Chris Sprouse

Chris Sprouse

Chris Sprouse at 2012 Fan Expo Toronto
Born July 30, 1966
Charlottesville, Virginia
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller

Chris Sprouse (born July 30, 1966)[1] is an American comic book artist.

Biography

Chris Sprouse was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the age of 3 he moved with his family to New Delhi, India where he first discovered comics as he was unable to play outside due to the dangerous amount of snakes in the house yard. When he was 6, his family returned to the United States to Dale City, Virginia, where he continued to read and draw comics. Before his debut in comics, Sprouse drew a comic strip entitled "Ber-Mander", for the school newspaper (The Hyphen), while attending Gar-Field Senior High School in Dale City. After graduating in 1984, Sprouse attended James Madison University where he studied graphic design.

Sprouse launched his career in mainstream comics in 1989, his first credited work being a Chemical King story in Secret Origins #47 (Feb. 1990).[2] His next assignments were a Two-Face story for Batman Annual #14 and the Hammerlocke limited series. He drew insert posters for the War of the Gods limited series in 1991.[3] Following that, Sprouse drew the Legionnaires series featuring teenaged versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He later illustrated a number of one-shots and fill-in issues before illustrating a Star Wars mini-series, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, for Dark Horse Comics.

He then worked for Extreme Studios as the regular penciller of New Men, and in 1997, Sprouse drew several issues of Supreme, scripted by Alan Moore for the same publisher. After Supreme ended, a year later he and Moore created Tom Strong for America's Best Comics,[4] for which Sprouse won two Eisner Awards in 2000, for Best Single Issue and Best Serialized Story.[5]

Sprouse was the penciller and co-creator on the 2004 Ocean mini-series, written by Warren Ellis and published by DC Comics. In 2007, Ocean was optioned for film.[6] In 2006, he began pencilling Wildstorm's Midnighter ongoing series, a spin-off of The Authority. He was the artist on the first issue of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne with Grant Morrison as writer.[7]

Sprouse made mainstream news headlines by dropping out of a Superman project by science fiction writer and anti-gay rights activist Orson Scott Card due to negative media attention.[8] Sprouse then worked with writer Peter Hogan on the Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril limited series.[9] In 2014, Sprouse drew the second issue of Grant Morrison's The Multiversity limited series.[10]

Sprouse currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Xan.

Bibliography

Awesome Comics

DC Comics

IDW Publishing

Image Comics

Malibu Comics

Marvel Comics

References

  1. ↑ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comics Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010.
  2. ↑ Chris Sprouse at the Grand Comics Database
  3. ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1990s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Three of the four issues in this limited series contained posters of DC characters by the talented Chris Sprouse.
  4. ↑ Vukcevic, Filip (April 29, 2008). "Chris Sprouse: Comics The Way He Sees It". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  5. ↑ "2000s Eisner Awards Recipients". San Diego Comicon International. 2013. Archived from the original on August 23, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  6. ↑ Fleming, Michael (August 6, 2007). "Hollywood Gang jumps in Ocean". Variety. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  7. ↑ "DCU in 2010: The Return of Bruce Wayne hits in April". DC Comics. December 9, 2009. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013.
  8. ↑ Truitt, Brian (March 5, 2013). "Artist leaves Orson Scott Card's Superman comic". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013. Fans and retailers called for boycotts of the print comic, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender activist website AllOut.org collected more than 16,000 signatures on an online petition asking DC to drop Card from Adventures of Superman.
  9. ↑ Melrose, Kevin (April 5, 2013). "Tom Strong returns in July with Planet of Peril". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
  10. ↑ Rogers, Vaneta (September 18, 2014). "Vivisecting Multiversity: Chris Sprouse On The Society of Super-Heroes". Newsarama. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014.

Further reading

External links