Elijah and Azuu

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#974 Girl's Night Out: Nut Cases

Inkmonkey

on March 2, 2006

The other day Jim Lee came to my school and held a short assembly. Yes, that Jim Lee. The one who draws Superman. Anyway, he was in the area for the New York Comic Con (my school is in New Jersey), and I guess he owed Joe Kubert a favor or something.

I think the coolest part about listening to Jim Lee and his fellow Wildstorm artists was just how normal they were. If I hadn't been told he was Jim Lee, I probably wouldn't have even recognized him.

The group mainly talked about what they did to get into the comic business. I think the most interesting part of the stories that I heard was that Lee, before getting hired by Marvel, had been forcing him to draw for 8 hours straight every day, just to prove to himself that he could if he got a job that required it. I get exasperated after 3; I can't imagine doing it for 8: especially if I'm not drawing anything in particular. I find myself more motivated when I'm drawing towards a goal.

The one thing all the stories had in common, though, was that everyone had to swallow their pride, accept a few rejections, and just keep trying. Even the best don't get their foot in the door on the first try. In that same vein, they stuck around for a while to look at the portfolios of the third and second year students, which I thought was pretty cool of them. My stuff isn't nearly ready for any professional company to be considering, but I'll keep pushing myself, and if I play my cards right some kid will be talking about how he heard Shane Woodis came to his school to chat and how cool it was to see something like that.