Typically, comic book creators break into the industry by either doing independent comics that get attention from the larger comic book companies, showing their portfolios to editors at conventions, or going to work for comic book companies in another role and working their way into writing. Some creators, though, have taken the road less traveled. Here are three particularly peculiar routes.
1 Jerry Robinson. Jerry Robinson had just graduated from high school and was about to play a game of tennis on the day he got his big break. An older man was admiring Robinson’s jacket, which he had decorated with all sorts of cartoons (a popular sort of style for high schoolers at that time). The man asked Robinson if he knew who the artist was, to which Robinson replied that it was him, and that he was his high school newspaper’s cartoonist. On the spot, the man offered him a job as his assistant back in New York City. The man who offered him the job? Bob Kane, who had recently created Batman in Detective Comics. To say that they had a fruitful collaboration is an understatement, as Robinson helped to create Robin, Catwoman, and the Joker as Batman took off as a national sensation.
2 Elliot S. Maggin. As a junior at Brandeis University, Maggin took an American history course that involved mass media. Maggin wanted to demonstrate to his classmates how a comic book story could be useful as an ideological tool, so he wrote his own Green Arrow story to illustrate his point. Maggin got a B+, but felt that his story and his concept should have gotten an A. He sent the paper to DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz to prove his point to his instructor. In a crazy twist of fate, DC actually bought the comic and published it in Green Lantern #87, with art by Neal Adams. Sadly, though, it was too late to change the grade, as the semester had ended, but no doubt Maggin got over that pretty quickly, given his new job.
3 Steve Epting. Steve Epting had just graduated with a BFA in graphic design and was working as a designer when he read about a contest that First Comics was holding at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair. The winner would get his or her six-page story published in the back of one of First Comics’ series—a pretty nice prize for a new artist. However, that contest? Not even real. It was a rumor that had somehow spread in the Atlanta comic community! With a few submissions unexpectedly in hand, however, First Comics figured, hey, might as well give these artists a quick look for their time, not expecting anything to come of it. But Epting’s entry caught their eye, so much so that the art director offered him the chance to do some work for them. Epting slowly worked his way up in the business until he became one of Marvel Comics’ top artists, working on The Avengers, Captain America, and most recently The Fantastic Four/FF. All from a contest that did not even exist!