Make mine Marvel

Did you know that there’s a missing ‘Conan the Barbarian’ issue somewhere in the Philippines? Local comics artist Steve Gan never turned in his last issue because he said the drawings were ‘too beautiful’ to ink.

C.B. Cebulski has The Avengers on his mind. And Spider-Man, too. And The Fantastic Four. And maybe even The Man-Thing (yes, really,this is not a porn parody. There is actually a Marvel superhero named The Man-Thing who has had his own movie).

A Marvel fanboy turned Marvel writer (he wrote Marvel Mangaverse, Loners and, together with Pinoy artist Harvey Tolibao, War of Kings: Darkhawk among others) turned Marvel executive, Cebulski recently visited Manila upon the invitation of National Bookstore to scout for new talent, much to the squealing delight of Marvel wannabe artists and writers. 

And I was one of those squealing like a boy whose testicles had not yet descended because my biggest dream — aside from being a multimillionaire real estate developer slash award-winning author and TV host slash father of 11 children slash part-time world conqueror — is to become a comic book writer.

In fact, I had the audacity to pitch a story idea on Twitter to the Marvel editors for an “Incredible Hulk vs. Manny Pacquiao” comic book. I wet my official Avengers underwear when current Marvel editor in chief Axel Alonso tweeted back, “I’d edit that.”

While trying to make sipsip to Cebulski so that he could green light my “Hulk vs. Pacquiao” story with top Pinoy artist Leinil Yu doing the art chores, I spoke to him about how Pinoy artists could break into the US comic book scene and how to write for Marvel Comics while Cebulski spoke to me about how Conan the Barbarian is lost somewhere in the Philippines.

PHILIPPINE STAR: You made the transition from being freelance writer to a Marvel corporate executive. Was it a difficult transition to make from “fanboy” to the wizard behind the curtain? Doesn’t it kill the magic when you know exactly what will happen to Spider-Man’s love life five years down the road? 

C.B. CEBULSKI: (Laughs) I need the (corporate) discipline in my life. I needed to get up in the morning and go to work and set specific goals for myself. If left to my own devices, I wouldn’t shower and I would just sit down and read comics all day.

You’ve just described a typical day for me.

With my current job, I already know 18 months to three years in advance what’s going on in a lot of these Marvel comic books. And a lot of the time, that sucks. (Laughs) Having said that, what I find interesting is that when I pick up a Marvel comic from the comic store and then reach a cliffhanger ending and say “Holy #$^&! That’s amazing! I didn’t expect that to happen!” I put down that comic and realize that I knew that that cliffhanger was going to happen several months ago. But the comic was so well-written and beautifully drawn that it made me forget everything I knew about that story. That’s when I take satisfaction that myself and everyone at Marvel is doing their job correctly.

That’s the mutant power of good comic books: memory loss. Your official position is “senior vice president for Creator and Content Development”? What exactly is it that you do? You read comics the whole day and get paid for it? And can I have your job?

I question sometimes what I do as well. (Laughs) I’ve been with Marvel for a long time: 35 years as a reader, 13 years as a freelancer and 10 years as a full-time employee.  

Wow, your relationship with Marvel is older than most showbiz marriages.

I know the mechanics of Marvel, I know exactly how the company operates on both the character level and the corporate level, and I take care of the things that need to be done internally and in the creative community. In Marvel, I’m like the equivalent of George Clooney’s Michael Clayton character.

The resemblance is uncanny.

No one knows exactly what I do in Marvel, but if you need something done, I’ll get it done. (Laughs)  My main job is to build the company. I’m first and foremost a talent scout: I proactively search for talent anywhere in the world. Second, I bring that talent in and I help get them into Marvel’s creative system. And third, along with the other senior vice president who runs the talent management division, we manage the careers of writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists and letterers who come into Marvel. When we bring someone in, we usually start them off with an eight-page story to test their abilities not only to deliver on their deadlines but also to make sure they fit into Marvel’s system. After that, we find them a one-shot issue, then a quarterly series, then a mini-series, until we get them on a monthly comic. We help guide them through the process and when we think they’re ready, we let them sign an exclusive contract with Marvel and move them on to the big titles.

So you start them off with an eight-page story about The Astonishing Garko or The Man-Frog until they end up with an 80-page story about The Amazing Spider-Man. So you literally go around the world to find people who are the best at drawing rippling muscles wrapped in spandex?

I visit a set number of North American and international comic conventions every year. Aside from conventions, I’ve found that our international creators are guiding us as to where we should look for talent. The Croatians have been telling us about the growing Eastern European comic book art scene and the South Americans have been asking us to visit Argentina and Brazil. Then our Filipino artists like Leinil and Stephen (RJ’s geek note No. 1: Leinil Yu is a Filipino comics superstar who has drawn practically every major Marvel superhero from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four to the Avengers and practically all the major Marvel superheroes. Stephen Segovia has drawn Wolverine, Thor and the upcoming X-Treme X-Men) have been telling me, “You gotta check out the Philippines!” but I never really had the opportunity. 

So why has it taken you such a long time to visit the country where Captain Barbell, Zuma and Super Wan Tu Tri were born?

Well, working with National Bookstore we were able to make it a reality after four years. (Laughs) To be honest, there wasn’t a big need for me to come because artists like Philip (RJ’s geek note No. 2: Philip Tan is US-based Filipino artist known for his work on Iron Man and X-Men) and Leinil, and guys on the Internet like Budjette (RJ’s geek note No. 3: Budjette Tan is a local comic book writer who co-created the cult favorite Trese) and Stephen, were already introducing everybody to us and acting like our talent recruiters! But given the success we’ve had with all the Filipino artists, we had to see for ourselves where all this (talent) was coming from.

I think the next step from here is to have Spider-Man team up with Gagambo. For longtime fans of the medium like myself, we’re very proud of the legacy of Pinoy comic book artists who graced the American comic scene. In the ‘70s, we had Alex Nino, Alfredo Alcala, Tony DeZuniga and Ernie Chua. In the ‘90s, it’s been Whilce Portacio, Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Carlo Pagulayan and a whole lot more. Have you noticed any common denominator across the works of Pinoy artists?

There are a couple of defining characteristics of Filipino artists. First, they are consummate professionals: they’re in constant communication with their editors and they don’t miss their deadlines. Second they are impeccable storytellers. No matter what art style they’re working in, they’ve learned the basics of pacing the story beats and moving around the ‘camera’ around their characters to tell a story.

Storytelling is deeply ingrained in our culture. We’ve got great storytellers in our telenovelas, our gossip shows and our impeachment courts.

When Filipino artists come to Marvel, they’re fully formed and they have their own style. They’ve learned from the other Filipino artists who have come before them in the industry, and they’ve taken those influences and adapted it to make something of their own. For example, if you look at Whilce Portacio, Leinil Yu, Stephen Segovia and Harvey Tolibao (RJ’s geek note No. 4: Harvey has drawn X-Men, Iron-Man and Silver Surfer), they all credit each other as their artistic “influences,” but their artwork looks nothing alike! They’re all bringing something we appreciate to Marvel because it’s something we haven’t seen before.

Let me know if these Pinoy artists need a live model to get more accurate representations of rippling musculature. Speaking of local artists, I understand that you’ve shortlisted 35 local Pinoy artists for Marvel during your visit. What exactly are you looking for when it comes to artists? Do the artists have to have same rippling physique as the superheroes that they draw?

Like I mentioned earlier, I need an artist who is foremost a storyteller. Someone who can engage me and tell a story from panel to panel and page to page without needing word balloons. The second is I’m looking for an artist with a unique, individual style. Lastly, I like to meet these artists face to face and get a sense of their personality because — as clichéd as it may sound — Stan Lee (RJ’s geek note No. 5: Stan Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, was the co-creator of all the major Marvel characters, from Spider-Man to the Hulk to the Fantastic Four to Iron-Man) drove into the company the importance of creating a “family” atmosphere. It is the Marvel family and our creators eventually become a part of that.

Hey, if you’re looking to bring a unique stick figure artist to Marvel, do give me a call. So, you can actually be based in the Philippines and still be a Marvel artist?

You can live anywhere. It’s all about your professionalism and what’s on the page. If you can delivery quality work on time and get along with your editor, then you can live anywhere you want. In fact, a lot of these editors have never even met the artist or spoken on the phone with them. It’s all done by e-mail.

That gives the artist the opportunity to spend the whole day drawing great comics while dressed only in their official Avengers underwear. Do our local artists require the services of an agent to work for Marvel?

Artists from other countries may require an agent but a lot of these agents serve as translators. Given that Filipinos speak English, there’s really no need for translators. Aspiring artists can go straight to Marvel.

Do you also recruit writers as well? I know a guy who maintains a weekly lifestyle column and has written four humor books who wants to write Spider-Man.

That’s a tough question for aspiring writers who are reading this. Although we look for new writers all the time, unfortunately we cannot accept story ideas and submissions from new writers for legal reasons. What you have to do is prove yourself as an accomplished writer before you can become a Marvel writer.

Here’s a copy of my latest best-seller, It Only Hurts When I Pee. My books have been regular best-sellers since my mom started buying all the copies.

You have to prove that you are capable of telling a story in print, be it a novel, a screenplay, a TV show or a comic book. We need to know that you have broken into “writing industry” before you come to us. I often use the baseball analogy: you play first for the minors before you make it into the big leagues. In the comic book industry, DC and Marvel Comics are the big leagues. You break into the big leagues by working your way up through the smaller comic book companies: Image or Archaia or Dark Horse or even through self-publishing or web comics or any of the avenues that are open up to you. We’re not being elitist, but you just have to prove to us that you have the chops and dedication to work for Marvel. So for people who have spent years in the smaller comic book companies or self-publishing or putting out their own comics with photocopies, that means a lot to us. It shows that they want to invest their own time to tell stories These are people who will do whatever it takes to become a comic book writer. They have a day job and work at nights and invest their own money to produce their own comics because they are dedicated to the craft. That means they are going to work equally hard if Marvel hires them.

That means I’ve got to work double time now drawing stick figures stories of my adventures in Adultland with yaya.

Speaking of adventures, did you know that there is a missing Conan the Barbarian issue in the Philippines? The editor of Conan, Ralph Macchio (RJ’s geek note No. 6: no, not that Ralph Macchio), sent the penciled artwork of Conan by John Buscema (RJ’s geek note No. 7: the late John Buscema was a defining Marvel artist who is best known for drawing Avengers and Silver Surfer. He co-authored the book How to Draw Comic the Marvel Way) to Steve Gan (RJ’s geek note No. 8: Award-winning local illustrator Steve Gan is the co-creator of Ang Panday) to ink. After Ralph confirmed that Steve received the pages, he expected to receive the inked artwork in a couple of weeks. But after a couple of weeks went by, Ralph still didn’t receive the pages. As the deadline approached, Ralph finally got a hold of Steve on the phone and asked him for the pages. “I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” Steve said. “Why not?” Ralph asked. “(The work is) too beautiful, too beautiful.” Ralph told Steve that if he didn’t ink the book and turn in the pages, he would be fired and never be hired (by Marvel) again. But Steve said “No, fire me, fire me, it’s just beautiful.” Steve never turned in that issue and John Buscema had to re-draw the same 20 pages from memory. But there’s still the whole lost issue of Conan that Steve never returned that is somewhere here in the Philippines.

We’ll be on the lookout for Conan. It shouldn’t be too hard to miss a big white man dressed in a loincloth and fur boots.

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For comments, suggestions or if you’ve seen a big white man dressed in loincloth and fur boots, please e-mail ledesma.rj@gmail.com or visit . Follow rjled on Twitter! Please pray for the recovery of legendary Pinoy comics artist and co-creator of Jonah Hex Tony DeZuniga who is currently in the ICU of Las Piñas Doctors Hospital after suffering a stroke.