Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

Military marvels

A military career can certainly be adventurous. But for an airman and a former Marine, writing superhero action stories for comic-book giant Marvel has become the ultimate adventure experience.

This dynamic military duo is comprised of an Air Force major with advanced degrees in engineering and a posting to an important U.S. embassy, and a former leatherneck who once worked on special effects for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic.

As different as they might seem, both men shared a common childhood dream that sprang from a love of comic-book lore. And in true can-do military fashion, they made those dreams become reality.

Now, both are comic-book writers, with stories published by Marvel.

Ironically, while soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are avid readers of comics, few veterans are industry insiders, experts say.

Maj. Matt Yocum and former Lance Cpl. Zachery Sherman hope to change that. Since the comics industry has strong historic and thematic ties to the military — ties that frequently celebrate the warrior spirit, whether the hero wears spandex or cammies — Yocum and Sherman would seem like natural yarn-spinners. Both say they’ve used what they know about the military to find a place in a genre they love.

Living the dream

Yocum’s story hit newsstands and comic stores Dec. 28 in “Giant-Size Avengers Special No. 1,” a one-off collection of stories dealing with the superhero group whose members include Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man and others.

Sherman’s story hit stands in October, one of several stories in “Marvel Comics Presents,” a comic-book anthology that features different Marvel characters from issue to issue.

“Dream of a lifetime,” is how Yocum, a 1993 Air Force Academy graduate assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, describes the experience. “I’ve been collecting [comics] since I was 10 and writing since junior high, so when you put them together, it’s just a dream come true.”

Sherman, a former Marine Reservist, left a lucrative career as a special effects artist at Lucas’ world-renowed studio to pursue his cartooning dream.

“I wanted to make comics,” he told naysayers — some of them comic-book insiders themselves.

Both men drew on their military experiences and knowledge for their first forays into comicdom.

For Yocum, a 2003 meeting with Geoff Johns, the head writer of DC Comics’ Green Lantern series, got him a gig as an unpaid consultant on a story that resurrected Hal Jordan, the Air Force test pilot who first became the power ring-wearing superhero in 1959.

Yocum met Johns at a comic-book shop near Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., where the comic-book writer was meeting with fans.

“He asked if I was in the military, and when I said ‘yes,’ he said, ‘Really? I’m bringing Hal Jordan back and need someone to read the script.’”

The story came out the following year, and Yocum was hooked. But several attempts to sell his own stories to DC went nowhere. Not that the man with degrees in engineering wasn’t doing well in his day job. He had taught at the academy, then was a visiting scientist at the Israel Institute of Technology before becoming a military attaché to the U.S. embassy there.

Then he heard that Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada was going to be at a Los Angeles comic convention — and that there was an eBay auction to have lunch with the man himself. He went for it, bidding $850 and winning.

The scheduled hourlong lunch lasted more than two hours, and led to introductions and story pitches to other Marvel editors, which eventually led to “Memorial Day,” the name of his New Avengers story.

‘Star Wars’ to ‘SOCOM’

Sherman had been with Lucas’ company for about 10 years — working on projects such as “Saving Private Ryan” and the latest “Star Wars” trilogy — but he wanted to write comic books. People he met in the business told him he’d have to just “do it” — write a story, get an artist and push to sell it.

He began working on his own title, “SOCOM: Seal Team Seven,” and in the meantime wrote a 2005 piece called “Entrenched,” a short story about grunts engaged in the ground war against the empire in Dark Horse Comics’ “Star Wars: Visionaries.”

Eventually, his own comic, in which a Navy SEAL team battles bad guys from fictional adversary Atlantis, was published by Image Comics.

“The good thing about being a Marine is you’ve got all the technical aspects [about combat tactics], and you know about guys in trenches — you have a personal understanding of what those individuals are going through,” Sherman said.

Sherman has not seen combat — “and wouldn’t pretend to,” he said — but the Corps gave him an understanding of the military and of Marines.

His road to Marvel came after the company hired his “SOCOM” artist, Roberto De La Torre, who now draws Iron Man, a billionaire arms manufacturer who wears a superpowered suit of armor to fight bad guys. De La Torre helped Sherman make the necessary connections to land the “Marvel Comics Presents” assignment.

To one longtime observer of comics, the determination of the two men, both with successful careers already, to be published comic-book authors is not surprising.

“It’s pretty simple, really,” said Arnold T. Blumberg, who has written extensively on comic books and teaches a course in comic-book literature at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

“Anybody who had [comic books] as a part of their childhood memories, particularly memories of superheroes — where there’s a real allure, a sense of wish fulfillment — would be drawn to this.

“And one of the greatest dreams would be to tell a story of that superhero character who meant so much [to them], — to contribute to the history of it,” he said.

That’s exactly what Yocum has done. He believes “Memorial Day” — which features an appearance by the popular, angst-riddled Spider-Man — will resonate with service members.

“Every time somebody goes into the military, they go from an individual life to something much bigger than themselves, [something] with a long history,” Yocum said. “You learn to respect those who came before you and what they did, and you become part of a team.

“For those of us in the military, [Spider-Man’s experience is] something we can identify with.”