DC Talent Development Workshop

Did you guys apply?

I've been stressing my ass trying to make the deadline. Made it at the last minute. Holy fuck.

I applied.

Got in there at the last minute because they were having technical difficulties that wouldn't allow anymore applications to be accepted.

Don't think I'll get it though. But I would've regretted not trying.

Writers or artists?

Please. Post some stuff

Bump

Yeah, turned mine in last night. Don't think my chances are very high, but worth a shot. Good luck, fellow writeanons!

>working for DC or Marvel
why tho

Why hate world famous characters, and money?

Because if you can make it at Image, you get much more money. Not to mention the whole creator rights things

You need to be a big creator to be able to sell an Image book.

>need previously published work

Welp that's a no

Because editors and WB/Disney people making demands

>image
>selling

Lol

Yeah but most writing gigs pay like shit anyway, going from that to DC money would already be an improvement. And I imagine it could also help your profile for creater-owned stuff.
Personally, I'd be happy to make it into the workshop. That could be a really cool addition to a portfolio.

Not necessarily. Kirkman got his big break at Image, and so did John Layman.

Working from demands is kinda what paid writers do, though. In order to have time & resources for their personal projects, among other things.

If you have a critically acclaimed and best-selling run on a big-time title at the Big Two, it helps any creator owned stuff you publish sell a lot better.
This of course leads to a lot of promising young authors leaving DC/Marvel to do their own thing.

Knowing about what goes on at dc, why would any of you work for them?

Because all the best writers do?

Yes. Until they're screwed over or chased off

>not pouring your heart, soul and talent into your dream book
>not releasing it at Dark Horse/Avatar/Image/Wherever to massive sales and critical acclaim
>not becoming the next Mignola/Kirkman/Sakai
Don't let your dreams be dreams.

there's dreams and then there's delusions

you make a name for yourself with the big 2 first so that your creator owned work will sell, can't hope to fluke into popularity and make the new Walking Dead just by chance

the right place on the right time during the Zombie craze helped Kirkman.

>delusions
Like looking at the people Marvel/DC have fucked over and thinking you'll be different?

You only have to stay long enough to make a name for yourself and save your best ideas for your own stuff.

Writers gotta eat, too. Steady work like you're getting from a big company can only be useful in the long run, even if you're writing your dream comic.

Like who? I'm serious. I can think of a few who left over creative differences, but even then, the work they put in was probably useful in some way or another.

Does it matter? You write because you have a story to tell.

If it requires the big two then you go there, otherwise you go to whoever will publish you. Personally if you're going to go independent, you might as well do a webcomic and get a patreon.

And some people dream of writing for those licensed characters, too. (Actually, I'm pretty sure many do.) That's another incentive.

Yeah, I applied. Worked my ass off to put a decent composition together, and got a professional I'd worked with to write me a recommendation letter.

I just pray my writing sample was good enough. This is a big opportunity, after all.

You can pour your heart into as company owned book as well, if you just want to write instead of have movie and merchandise rights. That's the problem with modern Image writers. Their big two books don't seem so focused compared to their Image titles.

>you have a story to tell.
No they have stories to tell, you get to write them unless you're story doesn't fit with what they want.

Haha, the composition took me a long time as well. I hate writing those things.
I didn't manage to get a recommendation, sadly. Probably not great, but if I don't make it, I have another year to network and put my work out there, I guess.

So then you don't work for them. Who gives a shit?

What sort of thing did you submit as your sample? I think the quality of your writing might end up speaking for itself.

Better to try and fail than never trying at all

I wrote the script for a multi-part comic that got published as a tie-in for a novel (not mine). It got pretty good reception, even won some awards. Probably nothing compared to what the seasoned pros have to offer, but at least it's a comic lol.

>tfw mine was just a small compilation of small press strips

The dream is dead.

You and me both have to get past all those people who probably have whole entire indie comic books published, so don't give up yet! It's gonna be tough anyway.

It'd be nice to chat and share work, if you'd like?
[email protected]

Haha, not sure if I have a lot of insights to share, but pocketing this, thx!

No worries; best of luck with the workshop! And if you don't get in, it's already confirmed to run another three years so don't sweat it.

Same to you, fellow user! All of it.

bump

OP here, I applied at midnight EST where the fucking counter still said I had 3 hours to do so and it didn't work. Turns out the website didn't track time on a server level. Got passed it by having a friend in Cali submit for me. Bricks were shat.

I'm not sure I had a good chance but it drove me to try. I put my heart and soul into a narrative and did a one page comic excerpt for it. I hope they just don't want pros

Fucking 2000 character limit killed me. I spent more time writing the "please gib job" letter than my actual work

Good for you, man, holy fuck.

I didn't know this was a thing or else I would of.

So now it's time for me to stop talking shit about DC on my social media for a few months, I guess. Not that I trash them a lot since I like their comics, but now I feel self-conscious posting critical stuff.

But my dream is to make Howard the Duck great again.

Writers, I'd post my link but I don't want to be the shameless fuck to do it.

I had already started it before but it allowed me to submit after midnight EST IIRC.

>you make a name for yourself with the big 2 first so that your creator owned work will sell
if you're lucky enough. majority of people do creator owned work first, even just webcomics, or are from another discipline (like being a published author.) Big Two don't hire anyone off the street anymore unless you got friends in high places (like how Meredith Finch wrote Wonder Woman, despite writing maybe 6 pages of a comic before that, because her husband is a big name artist)

I'll do it if you do user.

I'm trying to make it anonymous

Yeah Idk why man. I asked a Web dev friend and he said they probably don't record time server side. I'm glad we got in though!

>you make a name for yourself with the big 2 first so that your creator owned work will sell

Exactly. People like Rick Remender and Ed Brubaker can live off doing just Image books now because they grabbed an audience at Marvel first that will follow them to their creator owned books.

How many people do you think are going to be selected?

Are they going to do another one of these any time soon?

They said next year on the website when you try to submit passed the deadline

Okay I guess I'll try next year or something. I would of totally gone for this if I knew about it sooner. I'm trying to get serious about my goal of writing comics.

Those of you who submitted for the writer workshop, did you actually have published work out there?

Op here again, I looked deeper into the guidelines and they said as long as it was on a website, even your own blog, it counts. I made a tumblr for my shit so it was "published". Hope they don't disqualify me.

Yeah but, I think it's really weird that they barred scripts.