Mike Okamoto

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Mike Okamoto (born Detroit, Michigan, United States) is an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known for his award-winning work on Marvel Comics' Atomic Age; as a prominent "good girl art" cartoonist; and as the five-time Golf Illustrator of the Year.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life and career
- 1.2 Later career
2 Awards
3 Quotes
4 Footnotes
5 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Atomic Age #1 (Nov. 1990): Cover art by Okamoto & Kevin Nowlan

Raised in Detroit, Mike Okamoto attended the Parsons School of Design, in New York City, on a full scholarship from 1971-1975. Influenced by the work of such fine artists and comics artists as N.C. Wyeth, Carl Barks, Mort Drucker, Frank Frazetta, and Al Williamson, he began doing spot illustrations and other commercial art for magazines, developing a style of "realisic caricature" that has since been used by Drew Friedman and others.

He began in comic books illustrating writer Mike Barr's The Maze Agency #15 (Aug. 1990) and Hero Alliance #11-12 (Nov.-Dec. 1990) for Innovation Comics, where he later drew painted covers for the licensed series Lost in Space and drew the painted series Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality: On a Pale Horse.

For Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1990, he and writer Frank Lovece created the four-volume graphic novel Atomic Age, a 1950s-style science fiction story reimagined from a contemporary perspective. Inker Al Williamson, one of Okamoto's role models, won the 1991 Eisner Award for Best Inker for his work here and elsewhere the preceding year. Okamoto also painted a story for Epic's Clive Barker's Hellraiser series.

[edit] Later career

Hero Alliance #12 (Dec. 1990): Good girl art by Okamoto, inked by Mike Witherby

His other comics art includes the story "Nursery Crime" in Epic's Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Dark Holiday Special; and covers for the Chaos Comics miniseries Suspira: The Great Working (1992). He is among the artists whose work appears in poet Hart D. Fisher's 1998 book Still Dead.

The actress June Lockhart commissined Okamoto for the painted portrait of her as Lost in Space character Maureen Robinson, which she sells as autographed posters. In the 2000s, Okamoto moved to Moundsville, West Virginia, where he has become an award-winning illustrator for golfing magazines.

With his wife, graphic designer and writer-editor Diana Light, Okamoto co-created the science fiction/fantasy project Zone21, which they show as a work-in-progress at comic book conventions.

[edit] Awards

For Atomic Age and for his painted work on Innovation's five-issue adaptation of the Piers Anthony novel On a Pale Horse in 1991, Okamoto won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, given annually at the San Diego Comic Con.

From 1999 to 2003, when he asked to be taken out of the running, Okamoto won the International Network of Golf Illustrator of the Year Award, for his work in Golf Illustrated magazine.

[edit] Quotes

Maurice Harter, The Monthly Aspectarian, on Suspira: The Great Working: "[T]his mini-series is worth a look-see for two reasons: the engaging story, and lavish airbrushed painted art which is gorgeous. Artist Mike Okamoto visualizes demons that are truly creepy".^[1]

Nuclear Texts & Contexts #6 (Spring 1991): "Atomic Age...is a four-part series dealing with alien invaders set during the Sputnik era. ... Although no nuclear war is featured, there is plenty of wry satire on Cold War paranoia, and on racism".^[2]