Meanwhile in reality: It's called an internship and young adults in art colleges do them usually in their early 20s. It's usually an unpaid job only people who have money coming in elsewhere can take. It's pretty much the only way to get into the competitive creative fields. It's something these uneducated old guys of Comicsgate like Richard C Meyer never figure out. They already fucked up in life and can't go back to being 18 again so it must be some fucking conspiracy that they aren't getting jobs in comics and only college kids from the city who work for free for years first are getting the gigs. Is it wrong? Possibly, but that's the way it is now geezers. Alternately these guys could just make a comic, get it printed, and sell it... a tried and true method that's been around since the days of underground black and white comix. But no.. complain and get speds to give you money up front, this is the way.