Maybe too long?

A lot of fans, when they meet me at conventions, say the same thing: “Why? Why you?”

Their eyes narrow as they size me up, wondering what it is about me that caught Marvel’s eye when there are so many other white, bearded men who could handily write 20 pages a month that always have a fistfight and a lesson learned (“with great power I will fuck you up doctor octopus”).

As most readers know, in 2013 I co-created Image Comics’ Sex Criminals, a book that surprised all of us by not being immediately cancelled. I was its illustrator, riding on the hot, hot coattails of beloved chum and world-class writer Matt Fraction. Life was good! Before all of that I’d made my own black & white comics that I wrote and drew, and wrote and illustrated for a national newspaper in Canada, but I was pretty pleased to just focus on drawing and jokes for our dumb, filthy book.

Then in 2014, with my higher visibility as an “artist,” I was approached by Marvel editor Wil Moss for an art job. It was a simple one. I just needed to do a “fun” Deadpool take on these Original Sin covers of characters interacting with a, uh, giant floating eyeball.

As a kid growing up reading Marvel comics my ultimate dream was to draw their beloved character “Big Eyeball,” so I was over the moon. I submitted my rough:

And then, once that was approved, I submitted the final:

Man, was I excited! My work on a Marvel cover! I couldn’t wait to show my parents and spend an hour explaining to them that no, this isn’t Spider-Man, and yes that’s a floating large eyeball and no the pay wasn’t amazing and ffs why can’t you just be happy for me

I thought that was it, my one big Marvel project, but then Wil emailed with some great news: they were going to print a rare version of the cover to give away at San Diego Comic Con! A version that was just my pencils only!

Which, hey, fun idea, but there WERE no pencils. I drew this digitally and any underdrawing was long gone. I felt like I’d fucked up! So I proposed something different. What if I did the pencils retroactively and thoroughly fucked them up and covered it in the editor’s fake corrections?

Wil was game and so I sent in this:

To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever made anything better.

The moral of this story is, my parents don’t know who Deadpool is. And also, I think Wil saw that I was fun to work with, met the deadlines, and had a sense of humor that translated to the page. After this gig, he offered me two pages in the Original Sin anthology, “Original Sins” (that’s solid brand awareness) to write and draw! Apparently, years prior, Wil had purchased my self-published kids comic “Monster Cops” from me at San Diego Comic Con, so he knew I could somehwat write as well as draw.

So I did it, and also managed to colour and letter it. If there was one thing I learned from working at the newspaper, it's that if you can show the editors you can do more than one thing, they will very happily work with you.

This is what I did:

I went ALL-OUT. ‘Cause, much like the cover job, I thought that this would be it for me, my one chance to write and draw Marvel characters! And, again, like the cover job, I sent it in early and wasn’t an asshole. Or at least, I expertly HID that I was an asshole!

Wil liked working with me, I liked working with Wil. Soon after this job, he emailed me to say he just saw the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie where a familiar duck popped up in the end credits. And would I like to pitch a series about that duck?

And that’s my Marvel origin story! The only really unfortunate part is that Wil Moss, the editor who believed in me, recently lost his mind and grew this moustache, so we can no longer ever work together.

So, yeah, if you want to break into writing for Marvel, uh, write and draw self-published books that an editor happens to purchase and then illustrate a successful Image book and then do a good job on a Deadpool cover?

Sorry, my path is not very helpful.

HMM? OH, DID YOU START YOUR NEWSLETTER ALREADY?

God damn you

Anyhoo! That’s ye olde newsletter this week! In comic shops today it’s a rare QUADRUPLE CHIPPLE with FOUR comics out! I won’t bore you with my usual sales patter, but if you’re keen on running into your comic shop and shouting the titles out loud so people know, they’re:

• Batman: Urban Legends #5!

• Spider’s Shadow #4!

• Justice League: Last Ride #3!

• Skybound X #2 (with a special Stillwater story)!

All right! That’s it for me! Who cares, right? Bye!