| Trevor Von Eeden | |
|---|---|
 Trevor Von Eeden | |
| Born | Trevor Von Eeden July 24, 1959 Guyana |
| Area(s) | Comics |
Notable works | Black Lightning Batman Green Arrow Power Man and Iron Fist The Original Johnson |
Trevor Von Eeden (born July 24, 1959) [1] is a Guyanese-American comics artist, actor and writer known for his work on such titles as Black Lightning , Batman , Green Arrow , Power Man and Iron Fist , and the biographical series The Original Johnson.
Von Eeden was born in Guyana [1] and moved to New York City when he was 11 years old. [1] According to Von Eeden, he remembers drawing in his early teens in order to alleviate the boredom of junior high school, beginning with anatomical studies of faces and hands, which he says are the most difficult things to draw accurately, in the margins of his notebooks. He was introduced to comics through the collection of his best friend. [2] Influences included Neal Adams, John Buscema, and Curt Swan. [3] Von Eeden's best friend encouraged him to submit sample artwork to DC Comics; [2] at the same time, Von Eeden was studying medicine at Columbia University. [3]
Trevor Von Eeden's comic book career began at age 16, when DC Comics editor Jack C. Harris hired him to illustrate prototype assignments with the "Legion of Super-Heroes" and Weird War Tales . [3] Soon after, Von Eeden was officially hired to design and draw the company's first African-American superhero to have his own title, Black Lightning. [4]
About three years later, Von Eeden began to suspect he had gotten that job because of his skin color, which displeased him and resulted in his writing what he called a five-page mission statement that said "in detail exactly what I wanted to create — the kind of style I thought would express myself most effectively, while also telling a story in the most dramatic way possible. I wrote everything down that I could think of — the details, form, and purpose of the style of art that I'd wanted to create." [2]
In 1977, he began drawing the "Green Arrow" backup feature in World's Finest Comics [5] and co-created the Count Vertigo character with Gerry Conway in World's Finest Comics #251 (July 1978). Von Eeden recalled in a 2011 interview that he "worked for Neal [Adams] concurrent with my DC tenure—starting in 1978, until somewhere in the late '90s". [6] He moved to Marvel Comics in 1979 and 1980 and pencilled Power Man and Iron Fist and Spider-Woman . [7] His stint at Marvel Comics was cut short because, in his own words, he was "fired by Jim Shooter, who’d told me specifically, when I’d first started there, to try and draw like Jack Kirby—and apparently wasn’t happy that I didn’t." [8] He then returned to DC and once again drew the "Green Arrow" feature in World's Finest Comics [5] and later in Detective Comics as well. [9] In collaboration with writer Mike W. Barr, he crafted Batman Annual #8 (1982) [10] and a Green Arrow miniseries. [11] Von Eeden has noted that the Batman Annual is "the book I’m most proud of, in my 25 year career at DC Comics. I was able to ink it myself, and also got my girlfriend at the time, Lynn Varley, to colour it – her first job in comics." [12] He and writer Jack C. Harris proposed to DC an all-female superteam named the Power Squad, but were turned down. [13] In 1983, Von Eeden and writer Robert Loren Fleming created the DC series Thriller , an action-adventure story that allowed him room to experiment. [14] [15] Von Eeden left the series as of its eighth issue due to difficulties with DC Comics' management. [16] He stated in a 2017 interview that he was "thrilled beyond measure" that Thriller is "the one job of my entire 41-year career that the fans have fondly and consistently remembered since it first appeared." [17]
He was asked by Frank Miller to draw the "Batman: Year One" storyline but did not accept the offer. [18]
"Venom", the fourth story arc in the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series, was drawn by Von Eeden, Russell Braun, and José Luis García-López. [7] [19] Von Eeden drew a Black Canary limited series (Nov. 1991-Feb. 1992) as well as an ongoing series featuring the character in 1992–1993. [7] In a 2009 interview he stated that ''Black Canary, on the other hand, was done in one state of mind, from beginning to end, one of semi-interest, to tell you the truth. I didn't, and still don't, find her to be a particularly interesting character." [20]
In 2001 Von Eeden returned to Batman, penciling the five-issue storyline "Grimm" in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #149–153. [21] He also illustrated a series of short stories, "Joe In The Future", published in Heavy Metal #v25 #6 (Jan. 2002) and #v27 #5 (Nov. 2003) [1]
In 2007 Von Eeden began writing and drawing The Original Johnson, a biography of the boxer Jack Johnson. The 242-page graphic novel was serialized in weekly online installments at ComicMix, and was completed in 2009. [14] Print rights to the book were acquired by IDW Publishing, who issued the series as a two-volume set in 2010 and 2011. [1] He has called this project "The other 'most satisfying' book of my career (aside from the Batman Annual #8) is The Original Johnson – the first book I’ve ever written and drawn." [12]
He provided illustrations for the text story "The Holo-Marketeer" for Heavy Metal #v34 #9 (Jan. 2011) and designed and illustrated superhero comics produced for the National Hockey League by Stan Lee. [1] He later drew four issues of Gateway Comics' Stalker. [22]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Black Lightning | Judge Von Eeden | Episode: "The Book of War: Chapter Three: Liberation" |
Green Arrow is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941. His real name is Oliver Jonas Queen, a wealthy businessman and owner of Queen Industries who is also a well-known celebrity in Star City. He uses this position to hide the fact that he is the Arrow. Sometimes shown dressed like the character Robin Hood, Green Arrow is an archer who uses his skills to fight crime in his home cities of Star City and Seattle, as well as alongside his fellow superheroes as a member of the Justice League. Though much less frequently used in modern stories, he also deploys a range of trick arrows with various special functions, such as glue, explosive-tipped, grappling hook, flash grenade, tear gas and even kryptonite arrows for use in a range of special situations. At the time of his debut, Green Arrow functioned in many ways as an archery-themed analogue of the very popular Batman character, but writers at DC subsequently developed him into a voice of left-wing politics very much distinct in character from Batman.
The Justice League is a team of fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team was conceived by writer Gardner Fox during the Silver Age of Comic Books as a reimagining of the Golden Age's Justice Society of America. Originally consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, they first appeared together as the Justice League of America (JLA) in The Brave and the Bold #28.
Detective Comics is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011, is best known for introducing the superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27.
Terry Kevin Austin is an American comics artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrne's pencils on Uncanny X-Men from 1977 to 1981.
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.
Klaus Janson is a German-born American comics artist, working regularly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics and sporadically for independent companies. While he is best known as an inker, Janson has frequently worked as a penciller and colorist.
The Brave and the Bold is a comic book series published by DC Comics as an ongoing series from 1955 to 1983. It was followed by two mini-series in 1991 and 1999, and was revived as an ongoing title in 2007. The focus of the series has varied over time, but it most commonly features team-ups of characters from across the DC Universe.
Mike Grell is an American comic book writer and artist, known for his work on books such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow, The Warlord, and Jon Sable Freelance.
Carmine Michael Infantino was an American comics artist and editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are the Silver Age version of DC super-speedster the Flash with writer Robert Kanigher, the stretching Elongated Man with John Broome, Deadman with writer Arnold Drake, and Christopher Chance, the second iteration of the Human Target with Len Wein.
Richard Allen Dillin was an American comics artist best known for a 12-year run as the penciler of the DC Comics superhero-team series Justice League of America. He drew 115 issues from 1968 until his death in 1980.
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, mystery novels, and science fiction novels.
Joey Cavalieri is an American writer and editor of comic books. He is best known for his work on the characters Green Arrow and the Huntress for DC Comics.
Onomatopoeia is a fictional supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as an enemy of Green Arrow and Batman. Created by writer Kevin Smith and artist Phil Hester, the character first appeared in Green Arrow #12.
Denys B. Cowan is an American comics artist, television producer, media executive and one of the co-founders of Milestone Media.
Alan Brennert is an American author, television producer, and screenwriter. Brennert has lived in Southern California since 1973 and completed graduate work in screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The World's Finest Team was a fictional DC Comics superhero team who first appeared in the DC Comics Dollar Comics format series in World's Finest Comics #244, created by Gerry Conway, with art by Jim Aparo and George Tuska. The team consisted of the Silver Age versions of Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary, along with the new, original Wonder Woman of Earth-Two.
Black Canary first appeared in Flash Comics #86 as a guest hero/villain for character Johnny Thunder appearing for five issues until gaining her own feature starting with issue #92 through the series' end in #104.
Jack C. Harris is an American comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics.
José Delbo is an Argentine comics artist. He is best known for his work on Wonder Woman for DC Comics and The Transformers for Marvel Comics.
Black Canary is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, the character debuted in Flash Comics #86 as the first Black Canary in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Strong, mysterious, gutsy and romantic, she has been called "the archetype of the new Film Noir era heroine."
About three years into my career, at about the age of 20, I started to feel that I'd only gotten the job because of my skin color—a notion which displeased me greatly.
Writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden provided the creative juice for Black Lightning.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
[This] was the longest single Batman story ever published to date, a 42-page blockbuster written by Mike W. Barr and illustrated by Trevor Von Eeden.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
Frank had called me in person to offer me the 'Batman: Year One' job, before giving it to Mazzuchelli. I said, 'No.',' says Trevor, 'And I have no regrets – Dave did a beautiful job. His wife [Richmond Lewis] colored it, too.
The first four chapters of Stalker are illustrated by comics legend Trevor Von Eeden.
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| Preceded by Sal Amendola | "Green Arrow" feature in World's Finest Comics artist 1977–1979 | Succeeded by Dick Dillin |
| Preceded by Lee Elias | Power Man and Iron Fist artist 1979 | Succeeded by Marie Severin |
| Preceded by Romeo Tanghal | "Green Arrow" feature in World's Finest Comics artist 1980–1982 | Succeeded by Gil Kane |
| Preceded by n/a | Thriller artist 1983–1984 | Succeeded by Alex Niño |
| Preceded by Paul Gulacy | Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight artist 1991 | Succeeded by Bart Sears |
| Preceded by Paul Johnson | Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight artist 1998 | Succeeded by Eddy Newell |
| Preceded by Barry Kitson | Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight artist 2002 | Succeeded by Bill Reinhold |
