This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Benjamin Marra (born 1977 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Grammy-nominated American illustrator and comic-book artist. His work has been mostly self-published under his own imprint, Traditional Comics, and mainly consists of black and white comics, printed on low-quality paper for a relatively low price. His drawing style is reminiscent of such artists as Paul Gulacy, Herb Trimpe and Spain Rodriguez, as well as the work of pinball machine graphic illustrators.
The first comic book to leave an impression on Marra was Darick Robertson's Space Beaver, a hyper-violent science-fiction story featuring an anthropomorphic beaver, which has served as an inspiration for his later work. [1]
Marra's artistic training began at the School of Visual Arts, where his instructors included David Mazzucchelli, and where alternative comics artist Dash Shaw was a classmate. In 1998, Marra traveled to Florence, Italy to study painting.
Of his own art style, Marra says, "I kind of see what I’m doing as like what the Stooges and the Ramones were doing as a reaction to that big, self-indulgent arena rock aesthetic. Making it really raw, really punk rock, really earthy, DIY, really gut-level, very basic in its execution. Not a lot of technical efficiency. Just, like, three-chord power pop songs. Really short. It’s supposed to hit you really fast, and it’s got a really emotional basis instead of a technical basis. It’s really based on people’s emotional response.". [2]
Marra's comics and illustrations have appeared in such diverse media as Playboy, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Marvel Comics, Fantagraphics, Vice, Radar, Paper, Nylon, Widen+Kennedy and McCann-Erickson. He also drew the cover art for pioneering cloud rapper Lil B's visionary mixtape 6 Kiss . He also works as web designer for the Major League Baseball Advanced Media.
A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.
Gilberto Hernández, usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also by the nickname Beto, is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his Palomar/Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, an alternative comic book he shared with his brothers Jaime and Mario.
James William Woodring is an American cartoonist, fine artist, writer and toy designer. He is best known for the dream-based comics he published in his magazine Jim, and as the creator of the anthropomorphic cartoon character Frank, who has appeared in a number of short comics and graphic novels.
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in Eightball, a solo anthology comic book series. An Eightball issue typically contained several short pieces and a chapter of a longer narrative that was later collected and published as a graphic novel, such as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993), Ghost World (1997), David Boring (2000) and Patience (2016). Clowes's illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vogue, The Village Voice, and elsewhere. With filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, Clowes adapted Ghost World into a 2001 film and another Eightball story into the 2006 film, Art School Confidential. Clowes's comics, graphic novels, and films have received numerous awards, including a Pen Award for Outstanding Work in Graphic Literature, over a dozen Harvey and Eisner Awards, and an Academy Award nomination.
John Buscema was an American comic book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop-culture conglomerate. His younger brother Sal Buscema is also a comic book artist.
Barry Windsor-Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best-known work has been produced in the United States. He attained note working on Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, and for his work on the character Wolverine, particularly the 1991 "Weapon X" story arc. His other noted Marvel work included a 1984 "Thing" story in Marvel Fanfare, the "Lifedeath" and "Lifedeath II" stories with writer Chris Claremont that focused on the de-powered Storm in The Uncanny X-Men, as well as the 1984 Machine Man limited series with Herb Trimpe and Tom DeFalco.
Benjamin Franklin Thorne was an American comic book artist-writer, best known for the Marvel Comics character Red Sonja.
Eric James Shanower is an American cartoonist, best known for his Oz novels and comics, and for the ongoing retelling of the Trojan War as Age of Bronze.
David John Mazzucchelli is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work on seminal superhero comic book storylines Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, as well as for graphic novels in other genres, such as Asterios Polyp and City of Glass: The Graphic Novel. He is also an instructor who teaches comic book storytelling at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
Kyle John Baker is an American cartoonist, comic book writer-artist, and animator known for his graphic novels and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man.
Peter Kuper is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations.
Kirk Jarvinen is an American artist / illustrator best known for his cartoon-style comic book art.
Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair. In comics, Mattotti won an Eisner Award in 2003 for his Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde graphic novel.
Daniel Alan Brereton is an American writer and illustrator who has produced notable work in the comic book field.
Dash Shaw is an American comic book writer/artist and animator. He is the author of the graphic novels Cosplayers, Doctors, New School, and Bottomless Belly Button, published by Fantagraphics. Additionally, Shaw has written Love Eats Brains published by Odd God Press, GardenHead published by Meathaus, The Mother's Mouth published by Alternative Comics, and BodyWorld published by Pantheon Books.
Marvel Graphic Novel (MGN) is a line of graphic novel trade paperbacks published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics. The books were published in an oversized format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French albums. In response, DC Comics established a competitor line known as DC Graphic Novel.
Black people have been portrayed in comics since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Mainstream comic publishing companies have had a historical trend of being predominantly white and male, reflecting the lack of representation and inaccurate depictions of Black people in comics. The integration of black characters in mainstream and superhero comics has endured various obstacles and challenges. Critics have noted that black men and women have historically often been portrayed as jungle or ghetto stereotypes, and as sidekicks as opposed to primary characters. Occiasionally, comic book creators would lampshade stereotypes, lack of representation and emphasize social injustices. In recent years, with the integration of more Black people in mainstream comic writing rooms as well as the creation of comics on digital platforms has changed the representation and portrayals of Black people in comics and has started to reflect the complexities of Black people across the diaspora.
Michel Fiffe (;) is a Cuban–American comic book artist and writer. He is best known for his self-published series COPRA and the Ultimate Marvel series All-New Ultimates.
Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T. is a 2015 American satirical action graphic novel created by writer-artist Benjamin Marra. A single chapter was initially published by Marra's own Traditional Comics label in 2014 before being reprinted by Fantagraphics alongside the remainder of the story the following year.