Andy Schmidt

My name is Andy Schmidt and I'm a comic fan and professional. My love of comics started with my older brothers Arne and Craig having them around while I grew up. I was hooked from before I could read. Heck, I learned to read with comics!

Flash forward 20 years and I'm walking into Marvel Comics as their newest assistant editor in 2002. A dream come true! And it was awesome and everything I hoped it would be. I learned everything I possibly could about what goes into making a comic, publishing, printing, marketing, all of it. I just ate it up!

By 2006 I had been promoted a couple of times and launched a space opera story called ANNIHILATION as the editor. That got me bumped up to editing X-MEN (the holy grail for me!) and life was good. But... as much as I love editing (and I do!) I also love writing. So, knowing you can't do both at Marvel (for very good reasons), I packed up shop and started my own business called COMICS EXPERIENCE and also started writing professionally (something I'd been doing anyway for years).

Comics Experience is place to learn about how to create comics and great stories. I roll all my experience up as an editor and writer and shove it into my courses that are offered online. Take a look if you get a chance.

And I started writing. Marvel was gracious enough to give me a couple of short stories when I left and I spent a year getting other work. Check some of it out.

With each new project, I try to challenge myself by trying something new or working around a problem or anything that forces me to be creative.

The best example, that will never be seen by anyone on Earth, is actually in issue #2 of G.I. JOE: FUTURE NOIR because for that issue I tried to make my panel descriptions for the artist as entertaining as possible. They were full of jokes and commentaries and hyperbole and apparently got several people at the Hasbro offices laughing out loud. Too bad those never say the light of day--but Jack's art was fantastic on that issue and he said he had more fun on that than anything else he'd ever done.

Anyway, that's me. I'm now a senior editor at IDW Publishing where I oversee TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE comics. They're great fun! And I get to write! And I still get to teach!

I hope you'll dive into a book and take the plunge with me!

Andy