This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2015) |
Michael Manning | |
---|---|
Born | Michael Manning 1963 (age 60–61) |
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | Writer, Artist |
Michael Manning (born 1963) is an American comic book artist and writer, fine art illustrator, and traditionally trained animator currently based in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his graphic novel series, The Spider Garden and Tranceptor, which combine elements of pan-sexual fetishism and BDSM culture with complex characters in science fiction and fantasy settings. He is also active in the supernatural horror and fantasy genres, drawing adaptations of the work of authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alexandre Dumas for the Graphic Classics comics anthology series, as well as illustrating an anachronistic version of the German folk epic, The Nibelungen.
Manning was born in Flushing in the New York City borough of Queens and raised in Beverly, Massachusetts where he exhibited an early interest in drawing and writing. Exposure to Japanese animation, fairy-tale book illustration, American and European comics, and the mythology of many cultures all contributed to the formation of his emerging style.
Manning went on to study film and animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He began self-publishing art and comics in 1987 while working at Olive Jar Animation in Brookline, MA as an animator and director of short films, commercials, and music videos. Self-published titles such as Shunga, Ukiyo-X and Z/Xero brought his work to the attention of comic book artists John Bergin and James O'Barr (creator of The Crow) who in turn showed his work to Kevin Eastman of Tundra Publishing. This led to the inclusion of two of Manning's short pieces (one of which was a collaboration with Red Spider White Web author Misha Nogha) in Tundra's Bone Saw anthology - Manning's first professional comics publication.
A move to San Francisco in 1991 coincided with Manning's decision to focus on comic books and erotic illustration full-time. Manning continued to self-publish and produce work for the Bay Area's emerging BDSM/sex-zine community while his artwork and stage/costume design for multi-media performances appeared regularly at local music venues, fetish events, and art galleries. Much of his graphic work from this period was subsequently collected and published in the art collection Lumenagerie (1996) and the anthology Cathexis (1997). He also wrote and drew four volumes of the Spider Garden series and in collaboration with artist Patrick Conlon the first installment of the Tranceptor series.
A second collection, Inamorata: The Erotic Art of Michael Manning with an introduction by Patrick Califia-Rice, [1] was published by Last Gasp in 2005 just after Manning moved to Los Angeles. The second volume in the Tranceptor series, Iron Gauge, was published in 2007. [2]
Manning's artwork has been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Omaha, Miami, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Milan. In 2002, mural-sized reproductions of panels from his In A Metal Web graphic novel were featured as part of a special installation at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts comic book-themed exhibition Fantastic! Comics and the Art of Illusion.
Manning's work appears to illustrate Tales of Gor, a role-playing game based on the works of John Norman, written by James Desborough. [3]
The Spider Garden graphic novel series, written and drawn by Manning, currently consists of four volumes in the following order: The Spider Garden (1995), Hydrophidian (1996), In A Metal Web (2004), and In A Metal Web II (2004).
The first volume of the Spider Garden series was originally produced under contract for Kevin Eastman's Tundra Publishing line. After Manning was released from his contract with Tundra in 1994, The Spider Garden became the inaugural book in NBM Publishing's Amerotica line with the three subsequent volumes in the series also appearing under the NBM/Amerotica imprint. An Italian language edition of the first volume was published by Phoenix Erotica in 1999, followed by French and Italian language editions from BD Érogéne in 2000.
Set in a futuristic, matriarchal world of warring clans which vaguely recalls feudal-era Japanese culture, the action centers on the eponymous Spider Garden, a palace-fortress populated by concubines, human pets, and the spider-like automata who give the Garden its name. The Garden's ruler is Shaalis the Sacred Androgyne, a seemingly immortal hermaphrodite who is referred to by the pronouns 'Hir' and 'S/He' (pronounced as "her" and "she" respectively) to denote Hir multi-gendered status.
The main plot follows the socio-political intrigues between Shaalis' Metal Spider Clan and the Serpentine Sisters, Squamata and Lichurna - incestuous twins who command the rival Water Serpent Clan which is based in an aquatic palace, Hydrophidian. Caught in the middle are former lovers Sasaya Nijan, a female courtesan who enters service in the Spider Garden in order to settle a gambling debt, and Lord Verio, head of the Double Ibis Clan who, following a failed assassination attempt on the Sacred Androgyne, finds himself deposed and forced into an alliance with the Serpentine Sisters.
Also appearing in the story are the Tengu, a non-human race of horse-like bipeds. Inspired by but not identical to the tengu of Japanese legend, it is implied that these creatures once held humanity in bondage in the distant past.
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.
Bryan Talbot is a British comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire, as well as the Grandville series of books. He collaborated with his wife, Mary M. Talbot to produce Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, which won the 2012 Costa biography award.
"Omaha" the Cat Dancer is an erotic comic strip and later comic book created by artist Reed Waller and writer Kate Worley. Set in fictional Mipple City, Minnesota in a universe populated by anthropomorphic animal characters, the strip is a soap opera focusing on Omaha, a feline exotic dancer, and her lover, Chuck, the son of a business tycoon.
Kevin Brooks Eastman is an American comic book artist and writer best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. Eastman was also formerly the editor and publisher of the magazine Heavy Metal.
Charles Vess is an American fantasy artist and comics artist who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. His influences include British "Golden Age" book illustrator Arthur Rackham, Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, and comic-strip artist Hal Foster, among others. Vess has won several awards for his illustrations. Vess' studio, Green Man Press, is located in Abingdon, VA.
Rick Geary is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He is known for works such as A Treasury of Victorian Murder and graphic novel biographies of Leon Trotsky and J. Edgar Hoover.
Donald Francis McGregor is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics; he is the author of one of the first graphic novels.
Patrick Conlon is an illustrator and tattooist in New York City. He wrote and illustrated the graphic novel Swarm, and collaborated with Michael Manning, another fetish artist, on The Tranceptor Series. He has tattooed and worked with several celebrities, most notably Daniel Day-Lewis and a small umbrella piece on Rihanna.
Jean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comics and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier, and the reason why credits sometimes read "R. J. M. Lofficier", after the initials of both spouses.
Phil Winslade is a British comic book artist.
David Hine is an English comic book writer and artist, known for his work on Silent War and The Bulletproof Coffin.
Ignacio Noé, usually known simply as Noé, is an artist in a wide range of graphic genres, working in comics, children's books, magazine illustration and erotic comics, in a highly rendered style that utilizes both digital and traditional media. His works include "The Piano Tuner", "Ship of Fools" and most notably "The Convent of Hell".
Tundra Publishing was a Northampton, Massachusetts-based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990. The company was founded to provide a venue for adventurous, creator-owned work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publications were noted in the trade for their high production values, including glossy paper stock, full-color printing, and square binding. Tundra was one of the earlier creator-owned companies, before the formation of Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics' Legends imprint.
Neil Kleid is an American cartoonist who received a 2003 Xeric Award grant for his graphic novella Ninety Candles (2004). Raised in Oak Park, Michigan, he lives in New Jersey
Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. is an American graphic novel publisher. Founded by Terry Nantier in 1976 as Flying Buttress Publications, NBM is one of the oldest graphic novel publishers in North America. The company publishes English adaptations and translations of popular European comics, compilations of classic comic strips, and original fiction and nonfiction graphic novels. In addition to NBM Graphic Novels, the company has several imprints including ComicsLit for literary graphic fiction, and Eurotica and Amerotica for adult comics.
Gipsy is a French science fiction comic series drawn by Italian-Swiss artist Enrico Marini and written by Thierry Smolderen. The eponymous main character is a charismatic Roma truck driver who works on a worldwide net of motorways as a freelance trader with his own large truck.
Brandon Graham is an American comic book creator.
Shane White is an American illustrator, comic book writer and artist and author from Massena, New York.
Sean Michael Wilson is a Scottish comic book writer from Edinburgh. He has written more than 40 books with a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers and has been nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey book awards, and won a medal in the Japanese government's 'International Manga Award', 2016.
Breakdowns is a collected volume of underground comic strips by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. The book is made up of strips dating to before Spiegelman started planning his graphic novel Maus, but includes the strip "Maus" which presaged the graphic novel, and "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" which is reproduced in Maus. The original edition of 1977 is subtitled From Maus to Now; the expanded 2008 edition is subtitled Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!.