Social Media Maven Margarita Vaisman

During her time at Emerson College, Newbury Comics was a regular destination for Margarita Vaisman, class of ‘00, though her taste strayed from the superhero adventures of comic book publishers Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and DC Comics.

“I was really into the goth scene in Boston and a lot of those folks were into comics and made regular trips to Newbury Comics and Million Year Picnic,” Vaisman said. “While I didn’t read many comics beyond Sandman and The Crow — both on the goth required reading list — comics were certainly a common interest among many of my friends and acquaintances, along with black clothes and gloomy music.”

When it was time to look for colleges Vaisman zeroed-in on Emerson after reading a listing in The Princeton Review.

“I knew Boston was the ideal location for college, because I wanted to leave New York City, but not venture too far,” Vaisman said. “I also wanted to major in Creative Writing … [Emerson] matched both criteria and was described as ‘a school for freaks and misfits.’ The second I read those words, I knew that would be the school I’d attend.”

At Emerson, Vaisman, 33, majored in creative writing, with a minor in psychology.

“My favorite professor was the late Peter Corea, who I was fortunate enough to have for two psychology courses,” Vaiman said. “He always stressed empathy and kindness and I think he wanted to teach us to be decent human beings above all else. He certainly left a lasting impression on me.”

After four years of clubbing and writing, Vaisman, a 2000 graduate and now a community manager for Google, was unsure what was next for her.

“I think [Emerson] gave me a good foundation in terms of developing my talents and interests, but by the time I graduated, I didn’t know how I wanted to apply those skills.”

Vaisman moved to England after graduation, where she said she was biding her time until her ideal job was invented.

“I always had a feeling that whatever career I was going to have didn’t exist yet,” Vaisman said. “And wouldn’t you know, here I am working in social media.”

Until recently, Vaisman, was the social media manager for Marvel.

Before she started working at Marvel, Vaisman wasn’t very familiar with superhero comics. She had been reading more realistic work by creators like Adrian Tomine and Daniel Clowes, but she wanted to branch out. So when she heard about the job opportunity at Marvel, Vaisman dove right in.

Vaisman was particularly drawn to Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men.

“Someone pointed-out to me that I probably have a fondness for those characters because they are all misfits in some way, and I think that’s true,” Vaisman said. “This also goes back to what drew me to Emerson.”

Check out Margarita’s blog, The Diary Project, at metadiary.wordpress.com

The Marvelous John Cerilli

When Marvel Entertainment, Inc. executive John Cerilli was a boy, he never thought he’d work in the comic book industry.

“To me it was an unreachable goal, like trying to play third base for the Mets,” Cerilli said. “It was beyond my comprehension.”

Still, Cerilli, Emerson College class of ‘89, was a steadfast fan of comic books from a very early age.

“I remember being attracted to them even before I could read them,” he said. “My aunt read a lot of horror-based comics in the early ‘70s and I would flip through them at first looking at the pictures.”

Cerilli, vice president of digital content and programming for Marvel.com, eventually learned to read and began selecting his own titles in his early teens.

“I was a Marvel guy through and through, but I read a ton of DC books, too,” he said. “The X-Men, Spider-Man, The Thing, Conan and Batman were far and away my favorites.”

Cerilli, 44, had never heard of Emerson College before his high school guidance counselor mentioned it to him, but the school’s focus on media and communications immediately piqued his interest.

“I went to visit the school and, simply, I was hooked,” he said. “I loved the fact that our ‘campus’ was the city of Boston.”

In fact, Cerilli was so enamored by Emerson and Boston that he never considered applying anywhere else.

“It really seemed fantastic and felt like home,” he said. “The vibe, it being situated in the heart of a major city, was just perfect.”

Initially, the New York-born and New Jersey-raised Cerilli thought he would have a career in sports writing or commentary when he began his academic career at Emerson in the 1985 fall semester.

Cerilli, an avid Mets fan, said, “Sports, especially baseball, were and still remain an enormous passion of mine … Little did anyone know that the Mets and Red Sox would meet in one of the greatest World Series ever played in 1986, which made the experience of going to school at Emerson all the more amazing.”

At Emerson, Cerilli majored in mass communications, but, encouraged by his teachers, quickly shifted gears.

“[I] decided to switch to writing when professor after professor commented on the quality of my papers,” Cerilli said. “I finally had a chat with one of my professors who seemed to like my writing during my freshman year.”

That professor was Mary Karr, who would later write “The Liars’ Club,” among other award-winning memoirs and volumes of poetry.

“I asked her if she thought I was good enough to pursue a career in writing and she didn’t dissuade me from that,” Cerilli said. “Just the opposite, in fact. For me, that was a major victory as I respected her enormously.”

Cerilli’s history professor was also influential in setting him on his writing career, “even if I didn’t really know how I was going to make a living from it,” he said.

“My favorite professor was Dr. John Coffee,” Cerilli said. “In fact, I achieved the entirety of my history minor by taking classes with him … [he] actually used to have a class called Cartoons and American History. It was brilliant. In fact, I ended up writing a paper on the X-Men – comparing their plight to the civil rights movement that fueled their creation.”

Even in college, comic books remained a part of Cerilli’s life.

“I was a frequent visitor to Newbury Comics on Newbury Street and would often walk back to Fensgate with CDs and comics,” Cerilli said. “I still remember the buzz around ‘The Dark Knight Returns.’ I had to have it.”