It’s not his job yet, but if Mark Lone has his way you’ll soon know him as a professional comic book artist. “I’m pretending it’s my job until it becomes my job,” he says. “If you pretend like it’s your job and you’ve got the means necessary to pretend like it’s your job for a little bit, it’ll start to work for you.”

A child of the 80s, Mark Lone has been drawing his favorites, like He-Man and the Ninja Turtles, for as long as he can remember. However it’s only in the last year, in the wake of being laid off from his last job, that Mark decided to take a stab at going pro in the comics world.

“If you’re thinking about drawing, what I’d say to do is just go to as many conventions as you can and ask them what you can fix. I’ve just been amazed at how many of these guys have got your back.” – Burgeoning comic artist Mark Lone

“At first I was trying to land the gig with Marvel or whatever,” he says. “I was down at C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo), and I was standing in a line with 500 other artists and they were all better than me. And we all got rejected. So I was just like, ‘Screw that, I’m gonna make my own book and see what I can do with that.’ ”

The book is entitled Rise of the Mutant Underground, and it’s full of the epic, monstrous fights you’d expect from a book with that name. The book revolves around a superhero who has lost the suit that gives him his powers and the fighting that occurs as various factions try to claim it for themselves. The book’s art is in black and white, with Lone providing both pencils and inks in a style that’s fluid and full of linework. If you know comics, think Paul Pope or Travel Foreman. Lone just received his proof copy of the book’s second issue, and though he likes how it turned out, one thing is nagging at him. “I did notice a typo after, you know,” he laughs. “After I told them to send me 70 copies.”

But to Lone, evolving and learning from his mistakes is all part of the game of trying to make it in comics.

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“I always thought my strongpoint was in my inking,” he says. “I always used to use my inking and my coloring to cover up my mistakes with my pencils. And there’s a lot of people saying to me, ‘Man, just do your pencils better.’ ”

Those people are the various artists Mark has met since he started doing his own comics, a group of people that he says has been a great help to him.

“If you’re thinking about drawing,” says Lone, “what I’d say to do, is just go to as many conventions as you can and ask them what you can fix. I’ve just been amazed at how many of these guys have got your back.”

Right now, Mark’s joining up with a bunch of international artists he met over Facebook to produce a page for a book the group is calling One, which will feature one page of artwork by each artist.

“That one page has been taking me all week,” says Mark. “I’ve been trying to get everything right.”

In addition to his page for One, Mark’s currently working on getting issue three of Rise of the Mutant Underground ready to head to the printers and preparing a pile of prints and comics to sell at the Banbury Art Crawl. It’s a busy life being a not-quite-pro comic artist, but Mark thinks that the effort is definitely worth it.

“I like it, man,” he says, smiling. “If I can make enough to support myself and barely scrape by, I’d be able to do this.”

Mark Lone’s comics and other artwork are available for purchase at his blog, marklone.blogspot.com.