How did you first start working for Marvel?
Originally, as a freelancer, many many years ago, I got hired based on the work I'd done for DC and Valiant Comics. Years later, I also owned my own comic book company—Event Comics. We had a decent amount of success for a three-person operation with only two or three books a month, and because of that, Marvel took notice and asked me to come on board on a more full-time, exclusive basis. They had just filed for Chapter 11 and the entire comics industry was on the verge of collapse. Marvel knocked on our door and asked us to package some books for them. We took four titles that were flying under the radar—Daredevil, Punisher, The Inhumans and Black Panther—and made them sell through the roof. A little less than two years into this packaging deal, they asked me to be editor in chief.

What experiences prepared you for the role of editor in chief?
There was no experience better than the time I spent as a self-publisher [at Event]. It wasn't just about working on my own projects, but learning about the business of comic books, distribution, what it costs to put together a comic book versus what you'll take in from selling it. It taught me to communicate with other creators, who I then went on to hire as freelancers.

What are you most proud of from your time as editor in chief?
If I had to single anything out, I think the one thing would be being part of a team of people here at Marvel that took a company in Chapter 11—in an industry that looked like it would soon be extinct—and managed to make a go of it. I used to hear and be in awe of great American success stories, about people who took companies or ideas and made something from nothing, or people who took dying companies and brought them back from the dead, and I can honestly say I've been a small part of one of those stories.

What made you decide to move into the CCO role?
From the first day I took over as editor in chief, I've said the job should come with an expiration date; there's a point where you've said what you have to say. When Disney purchased us there were so many opportunities that I could be a part of. It reminded me a lot of my first year at Marvel: looking at our publishing division and rebuilding it, starting from scratch. We're building new divisions at Marvel, and I want to be a part of that.

What have been the biggest differences between the chief creative officer job and your run as editor in chief?
The editor in chief job was solely focused on rebuilding the editorial division and focused only on the comics content. Now, as chief creative officer, I'm involved creatively with several divisions. At the end of the day, it's a more macro creative view, but with so much going on it's hard to get involved in the minutiae of every single story we do.

What was the first comic book you fell in love with?
Amazing Spider-Man, I think issue 98. My father bought it for me when I was 8 years old. It was a whole new world, and I just fell in love with comics. Marvel was using that issue of Spider-Man to preach about the evils of drug addiction, and my father thought it was a great way to teach me to stay off drugs. It worked, but it got me addicted to comics. Then after a few years I discovered baseball and girls—not necessarily in that order—and left comics behind. I came back to comics when I was 25. I met someone who saw I had an interest in art who said I should draw comic books. I snobbishly still considered them as a child's medium, but to prove me wrong, he got me the first issue of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. That changed my perception of what comic books were and made me think that maybe there was a career there for me.

Is there a character you particularly enjoy drawing?
I always go back to Spider-Man. As a kid reading Spider-Man, Peter Parker really resonated with me. He and I both grew up in Queens, and he was infinitely relatable, humorous in the face of danger; as an 8-year-old kid, I loved that and I still do today. I'm sure if you took a photo of me while I'm drawing Spider-Man, I'm probably smiling.

What did you study at SVA?
I was an illustration major. I think the biggest thing I got out of it was learning about the business of art and running an art career like a business. I was into the commercial art side; I was a fan of commercial illustrators. That's where I saw myself going. The practical knowledge I got from teachers who'd been in the trenches, that was the most valuable thing. My feeling is that you're born with certain talents and you can refine them, but a school won't make you more talented. I was not the most talented illustrator in my class, but I was pretty good and I also took a lot of the business suggestions to heart.

Is there anything you learned while at SVA that still pops into your head while you're working today?
I give a lunch for all of our intern classes here at Marvel as their sessions are ending. It's a big Q&A session, and I always get around to some of the things Marshall Arisman taught me: Treat your name as a brand and be persistent. You're going to be rejected, even if you're the most talented person in the room. But if you don't learn from rejection and keep going, you're not going to make it. If you keep on going, maybe by the 100th time you're rejected you'll get that first job, and that will lead to a second and third job. Some artists aren't built to take those hard knocks, so even if you're ridiculously talented, if you don't have that thick skin as part of your DNA, you might have find yourself another career.

What other advice would you give to a student at SVA who wants to get into the comics business today?
From the art standpoint, learn your craft. There's no two ways about it. Draw from life as often as you can, and then abstract from that. Draw all the time. If you wanted to be a pro baseball player, what would you do? You'd work out, hit the batting cages every chance you got, you'd do whatever it took to work on fielding, hitting, everything you needed to be the best baseball player you could be. It's exactly the same for a comics artist—hit the equivalent of the batting cages. You should have a sketch pad with you all the time; you should be drawing all the time. There is no substitute for learning and mastering your craft. Ultimately, the beauty of comic books, unlike other aspects of the entertainment business, is that it doesn't matter if you're 3,000 pounds, or if you're male or female, or where you come from—it's ultimately about your ability to do the work and get it done on time. The final product and your work ethic are what ultimately represent you.

As a comics fan, what do you think of digital comics?
I think it is an amazingly interesting future for us. Where it all ends up is tough to know, because the audience is going to dictate the future of digital comics. We know they're here to stay, but to what extent and what the audience ultimately embraces is another matter. They might embrace digital 100 percent, they may desire a mixture of digital and hard copies. On the art front, the possibilities of digital are exciting; things we can do with narrative beyond turning the page. As a reader, a genre I felt was always difficult to deliver in comics was horror. I'm not talking about gross-out horror, but suspenseful, surprising horror is difficult, because, unlike film, the reader controls the timing and the reveals with the turn of the page. In the digital medium, you might be able to change that and shock a reader. I think there's a lot of unexplored territory.

What aspects of the comics experience do you think are unique to print?
It's a tough question, because I can only answer it from the point of view of someone my age who enjoys picking up a physical comic and the smell of the ink. I don't know if that's going to matter to future readers. But I think the collectability factor will be hard to replicate in digital. So many fans have longboxes filled with comics. Most aren't filling those boxes to put their kids through college. They have them because they can rummage through them and they remember a particular book marking a point in their life, maybe a book that got them through a rough patch or inspired them, or a story so iconic that they love knowing they have the original comics from that period. Most of us hold on to old comic books because they mean something to us.

Of all the media outlets available for the kind of storytelling Marvel is known for, video games seem to have an enormous amount of potential.
We are putting a renewed effort into our video game department. As for me personally, video games are the big new frontier. I've just started to get involved with our gaming division, so it's a relatively new area for me. It's incredibly important to us as what it does is expose your universe, expose your characters to an enormous audience. So video games are a sweet spot for us. If we're able to succeed there, Marvel can be a part of someone's life from cradle to grave without missing a beat.