Norm Breyfogle
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Norman Keith "Norm" Breyfogle (born on February 27, 1960) is a US comic artist. He was involved with the character of Batman in one book or another consistently from 1987-1995. He also co-created the character of Prime for Malibu Comics, and created and owns the copyright and trademark for the character "Metaphysique".
He has worked on many different characters for most comic book publishers at one time or another. Norm is currently working on The Danger's Dozen with creator and publisher Thad Branco of A First Salvo.
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[edit] Biography
Norm Breyfogle[1] was born in Iowa City, Iowa.
When he was 12 years old, he began taking private lessons from commercial artist Andrew Benson. Around this time, he also won his first award at a town and country art show. The Daily Mining Gazette, a newspaper in Houghton, Michigan, profiled him in 1976 as "Norm Breyfogle: Near Master Cartoonist at 16." During his time in high school, he co-plotted, wrote, and illustrated a comic book titled Tech-Team for Michigan Technological University.
After high school, Breyfogle attended Northern Michigan University, studying Painting and Illustration. During his time in college, Norm worked as an Illustrator for a local magazine and also for a graphics company. In 1980, he illustrated a book titled Bunyan: Lore’s Loggin’ Hero, published by Book Concern. He finished his fourth year with a 3.25 GPA.
Shortly after college, in 1982, Breyfogle moved to California. He went to work for a company as a draftsman, and later worked for United Space Boosters as a technical illustrator designing a training manual for the Space Shuttle program.
In 1984, Mike Friedrich (President of Star Reach, a talent representative agency) saw his work hanging at the San Diego Con Art Show and began a professional relationship with Breyfogle that lasted until 2001 (They remain friends). Norm also at this time penciled a six page story for DC’s New Talent Showcase, beginning a short run in the title. This was followed by several issues of First Comics’ American Flagg, penciling a back-up story titled "Bob Violence", in 1985. During this time he also drew for Tales of Terror, a horror anthology published by Eclipse Comics. Following that, and still breaking into the comic scene, Norm wrote, illustrated, and lettered a Captain America story in Marvel Fanfare in 1986. He then drew Whisper for First Comics in 1986-1987 - his first monthly book - before landing to Detective Comics (starring Batman, published by DC Comics).
Teamed with writer Alan Grant, Breyfogle helped repopularize Batman and revive the sales of Detective Comics. He drew the Batman for six years (1987-93), penciling Detective Comics from 1987-1990, then moving to Batman to introduce the new Robin from 1990-1992, and finally starting a new Batman series for DC titled Shadow of the Bat from 1992-1993. During his six year run on the character of the Batman, he also did a few one-shots, two of them being Batman: Holy Terror (an Elseworlds story) and Batman: Birth of the Demon, which he hand painted. Characters he co-created with Grant included The Ventriloquist and Zsasz. He also provided pencils to a 10-page short story in Superman 80-Page Giant #1 (Feb. 1999).
In 2001, DC offered him the job of penciling The Spectre monthly, which he drew for one year. Later he spent 2003 pencilling and inking the title Black Tide, published by Angel Gate Press.
In 2004 Breyfogle began work on an illustrated children's book for the Society of St. John Monastery, finished many commissions for fans, put together a couple printed sketchbooks showcasing his work, and continued writing his novel, getting up to halfway done at page 100, finishing through chapter 6. He also wrote over 40 poems and over 1300 haikus in a 5 month marathon, and a number of short stories.
In February of 2005 he accepted an offer to pencil and ink the interiors and covers of the new ongoing monthly title Of Bitter Souls from studio Relative Comics, originally published by Speakeasy Comics. It is written by Chuck Satterlee. Shortly before Speakeasy Comics went out of business, Relative Comics joined with Chimaera Studios and moved to publisher, Markosia Comics. He is still the artist of Of Bitter Souls.
In 2006 Norm accepted an offer to pencil and ink the main story interiors and the covers for the upcoming comic book title The Danger's Dozen, due winter of 2007, from the publisher A First Salvo. He also began a professional relationship with the London-based art agency Debut Art.
In the fall of 2007 Kevin Breyfogle will officially begin working with A First Salvo alongside his brother Norm on the Danger's Dozen, expanding in 2008.
[edit] Awards
He has been recognized for his work with nominations for the Squiddy Awards for Favorite Artist in 1989 and 1991, among many other awards.
[edit] References
- Norm Breyfogle Official Web-Site
- Comic Book Awards Almanac
- Debut Art Official Web-Site
- A First Salvo Official Web-Site
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ From his biography on www.normbreyfogle.com
