| Michael T. Gilbert | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Terry Gilbert May 7, 1951 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Letterer, Colorist |
| Official website | |
Michael Terry Gilbert (born 1951) is an American comic book artist and writer who has worked for both mainstream and underground comic book companies.
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Michael T. Gilbert was born on May 7, 1951 and attended the State University of New York. He graduated from SUNY at New Paltz in 1973, and had his first comic stories printed that same year (in his self-published underground, New Paltz Comix.) He began drawing for several Star Reach and Kitchen Sink titles; a mix of underground comix (Slow Death, Bizarre Sex, American Splendor by Harvey Pekar) and ground-level comics such as Star*Reach and Quack!. He also did script and artwork on Aardvark's Strange Brew, Tiny Terror Tales and Wraith (a parody of the famous Will Eisner character The Spirit.
He worked on the celebrated Elric series with P. Craig Russell, and is best known as the creator of Mr. Monster, which has been published by Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and Dark Horse Comics since 1984. The character, Doc Stern was originally created by the Canadian illustrator Fred Kelly for a "Canadian white" comic book in 1947. Gilbert saw an old copy of this comic as a child and never forgot it. The now defunct publisher had left the character in the public domain, and Gilbert revamped it considerably into a new, wilder character, Mr. Monster, a monster fighter, with exciting graphics and storylines that treaded a fine line between horror and humour. On June 19th.2004, Gilbert drove himself up to Toronto, Ontario for a comic convention where the Joe Shuster Awards (given each year to Canadian comic book artists and cartoonists), was honouring surviving artists of the Canadian Whites. Gilbert met Fred Kelly for the first and only time that day, and presented him with a royalty cheque for the use of his creation, though legally, no such monies were due or expected by Kelly. Fred Kelly had left comics and become a real estate salesman at least 50 years earlier. By then in a wheelchair, the octagenarian Kelly was very grateful and appreciative of the gesture. He died only a year or so after that.
Gilbert has also worked on Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Heavy Metal, Legends of the Dark Knight, Marvel Double-Shot (featuring Dr. Strange) and in 2000 wrote and illustrated a Superman graphic novel, Mann & Superman. In recent years he has written or drawn characters as diverse as Superman, Batman, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. He has been a scriptwriter for Disney comics since 1990, as has his wife Janet Gilbert. He has written and drawn Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, which reflects, in a very creative way, on sixty years of Batman adventures.[1]
Comics work includes: