Marvel Try-out Book

The Official Marvel Comics Try-Out Book
Cover for the original 1983 edition, showing the various stages of comic book creation, from pencils, to inks, to colors.
Date	1983
Main characters	Spider-Man
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Creative team
Writers	Jim Shooter
Pencillers	John Romita, Jr.
Original publication
Language	English
ISBN

The Official Marvel Comics Try-Out Book is an oversize book originally published by Marvel Comics in 1983. Conceived by then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, the book was in the form of a contest encouraging up-and-coming comics creators to try their hand at getting a job with the company. The winner would be awarded a professional assignment with Marvel.

The book described the respective jobs and accompanying tools of a writer, penciller, inker, letterer, and colorist, and then provided pages ready for the hopeful cartoonist to work on. An unfinished Spider-Man story (titled "Personals") was the springboard for the try-out portion, which among other features contained blank, pre-ruled pages for pencilers, pre-penciled "non-photo blue" pages (by artist John Romita, Jr.) to be inked and lettered, and completed black-and-white pages to be colored. The entire book was printed on two-ply 11" x 17" paper, replicating the size that a typical comic book was drawn on.

Though the book was published in 1983, the contest winners were not announced until 1986. The initial winners were:

For their outstanding entries, the winners received a commemorative certificate. They were also promised "their first regular professional assignment, which will be finishing the Spider-Man story 'Personals' which was begun in the Try-Out Book. The result of their labors will be published next spring in a special giant-sized issue of The Amazing Spider-Man." That promised issue never was published. However, artist Bagley is now a well-known penciller who would go on to have an extended run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the 1990s and then Ultimate Spider-Man with Brian Michael Bendis in the 2000s. Inker Hazlewood has had a steady career, ironically mostly for DC Comics, since the late 1980s. Duffie and Pasda have yet to see their work in print.