Wizard World Phillycon East

by Gary Walters

There's a belief amongst those that are trying to break into the comic book industry that editors, particularly at the big two (DC Comics, makers of Batman Begins, and MArvel) will not read unsolicited scripts. Let me dispell that myth right now. Of course they read scripts submitted to them. They'd be stupid not to.

If you can get your script to them, and get them to read it, your set. You might start off writing a minor character or doing a fill-in issue or something, maybe something like Fantastic Four or Captain America but once you prove yourself, you'll move onto the important books, like Uncanny X-Men.

Just look at writers like Mark Miller and Brian Michael Bendis. They sent their scripts around to the big companies and now they're writing all of the most important comics being published today. And if it could happen to them, it could happen to me.

It is with that determination that I made my way to this year's Wizard World Phillycon 2005. Determined to get my script into the right hands so I could land my dream job, writing for one of the big comic companies. Now, I haven't been in the industry long, only a few months now. But I know one thing, that I am a born comic creator. I just needed an "in."

And I got one.

The first thing that happened on Saturday was that I ran into my personal comic writing hero (aside from John Byrne, Chuck Dixon, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, Will Eisner, Bob Harras, Tom DeFalco, Christopher Priest, Mark Waid, and Kurt Busiek)... Chris Claremont. I didn't even know he was going to be there. It was awesome. He was so humble. I praised him for all of the great X-Men stories he'd written over the years and do you know what he said?

"It wasn't me."

How humble is that? How giving is that to the artists and inkers and editors he's worked with? Fantastic human being and a great American. Trust me, Chris, it was you. All you. And John Byrne.

I chatted with him for a few more seconds and then offered him a copy of my script to him. He said he couldn't take it, but we were amongst a mob of comic geeks at that moment and I'm sure he just didn't want to get deluged with scripts from a bunch of wanna-bees. So I put my script back in my backpack and hoped for another opportunity to get my script to Chris.

I spent the next little bit on the con floor taking in all the excitement. It was nuts! Tons of people and tons of stuff! There seemed to be more toys and t-shirts than there were comicbooks. Which was weird, but, whatever, you know? I tried to finish my run of X-Men: The Hidden Years, but no one seemed to have the issue I needed. Which sucked.

Everyone had 50s comics and stuff. Who buys western comics and crap like that? Sorry people, the market has changed and matured. We want well-told superhero stories, not western comics or crime comics or whatever lame comics my dad read.

Yeesh.

So, after walking through artist alley and meeting some really nice artists (there was even a guy selling a Mike Mignola sketchbook, which was pretty cool). I decided to get in the line to meet Chris Claremont and hopefully get me script to him.

So I get up in line... get ready to hand him my script. It's just me and him. I'm looking at him, he's looking at me. He looks down...

And I meant to say "Here's my script." Or "Would you please take a look at my script?" Or, "Here's a script you should check out. It's awesome."

But what came out...

What I said was... "Will Gambit guest-star in "Cable and Deadpool" anytime soon?"

He looked at me.

And said "I don't know."

And added. "I don't write that book."

And I said "I know I was just wondering and thought maybe you heard something about it at one of those Marvel retreat things that I heard that you all go to and suggest ideas and talk about stuff and I just thought the dynamic of Gambit would play off Cable and Deadpool real well and they'd interact in an interesting way and thought maybe you over heard something or someone saying something. "

"No. Sorry."

And that was that. I forgot to even give him my script. But that's okay. I got to meet my hero Chris Claremont. And I networked. A lot. Met cool artists in "The Artist Alley". Made some good connections for my future publishing ventures. And Chris Claremont might not have read my script, but I showed it to this one lady and she said it looked "pretty okay."

Read Volume 1, Issue 2 of The Tricks of Turning Pro.



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