Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. Alternative comic books span a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.
Michael Mignola is an American comic book artist and writer best known for creating Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including B.P.R.D., Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson, and various spin-offs. He has also created other supernatural and paranormal themed titles for Dark Horse including Baltimore, Joe Golem, and The Amazing Screw-On Head.
IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), it formed in 1999, and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic book publisher in the United States, behind Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image Comics, ahead of other comic book publishers such as Archie, Boom!, Dynamite, Valiant, and Oni Press. The company is known for its licensed comic book adaptations of films, television shows, video games, and cartoons.
John Bolton is a British comic book artist and illustrator most known for his dense, painted style, which often verges on photorealism. He was one of the first British artists to come to work in the American comics industry, a phenomenon which took root in the late 1980s and has since become standard practice.
Steve Niles is an American comic book author and novelist, known for works such as 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, and Batman: Gotham County Line.
Gary Erskine is a Scottish comic book artist.
Andrew Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Skeleton Key and Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics.
Corey Sutherland Lewis is an American comic book creator. He is primarily known as the creator of Sharknife, published by Oni Press. Other works include PENG for Oni, and providing back-up comic strips for the Darkstalkers and Street Fighter comics for UDON. Rey also had a brief stint as the artist and writer of the Rival Schools comic book. He participated with a short story in Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Stories comic published by Dark Horse Comics. He created a series of self-published zines that were later published by Image Comics as the anthology Sun Bakery. Rey recently started Coastalvania where he sells books and other merchandise made by him.
Dan Jolley is an American novelist and comic book writer. His comics work includes DC Comics' Firestorm and Graphic Universe's Twisted Journeys, a series of interactive fiction or gamebooks in graphic novel form, and his novel work includes the young-adult science fiction espionage series Alex Unlimited along with his international best selling novel, The Gray Widow's Walk, which is his first book in the Gray Widow trilogy that he publishes through Seventh Star Press. He created the comic book character Jason Rusch with ChrisCross.
Joseph Torres, better known as J. Torres, is a Filipino-born Canadian comic book writer. He is perhaps best known for his run on DC Comics' Teen Titans Go!. He has also done some writing for animation and television.
Sean Gordon Murphy is an American comic book creator known for work on books such as Joe the Barbarian with Grant Morrison, Chrononauts with Mark Millar, American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest and The Wake with Scott Snyder, Tokyo Ghost with Rick Remender, and the miniseries Punk Rock Jesus.
Tom Fowler is a Canadian cartoonist living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Christos N. Gage is an American screenwriter and comic book writer. He is known for his work on the TV series Daredevil, Hawaii Five-0, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Numbers and the films The Breed and Teenage Caveman. In the comics industry, he has done considerable work on the titles Angel & Faith, Avengers Academy, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Superior Spider-Man, Spider-Geddon and has written tie-in books for the "Civil War" and "World War Hulk" storylines.
Troy Little is a Canadian cartoonist working in comic books and animation. He began self publishing with Chiaroscuro, a graphic novel that was developed between 2000 and 2005 under his Meanwhile Studios imprint. After winning two grants and being praised by Dave Sim, Chiaroscuro vol. 1 was released in 2007 by IDW Publishing.
Antony Johnston is a British writer of comics, video games, and novels. He is known for the post-apocalyptic comic series Wasteland, the graphic novel The Coldest City, and his work on several Image Comics series. In May 2023, Johnston published The Dog Sitter Detective, the first in a series.
Nathan Massengill is an American comic book artist, most known for his work as a brush inker. His work includes Marvel Comics' Deadpool and DC Comics' the Justice Society of America. He is best known for inking Ed McGuinness, penciler on the Deadpool series. He is also known for his inking work over pencilers Mike Wieringo, Dale Eaglesham, Steve Scott, and Sanford Greene.
Rafael Grampá is a Brazilian comic book artist and film director, best known for his creator-owned graphic novel Mesmo Delivery and DC Comics' The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child.
Rafael Albuquerque is a Brazilian comic book creator primarily for his artwork on titles such as DC Comics' Blue Beetle and as illustrator and co-creator of American Vampire. Though primarily a penciler and inker of interior comic art, he has also done work as a cover artist, colorist and writer.
Mike Huddleston is an American comic book artist.
Jacob Pander and Arnold Pander, known commercially as The Pander Brothers, are American comic book creators, artists, and filmmakers. They are best known for their work on the comics titles Grendel: Devil's Legacy, Batman: City of Light, The Batman Chronicles, and Girlfiend.
