Shawn McManus

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This article is about the American comic book artist. For the Australian rules footballer, see Shaun McManus.

Shawn McManus' caricature of Stan Lee

Shawn McManus

Born	June 30, 1958 (age 48) Brookline, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Penciller, Inker

Shawn McManus (born June 30, 1958 in Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American artist who entered the comic book field in the early 1980s with work for Heavy Metal and DC Comics.

McManus gained wider attention when he illustrated two 1980s issues of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore. Since then he has drawn issues of Omega Men, Batman, Doctor Fate and a pair of limited series about the witch Thessaly written by Bill Willingham. Randy Lander reviewed the debut issue of The Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad:

This is mostly an issue to set the stage, to establish the world as one that is full of hidden magic and very abnormal things existing alongside normal life. McManus does a terrific job in depicting this type of thing. The realism of city streets or university buildings contrast nicely with the ghostly war dogs being used to hunt Thessaly, and the gore and destructive behavior demonstrated later on serves more as dark humor than disturbing violence. I also quite enjoyed the very normal designs for Thessaly and Fetch, which contrasts with their not-at-all normal lives.

McManus also drew most of A Game of You for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, and his other Sandman credits include The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales, The Sandman Presents: Thessaly, Witch for Hire, The Sandman: Fables & Reflections. Other Vertigo titles by McManus include Winter's Edge 3.

His work on the Tom Strong series (America's Best Comics) includes Tom Strong's Terrific Tales 2 and Tom Strong 3. His story "Jenny Panic & the Bible of Dreams", scripted by Steve Aylett, was collected in the hardback Tom Strong Collected Edition, Book Five, edited by Scott Dunbier.

For the June 1983 issue of Heavy Metal he collaborated with Bhob Stewart and John Coffey on Zenobia. Six months later, McManus and Stewart teamed with Jim McDermott on "Symbiosis", also in Heavy Metal (December, 1983).

McManus' artwork for Marvel Comics includes Peter Parker Spider-Man Annual '97 (1997) and Daredevil #351. In an interview with Kuljit Mithra, John Rozum, who scripted that issue of Daredevil, recalled:

I thought Shawn McManus's art was great. I'd like to work with him again sometime, though we didn't really work together here. At the time I wrote it, I had no idea who'd be drawing it. Shawn and I have never even met or spoken with each other. I always write full script though, and unlike some other artists, Shawn actually pays attention to the script. I think his artwork was a nice pairing with the story.

Cover of Wild Girl #1

McManus has contributed to titles from a variety of other publishers, including Atomeka Press (A1), Dark Horse (Cheval Noir), Exhibit A Press (Wolff & Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre), First Comics (GrimJack), Image (Supreme), Malibu (The Man Called A-X) and DC's Paradox Press (The Big Book of Freaks). More recently, he has worked on Leah Moore and John Reppion's Wild Girl (Wildstorm, 2004-2005) with J.H. Williams III, about 13-year-old Rosa Torez who discovers that she can communicate with animals. At least one issue was inked by Andrew Pepoy, but for some issues McManus did all the penciling and inking.

In animation, he worked in 1987 on the series Dinosaucers.

His art earned him a nomination, with Alan Moore, for a 1985 Jack Kirby award for "Pog" in Swamp Thing 32. The story, an inventive science fictional reinterpretation of Walt Kelly's Pogo, was written by Moore specifically for McManus, who rose to the challenge with an appropriate Kellyesque art style.