| Carl Potts | |
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 Potts in 2024 | |
| Born | November 12, 1952 Oakland, California, US |
| Area(s) | Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor |
Notable works | Alien Legion Epic Comics The Punisher War Journal |
Carl Potts (born November 12, 1952) [1] is an American comics artist, writer, teacher, and editor best known for creating the series Alien Legion for the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics.
Born in Oakland, California, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Hawaii, Potts received an associate degree in commercial art from Chabot College in Hayward, California. [2] He received his bachelor's degree in creative writing and editing from SUNY – Empire State College.
After contributing to such comics fanzines as the anthology Venture, [3] Potts drew backgrounds and some secondary figures for a late fill-in issue of DC Comics' Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter , being drawn by Bay Area comics artists Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss. [2] Potts began his comics career in 1975. [4]
Relocating to New York City, he freelanced briefly until joining Neal Adams' commercial art company and comic book packager Continuity Studios and was a member of the Crusty Bunkers. [5] As he explained in a 2000 interview: "Continuity was gearing up to produce black-and-white magazines based on several TV series: The Six Million Dollar Man , Space: 1999 , and Emergency! . I got involved with storyboard and comp art for major New York ad agencies. I also produced finished-illustration for magazines and books for several years before joining Marvel's editorial staff in 1983". [2] [6]
At Marvel as an editor, Potts discovered and/or mentored many top comics creators including Arthur Adams, [7] [8] Jon Bogdanove, June Brigman, Jim Lee, [9] Mike Mignola, [10] Mike Okamoto, Whilce Portacio, Terry Shoemaker, Steve Skroce, Larry Stroman, Sal Velutto, Chris Warner, and Scott Williams. He oversaw the development of the Punisher from guest star to franchise character, and edited such titles as The Incredible Hulk , Doctor Strange , The Defenders , The Thing , [11] Alpha Flight , and Moon Knight , as well as the newly created Amazing High Adventure , Power Pack , Strikeforce: Morituri , and What The--?! . [12] He was the editor who produced the first Rocket Raccoon miniseries. [10] Potts' editorship was humorously characterized in 1988 as "a remarkable feat considering [his] legendary spelling disability." [13]
After hours, Potts continued to write and produce occasional art for Marvel. He created the "Last of the Dragons" serial which appeared in Epic Illustrated #15–20 (Dec. 1982–Oct. 1983) and was written by Dennis O'Neil and inked by Terry Austin. [14] [15] In 1983, Potts teamed with Alan Zelenetz and Frank Cirocco to co-create the series Alien Legion , conceived as "the French Foreign Legion in space." Two ongoing series and several miniseries and one-shots were produced. [2] [16] In 2007, Potts' Alien Legion screenplay was optioned by producer Jerry Bruckheimer and The Walt Disney Company. [17] Bruckheimer exercised the option and bought the script in 2010, hiring Game of Thrones show runner David Benioff to do a rewrite.[ citation needed ]
Potts wrote and, for the early issues, did layouts for the launch of the Punisher War Journal title in 1988 with Jim Lee doing the finished art. [18] In 1989, Potts was named executive editor in charge of the Epic imprint, and about a third of the mainstream Marvel titles. [12] Five years later, he became editor-in-chief of the "General Entertainment" and Epic Comics divisions. [2]
After 13 years at Marvel, Potts left to become Creative Director at VR-1, a massively multiplayer online game company. [2] He then worked with Gary Winnick and Cirocco's Lightsource Studios [2] before freelancing. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts [19] and the Academy of Art University. [20]
In 2023 the rights to his Alien Legion were picked up by Warner Bros., with Tim Millerslated to direct an adaptation. [21]
Potts and his wife Cathy have two children.[ citation needed ]
James P. Starlin is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Nebula, and Shang-Chi, as well as writing the acclaimed miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, all detailing Thanos' pursuit of the Infinity Gems to court Mistress Death by annihilating half of all life in the cosmos, before coming into conflict with the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Elders of the Universe, joined by the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Nebula, and Drax.
Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz is an American artist known for his work in comic books—particularly for Marvel Comics' New Mutants, Moon Knight, and Elektra: Assassin. He is the co-creator of the character David Haller / Legion, the basis for the FX television series Legion.
Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work. For Warren he was chief writer and editor of landmark horror anthology titles Creepy and Eerie between 1964 and 1967. At Marvel, he served as the company's editor-in-chief from 1976 to the end of 1977. In the 1980s, he edited the publisher's anthology magazine Epic Illustrated and its Epic Comics imprint. He is also known for his work on Star Wars in both comic books and newspaper strips. He is regularly cited as the "best-loved comic book editor, ever."
Ann "Annie" Nocenti is an American journalist, filmmaker, teacher, comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work at Marvel in the late 1980s, particularly a four-year stint as the editor of Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants as well as her run as a writer of Daredevil, illustrated primarily by John Romita Jr. Nocenti has co-created such Marvel characters as Longshot, Mojo, Spiral, Blackheart and Typhoid Mary.
Epic Illustrated was a comics anthology in magazine format published in the United States by Marvel Comics. Similar to the US-licensed comic book magazine Heavy Metal, it allowed explicit content to be featured, unlike the traditional American comic books of that time bound by the restrictive Comics Code Authority, as well as offering its writers and artists ownership rights and royalties in place of the industry-standard work for hire contracts. The series lasted 34 issues from Spring 1980 to February 1986.
Alien Legion is an American science fiction comic-book series, with several associated titles, created by Carl Potts, Alan Zelenetz, and Frank Cirocco for Marvel Comics' Epic Comics imprint in 1983. It features a military unit, Force Nomad, similar to the French Foreign Legion.
Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.
Walter Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.
Arthur Adams is an American comic book artist and writer. He first broke into the American comic book industry with the 1985 Marvel Comics miniseries Longshot. His subsequent interior comics work includes a number of Marvel's major books, including The Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, X-Factor, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Ultimate Comics: X, as well as books by various other publishers, such as Action Comics, Vampirella, The Rocketeer, and The Authority. Adams has also illustrated books featuring characters for which he has a personal love, such as Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Gumby, the latter of which garnered him a 1988 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue.
William "Whilce" Portacio is a Filipino American comic book writer and artist noted for his work on such titles as The Punisher, X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Wetworks and Spawn. Portacio was also one of the seven co-founders of Image Comics, though he did not become a full-partner in the company, and is therefore not a member of its board of directors.
Charles Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on the Marvel Comics character the Punisher and on the DC Comics characters Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Punisher War Journal or Punisher War Journal is the title of two Marvel Comics comic book series featuring the character Frank Castle, also known as the Punisher. The first volume, published from 1988 to 1995, was spun off of a self-titled series featuring the vigilante's exploits.
Kevin Nowlan is an American comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".
Alan Gordon is an American comic book creator primarily known as an inker and writer. He is best known for his 1990s work on DC Comics' Legion of Super Heroes and the Justice League of America, Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, and Image Comics' creator-owned WildStar. He is not to be confused with another Al Gordon who illustrated comics in the 1950s.
John Costanza is an American comic book artist and letterer. He has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was the letterer during Alan Moore's acclaimed run on Swamp Thing. The bulk of Costanza's art assignments have been for anthropomorphic animal comics and children-oriented material.
Bill Reinhold is an American comic book artist, known primarily as an inker.
Epic Comics was an imprint of American publishing company Marvel Comics, active from 1982 to 1996. A spin-off of the publisher's Epic Illustrated magazine, it published creator-owned work unconnected to Marvel's superhero universe, and without the restrictions of the Comics Code. The name was revived by Marvel in the mid-2000s for a short-lived program inviting new writers to pitch series proposals to the publisher.
Damage is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an enemy of the Punisher and Wolverine.
The Punisher War Journal is an American comic book series published from 1988 to 1995 by Marvel Comics featuring the character Frank Castle, also known as the vigilante the Punisher. It was the first ever spin-off for the character and the first series of the title The Punisher War Journal. It lasted for 80 issues and featured varying artists, including early works of Jim Lee and writers, most notably Carl Potts who had worked as an editor on the main Punisher series before.
Frank Cirocco is an American comics artist and video game designer best known as the co-creator of Alien Legion with Carl Potts and Alan Zelenetz.
The editorial staff also changed in 1983. Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, and Carl Potts all became editors.
When I became an editor, Mike [Mignola] had just penciled his first story, a Sub-Mariner job for Marvel Fanfare. We renewed our acquaintance and I assigned him his first series as a penciller, Rocket Raccoon.
One of Potts' first comics projects, 'Last of the Dragons', originally published in Epic Illustrated, has been repackaged and released by Dover Books. The story, written and illustrated by the comics veteran in the early '80s, has a unique take on monks, ninjas, samurais and dragons as a group of monks in 19th Century Japan have trained dragons and plan to bring them to America.
A second regularly published series, The Punisher: War Journal, was added in November 1988; this time Carl Potts provided the scripts himself, and also did layouts that were fully rendered by artist Jim Lee.
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