“Heroes, Villains, and Me” is a weekly article on Geeky KOOL about the world of comic books and my reaction to it. “Heroes, Villains, and Me” is not a comic book review article. I will write about current events, speculation and rumors, or my own wacky thoughts about the world of comic books.
When I was in seventh grade, I had a class assignment to write a letter to a business and inquiry about job requirements. The parameters for the assignment were to pick a business that I desired to work at in the future. It didn’t take long for me to decide who I wanted to write. I sent a letter from my small rural farming town to New York City. I addressed my letter to Marvel Comics. I desired with all my heart to be a comic book writer since I was a little kid. It was my dream to write for Marvel Comics and create super kool Spider-man stories.
Someone from Marvel was kind enough to write this twelve year old back. This letter was a prized possession for years afterwards. I was told by Marvel to stay in school, work on my writing abilities and stories, keep reading comic books, and after I graduated, to submit a story to Marvel.
Marvel always had an open submission policy. They would accept stories and art from unsolicited creators. Marvel was known for having this open policy and hiring some of these creators.
Recently my dream of submitting a phenomenal story and having Marvel hire me was killed. Marvel has now changed the policy. Marvel will still accept unsolicited art but they will no longer accept unsolicited stories or writing sample. They stated that the enormous size of unsolicited writing has become too overwhelming.
I never did submit a story in attempt to get Marvel’s attention. After high school graduation, I went off to college. At college I met my lovely wife and we got married before graduating from College. After college, we tried to make enough money to survive week to week. It was always the back of my mind that I needed to get my foot in the door at Marvel and move to New York.
At Forty Two years of age and having a family, this dream and hope were far from becoming a reality. I have known for some time that this dream would probably go unfulfilled. But there was always the hope that if circumstance of life were to change then I would have a shot at writing comic books for Marvel. Now it is no longer a possibility.
If I started writing comic books as a self publisher or for a small company, it is possible I could get Marvel’s attention. This process would be a slower route but still could happen. But odds of that happening are slim.
As a forty two year old guy, I understand why Marvel made their decision to stop accepting unsolicited stories. I have come to the realization that the dream of working for Marvel was only a pipe dream. But twelve year old Larry, who still comes out on a rare occasion, is screaming and throwing a temper tantrum about Marvel’s decision.
