Making Waves:
Creator Crew
 A
better line up of comics superstars than you'll find anywhere else this
year:
Neal Adams
Neal Adams burst onto
the comics scene in 1967 with the introduction of Deadman in DC’s Strange
Adventures. At a time when
camp was all the world knew of superhero comics, Adams’ artwork brought
a new level of detail and realism to the form.
His legendary run on Batman returned the mystery and menace
to the Dark Knight. In 1970, his
action-packed visuals revived Marvel’s then-flagging X-Men. He teamed with Denny O’Neal on Green Lantern/Green Arrow,
notable for tackling serious social issues.
Adams is a former president of the Academy of Comic Book Arts,
and the founder of Continuity Comics.
Zander
Cannon
Zander Cannon is best
known as the artist for Top Ten, part of Alan Moore’s America’s
Best Comics line. Cannon’s breakdowns and Gene Ha’s detailed finishes
combine to propel Moore’s tale of police officers in a super-powered city
to new heroic heights. Cannon also wrote and drew Replacement God,
an idiosyncratic fantasy combining high adventure and low humor. His work
has also appeared in Tom Strong, Negative Burn, and Chainsaw
Vigilante.
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is at the
forefront of the latest superhero revolution.
He began writing comics in 1982, but his big break didn't come
until 11 years later when he co-created Marvels with painter Alex
Ross. He's gone one to write the critically acclaimed
Untold Tales of Spiderman, Iron Man, The Avengers, and to co-create
The Thunderbolts. His most
ambitious work is the creator-owned series Kurt Busiek’s Astro City,
a re-examination of the superhero concept which has won numerous industry
awards.
Dan Clowes
Dan Clowes is probably
the most respected comic book artist in American literary and art circles
aside from R. Crumb. His comic
book series Eightball (21 issues to date from Fantagraphics) keeps
getting better, even after 11 years.
His most acclaimed story, “Ghost World,” is being made into a film
this year by MGM. His most recent opus, “David Boring,” will be published as a collection
by Pantheon in late 2000. He lives in Berkeley with his wife Erika.
Evan Dorkin
Evan Dorkin, America's
cartoon sweetheart, is the artist and writer behind Milk and Cheese,
dairy products gone bad. Even
more caustic is his one-man anthology Dork, which won an Eisner
Award for the story "Marathon Men."
He also writes for the Warner Brothers animated television shows
Superman and Batman Beyond, as well as for Cartoon Network's
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.
Sarah Dyer
Sarah Dyer is the creator
and editor of Action Girl. Published
by Slave Labor Graphics, Action Girl features the work of many
of today's most popular female cartoonists. She also writes for the Warner Brothers animated television shows
Superman and Batman Beyond, and for Cartoon Network's Space
Ghost: Coast to Coast.
Will Eisner
 Hailed
as the father of the modern graphic novel, Will Eisner is one of the living
legends of the comics industry. In
1940, Eisner created The Spirit, a syndicated crime-noir series
which redefined the visual vocabulary of comics.
In 1978, Eisner coined the term "graphic novel" to describe
A Contract With God, his examination of tenement life in the Bronx. Other graphic novels followed, including To
the Heart of the Storm, Dropsie Avenue, and 1998’s Family Matter. The comic industry’s prestigious Eisner Award
is named in his honor.
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is an acclaimed
novelist and writer of comics, short stories, screen and teleplays. He wrote all 75 issues of DC’s groundbreaking
Sandman series, an epic meditation on myths and storytelling.
His other comics work includes Books of Magic, Death, Signal to
Noise, and Mr. Punch. He created the BBC’s hit television series
Neverwhere, soon to be a major motion picture.
With the publication of the best-selling Neverwhere novel,
Gaiman made the leap from graphic visionary to literary novelist. His other books include Smoke and Mirrors, Stardust, and
Good Omens with Terry Pratchett.
In 1999, he wrote the English-language script for the anime blockbuster
Princess Mononoke and returned to Sandman with the new graphic
novel The Dreamhunters. He
received the 1997 Defender of Liberty Award from the Comic Book Legal
Defense Fund for his constant support of free expression in comics.
The Dictionary of Literary Biography lists him along with
Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs as one of America’s “top ten post-modern
writers.”
Gilbert Hernandez
Gilbert Hernandez is
the co-creator of the seminal Love & Rockets series. His stories of the fictional Mexican border
town of Palomar have earned comparisons to magic realists like Gabriel
Garcia-Marquez and Isabel Allende. Since
the end of L&R, Gilbert has since co-created the all-ages DC/Wildstorm
series Yeah! with Peter Bagge as well as written and drawn four
issues of Luba and edited five issues of the all-ages anthology
Measles, both for Fantagraphics. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Carol.
Jaime Hernandez
Jaime Hernandez is the
co-creator of the seminal Love & Rockets comic book series,
which singlehandedly spawned the alternative comics movement in 1981 with
Jaime's realistic depiction of the Los Angeles punk scene.
After ending L&R in 1997, Jaime has gone on to create
six issues of Penny Century for Fantagraphics, which earned him
1999 Harvey Award honors for Best Cartoonist and Best Single issue. He lives in Los Angeles.
Linda Medley
Linda Medley got her
first break in comics working on DC’s Justice League Europe. From there she wrote, drew, and self-published
the Eisner award-winning series Castle Waiting. After a brief hiatus to work on The Books
of Faerie for DC/Vertigo, Medley is returning to Castle Waiting
with a new publisher, Cartoon Books.
Frank Miller
Frank Miller has been
challenging the comics industry since his groundbreaking work on Daredevil. He redefined the superhero genre with his grim take on Batman in
The Dark Knight Returns. Crime remains his most fertile subject matter,
explored in classic noir style in his many Sin City stories for Dark Horse.
An outspoken proponent of creator rights and free expression, Miller
serves on the board of directors of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Martin Nodell
Martin Nodell created
the original Green Lantern in 1940. He
contributed concepts, scripts, and pencils for the series until 1947,
establishing the character for all who followed. In 1948, Nodell joined the staff of Timely Comics (later Marvel),
and worked as an artist on their most popular characters: Captain America,
the Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner. He
left comics in 1950 to pursue a successful career in advertising.
Brian Pulido
Brian Pulido began his
career in film and music video. After
attempting to produce a film about his character Evil Ernie, Pulido turned
to comics to bring his creation to life.
In 1992 he formed Chaos! Comics with Steven Hughes and his wife
Francisca. One of the true success
stories in contemporary comics, Chaos! has become one of the most important
publishers in the industry. Today,
Chaos! is the place “where darkness dwells,” publishing titles such as
Lady Death, Evil Ernie, Chastity, and Purgatori. Chaos! has also had tremendous success bringing new readers to comics
with titles featuring heavy metal bands and the stars of the World Wrestling
Federation. In 1999, Pulido received
the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Defender of Liberty Award for his
unfailing support of free speech in comics.
P. Craig Russell
In the world of comics,
P. Craig Russell is an artist’s artist.
He first established a name for himself with his intricate work
for Marvel and went on to break new ground in his fully-painted, graphic
novelizations of literary works. He’s
adapted material ranging from operas by Wagner and Mozart, to the fairy
tales of Oscar Wilde, to the Elric stories of Michael Moorcock.
Jeff Smith
A life-long fan of comic
strips, comic books, and cartoons, Jeff Smith got his start in the industry
in 1982 drawing strips for the Ohio State student newspaper. In 1986, he co-founded the Character Builders
animation studio. He’s best known
as the creator of Bone, an all-ages
adventure comic series that started in 1991. Smith publishes the book himself through his own comic company,
Cartoon Books. Bone is currently printed in thirteen languages and has won both Eisner
and Harvey awards. A full-length
animated Bone feature is in
the works.
Jill Thompson
Jill Thompson’s evocative
artwork has been delighting comics fans since 1987. After a run on DC’s Wonder Woman, she became a frequent contributor
to the company’s edgy Vertigo line. In addition to collaborating with Neil Gaiman on Vertigo’s flagship
title Sandman, she also provided artwork for Black Orchid, The
Invisibles, Hellblazer, and Swamp Thing. Thompson created, writes, and paints the Scary
Godmother books from Sirius Entertainment.
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine published
his first mini-comic, Optic Nerve, at age 16. Four years later, he'd turned Optic Nerve into an on-going
comic series published by Drawn & Quarterly. At age 21, he won the Harvey Award for "Best New Talent."
Tomine's work, which includes the collections 32 Stories
and Sleepwalk, is known for its sharp cartooning and keen observation
of character and relationships. He's written strips and illustrations for The
New Yorker, Pulse!, and George.
Matt Wagner
Matt Wagner is one of
the most acclaimed storytellers in comics.
His innovative series Grendel began its long life in 1981
and was followed by the epic saga Mage.
He's also written Sandman Mystery Theater and several Batman
tales. One of Dark Horse's "Mavericks,"
he continues his innovative work with new Mage stories and the
anthology Grendel Tales.
Mark
Waid
Mark
Waid is one of the most prolific writers working in comics today.
His back-to-basics approach has been credited with putting the
fun and the humanity back into superhero comics.
He first gained praise for his work on Flash and Impulse, and won
an Eisner award for his run on Captain
America. Kingdom Come, a future history of the DC Universe co-created with
Alex Ross, remains his best-known work.
Chris Ware
Chris Ware is the creator
of Fantagraphics’ The ACME Novelty Library (14 issues to date),
possibly the biggest alternative comics hit of the 1990s. He has won an unprecedented 17 Harvey and Eisner Awards since 1994.
His 350-page graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid
on Earth (serialized in ACME), will be published by Pantheon
in the Summer of 2000. He lives
in Chicago with his wife Marnie.
Judd Winick
Judd Winick first came
to national prominence as a cast member of MTV’s The Real World III, set in San Francisco. At the show’s end, he began the syndicated strip Frumpy the Clown. He won an Eisner Award for his story “Road
Trip” in Oni Double Feature. He’s best known as the creator of the irreverent
comedy series The Adventures of
Barry Ween, Boy Genius.
| 
