Colleen Doran
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Colleen Doran (July 24, 1963 - ) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for her fantasy series A Distant Soil.
Doran broke into the comic book industry when still a teenager, in the 1980s. A Distant Soil was originally published by Wendy and Richard Pini's WaRP Graphics, publishers of Elfquest, but Doran subsequently left the company due to an acrimonious dispute with Richard Pini, whom she alleged was attempting to claim copyright on her work. The WaRP version of the story was never reprinted, despite its unusual all-pencil style, although Colleen Doran did reprint a short Distant Soil story that had appeared in a WaRP anthology.
Doran has since illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines and dozens of stories and articles.
At the age of five, she won an art contest sponsored by the Walt Disney Company. Doran created her comic book series A Distant Soil at the age of twelve. She landed her first professional assignment for an advertising agency at age fifteen. While still in college, she was a full-time professional artist who was able to add her professional work to her college art curriculum for credit. Overwhelmed with assignments, she left college early.
After leaving WaRP, Colleen went on to completely rewrite and redraw the entire A Distant Soil series from scratch, self-publishing it for some years before moving on to Image Comics where it is now in multiple printings as a series of graphic novels. The first volume had four printings, and it is now in its third collected volume. It has sold, collectively, more than 500,000 copies. The story centers on a young girl who is born heir to an alien religious dynasty, and explores issues of politics, gender identity and tolerance. Its strong characterization and unique art style has inspired the Young American Library Association to profile the book in their quarterly journal, and it has been nominated for the Spectrum Award for Best Science Fiction in the Other category in 2001.
The character Thessaly in Neil Gaiman's Sandman is based on Doran, and she illustrated two issues of that series (#20 and #34) in the early 1990s.
She has attended multiple World Science Fiction Conventions, San Diego Comic Cons, The Singapore Writers Festival, and many The Lord of the Rings conventions including Ring*Con, ELF, and ORC. She is also featured in the films Ringers (a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fans), Scenes From the Small Press: Colleen Doran by Rich Henn, and Sex, Lies and Superheroes.
Doran's newest comics-art project is The Book of Lost Souls, a modern fantasy written by J. Michael Straczynski and published by Marvel's Icon imprint beginning in December 2005.
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[edit] Professional organizations
- American Society of Portrait Artists
- Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists
- National Cartoonists Society
[edit] Awards, honors
- Chesley Award Nominee
- Eisner Award Nominee
- Comics' Buyer's Guide Award Favorite Colorist Nominee
- Delphi Institute Grant Award
- American Representative Japan/America Manga Seminar, Tokyo
- Guest of Honor, San Diego Comic Con
- Multiple Awards and Honors, SF, Comic and Fantasy art shows
- Multiple Awards and Honors various gallery exhibits
- American Library Association 2002 featured speaker
- Spectrum Award Nominee
[edit] Exhibits
- Four Color Images Gallery, New York, NY
- Kunstlerhaus, Stuttgart, Germany
- Porto, Portugal
- Secession Gallery, Vienna, Austria
- Gijon Cultural Center, Gijon, Spain
- San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
- Museum of Cartoon Art, Rye Brook, New York
[edit] Partial credits
[edit] Conceptual Art
Distance conceptual artist for Sony/Pipe Studios animated series in development.
[edit] Illustration
- Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics Watson-Guptill art book
- Anime Mania Watson-Guptill art book
- Disney Adventures The Walt Disney Company
- Young Readers Digest Readers Digest
- CPM Magazine The Cahner’s Group
- Play Station Magazine Imagine Entertainment
- Trading cards for various projects: Topps
- Trading Cards for Various Projects: Skybox
- The Art of Star Wars: Topps
- Star Wars Magazine
- Star Wars product illustration
- Walt Disney product illustration
- Marvel Comics product illustration
- Star Trek product illustration
- Planned Parenthood
- Robotech Art II Donning Co Publishers art book
- The Swat Team Manual
[edit] Comics and Graphic Novels
- The Book of Lost Souls 2005 Marvel/Icon series
- Stealth Tribes DC/Vertigo 2004 graphic novel
- Orbiter DC/Vertigo (April 2003) graphic novel
- Reign of the Zodiac DC (June 2003) series
- Sandman: Dream Country DC/Vertigo graphic novel/series
- Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story DC Comics graphic novel
- Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Marvel Epic Comics, Checker Publishing series/graphic novel
- The Forbidden Book graphic novel collection
- Clive Barker’s Nightbreed Marvel/Epic Comics series
- Anne Rice’s The Master of Rampling Gate Innovation graphic novel
- A Distant Soil: The Gathering Image Comics series/ graphic novel
- A Distant Soil: The Ascendant Image Comics series/graphic novel
- A Distant Soil: The Aria Image Comics series/graphic novel
- Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast film adaptation The Walt Disney Company
- Captain America Marvel Comics Group series
- Star Trek DC Comics series
- Silver Surfer Marvel Comics series
- Amazing Spiderman Marvel Comics series
- The Legion of Superheroes DC Comics series
- Valor DC Comics series
- Shade DC/Vertigo series
- The Death Gallery DC/Vertigo
- The Sandman Gallery DC/Vertigo
- Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld DC Comics series
- Power Pack Marvel series
