When your favorite superhero helps land you the job you鈥檝e wanted since elementary school, you may feel like a character in a comic book.
But that鈥檚 exactly how Benjamin Morse鈥檚 career unfolded in real life.
鈥淚 wrote an essay in the fifth-grade about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote two things: become an NBA basketball player or work at Marvel Comics,鈥 said Morse, a visiting lecturer at the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism Studies.
In his junior year of college, Morse created the comics section of the website 411 Mania. His review of his favorite speedster superhero 鈥淭he Flash鈥 piqued the interest of Geoff Johns, a DC Comics writer for the red-suited hero. They met up at San Diego鈥檚 Comic-Con and that led to Morse鈥檚 first paying job writing about comics for Wizard Magazine.
Flash forward to 2007 when Morse landed a job at Marvel Entertainment. He spent 10 years running digital content for . He focused on increasing publicity for diverse superheroines and superheroes, promoted the growing Marvel movie industry, created social media content, and co-hosted the podcast 鈥溾 with Ryan Penagos, who was the co-creator and remains the co-host.
We talked to Morse about launching a new digital content agency for journalism students to advance their multimedia skills and why you may want to add comic books to your summer reading lists.
What drew you to comic books as a kid?
This may sound corny 鈥 it was that idea of doing the right thing and following a moral code of ethics. It helped me subscribe to the way life ought to be. I grew up in 80鈥檚 and there was stuff happening in politics. It was kind of nice to read a comic book and see that the good guys are eventually going to win 鈥 hopefully, they will win. I was the kid who wanted to see the good guys win and see the right thing happen.
Sounds like readings comics had some influence on your road to journalism.
I always liked writing, getting to the truth of the matter. I love of the ethics of comic books and at the heart of every comic book is storytelling. Journalism is about exposing the truth, too. In both, you鈥檙e trying to impart some lesson on the reader. You鈥檙e collaborating with artists, and editors, and working on producing the content. As a journalism professor, those are the things I can impart 鈥 that team storytelling approach.
Tell us about the digital content agency you鈥檝e been working on at the journalism school.
Students are learning about what it takes to be a content creator. Since I鈥檝e been here, I鈥檝e worked with students who are creating written content, graphics, videos, learning about social media management, analytics, and advertising. We鈥檙e collaborating with the journalism school鈥檚 stations KUNV Radio and 51吃瓜网万能科大-TV to help clients in the 51吃瓜网免费App Valley.
Students have worked with community clients including the and the United Way, as well as campus unit such as , the Lee Business School, and College of Hospitality. That鈥檚 what I love about the students. They are so enthusiastic and motivated to do things to for experience.
Part of creating content is looking for new ways to tell a story. How have you embraced creativity in your career?
Marvel has the most well-known characters. But some characters are 60 to 70 years old. Instead if doing just public relations and designs to buy comics, I thought 鈥淟et鈥檚 make it more fan-interactive, and turn the website into to an online magazine.鈥
You鈥檙e always looking for something new in journalism and you鈥檙e looking to crack the surface and looking to do something people haven鈥檛 done before. It鈥檚 about getting creative. Someone could hand you a product to use on a social media platform, and you have to find a way to make it work.
At Marvel, we created a virtual community and I co-created the podcast, 鈥淭his week in Marvel.鈥 It was hugely successful and on i-Tunes and ranked as one of the top 20. That was important to grow our social media, talk to fans, and get them involved. We had 320 episodes and never skipped a single one. That was recreating something that was lost.
What was lost?
When I was a kid, you could talk with everyone in the store about a particular comic. The problem nowadays is that, while movies based on comics are successful, there is a kid who may see the 鈥淚ron Man鈥 cartoon, watch the movie, and buy the toy, and play the video game but never realize it鈥檚 based on comic book.
So much of my character and who I am came from reading comics, so for people not read them is tragic.
If we鈥檙e just starting to get into comics, what should we add to our summer reading lists?
: a fully painted, four-issue limited edition that came out in 1994. It鈥檚 about the Marvel universe with every character 鈥 Spider Man, Thor, Captain America. It鈥檚 the required textbook for being a Marvel fan.
X-Men: This is a comic about minorities, oppression. The heroes are mutants and hated and feared. They serve as an analogy for race relations and sexual orientation. There are so many parallels to today. As a kid, I got the sense that 鈥渢his is about these people being different and doing the right thing.鈥 That was a big lesson. It鈥檚 required reading and one of the best franchises.
