Last week there was a bit of a Comicsgate howl of rage against a decision by Marvel to hire academic, writer and visual artist Eve L Ewing to write IronHeart, the new ongoing series starring Riri Williams, with the thrust of the message being that no one gets hired to write an ongoing comics series at Marvel or DC without previous comic book experience, unless it’s through some PC/quota/pandering bullshit. And it’s just not fair. I’m not going to quote those tweets, I’m sure you can imagine them well enough.

But it did inspire the likes of Neil Gaiman to point out that he was hired to write Black Orchid for DC Vertigo without having any published comic books at the time. Comicgate instigator Richard Meyer objected to this, pointing out comics that Neil Gaiman had had published before Black Orchid was published. Gaiman kindly and semi-patiently answered this attempt at Gaimansplaining by pointing out that the painted work of Dave McKean on Black Orchid – and the pages of Violent Cases they had shown Karen Berger took a long time to create, and they had to finish Violent Cases first.

In the kindest possible way, this is ignorant twaddle. I was hired by DC having not published any comics yet, with 3 published short stories to my credit. I’d journalism background so they knew I understood deadlines. But they liked my pitches+my enthusiasm, & they took a chance. — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) 3 September 2018

Also, when Neil first suggested Black Orchid to Karen Berger, she misheard it as ‘Blackhawk Kid’ and asked who that was, Two countries, divided by a common language…

No, it shows me as having indy credits before the publication of Black Orchid. You don’t just get hired by DC on the same day they publish a the first part of a 144 page fully painted comic. Comics take a long time to write, and to paint. — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) 3 September 2018

Yup. It was published shortly after I was hired by DC. You seem to be arguing with a tweet you haven’t entirely understood: https://t.co/R1kqxQ0JlC — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) 3 September 2018

But it led to others taking the opportunity to point out their own off-the-streets experiences.

I was hired by Art Young at DC/Vertigo specifically for my enthusiasm and lack of experience as he wanted to train me up rather than re-train bad habits out of me that I might have picked up elsewhere! — Tim Pilcher @ThoughtBubble Originals Tables 32-33 (@Tim_Pilcher) September 3, 2018

Try talking to different editors. Every one is different and every creator gets hired in their own different way. A marvel editor told me to send in a SASE so I went to sdcc instead and got hired by dc and dark horse. — ben caldwell HEROES #1006 (@bencaldwellart) September 4, 2018

I turned in a packet of photocopies of my comic tryout pages to the video game studio that created both NBA Jam and Turok. I was hired within a week with no computer experience. This was in February 1996. My first full time professional art job. AD cared only if I could draw. — Chad Townsend (@ChadTHX1138) September 4, 2018

And that included Joe Quesada, the chief Creative Officer of Marvel Comics.

I walked in off the street & was hired on the spot by DC as a penciler off of my first attempt at sample pages. I did 3 months of coloring at Valiant that they never asked, knew, nor cared about and my track record as a penciler was a single Nintendo pin up! Yeah, it happens. https://t.co/h359nUwJsF — JoeQuesada (@JoeQuesada) 3 September 2018

Which inspired more to point out that Joe had done the same for them.

Yep. In fact, you gave me an opportunity to pitch to Marvel because of a short film I directed, even though I had never written a comic before. https://t.co/cekYOMP6Dd — Kyle Higgins (@KyleDHiggins) 3 September 2018

While he didn’t post, I could also point out that Dan DiDio started in comics writing Superboy with no previous comic book experience, either, he just happened to be a Warner Bros executive who knew Jimmy Palmiotti. Given that Dan and Joe have Jimmy in common in their creative careers, it clearly means that Jimmy Palmiotti is… a lizard. That’s how these conspiracies are meant to end up, right?

And the current editor-in-chief of Marvel, C.B. Cebulski is famed for travelling the world (he’s in Stockholm today) and hoovering up local talent to work for Marvel. All he needs is a few pages of samples to make a judgement call.

I once pitched a comic to Dark Horse Comics’ Mike Richardson in the line at Ralph’s corner store in San Diego. By the end of the line, we’d shaken hands on a deal. I mean, I had had a couple of comics out before that but no one had actually read them…

There is no one way to break into comics. And being a successful poet, author and showing interest in a property is certainly enough to get you a gig when you decide to pitch for free and people like what you send in…

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