It's a book, dummy!

Yesterday I met Jeph, the other intern who works in the Trades department. We got there in the morning and looked at the huge stack of Trades we still had to mail out, and just tore threw them man. We cleared pretty much everything that we possibly could, and made huge headway into that project. Which is good. Now we can do real things!
Jeph is a good guy. His knowledge of comics though I think exceeds mine. He knew how thick the books we had to send out were based on how many issues were printed in them. He didn't even have to open the box and look at them! Intense.
Yesterday I checked over a dummy book, which is basically a mock up of a trade paperback that gets sent to the printers. My job was to check it side by side with the original comics and make sure all was well. It was awesome! It's good to be doing more than mailing stuff. We also have a big scanning project that Jeph and I have to get through, which will be cool. I haven't seen the scans yet, since I was on the dummy book, but that's cool. I'm sure I'll see it soon.
Friday is the day the paid employees get their "bundles". Basically these consist of all the Marvel comics printed that week, but some editors get all the DC comics as well. It's insanely awesome. What's even awesomer (yes, that is a word now) is that the freebie pile is glutted with the stuff people don't want. Yes! More free stuff! I figured that I can measure my salary in the amount of comics I take home with me. That way it's like I'm getting paid!
We stopped at Toys R' Us yesterday, and to my amazement they had Doctor Who toys! So I totally bought the Doctor, and he's actually a great toy, really solid construction. My only complaint is that he comes with his 3D Glasses on, and you can't take them off, but they look fine, so whatever. Other than that, all is well. Having a good time and all that. I'll let you know as more develops. Excelsior!

Meanwhile, in New York City...

Back to the grindstone today. I'm getting used to the trains after having a few days to practice. They run on time to an amazing degree. When your little train schedule says the 5:32 arrives in White Plains at 6:05, it arrives at 6:05. It's quite an efficient mode of transportation, and just another reminder that you're a part of the great machine that is the city.
We're still trying to clear out the complimentary trade paperbacks. We're getting closer, but it takes a surprisingly long time to mail those things out. Particularly because we're running out of packing material. I assume they'll restock it soon, but we're down to medium boxes, which aren't the best for sending just one book. In any case, it's still a good time. It's great spending time with the interns, since we all like the same things, it's easy to keep conservation going.
I have made good use of the free comic book bin, but I have learned an important lesson. You have to keep your eyes open for new additions. During the afternoon, Joe Quesada (that's right, Joe Freakin' Quesada) dropped off a pile of stuff, and as soon as he was gone, there were interns and temps all over it like vultures on a juicy fox. And let me tell you, there was some good pickins in there, but it went to the quick. I will now be on the prowl to make sure I get the good stuff. I still took home like 10 more comics anyway. Some good, some not so good, some in italian. Hurray!
It's great to be reading a lot of comics again. Now that I've seen where they're produced, they are even more a labor of love than I previously imagined. These people certainly aren't working in exceptional facilities, or probably even for a lot of money. Just like minded people who work together to produce and maintain a universe they care about.
I've read some good comics and some bad comics recently. Some of the not so good comics I've read tend to be distracting in some way. This could be because of over explaining what we're seeing, not giving us enough of a view into the comic, but either way it takes us out of the reality of what's happening. In the end, we care about the characters, and if we can tell it's being written....well, that's really generally, and not a good blanket statement, but there's good and bad comics. I need to start reading some of my critical materials. Either way, it's great fun. Hopefully tomorrow the other intern and I will finish shipping out those books and we can get on to the real stuff. Until next time true believers, 'nuff said.

Kung Fu in the Big City

Well, I had a day off today. I'm required to work Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the rest is negotiable, so I thought resting up after my travels would be appropriate. After a nice rest, I had an easy morning of WoW and donuts (mmm...donuts). Nathan and I played some X-Men Legends and G-tar hero, and eventually we took the train out to the city proper. We decided to head to the Midtown Comics store in Times Square, but stopped to see Kung Fu Panda first. After paying a mere $12.00 for a ticket, we ascended an elevator to the theater (things are more vertical here). On the way up, we were informed by the elevator attendant that she had kicked a Chinese food delivery guy out of the elevator for calling her "fat". It was a fun time. In any case, the movie was actually pretty fun. Jack Black is, of course, hilarious. It made me wonder if they wrote the script to sound like Jack Black, or if he just said random things and they animated around it. There were actually a lot of famous names behind the voices, David Cross included, and the action was actually really cool. The best part of the movie is the dream sequence at the beginning, where his enemies are blinded by his "pure awesome". Classic. Also, if anyone can tell me what animal master Xifu is supposed to be, 50 points.
The comic book store was busy, but had a lot of good stuff. I bought way too many comic books, and some toys, but they were all worth it. It's interesting to see the types of people who shop in a downtown New York comic book store. Lots of people in suits, and very few kids. They had a few of the books I need to for my course credit this summer, but I'm going to hold off until I check if they're available through a library. I'd rather not buy them all. Surprisingly they didn't have Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art", but I think it might be out of print right now.
In any case, it was a relaxing and fun day. I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow. Hopefully I don't have too many more boxes of books to mail out, but either way, it'll be fun to be back at Marvel. I mean, come on. Marvel!

In the beginning...

And he saw his workplace, and it was good. Well folks, it's official. My internship has begun, and it was everything I hoped it would be. The intern manager, who I'd met with previously, gave me a tour of the offices once and I checked in, and it was fantastic. There was merchandise everywhere! Those employees had way too many toys on their desks to get any work done. And of course there were lots of things I wanted but are unobtainable, which is disheartening, but at the same time exciting, because where else would I see them?
It's very strange to be in the main office "where the magic happens" so to speak. Everyone, my supervisors especially, were very nice. It's really wonderful to be working in an environment where everyone has a clear passion for the material. It's energizing. Where else can you talk about your choice X-Men line up, the relationship between Galactus and the Celestials, who would win in a fight between Ms. Marvel and Rogue, and any number of equally nerdy things.
John Denning took me into the archives, which are awesome, because they're filled with comics, but are otherwise a big closet. I'll get to venture back into there more in the future, but today I did a lot of work mailing out complimentary trade paperbacks to their creators. While it seems boring, it was incredibly cool, because I was mailing things to some of my favorite creators! (i.e. Neil Gaiman, John Romita Jr.) It was tempting to steal their addresses from the database or include notes in their mailings, but that would be wrong.
The interns and employees are great. It's the little touches that really make the place shine. Like Venom soap dispensers in the bathroom, or bins of old comics for the interns to rummage through (which is totally awesome. I cannot tell you how awesome free comics are). I love the idea that people are in the business of making something that has no other value than that people love it. And that is worthy enough.
It'll be good to get all the comp books out. Then I hope to start more of the creative process of my internship. I'm excited to work with the older comics and help put out the books. But I'm more than happy to do a little grunt work in the meantime. My living arrangements are working out great. Props to the Riemer family! Well, that's all she wrote for today. Updates soon!
Until next time, 'nuff said.

-Jared