X-Infernus Debuts in France

And Cammo and I were there in Angouleme for the launch...


(Should've gotten that haircut before I left.)

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Marvel Talent 2009

As I mentioned over on Twitter, I've been in the process of figuring out just how many new freelancers were hired by Marvel in 2009. So after looking over various spreadsheets and data, and culling down lists of talent we've started working with in the last 12 months, I've calculated, albeit in no real exact scientific or mathematical way, that Marvel's editorial/publishing arm hired 144 new freelancers in 2009! That high number surprised even me, to be honest. Not bad for being in a recession, eh? Looking at that number more specifically in terms of artistic disciplines, here how it further breaks down...

Writers - 24
Pencilers and/or penciler/inkers - 81 (Provide non-color line art)
Digital painters - 13 (Provide complete artwork from sketch to color, covers and/or interiors)
Inkers - 8
Colorists - 15 (Provide color only over line art)
Letterers - 3

A few other quick observations just looking over the list...

- 18 of these talents were women.
- It struck me the number of writers from the previous year when we were publishing Marvel Comics Presents and the Unlimited line of anthologies.
- The increasing number of pencilers who have started to ink themselves lead to a fall in the number of dedicated inkers we hired as well.
- Geographically speaking, the largest percentage of talent came from the U.S., followed by Italy, Spain and South America.
- These numbers reflect what I'll call "first-time talent" who had never been published by Marvel before. I took out any talent who had returned to Marvel after a long period of time after working in other industries or at other companies, and also removed artists who left studio systems and came to work for us directly, of which there were quite a few.

And I'd like to publicly thank Angie Nunez and Alex Morales at Marvel for their help in getting me all the freelancer data to review. I couldn't have done this without them.

Marvel Fairy Tales - On Sale Today!

In comic and book stores everyday...




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Hallo, Berlin!

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On Sale Today!

Nation X #2 goes on sale in comic shops across America today, featuring a Jubilee story co-written by me with Jim McCann, and beautifully illustrated by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback! Here's a preview over at CBR...

Four Pieces of Advice for New Artists

I get sent and review at least ten portfolios a day from new artists, and I usually find myself replying to each and every one with one or more of the exact same four comments. All newbies tend to get ahead of themselves make the same four mistakes. So much so, in fact, that I now keep these four constructive comments as a document on my desktop that I cut, paste and expand from for each individual. Since some of you have been asking about FAQs for new pencilers, I figured I'd start with this. Here you go...

1. When doing layouts, stick to the grid. Boring, I know, but learn and use the basics when it comes to storytelling. You need to walk before you run.

2. Don’t break panel borders. This is a more advanced penciling technique that is usually mis-used and abused far too often, causing the reader's eye to go to the wrong panel and only serves to confuse your storytelling.

3. Pull your camera out. You are going in too tightly and cropping out too much of the figures/body parts/action. Don't be lazy. Start by learning to draw everything asked for in the script inside your panel walls effectively first.

4. Include more backgrounds to give us a better sense of place. Think of your background as another character in the story and use it to help enhance the storytelling and the world your characters are inhabiting.

More soon...

Fresh Sushi Tonight!

Bagged two nice Mahi Mahi about a half an hour after leaving Lahaina harbor...



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