John Romita Jr. Could critique your art!

I'm thrilled to announce here on the blog that master storyteller, comics artist work horse and fan favorite JOHN ROMITA JR. (currently penciling AVENGERS and co-creator of KICK-ASS) is going to do a guest critique of a Workshop artist at the Comics Experience Creators Workshop.

Workshop artists are going to be posting their artwork all January long with all posts due on by January 22nd to be considered to win the critique! As many of you probably know, Romita has the record for drawing the most issues of Spider-Man of anyone else in history. When it comes to making comics, there's simply no one with more work under his or her belt.

Romita has been a huge supporter of comics as a whole and of both myself and Comics Experience for years. The day I learned the most about comics storytelling in my life was the day John came into the Marvel offices to meet with me and a young artist I had just hired to work on a book. The young artist was new--still learning--clearly had the raw talent but still had some growing to do.

So I asked Romita to come in and give the young fellow some tips. Well, a couple of hours in a conference room with together (and talent manager Chris Allo) were so freaking enlightening that I walked in an assistant editor and walked out feeling like a senior editor (promotion pending, of course!). John covered all kinds of storytelling building blocks, tips, tricks, and short cuts. He talked about how he set up his art table in his studio--and it just went on and on.

His advice was so complete, so freely given, and so encouraging that I felt like I could have drawn the next big book at Marvel. (I now blame John officially for my current attempt to draw my own comic...). In short, this is a tremendous opportunity for any comic artist--new or seasoned pro--to get a quantum leap ahead.

And this isn't a one-time deal at the workshop! Every month, we've got artist challenges that we post to help build and improve artists' skills. We discuss industry topics and give out insider information to help build careers and network. And we always have a guest pro like Romita give a critique once a month!

If you're an artist and serious about improving your work quickly and having a great time doing it, I encourage you to join the Workshop and give it a go. I think you'll like what you fine. Jump in, start posting work and critiquing scripts as well as artwork, and watch how quickly your storytelling skills improve. And it's fun, too!

I can't wait to see the feedback that John gives to the winner at the end of January. And of course, members will have access to the message board where all guest critiques get posted! So hurry up and join now!

Okay, that's it from me for now. I'm too excited not to blog about this!

Andy