Thread by @GailSimone

I have talked about this often, but since it’s come up, just for fun. Here’s how I broke into comics.

I had done a website thing with friends called Women In Refrigerators. I didn’t;t do the list, that was guys from @cbr, as I wasn’t reading as many comics at that time. 1/

Sorry for typos, just woke up.

Anyway, WiR exploded. But not in a way I hoped, completely. A lot of people just used it to slam the industry and the readers and creators, it’s still used that way sometimes. It was just asking a question. I thought it was a fair question.

But I didn’t love how people used it, and it quickly got boring defending it to people who hadn;t read it (still happens all the time 23 years later).

I got zero jobs from it, zero offers. If I had been trying to break in, that would have been the worst possible way.

For some reason, angry dudes love the idea that I ‘shamed’ publishers into hiring me with WiR. Never happened, didn’t talk to a single editor about it..

Later, I did a humor piece online, I think a fake Wizard piece. That blew up too. I was trying to make friends laugh.

The thing was, it was just for friends, I didn’t sign it. And when it blew up, some rando guy tried to take credit for it. So my friends said, ‘you have to write another one and sign it.’ So I did, another Wizard parody and signed it.

Again, to make friends laugh.

I did a couple more like that, just longer versions of what I do here often.

That started getting me noticed. That was not my intent ever. I was completely inself-sabotage mode that I could ever be a writer.

But pros and editors thought these things showed promise.

I remember the creator of FAUST asked me to write with him. I think Dan Raspler and Joan Hilty said they would like to see pitches. Ron Marz said he would help, I think. There were a few others.

I was too timid about writing to really try.

The closest I came was sending some Dexter’s Lab springboards to Joan, she liked them but didn’t;t buy any at that time.

But really, I mostly just said no or didn’t follow up because I thought I would fail, AND I would be taking a job from a REAL writer. Self-sabotage is real.

The the lovely Jonah Weiland of @CBR asked me to do a weekly column. Which I did. I would work ten hours in my salon then stay up half the night writing the column, first for free, then for pennies.

He gave me a chance and paid. That was a big deal.

The column was bonkers popular. Big name pros wrote fan letters. mark Millar and Grant Morrison used to call each other every week and read it out loud on the phone.

For a fan with self-esteem issues, this was freakish. I would swing from elated to anxious, it was a lot.

I believe the first paid thing was CrossGen. Mark Alessi wanted me to write some fake editorials for him for their April Fool’s issues. I freaked out, but did it, and got a check that was like, my proudest moment.

But it wasn’t really writing comics, exactly.

So, at the same time I had a column at CBR, artist animator Scott Shaw had one, too. And he loved the column, he thought it was a riot.

One day he asked my number to call. I took the call, and he says, ‘Bongo is doing Simpson’s Comics and they need funny writers.’

And I did what I always did and hemmed and hawed and said no, I didn’t think I could do it.

And he said, “Well, that’s too bad, because I already told them about you and they’re calling you tomorrow.”

PANIC.

I had not been trying to break in. But the column was a parody column, with a different idea and style every week. I was just doing what I do here, being silly, but more structured. The Bongo people thought it showed that I could write in ‘voices,’ which they needed.

I actually hadn’t even told anyone in my family about the column, even my hubby didn’t know. I was just that unsure about it all and myself.

So I told him, and we talked about whether I should take the call.

He was like, are you kidding? TAKE THE CALL?

So I had this night of soul searching, I just felt if it didn’t work, it would be crushing. And I didn’t;t feel qualified or talented enough, I had no experience, all the garbage you told yourself.

I didn’t even know the terminology of how to make comics.

They asked for springboards, I was like, ‘great! What’s a springboard?’

But they asked for a few, I think I sent twenty and they liked all of them.

And then I just kept getting work. To this day, I have done very few actual pitches.

The great @SeidmanLea asked me to write a book for her, a funny adventure book. Joe Quesada was a fan of the column, he asked if I could make Deadpool ‘laugh out loud funny’ again.

So I never got a chance to worry about being good enough because I was too busy working. :)

Anyway, without all those people, I wouldn’t have tried.

CGers prefer the idea that WiR because they want to believe everyone they hate us a ‘diversity hire.’ But I got zero job offers from WiR.

Think, guys. Does someone read WiR and say, hey, she should write Bart Simpson!

To wrap this up, nice people hel-Ed me overcome my nerves, and that’s why I did the #ComicsSchool things recently. Not so much to teach technique, but to demystify the process and make it less terrifying.

So, the moral is, there are always people like the OP out there, but they’re meaningless. They are vastly outnumbered by people who are nice and just want good stories.

Don’t let your inner voice keep you from trying, that is just the worst.