{"id":1043,"date":"2009-03-19T22:08:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T03:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2020-07-22T19:52:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:52:04","slug":"twitter-advice-from-marvels-cb-cebulski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/?p=1043","title":{"rendered":"Twitter advice from Marvel&#8217;s C.B. Cebulski"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Photo by Luigi Novi, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\">CC BY 3.0<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=14939424\">Link<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Marvel Comics talent liaison C.B. Cebulski tweeted up a storm of advice to new creators. Cebulski, who scouts for new artistic talent for the publisher, has had a lot of practical things to say. Keep track of his latest by following him on Twitter at: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/CBCebulski\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/twitter.com\/CBCebulski<\/a>. We&#8217;ve recaped most of his recent tweets for you here.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When and if sending an editor samples pages, always save as JPEGs and keep all files under 300K.<\/li>\n<li>PDFs are cool too, but try and keep them around 2MB tops. Last thing you wanna do is crash an editor&#8217;s inbox.<\/li>\n<li>And limit attachments to your 5 or 6 best pieces. If the editor wants to see more, he\/she will ask you to send more.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, a link to a blog with your art would always be recommended over attachments to begin with.<\/li>\n<li>Sorry, writers, but I&#8217;m offering advice for artists. Maybe some of the editors here can chime in and help you guys?<\/li>\n<li>Blogs are always structured chronologically with newest posts first which is another reason I recommend them.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, it&#8217;s definitely harder for writers than artists to break into comics these days, in my opinion.<\/li>\n<li>And when I say &#8220;breaking into comics&#8221;, I&#8217;m generally referring to working for the more major mainstream publishers.<\/li>\n<li>Truth be told, it&#8217;s easier than ever for anyone to &#8220;break into comics&#8221; via webcomics and self-publishing these days.<\/li>\n<li>The internet &amp;\/or print-on-demand services mean anyone with an idea, motivation &amp; a little $ can bring a comic to life.<\/li>\n<li>Barely anyone has &#8220;broken in&#8221; at Marvel or DC directly. We always say it&#8217;s better to be published elsewhere first.<\/li>\n<li>I always recommend people make comics, whether it&#8217;s for themselves or to try and break in professionally.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s easier than ever for writers to find artists, and vice versa, here on the net. (cont.)<\/li>\n<li>Like Digital Webbing, Deviant Art, conceptart.org, and lots of creator boards, like Bendis and Millar, to name a few.<\/li>\n<li>The question of digital art vs. on the board is a question each artist needs to answer for themselves.<\/li>\n<li>Makes no difference to the editor or publisher really. How you create your art is your business.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, &#8220;good, fast or nice.&#8221; If you&#8217;re two of the three, you can get a job in comics, as the saying goes.<\/li>\n<li>I can almost guarantee you that my idea of being &#8220;Marvel ready&#8221; and an up-an-coming artist&#8217;s idea of &#8220;Marvel ready&#8221; are totally different.<\/li>\n<li>The two main things we look for are style and storytelling. Speed is something we learn and judge later.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t really know as I don&#8217;t recruit writers or review their work, but I would assume so.<\/li>\n<li>Bad storytelling is bad even w\/ the flashiest finish. Good ST is good w\/ a crayon.<\/li>\n<li>Got my first &#8220;where does a nobody like you get off giving advice on breaking into comics&#8221; note. Must&#8217;ve been from someone I didn&#8217;t hire.<\/li>\n<li>If your work gets picked for review at a con, it means yours was one of the better drop-offs the Marvel editors saw.<\/li>\n<li>Sample pages = TEST pages. They&#8217;re a means for artists to &#8220;try out&#8221; for an editor. They&#8217;re not a guarantee of work.<\/li>\n<li>If you have published work, it&#8217;s better to send the editor the actual books than links to the stories online.<\/li>\n<li>The most important thing to remember about working in comics is that THIS IS A JOB!<\/li>\n<li>Your portfolio is your resume. Talks with editors are your job interviews. Be professional.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, working in comics is a lot of fun, but it&#8217;s still work and has to be approached as such.<\/li>\n<li>No need to dress up to meet editors at cons. It&#8217;s more about acting professionally. Showering helps tho. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Proper etiquette for following up with an editor after a meeting at a con? I recommend the rule of 4 Ps. (cont.)<\/li>\n<li>Be persistent. Be patient. Don&#8217;t be pushy. Don&#8217;t be a pain-in-the-ass.<\/li>\n<li>Wait a week to send out your initial e-mail. No attachments. Follow-up two weeks later if you don&#8217;t hear back.<\/li>\n<li>Then just send updates letting the editor know what you&#8217;re up to every 4 &#8211; 6 weeks. Never more than once a month.<\/li>\n<li>Yup, everything I say here may be common sense, but you have no idea how many people don&#8217;t get it right.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;d say the Rule of 4 Ps applies to both artists and writers.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s interesting, in discussing it over beers last night, we all seemed to agree that writers tend to be much pushier than artists.<\/li>\n<li>We also noticed an increase in the disturbing trend of &#8220;editor fishing&#8221; going on of late.<\/li>\n<li>Editor fishing = Telling Editor #1 you&#8217;re coming to the office for a meeting with Editor #2 when you don&#8217;t actually have an appointment.<\/li>\n<li>This done in hopes of Editor #1 not checking with Editor #2, thereby tricking him into letting you into offices for a meeting you never had.<\/li>\n<li>Oh, yeah&#8230; people just show up at the Marvel offices all the time. The receptionists are experts at dealing with it!<\/li>\n<li>Although there was one time Dave Finch dropped by unannounced to drop off pages and they didn&#8217;t believe him or let him in. \ud83d\ude41<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;d be surprised. There&#8217;re 2 writers famous for it &amp; always manage to pull it off. They usually pull it on new editors.<\/li>\n<li>Oh, editors check, but you&#8217;ll find comics people are very forgiving of talent and always like to believe the best in creators.<\/li>\n<li>No, wearing a Marvel t-shirt to a con will not improve your chance of getting a meeting with a Marvel editor.<\/li>\n<li>You know, this is actually working. Gotten lots of e-mails and replies with intros and links to sweet art blogs. Cool!<\/li>\n<li>Who knows&#8230; maybe Marvel will soon have our first Twitter hire?<\/li>\n<li>Again, I am not trying to pick on or deny new writers opportunities. It&#8217;s just not part of my job. NOT what I do. I&#8217;m Marvel&#8217;s artist guy.<\/li>\n<li>I come across many new artists via links on creator blogs. So new artists, get your pro friends to start linking to you.<\/li>\n<li>There have more new opportunities for new writers at Marvel these past two years than ever before. I see a new name at least every month.<\/li>\n<li>Astonishing Tales, X-Men Manifest Destiny, MCP&#8230; almost every issue debuts as new voice that the editors have discovered.<\/li>\n<li>Looking at the new issue of Astonishing Tales, there are two new writers in there. One who had a short story in MCP, one making his debut.<\/li>\n<li>Marvel also has new writer specific one-shots that they do to test run new writers who they think have the chops to write for Marvel.<\/li>\n<li>I know for a fact Axel Alonso hired an up-and-coming writer he likes just this past Thursday for a Punisher one-shot of this nature.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;d been following this writer&#8217;s work at few other publishers, read his newest issue, thought he&#8217;d found his voice, and called him.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, these gigs are on short stories, one-shots and maybe not the best sellers, so you might not hear read them or hear about these guys.<\/li>\n<li>But the point is the chances are now out there. Systems are in places at Marvel to get new writers in on a regular basis. More so than ever.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;New&#8221; meaning &#8220;new to Marvel&#8221;, yes. Which brings up another myth I&#8217;ll be happy to dispel re: screenwriters and novelists at Marvel. (cont.)<\/li>\n<li>Just because they work in another entertainment medium, that doesn&#8217;t mean they have an automatic in at Marvel. Far from the case.<\/li>\n<li>TV\/movie\/novel writing is very different from comic writing. Writing for an artist, understand the pacing, etc., are completely different.<\/li>\n<li>And the editors at Marvel know and understand this. Any writer from Hollywood or literature has to try out just like any other new writer.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, you may see more names crossing over into comics these days, but the door wasn&#8217;t magically just opened for them.<\/li>\n<li>Maybe they get more &#8220;buzz&#8221; due to their other writing, but that&#8217;s to be expected. But they now write in comic cuz they KNOW and LOVE comics.<\/li>\n<li>You know, I&#8217;d bet there were more &#8220;new&#8221; writers than &#8220;Hollywood&#8221; writers hired by Marvel in 2008. You just never heard of the newer guys.<\/li>\n<li>Yes, you can sit here and argue and debate every point I bring up about breaking into comics, but really&#8230; what&#8217;s the point?<\/li>\n<li>You don&#8217;t like what I have to say? Feel free to ignore me. Follow your own path. Break in your own way. Please.<\/li>\n<li>My opinions and advice are my own, formed from personal experience. I pass it on with only the best of intention. I&#8217;m only trying to help.<\/li>\n<li>Oh, I don&#8217;t mind. I know I&#8217;m just a Marvel corporate stooge to some people, doing spin control to covering up the big Marvel conspiracy.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got the best ideas for (insert Marvel character here) since Stan Lee and Marvel won&#8217;t publish them cuz they&#8217;re scared I&#8217;m so good!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Oh, you found us out. You&#8217;re so good that we&#8217;re keeping you down just so we don&#8217;t have to fire hacks like @BRIANMBENDIS &amp; @mattfraction!<\/li>\n<li>None of this sours me on Twitter or the internet in any way. I&#8217;ve been getting it for years and expect it. Makes me smile actually.<\/li>\n<li>And I&#8217;m saving it all for my book. The chapter on how NOT to break into comics continues to grow on an almost daily basis. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Yes, breaking into comics really can be murder. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li>Most of the comments I&#8217;ve been getting have been via e-mail and DMs actually. I guess people want me to see them but not make them public.<\/li>\n<li>And as some seem to have missed the point, the tweets about a Marvel conspiracy and me calling my friends Brian and Matt hacks WERE A JOKE!<\/li>\n<li>Woke up to inboxes full of material ripe for Twittering about!<\/li>\n<li>First and foremost, don&#8217;t use the current &#8220;global economic crisis&#8221; as an attempt to get work. It&#8217;s not just you who&#8217;s suffering financially.<\/li>\n<li>Comic jobs are given based on talent, not economic need. Can&#8217;t believe I had 2 e-mails trying to guilt me into work! What&#8217;re you thinking?!<\/li>\n<li>There are plenty of already established pencilers who have fallen on hard times and who are out there looking for work as well.<\/li>\n<li>And we&#8217;re more than likely to call up and offer a gig to a pro we&#8217;ve worked with before and know we can trust.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t care if &#8220;I&#8217;m new and hungry and will work cheaper than the other pencilers out there because I desperately need money to get by.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>And another thing, if you happen to find out personal details about an editor, don&#8217;t try and use them as an in to get work.<\/li>\n<li>(And I&#8217;m not saying this about me as I put all my shit out here online and am always happy to talk about anything I post.)<\/li>\n<li>But I&#8217;ve heard from other editors how artists at portfolio reviews, complete strangers mind you, asked about their wife and\/or kids by name.<\/li>\n<li>Or knew where they went to college. Or challenged them to a game of one-on-one as they heard the editor liked basketball.<\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s a line between the personal and the professional. Between being friendly and being creepy. Just know where it is and don&#8217;t cross it.<\/li>\n<li>The number one piece of advice I give newer, up-and-coming artists: stick to the grid! There&#8217;s nothing more important in my opinion.<\/li>\n<li>And for those that haven&#8217;t seen it, here&#8217;s &#8220;Wally Wood&#8217;s 22 Panels That Always Work&#8221;: http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/lcgqu<\/li>\n<li>Second piece of advice I always find myself giving newbies: Don&#8217;t break the panel borders. It&#8217;s distracting and usually not necessary.<\/li>\n<li>New pencilers often make the mistake of breaking borders to add dynamicism to a page but it usually just confuses their storytelling.<\/li>\n<li>Third piece of advice, don&#8217;t neglect your panel borders and gutters. They are an important part of your page that are often forgotten.<\/li>\n<li>Fourth piece of advice, don&#8217;t forget that word balloons and SFX need to go on the page. Make sure you include them in your initial layouts.<\/li>\n<li>Sounds obvious, I know, but there are even pros I know who don&#8217;t always take them into account and complain when their art gets covered up.<\/li>\n<li>And my last piece of advice for new pencilers today, don&#8217;t attempt to draw in any sound effects. They&#8217;ll only serve to clutter your art.<\/li>\n<li>Certain artists, like Adam Kubert, are masters at it, but it&#8217;s an art to be learned. Tell the story first without cluttering your pages.<\/li>\n<li>And as I&#8217;m just a lowly writer &amp; talent scout, I would greatly appreciate any artists here jumping in with advice\/experiences of their own.<\/li>\n<li>As Hollywood&#8217;s invaded and San Diego&#8217;s grown, it&#8217;s not the best con to try and meet editors and show your portfolio at anymore.<\/li>\n<li>Unfortunately, there&#8217;s no real set answer to that. &#8220;Marvel ready&#8221; is a subjective term. When I see, I know&#8230; that&#8217;s about it.<\/li>\n<li>I discovered @skottieyoung &#8216;s artwork simply walking thru Artists Alley in Chicago, so I always recommend new artists get tables at cons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Luigi Novi, CC BY 3.0, Link Marvel Comics talent liaison C.B. Cebulski tweeted up a storm of advice to new creators. Cebulski, who scouts for new artistic talent for the publisher, has had a lot of practical things to say. Keep track of his latest by following him on Twitter at: http:\/\/twitter.com\/CBCebulski. We&#8217;ve &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/?p=1043\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Twitter advice from Marvel&#8217;s C.B. Cebulski<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,66,10,92,15,9],"tags":[806,801,327,61,802,328,800],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicscareer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}