Mike Manley (artist)
| Mike Manley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Detroit, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
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Michael ("Mike") Manley is an American comic book artist, inker and penciller. He is best known for co-creating (with writers Danny Fingeroth and Tom DeFalco) the Marvel Comics character Darkhawk in 1991. He would go on to serve as the regular penciller of the Darkhawk series for the first half of its run.
He has also contributed to titles such as Batman, Quasar, Captain America, Marvel Universe, and The Power of Shazam!.[1] He filled in as artist on the serial newspaper comic strip Judge Parker for the four weeks beginning March 15, 2010, due to the ongoing illness of regular artist Eduardo Barreto,[2] before becoming the strip's regular artist in 2011.
Biography
Manley was born in Detroit, Michigan.
He has worked as an artist for major publishers such as Marvel, DC Comics, and Dark Horse. In his run on the Batman title, Manley was one of the artists of Batman #500 in which the character Azrael replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman.[3] Manley works in animation as a storyboard and background designer from his home in Philadelphia, and was part of the team of artists who produced the Kids WB shows The New Batman/Superman Adventures and Batman Beyond.
Other projects included Spy Groove for MTV, Spawn for HBO, and ABC's One Saturday Morning, and Clerks: The Animated Series, based on the Kevin Smith movie. Manley then moved to Warner Brothers, working as a character designer.
In 1995, Manley formed Action Planet Inc. as a home to publish his own comics and ideas, starting with the anthology Action Planet Comics, featuring his character Monsterman. In early 1996 he founded ActionPlanet.com, which has grown to include Mike's award-winning on-line web comic, G.I.R.L. Patrol.
In 1996 Manley moved into the animation field, first working as a storyboard artist on the Superman cartoon for Kids WB. His first episode featured Lobo, titled, "The Main Man". Manley went on to do storyboards for Batman, background designs on Batman Beyond. Jumping back and forth between comics and animation Manley created and edited Draw! Magazine, the twice Eisner-nominated "How-to" magazine published by TwoMorrows Publishing. The magazine features step-by-step demos and articles on artists working in comics, cartooning, and animation. Manley also co-produced a how-to DVD along with Danny Fingeroth, How to Create Comics from Script to Print, distributed by TwoMorrows.
Manley continued to freelance storyboard on TV cartoons such as Samurai Jack (receiving a writing credit), Kim Possible, The Legend of Tarzan, Fairly Odd Parents, The Venture Brothers, Growing Up Creepie, and The Secret Saturdays.
In 2000, Manley started a new career as an art teacher. he taught in the animation dept at DCAD (Delaware College of Art and Design) until 2009 and became a senior lecturer at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In 2007 Manley illustrated a new Secret Agent Corrigan story for the publisher Egmont in Sweden. Manley then enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, finishing his certificate in Painting on his way to completing his Masters Degree.
Bibliography
Comics work includes:
- New Mutants vol. 1 #73 (inker)
- Darkhawk issues 1-25 (artist)
References
- Mike Manley at the Grand Comics Database
- Mike Manley at the Comic Book DB
- ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1990s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9.
Writer Jerry Ordway chronicled the further adventures of Billy Batson, the World's Mightiest Mortal, in the new ongoing effort The Power of Shazam!, alongside artists Mike Manley and Peter Krause.
- ↑ Manley, Mike (February 21, 2010). "Work Break". Draw! (Mike Manley official website). Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 260: "By Batman #500, the last chapter of the 'Knightfall' saga by writer Doug Moench and artist Jim Aparo and Mike Manley, Azrael was truly his own [version of] Batman."