Question From a Patron: Starting At Marvel (Patreon)

Eric asked:  Can you talk a little bit about how the conversation went when you were first asked to work on a Marvel book? Was it a situation where they said "Hey, we read your work on Skullkickers or Wayward and we were wondering if you would like to put together a pitch for x,y, or z" OR did they approach it as "Is there a particular character you would like to write?" Kind of a funny question but I am curious how these conversations get started and what best practices would be for a writer in that situation. Thanks as always. 

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The first project I did at Marvel was the Figment mini-series in 2013 via editor Bill Rosemann (who is now VP Creative Director at Marvel Games). Bill was in charge of Marvel Special Projects, a division that takes care of a lot of non-standard Marvel stuff and he was placed in charge of the Disney Kingdoms line Marvel developed with the Disney Imagineering team. Bill didn't know much about Figment as a property, but knew the character was a dragon and someone mentioned to him that I'd written a bunch of different sword & sorcery comics so he reached out to me out of the blue to gauge my interest.

Bill didn't realize how much other work I'd already done by that point or that I have a background in animation and am quite a Disney fan, so I was the right fit even though Figment wasn't really a "fantasy" property in the classic sense. In any case, Bill and I got along really well while working on Figment and so he asked if I'd be interested in writing other projects in his department that popped up from time to time. Of course, I said yes.

A lot of the stuff that comes through Marvel Special Projects is basic ad work. Someone has to write the kids comics that end up in cereal boxes or comic-style advertisements involving Marvel characters. I did a bunch of them. It wasn't high profile, but it was a way to get into the Marvel system and prove I could deliver on time and on spec.

In the UK and Europe there's a company named Panini that publishes Spider-Man Magazine for kids. Each issue has puzzles, games, and an 11-page original comic story. Bill lined me up for that gig and I wrote 20 "issues" of Spider-Man, teaming Spidey up with a slew of different Marvel characters. Again, it was steady work and a way to prove myself. I've actually posted those scripts here on my Patreon so you can search for them and see how they worked.

Bill and I were developing a new superhero project for the main Marvel Universe around the time of the Hickman Secret Wars series and then he got his big promotion to Marvel Games and those plans fell apart. But on Bill's way out the door he did me a huge favor - Bill told Tom Brevoort (VP of Publishing and Editor on the Avengers and related characters) that he'd be a fool if he didn't hire me because I was incredibly dependable and busted my butt. Tom reached out and we talked about a few different possible projects until everything came together for me to relaunch Thunderbolts in 2016. 

Everything  I've done at Marvel since then has come from proving myself on Thunderbolts: The Secret Empire United one-shot, the Monsters Unleashed: Avengers one-shot, wrapping up Uncanny Avengers, Avengers: No Surrender, Mystery In Madripoor, Champions and Avengers: No Road Home. All of it built on that one cold-call email from Bill Rosemann back in 2013.