1.
Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences
2.
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, when Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several book series, the first. In the 2010s, he joins the Avengers, Marvels flagship superhero team, Spider-Mans nemesis Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes, the character was first portrayed in live action by Nicholas Hammond in the 1977 television movie Spider-Man. Reeve Carney starred as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man, in 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in demand for comic books. At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the characters approval, in a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodmans objections. In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already decided that Amazing Fantasy would be cancelled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. While this was indeed the issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing. Will appear every month in Amazing, regardless, Lee received Goodmans approval for the name Spider-Man and the ordinary teen concept, and approached artist Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby immediately sat down for a conference, Theakston writes. Steve Ditko would be the inker, when Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly—it just wasnt the character I wanted, Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled, One of the first things I did was to work up a costume, a vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked, for example, A clinging power so he wouldnt have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. I wasnt sure Stan would like the idea of covering the characters face and it would also add mystery to the character. Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditkos cover art, as Lee explained in 2010, I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jacks covers
3.
Mary Jane Watson
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Mary Jane MJ Watson is a fictional character, a supporting character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. the character made her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 and she has been the best friend, main love interest, and wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man. Parker consistently worms his way out of meeting Mary Jane who, aside from a brief appearance in #25 with her face obscured, is never actually seen until The Amazing Spider-Man #42. Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts. We, ourselves, felt that Mary Jane ended up being not only more attractive but more fun and more interesting, and we decided to let Peter end up with her. As though the characters had taken over, the names Mary Jane and M. J. are also common slang terms for marijuana. When asked about this, Stan Lee claimed it was purely coincidental, gerry Conway succeeded Stan Lee as writer of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1972. Conway pushed Mary Jane to the forefront of the cast, like Lee, Conway found Mary Jane to be more compelling than Gwen, hadnt lost the edge that made her an interesting character. She was just a nice person, in 1987, the character was married to Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. As a consequence, writer J. M. DeMatteis made Mary Jane and her marriage to Spider-Man one of the themes of the critically acclaimed Kravens Last Hunt. DeMatteis commented that Kraven’s Last Hunt has a lot of darkness in it, but the story primarily is about Peter and his journey into the light, the reason Peter makes it out is because he has Mary Jane in his life, and that is his salvation. Mary Janes relatively unknown early life was explored in The Amazing Spider-Man #259. Mary Jane made her first actual appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #25 and it is not until The Amazing Spider-Man #42 that her face is actually seen. In that issue, on the last page, Peter finally meets her, Peter begins to date her, much to the annoyance of Gwen Stacy. However, they become irritated with each other and Peter subsequently chooses to date Gwen. Mary Jane, who becomes Harry Osborns love interest and girlfriend, remains a friend to Peter. Despite her enjoyment of life, her friendships, and dating, when her relationship with Harry Osborn comes to an end, it has significant impact on Harry, driving him to a drug overdose. This in turn creates an effect, driving his father Norman Osborn to the brink of insanity
4.
Dan Slott
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Following this, Slott wrote other childrens comics, including DCs Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and Powerpuff Girls. After work on Batman Adventures and Justice League Adventures, Slott was given the chance to pitch a series for DC, the resulting miniseries was Arkham Asylum, Living Hell with artist Ryan Sook in 2003. In 2004 he wrote the 4th Parallel storyline for the Justice League which introduced the Red King, Arkham Asylums success led to Slotts return to Marvel in 2004 to launch a new She-Hulk series. The title focused on She-Hulk as a lawyer in the Marvel Universe. After relaunching in October 2005, the series met with higher sales. In 2007 Slott left the title with volume 2 #21, Slott gave the team the Great Lakes Avengers their first ever solo miniseries in GLA, Misassembled, which featured a character being killed in each issue. He made the first roster changes to the team since its inception by creating a new character, Grasshopper, during this period, Slott signed an exclusive contract with Marvel. At the end of 2005, Slott was assigned to write The Things first solo series in 20 years and it was not a sales success, and was canceled with issue #8, despite Slotts attempts to rally readers in a campaign he called Pull My Thing. The eight issues have been released in a paperback entitled Idol of Millions. Slott was the writer of Marvels Avengers, The Initiative, which launched following the conclusion of the 2006–07 Civil War storyline and he was one of the four writers of the thrice-monthly The Amazing Spider-Man, a schedule which began in January 2008 following the controversial storyline One More Day. Slott took over writing duties on The Mighty Avengers after writer Brian Michael Bendiss departure, starting with issue #21 and he wrote the story for the Spider-Man, Shattered Dimensions video game, which was released in September 2010. In November 2010, Slott took over The Amazing Spider-Man as the writer, marking the books change to a bi-monthly schedule. The Big Time storyline ended with The Amazing Spider-Man #700, its final issue, the first issue went on to win the 2013 Diamond Gem Award for Comic Book of the Year Over $3.00. The Superior Spider-Man ended with issue #31, with Peter Parker back as Spider-Man, the first issue of this new version of The Amazing Spider-Man is, according to Diamond Comics Distributors, The Best Selling Comic of the 21st Century. Slott and artist Mike Allred launched a new Silver Surfer series in May 2014, in 2016, Slott & Allreds SILVER SURFER #11 won the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue of the Year. The Complete Skrull Kill Krew collects #16-#19 Avenging Spider-Man #8, Marvel Comics collected in Spider-Man, Ends of the Earth collected in Spider-Man, Issue #1 collected in Marvel NOW. #52 and #63, 1993–1994 What The--, #23 and #26, Marvel Comics, 1993–1994 Wolverine #102
5.
Adam Kubert
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Kubert was rated by Wizard magazine as one of the Hot 10 Writers and Artists in the industry in 2008. He is the son of Joe Kubert and brother of Andy Kubert, born in Dover, New Jersey he is an instructor at the Joe Kubert School located there, which Joe Kubert founded, and at which he and Andy studied. Adam Kubert is the son of Muriel and Joe Kubert and his siblings include a sister, Lisa, and brothers David, Daniel, and Andrew. Comics editor Katie Kubert is his niece and he and his siblings grew up in Dover, New Jersey. He began his comics career at age 12 as a letterer. He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and graduated with a degree in medical illustration and he subsequently attended his fathers The Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey. Adam Kubert began his comics career as a letterer for DC Comics and his first credited artwork for the company is the story Gremlins published in Sgt. In 1988, Adam Kubert drew the Jezebel Jade limited series and he collaborated with his brother on Adam Strange and the Batman versus Predator intercompany crossover. Adam Kubert is known for his work at Marvel Comics, from 1993 to 1996 he illustrated 17 issues of writer Larry Hamas run on Wolverine between issues #75 to 102. His first issue on the featured the after affects of Magneto removing the adamantium from Wolverines body. Kubert drew the Weapon X limited series as part of the Age of Apocalypse storyline in 1995, the following year, he drew the Onslaught, X-Men and Onslaught, Marvel Universe one-shots which lead into the Heroes Reborn crossover. From 1997 to 1998 he illustrated 12 issues of Peter Davids run on the The Incredible Hulk from #454 to 467, as well as the -1 issue. In 2001, Kubert drew the new Ultimate X-Men title, penciling the first four issues, in 2004, he began a run on Ultimate Fantastic Four, once again with writers Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis, illustrating that series first six issues, and then issues 13-18. Both Adam and his brother Andy signed exclusive contracts with DC Comics in June 2005, Kuberts first project for DC was illustrating Last Son, a Superman story arc co-written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, which ran in Action Comics #844–847,851 and Action Comics Annual #11. Further delay forced DC Comics to bring in creative teams and delay the fourth part of the Last Son storyline and 3D Issue to #851. The final part of the storyline was in Action Comics Annual #11, following his work on Superman he penciled the Final Crisis tie-in, DC Universe, Last Will and Testament, written by Brad Meltzer. His last work for his latest tenure at DC was the Batman and The Outsiders Special and this issue, written by Peter Tomasi, highlighted Alfred Pennyworths efforts to recruit a new team of Outsiders in the wake of Batmans apparent death. After the release of the book, Kubert said he was pleased with his work at DC and had done, what set out to do
6.
Penciller
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A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term penciller. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and these artists are concerned with layout to showcase steps in the plot. Beyond this basic description, however, different artists choose to use a variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical pencils or drafting leads, still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying. Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper, the customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry is 11 by 17 inches. The inker usually works directly over the pencil marks, though occasionally pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum. The artwork is later reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop, more and more artwork is produced digitally, Jack Kirby From 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of a ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed The Dungeon by his family. When starting with clean piece of Bristol board, would first draw his lines with a T-square. Arthur Adams Arthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script hes given, the thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. When working on the illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio. After tracing the thumbnails, he will then clarify details with another light-blue pencil, for a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them. He will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he is not accustomed to, because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim Lee Artist Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work and he uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, and therefore not dark enough on the page, and too soft, and therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor because he finds it too waxy, campbell has also used HB lead and F lead. He maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, and since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser. He often sharpens the eraser to an edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis Charest Artist Travis Charest uses mainly 2H lead to avoid smearing and he previously illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them
7.
Letterer
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A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic books text. The letterers use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, the letterer crafts the comics display lettering, the story title lettering and other special captions and credits that usually appear on a storys first page. The letterer also writes the letters in the balloons and draws in sound effects. Many letterers also design logos for the comic book companys various titles, by the late 1940s, it became possible to make a living just lettering comic strips and comic books for artists, studios, and companies that didnt have the time or desire to do it in-house. Letterer and logo designer Ira Schnapp defined the DC Comics look for nearly thirty years, starting in around 1966, Schnapps classic, art deco-inspired look was replaced by the pulsing, organic style of Gaspar Saladino, who redesigned DCs house style for the counterculture era. Gaspar became the cover letterer for all of DCs books throughout the 1970s, from the 1930 through the 1990s, the letterer plied his craft on the same page drawn by the penciler. At DC Comics during the Silver Age of the 1960s, pencilers were required to rough in balloons, an accomplished letterer was able to adapt his or her style to the style of the art for that particular book. The evolution of desktop publishing powered by computers, especially made by Apple, began in the 1980s. One of the first users of computer-generated lettering was writer/artist John Byrne, other early users of computer lettering were David Cody Weiss and Roxanne Starr, who experimented in computer lettering with Bob Burdens Flaming Carrot Comics. Computer lettering really started making an impact with the availability of the first commercial comic book font, in the early 1990s letterer Richard Starkings and his partner John Roshell began creating comic book fonts and started Comicraft, which has since become the major source of comics fonts. Wildstorm Comics was ahead of the curve, Marvel came around a few later, and DC held to traditional production methods the longest. In the early years of the 21st Century, the mainstream American comics companies moved almost exclusively to in-house computer lettering, Chris Eliopoulos designed the fonts for Marvels in-house lettering unit, and Ken Lopez did the same at DC. Since then the trend has swung the other way, with most comics publishers once again using freelance letterers rather than in-house staff, nearly all use computer and digital comic book fonts. The traditional comic book letterer needs little more than a guide, a pen or brush, India ink. Some situations required the letterer to use vellum overlays on top of the original art, the lettering in the comics of the sensationalist horror comics publisher EC Comics c. 1955 was different from other publishers — its mechanical appearance gave it a sterile aspect, eCs letterers achieved their particular look by using a Leroy lettering set, a device popular amongst draftsmen and architects. The Leroy lettering set consisted of a stylus and a pantographic lettering form, most Marvel and DC books are now lettered using a graphics program such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop, and a font that resembles hand lettering. Computer lettering provides a lot of technical shortcuts, especially by combining the work directly with digital art files
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