Fred Lang's Marvel Comics Pencil Test Options

[Fred Lang]

I came away from Emerald City Comic Con 2011 last week with a business card from C.B. Cebulski, Marvel's Senior VP for Creator & Content Development (read: Boss O' Talent Scouts), and a request from him to draw a few Marvel test pages that'd be sent to me later via e-mail.

I got them today.

Now, this is only a PENCIL TEST, not a job offer, nor promise of one down the way. C.B. did not say "YOU ARE SO AWESOMESAUCE--DRAW FOR US PLEASE OR I WILL VOMIT!"--he liked most of what was in my portfolio, and critiqued a few things he didn't like as much. All a pencil test means is that Marvel thinks I don't suck and might look kindly upon me if the pages look good. I have to make the pages worth it to them now, so time to get to work, using the critiques I got from C.B. and other pros at the convention to improve my stuff to the point I can get work with The Big Guys.

I get to choose from an Uncanny X-Men script, an Amazing Spider-Man script, and a Moon Knight script...then pick 5-6 sequential pages from one of them, draw it, and send 'em in.

Pretty. Darned. Neat.

I asked for permission to include any work drawn from these Marvel scripts in my portfolio for WonderCon here in San Francisco in a few weeks, and they nicely said yes. So I get to kill two birds with one...er...pencil.

On to reading and drawing these scripts!

Woo!

I'll post those pages in this thread as I get them done. I'll be starting in a few days.




This post has been edited by Fred Lang: Mar 14 2011, 04:52 PM

[Ron Fortier]

Hi Fred, sorry I wasn't on board to jump into this one earlier, but just got back from Arkansas and the very, very cool debut of Pulp Ark. Had so much fun.
More on that later.
While there I was talking to a young writer worried about how to attain professional status. I gave him a reply that my artist pal, Rob Davis. totally agreed with. Remember, Rob's a pro who worked both at DC and Marvel.
Here's what I told the young creator. Just like in those old Warner Bros. cartoons, imagine two little versions of yourself standing on your shoulders, one the Demon/You and the other the Angel/You. Now the Demon/You has only one goal, to completely discourage you and make you stop utilizing your God given talents, whatever they are. He is forever going to tell you it is not good enough, that you are a fraud and sooner or later the whole world is going to find out and you really should quit while you're ahead. Again, every single pro I know is all to familiar with this Demon/You. I've yet to meet a creator who doesn't know him.
Whereas the Angel/You says you do have awesome talent worthy of attention and respect and you should put your stuff out there for the whole world to see.
The trick in being a pro is learning how to tune out Demon/You and keep at it. It's never easy...but just keep one thing in mind, HE LIES!!!

This post has been edited by Ron Fortier: May 16 2011, 07:14 PM