Thursday, December 28, 2006

I'm a Professional

It must've been 15 years ago, at this point. I had just finished a camping weekend with my friend Nick and a couple of other guys, and we retreated back to Nick's family's upstate bungalow. (Why they always called it a bungalow and never a house still eludes me.) I took it upon myself to cook breakfast for the guys because, A) I was hungry and B) I wanted edible food and I just didn't trust any of them to make a breakfast that was more than fast or broken.

So I set to work making pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Easy enough. But I'm very good at breakfast. Almost as good as I am on the grill. Anyway, Nick asked me what I was cooking. I said "Relax, buddy. I'm a professional." He then asked me, "Has anyone ever paid you to cook?" I shook my head. He told me "Then you're not a professional. You're a talented amateur. And I'll reserve the 'talented' until after I've tasted your bacon."

No, not a gay weekend at all.

But he was right. Until you've been paid to do a service, you can't claim to be a pro. And, as of yesterdays mail, which included a sparkly check from DC Comics, I'm a professional comic book writer.

That sound you hear is a very muffled victory dance.

7 comments:

Cunningham said...

And to commemorate the occasion, I have moved you to the "comics" section of my blog links, along with the other pros...

marc bernardin said...

thanks, bro...but where will I go once I've sold a spec script? Decisions, decisions...

Cunningham said...

We got time...

;-)

marc bernardin said...

sadly, too true...

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Marc!
(BTW: It's Abby)

marc bernardin said...

thanks, Lurker Abby!

Ken Lowery said...

Very congratulations.