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Column: Comic Book Junkie   Selling to Marvel: It's Not Impossible By Matt Yocum Published: 2007-01-16

Most people will tell you it’s impossible to break into the Big Two without some form of comics or other major media form already out there. Witness Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis in their early indy comics work. Or from the world of novels there is Orson Scott Card, Charlie Huston, and even Stephen King. From television and movies you find Joss Whedon, Richard Donner, and Damon Lindelof. What about the average Joe off the street, the one with little to no major work to their name? It can’t be done, right?

It can. I’m living proof. I now have an Avengers story that will be published by Marvel Comics.

Mr. and Mrs. Yocum go to Marvel. (click to view full image)

My dreams of being a comic writer extend to my childhood with my first taste of Iron Man. I saw him on the cover coming out of a room, armor melting, fist raised in defiance. I fell in love with comics. Then in high school I caught the writing bug. Short stories, poetry, novels, non-fiction books, and finally comics, including scripts targeted at the Big Two. Of this writing, only a handful of material has seen print. A few scattered short stories, a near miss with novel number one, a major agent for novel two (now agent-less as the thriller market is in drought), some poetry paid for in copies, and many reviews and column pieces at ComicCritique.com. That sums up the last twenty years of my writing life.

The list reveals nothing substantial. I’m not the creator of Lost. There’s no novel sitting sideways on a shelf in Borders. All I have is a lot of hard work with meager results and many rejections. What the list of my unpublished work does offer is one heck of a lot of lessons learned. The biggest, the one I want to address here, is that to succeed you might have to invest in your own success.

What does that mean, invest in your own success? Let’s look at how I broke the Big Two ceiling. I knew that the best way to be known and remembered by an editor was to meet him face to face. Since I did not personally know any Marvel or DC editors, that ruled out flying to New York and walking in blind. It meant going to conventions. It meant spending the money to fly or drive and paying to get in the convention. After learning how conventions work and seeing how many wannabe writers and artists jammed the aisles, I tried to figure out how to make a personal connection.

In 2006 I saw the Wizard World L.A. convention included an ACTOR (“A Commitment to Our Roots”)* auction to win a one-on-one lunch with Joe Quesada, Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief. Although I knew it would cost, this was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. I invested time and money, staying up all night to keep the bidders at bay. I won and flew to L.A. from Washington DC, staying in a hotel near the convention center. The meeting with Joe Q couldn’t have gone better. What was supposed to be a one hour lunch at a nearby sports bar turned into a two and a half hour lunch at a Holiday Inn. We talked comics, told stories, Joe gave an interview, and finally pitched my stories. I threw out half a dozen, from an Iron Man miniseries called “Broken Armor” to a Spider-Man-focused Avengers story called “Memorial Day.” I left samples of my writing, one-page synopses of the story ideas, and a business card. He left with a promise to get back to me.

Joe fulfilled his promise, saying only one idea, the “Memorial Day” idea was worth considering, and he’d pass it along to one of his editors.

Time passed. Nothing.

Joe’s a busy guy, so I was not offended. I knew I needed to take the initiative. I found another convention, this one in Philly. Joe would be there, so I thought I’d reconnect with him. I flew to Philly, stayed near the convention center, and made certain to attend a panel with Joe. Meeting with him, he told me he’d passed the idea along to Marvel editor Tom Brevoort and he’d introduce me. I met Tom, told him the script was available, and he said to email it. I did this immediately after the convention. Two days later I got an email from Marvel associate editor John Barber saying he loved the script and it might work with a new book they were considering. John said stand by, which I did for three months, keeping in touch with him just enough to make certain I was still on his radar. Then in September I got the news: they want the story, telling me it’s perfect as a backup for the first issue of a new comic coming out next year (which Marvel will reveal soon).

So after many stories, many years, many travels, I have a story in with the Big Two. If you look at the common thread through all of this, it’s that I wasn’t afraid to invest in my own success. It’s not about making money off a story. It’s about me wanting to tell superhero stories in the Marvel universe. It’s about my inner child playing make believe with these characters created so many years ago.

I have no illusions that I’m now the next Bendis or Millar. I don’t expect the phone to start ringing asking me to take over Iron Man. It may be this one story. But for now I can feel satisfied that my investment worked out, that soon there will be a Marvel comic out there with my story in it. I would say this investment paid off.

Feel free to email me at myocum@comiccritique.com and if you’d like to learn more about me, go to www.mattyocumcomics.com.