I can’t remember much about the first few years of my life. I can’t remember what clothing I wore when I was two years old, I don’t remember who was in my clique in nursery school and I certainly can’t recall what my favorite variety of puréed food was. However, one memory of my early life has always been crystal clear: comic books.
I can remember where and when I got my first comic book. It was INCREDIBLE HULK #386. It was 1991, I was three years old and I knew absolutely nothing about any of these characters. The Hulk didn’t have a cartoon on the air at that time and the Bill Bixby show was long over, but that didn’t stop me from being instantly attracted to these characters. I read the comic at least 100 times before it eventually fell apart. It was funny, beautifully illustrated and extremely confusing for a three-year-old.
18 years and 3,000 comics later, I applied to be a Web Editorial Intern at Marvel Comics. I wasn’t quite sure of my chances of getting the job at the time. My journalism experience only consisted of reviews of comics, movies and TV shows for my campus newspaper. I knew nothing of HTML, Content Management Systems or the editing process. However, through sheer luck and an extremely heart-felt application essay, I was granted an interview and by the end of the interview I was given a position.
I was ecstatic, I was jubilant and I was nervous as hell!
Once I was at Marvel, my Supervisors threw me right into the fire. I would get a brief, but concise, explanation of my current task and then I was expected to do it with little room for error. I adapted to the fast-paced environment. There wasn’t much downtime and my Supervisor was very hard on me whenever I would make a dumb mistake. At first I was resentful of that, but I soon learned that he thought highly of me and just wanted to keep pushing me to improve.
The work at Marvel included writing up newsletters, press releases, video game articles, comic book solicitations and comic book previews. There was also Photoshop work, editing work and organizational work.
One of my favorite moments working at Marvel was being involved in their Marvelfest event. I wrote a press release for the event and was in charge of promotions at the event itself. I also helped out with some Photoshop work on a Robot Chicken-esque stop animation project called “Marvel Superheroes: What The –?!” featured on the Marvel website.
My entire experience as a Marvel intern was a dream come true. Whether I was writing some fun articles, learning some cool secret stuff or watching my idol Peter David talk about “Runaways” while eating a big sandwich, Marvel was a great experience for me. While I didn’t receive any pay, I got some great experience for my résumé ….and about 150 comics.
3 Comments
Wow! What a great experience! How long were you there…a semester or two?
Thanks for allowing the Fanboy in me the opportunity to live vicariously through your words.
Anybody who identifies themself with the Spider Jerusalem character is two steps ahead of the game. I hope we get to hear more about your experiences and I’m looking forward to seeing some of your comics reviews…hopefully here at Major Spoilers!
I was there for a semester. It was a great experience however I was a little bummed that I was one semester late for helping out with Comic-Con and one semester early to see the release of Iron Man 2. But it was a great time and my goal is to wind up as a web editor for a site just like it.
Hi Jason,
I am a Comm Major at NDSU and I have been for months working on my resume for the internship. Any advise or recommendations on experience, formatting or whatever you might think is helpful? You had a awesome opportunity and I along with thousands of others are looking to share that experience. Your feed back is greatly appreciated.