Greg responds...

I think my story is probably a bit atypical...

In 1983, Marvel announced a search for new talent. I calculated that they'd be inundated with submissions. But I also calculated that DC would soon initiate their own talent search. So instead of prepping a Marvel submission, I prepped one for DC.

Sure enough, a month later, DC announced its own search for new talent. I immediately sent in my submission. Years later, I found the log book for these submissions, and mine was literally the second one they received. They logged the submission into the book with my name and address - and then lost the actual submission, which I also found years later at the bottom of a file cabinet where it had clearly slipped down between two hanging folders.

Because 75% of the submissions they received were from artists, they gambled that mine was an artist submission as well. They sent me a packet for new artists. But of course, I was one of the 25% who had made a writing submission. And I was outraged, OUTRAGED! Outraged in a way that only a know-nothing 19-year-old can be.

So I wrote DC Executive Editor Dick Giordano an OUTRAGED Letter. And then I figured that would be the end of it.

But for whatever reason, Dick was impressed with (or more likely amused by) my letter. He called me. On the phone. He invited me to come to the DC offices at 666 5th Avenue.

After I graduated from college, Dick hired me as an Editorial Assistant (i.e. as a Xerox Boy), and later promoted me to Assistant Editor and then Associate Editor. He was a true mentor to me. A great guy.