Conceived by then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, the book was in the form of a contest encouraging up-and-coming comics creators to try their hand at getting a job with the company.

The book described the respective jobs and accompanying tools of a writer, penciller, inker, letterer, and colorist, and then provided pages ready for the hopeful cartoonist to work on.

They were also promised "their first regular professional assignment, which will be finishing the Spider-Man story 'Personals' which was begun in the Try-Out Book.

The New Official Marvel Try-Out Book #2 maintains the same overall format as the original, but features an X-Men story drawn by Andy Kubert.

In 1991, Charles Burns's reworking of the pages in the Try-Out Book, titled "Naked Snack", was published in issues 2 and 3 of the Kitchen Sink anthology Buzz.