| Kelley Jones | |
|---|---|
 Jones in March 2018 | |
| Born | July 23, 1962 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
Notable works | Batman Batman & Dracula: Red Rain The Sandman |
| Awards | Inkpot Award 2014 |
Kelley Jones (born July 23, 1962) [1] is an American comics artist best known for his work on Batman with writer Doug Moench and on The Sandman with writer Neil Gaiman.
Kelley Jones was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in Citrus Heights. He began reading comic books when "My brother came home one day, with a stack of comics (from school)...He had in there Marvel Collectors' Item Classics and Marvel's Greatest Comics, something along those lines, and they were reprints of the '61, '62, '63 period. They knocked me OUT!" [2] In 1979, Jones met artist Marshall Rogers at a San Francisco comics convention. After reviewing Jones' artwork, Rogers praised it and told him "You will make a great Batman artist someday. If you keep doing this, I can see you doing a great Batman!" [3] [4]
Kelley Jones entered the comics industry as an inker for Marvel Comics with his first published work appearing in Micronauts #52 (May 1983). [5] He penciled issue #59 (Aug. 1984) and when the series was relaunched as Micronauts: The New Voyages in October 1984, he continued penciling the series through most of its 20-issue run. [6] At DC Comics, Jones redesigned Deadman, making the character look thin and skeletal. Deadman's face, formerly drawn to resemble a normal human's head with pale white skin, now looked like a skull. [7] In 1990 and 1991, he drew several issues of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series [8] with contributions to the "Dream Country" and "Season of Mists" story arcs. [9] [10] Jones and inker John Beatty collaborated with writer Doug Moench on a series of Batman tales including Batman: Dark Joker – The Wild and the vampire Batman trilogy beginning with Batman & Dracula: Red Rain . [11] Jones drew the covers for many of the chapters of the "Batman: Knightfall" crossover storyline. [12] He became the penciler of Batman with issue #515 (Feb. 1995) [13] and worked on such story arcs as "Contagion". [14] Moench and Jones co-created the Ogre in Batman #535 (Oct. 1996). [15]
He illustrated The Crusades for Vertigo (2000–2001) and the four-issue mini-series Conan: The Book of Thoth for Dark Horse Comics [16] with writers Kurt Busiek and Len Wein in 2006. Since 1997, Jones has also produced a number of works as a writer-artist for Dark Horse, including several miniseries and one-shots starring his creation The Hammer (1997–1999): the one-shot ZombieWorld: Eat Your Heart Out (1998) and the four-issue miniseries The 13th Son (2005–2006). In 2008, Jones returned to Batman, this time in a twelve-issue series titled Batman: Gotham After Midnight, written by Steve Niles. In 2009, he illustrated the Batman: The Unseen five-issue series, re-teaming with Moench. [5] In 2014, he provided artwork for "The Pale Man", part of "Batman: Endgame" focusing on a group of serial killers and an Arkham nurse who are forced into telling "a story" by the Joker. Jones drew part of the fourth and final issue of the Frankenstein Alive, Alive! limited series for IDW Publishing. The series' original artist, Bernie Wrightson, was unable to complete it due to ill health before his death. [17]
In 2015, Len Wein asked Jones to collaborate on Convergence: Swamp Thing and its success led to the two of them working together on a Swamp Thing miniseries, The Dead Don't Die. That series was also a success and an additional series was commissioned. The project was halted due to Wein's death.
Jones later illustrated Lobo vs. Roadrunner, followed by 2018's Justice League America Annual. He returned to working on Batman in 2018, illustrating Batman: Kings of Fear, a six-part miniseries. [18]
In 2019, Kelley Jones unveils having worked on illustrations for the new Creepshow series as well as his 12-page comic book adaptation of "The Raft", [19] that Marvel asked him to work on for accompanying the release of the Creepshow 2 movie, in 1987. [20] [21]
Kelley Jones was nominated for both a Harvey Award and an Eisner Award for his work on Deadman: Love after Death and again in 1990 for Batman: Red Rain. The latter work won him a Diamond Gem Award for best artist in 1990.
Jones won an Eisner in 1991 for best run for The Sandman arc "Season of Mist".
Jones won the best artist at both the Rondo Awards and from MTV in 2008 for his work on Batman: Gotham after Midnight. [22]
Jones was presented with an Inkpot Award in 2014. [23]
The Swamp Thing is a superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics. A humanoid/plant elemental creature, created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson, the Swamp Thing has had several humanoid or monster incarnations in various different storylines. The character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century. The character then returned in a solo series, set in the contemporary world and in the general DC continuity. The character is a swamp monster that resembles an anthropomorphic mound of vegetable matter, and fights to protect his swamp home, the environment in general, and humanity from various supernatural or terrorist threats, his archnemesis being the sorcerer Anton Arcane.
Bernard Albert Wrightson was an American artist, known for co-creating the Swamp Thing, his adaptation of the novel Frankenstein illustration work, and for his other horror comics and illustrations, which feature his trademark intricate pen and brushwork.
Vertigo Comics was an imprint of American comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993. Vertigo's purpose was to publish comics with adult content, such as nudity, drug use, profanity, and graphic violence, that did not fit the restrictions of DC's main line, thus allowing more creative freedom. Its titles consisted of company-owned comics set in the DC Universe, such as The Sandman and Hellblazer, and creator-owned works, such as Preacher, Y: The Last Man and Fables.
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, namely 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, the Elders of the Universe, joined by Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Nebula, and Drax.
Leonard Norman Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men. Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.
Sam Kieth is an American comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl.
Richard Joseph Giordano was an American comics artist and editor whose career included introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes and serving as executive editor of DC Comics.
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Shawn McManus is an American artist who has worked extensively over three decades for DC Comics and other companies, notably for DC's Vertigo imprint including the Fables series.
James N. Aparo was an American comic book artist, best known for his DC Comics work from the late 1960s through the 1990s, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman, and the Spectre, along with famous stories such as The Brave and the Bold, "A Death in the Family", and "KnightFall".
Douglas Moench is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Moon Knight, Deathlok, Black Mask, Electric Warrior, and Six from Sirius. He is also known for his critically acclaimed eight-year run on Master of Kung Fu.
Paul Gulacy is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, with writer Don McGregor. He is most associated with Marvel's 1970s martial-arts and espionage series Master of Kung Fu.
Michael Zulli is an American artist known for his work as an animal and wildlife illustrator and as a comic book illustrator.
James H. Williams III, usually credited as J. H. Williams III, is an American comics artist and penciller. He is known for his work on titles such as Chase, Promethea, Desolation Jones,Batwoman, and The Sandman: Overture.
The Batman & Dracula trilogy consists of three American graphic novels—Batman & Dracula: Red Rain (1991), Bloodstorm (1994), and Crimson Mist (1998)—written by Doug Moench and penciled by Kelley Jones. The books were published by DC Comics as a part of its Elseworlds line of comics. Moench created the concept for the first installment and convinced Jones, of whom he was a fan, to join the project. Red Rain's eventual popularity resulted in DC commissioning sequels.
Pat Broderick is an American comics artist, known for his work on the Micronauts and Alpha Flight for Marvel Comics, and Legion of Super-Heroes, Captain Atom and Green Lantern for DC Comics. Broderick also pencilled the four-part "Batman: Year Three" storyline, written by Marv Wolfman, which detailed the first meeting of Batman and Dick Grayson as well as Tim Drake's first appearance.
Bruce Eliot Jones whose pen names include Philip Roland and Bruce Elliot, is an American comic book writer, novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter whose work included writing Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk from 2001 to 2005.
Tom Mandrake is an American comics artist, perhaps best known for his collaborations with writer John Ostrander on several series, including Grimjack and Firestorm, The Spectre, and Martian Manhunter from DC Comics.
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.
Notable events of 1986 in comics.
Where all previous artists had shown the character looking exactly the same as he had in life as Boston Brand, Jones' depiction took a distinct turn at Albuquerque as his Deadman looked like a human skeleton wrapped in the familiar costume.
The Sandman saw a variety of artists grace its pages. Sam Kieth drew the first few issues, followed by Mike Dringenberg, Chris Bachalo, Michael Zulli, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, and Shawn McManus, among others.
{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones introduced a pair of new villains into Batman's world with the Ogre and the Ape.
{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Jones turned to completing the fourth issue of IDW Publishing's Frankenstein, Alive, Alive! The miniseries by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson — calling back to Bernie Wrightson's 1983 Frankenstein adaptation — was unfinished at the time of Wrightson's death last year, but before he passed, he asked his friend Jones to finish it.
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