AudioShocker

Bill Jemas helped to rebuild Marvel Comics at a time when the company was in the shitter (a.k.a. the late 90s into the early 00s). He developed the Ultimate line, he helped Joe Quesada revamp the entire publishing side of the business, and he no doubt maneuvered many business deals to save Marvel Comics that the public has never even heard about.

It was with great enthusiasm that I sent Bill a message in mid 2004. He had recently left his position as President of Marvel Comics and launched a new company, 360ep, which specialized in intellectual property development and licensing deals. When I sent my resume through a contact page on the 360ep website, I never expected to hear back from him.

A few days later, I received an email from Bill. He was interested in finding out more about my background. We communicated via email, and he sent me 360ep’s business plan (a HUGE document that outlined their mission statement and all their goals). I was excited at the prospect, and Bill suggested we take a look at an account manager position to see if it was a fit.

Bill first called me when I was busy driving a crate truck full of $30,000 worth of filming equipment around the streets of Hollywood. I was in Los Angeles with Conrad (heard on the AudioShocker’s AFI 100 Movies 100 Years podcasts) to work on a short Fox Searchlab film about naked zombies and frat hazing. I hated it. On the other hand, Conrad liked the naked zombie production experience so much that he decided to move out to LA.

My big phone interview with Bill happened when I was apartment hunting in Brooklyn less than a month later, and it was awful. I was horribly unprepared and completely out of my league. Bill was gracious and inquisitive, but I just wasn’t up to his standards. I didn’t really read the business plan, and I had no idea what intellectual property development and licensing meant.

In one of my previous notes to Bill, I had mentioned something about how impressed I was with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada’s Daredevil relaunch. What a load of shit! I’d barely even read those issues, and it certainly wasn’t a run I had on my list of life-changers. During our phone conversation, Bill asked me about my admiration for these particular Daredevil comics. Suffice to say, things went downhill from there.

What began as an opportunity for an account manager position was downgraded to the role of Bill’s personal assistant. But Bill felt my college GPA was too low and I simply didn’t have enough experience to work for 360ep at all. My opportunity for personal assistant to Bill Jemas became an opportunity for “let’s talk in a year and see where you’re at.”

By the time it was one year later year, I still wasn’t even close to being qualified. My employment of the previous 12 months consisted of three failed DC Comics interviews, getting fired from a high-profile NYC comic shop, quitting my job at Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grill after four hours of unpaid work, interning as a receptionist at a music production house, and working as a summer camp counselor teaching kids how to make 2-D video games.

And that’s just another reason why I’m going to have to sneak into the comic book industry if I ever want to make it in.