Trevor Von Eeden

Trevor Von Eeden

Trevor Von Eeden
Born Trevor Von Eeden
July 24, 1959
Georgetown, Guyana
Area(s) Comics
Notable works
 Black Lightning
Batman
Green Arrow
Power Man and Iron Fist
The Original Johnson

http://www.trevorvoneeden.com'''

Trevor Von Eeden (born July 24, 1959)[1] is a comic book writer/artist known for his work on such books as Black Lightning, Batman, Green Arrow, Power Man and Iron Fist, and the biographical series The Original Johnson.

Early life

Von Eeden was born in Guyana[1] and moved to New York City when he was 11 years old.[1] According to Von Eeden, he remembers drawing in his early teens in order to alleviate the boredom of junior high school, beginning with anatomical studies of faces and hands, which he says are the most difficult things to draw accurately, in the margins of his notebooks. He was introduced to comics through the collection of his best friend.[2] Influences included Neal Adams, John Buscema, and Curt Swan.[3] Von Eeden's best friend encouraged him to submit sample artwork to DC Comics;[2] at the same time, Von Eeden was studying medicine at Columbia University.[3]

Career

Von Eeden's comic book career began at age 16, when DC Comics editor Jack C. Harris hired him to illustrate prototype assignments with the Legion of Super-Heroes and Weird War Tales.[3] Soon after, Von Eeden was officially hired to design and draw the company's first African-American superhero to have his own title, Black Lightning.[4]

About four years later, Von Eeden began to suspect he had gotten that job because of his skin color, which displeased him and resulted in his writing what he called a five-page mission statement that said "in detail exactly what I wanted to create — the kind of style I thought would express myself most effectively, while also telling a story in the most dramatic way possible. I wrote everything down that I could think of — the details, form, and purpose of the style of art that I'd wanted to create."[2]

Von Eeden at the 2012 New York Comic Con.

Other comic-book titles on which Von Eeden worked during the 1980s included Black Canary and Batman for DC Comics, and Power Man and Iron Fist for Marvel Comics. His stint at Marvel Comics was cut short because, in his own words, he was "fired by Jim Shooter, who’d told me specifically, when I’d first started there, to try and draw like Jack Kirby—and apparently wasn’t happy that I didn’t."[5] In 1983 Von Eeden illustrated the first eight issues of the DC miniseries Thriller, an action-adventure story that allowed him room to experiment.[6] He also penciled a four-issue Green Arrow miniseries.[7] He and writer Jack C. Harris proposed to DC an all-female superteam named the Power Squad, but were turned down.[8]

During much of the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s Von Eeden worked as a storyboard artist for New York advertising agencies.

In 2001 Von Eeden returned to Batman, penciling the five-issue storyline "Grimm" in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #149-153. He also illustrated a series of short stories, "Joe In The Future", published in Heavy Metal magazine since 2001.[1]

In 2007 Von Eeden began writing and drawing The Original Johnson, a biography of the boxer Jack Johnson. The 242-page graphic novel was serialized in weekly online installments at ComicMix, and was completed in 2009.[6] Print rights to the book were acquired by IDW Publishing, who issued the series as a two-volume set in 2010 and 2011.[1]

In 2011 Von Eeden provided illustrations for the text story "The Holo-Marketeer" for Heavy Metal magazine. and designed and illustrated superhero comics produced for The National Hockey League by Stan Lee.[1] He later illustrated four issues of Gateway Comics' Stalker.

Awards and Recognition

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "About the Artists & Writers," African-American Classics, Graphic Classics vol. 22 (Eureka Productions, 2011).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Von Eeden, Trevor. "About". trevorvoneeden.com. accessed October 19, 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Gold, Mike. "DC Profiles #10: Trevor Von Eeden." DC Comics dated July 1977. Archived at the Grand Comics Database.
  4. ↑ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden provided the creative juice for Black Lightning.
  5. ↑ Callahan, Timothy (December 2010). "Power Man and Iron Fist". Back Issue! (TwoMorrows Publishing) (45): 5.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Gustines, George Gene. "Comic Book Takes Unflinching Look at a Boxing Champion ". The New York Times. December 24, 2008
  7. ↑ Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 201: "The Battling Bowman fought his way into his own four-issue miniseries at long last, thanks to writer Mike W. Barr and artist Trevor Von Eeden."
  8. ↑ "The all-female DC Comics’ team book that wasn’t". DC Women Kicking Ass. August 3, 2011. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Inkwell Awards Ambassadors"

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trevor Von Eeden.