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Jeff Parker (comics)

American comic book writer and artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Jeff Parker (born October 25, 1966) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is a member of Helioscope Studio (formerly Periscope Studio, also known as Mercury Studio).

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Early life

Parker, a son of a grocery store owner, grew up in Burlington, North Carolina.[1] His first exposure to comics came from reading the titles sold on the store's spinner racks, which included Dennis the Menace as well as various Archie and Harvey publications.[2] After graduating from East Carolina University,[3] where he majored in English Literature and Communications, Parker joined the Hillsbourough-based illustration studio Artamus Studios, whose other members over the years included Mike Wieringo, Richard Case, Scott Hampton, Dave Johnson, Craig Gilmore and Casey Jones.[4]

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Career

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Parker began his career in comics as an artist, inking various projects pencilled by his Artamus Studios colleagues and illustrating Solitaire for Malibu and Wonder Woman for DC Comics. In 1999, Parker moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a storyboard artist on the Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot animated series while contributing art to a number of short stories featuring the Escapist and Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Dark Horse and various ancillary Batman characters for DC.[4] Parker's first major work as a writer was the 2003 graphic novel The Interman, which he also pencilled, inked, lettered, colored and self-published under the Octopus Press name.[5][6] In 2006, Parker announced a continuation of the story in the form of a 32-page release titled The Interman #0, to be illustrated by artist Tomm Coker,[7] but the issue never came out.

In 2005, Parker began working as a writer for Marvel, penning short stories for various anthology titles as well as the Fantastic Four ongoing series for the all-ages imprint Marvel Adventures,[8] followed by Marvel Adventures: The Avengers.[9] In 2006, Parker and artist Leonard Kirk launched Agents of Atlas,[10][11] a six-issue mini-series featuring the adventures of the eponymous superhero team composed of seldom-used Golden Age characters,[12][13][14] such as Marvel Boy,[15] Jimmy Woo[16] and Namora.[17] The mini-series was followed by several short stories and eventually the second volume of Agents of Atlas, launched in 2009.[18] This iteration lasted for 11 issues,[19] and was followed by two mini-series that saw Agents of Atlas crossover with Avengers and X-Men.[20] In 2010, Parker and artist Gabriel Hardman launched another attempt at an ongoing series, titled simply Atlas,[21] which ended after five issues.[22] Between 2006 and 2009, Parker also wrote X-Men: First Class, another series aimed at younger audiences which retold the earliest adventures of X-Men.[23][24]

Parker's other work of the period includes Walk-In[25] and the second volume of Gamekeeper for Virgin Comics.[26] In 2006, he revived the Octopus Press branding to publish Dear John, a book collecting 25 years of correspondence between comic book retailer John Hitchcock and the legendary artist Alex Toth.[27][11] In 2009, Parker launched two creator-owned series: Mysterius the Unfathomable with artist Tom Fowler, published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint,[28] and Underground with artist Steve Lieber, published by Image.[29] Upon its completion, Underground was posted in its entirety on the "Comics and Cartoons" subsection of the imageboard website 4chan, which attracted the attention of Lieber, who joined the thread discussing the series and held an impromptu Q&A session with the anonymous users of the website.[30] According to Parker and Lieber, this particular instance of comic book piracy led to a noticeable rise in sales of the series' collected edition.[31] In 2021, Parker launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his next creator-owned project, the graphic novel Blighter: Tracker of the Realm with art by Drew Moss.[32]

In 2010, Parker took over the writing duties of the ongoing series Hulk, launched two years prior by Jeph Loeb.[33] That same year, Parker became the writer of the long-running series Thunderbolts.[34] After seeing the titular team through the company-wide crossover storyline "Siege",[35] Parker revamped the title as part of the "Heroic Age" initiative which promised lighter tone for Marvel's superhero offerings.[36] In 2013, Parker helmed the launch of the comic book continuation of the 1960s Batman television series for DC Comics in the form of the digital-first series Batman '66. The following year, he began writing the Aquaman ongoing series.[37] 2016 saw the release of Future Quest, written by Parker and drawn by Evan Shaner, the flagship series of DC Comics' short-lived attempt at reimagining various Hanna-Barbera characters for the modern audiences.[38] In 2021, Parker and artist Javier Pulido launched a new volume of the Ninjak series for Valiant,[39] although Pulido was taken off the title after three issues for undisclosed reasons.[40]

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Influences

Parker cites Alex Toth, Milton Caniff, Harvey Kurtzman, Carl Barks and Alan Moore among his influences.[2][6][11]

Bibliography

Early work

  • Malibu:
  • Negative Burn (anthology, Caliber):
    • "The Calculus Test" (with Craig Gilmore, as inker — on Casey Jones; written by Edward Martin III, in #13, 1994)
    • "Volt 2000" (script and art, in #36, 1996)
  • Uther: The Half Dead King (with Craig Gilmore, as inker — on Bo Hampton; written by Dan Abnett, graphic novel, 64 pages, NBM Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-56163-110-8)
  • Heroic Tales (anthology, Lone Star Press):
    • "A Victim of Fate" (as letterer; written by Bill Willingham, drawn by Bobby Diaz, in #6, 1998)
    • "The Judgement of Atlas" (as artist, written by Bill Williams, in #8, 1998)
    • "Claws and Effect" (as artist — with Matt Reynolds and Bill Williams; written by Bill Williams, in #9, 1998)
    • "A Matter of the Heart" (as letterer; written by Bill Willingham, drawn by Bobby Diaz) and "Ape Company" (script and art, in #10, 2000)
  • The Deception #1–3 (as artist, written by Bill Spangler, Image, 1999)
  • GT Labs:
    • Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb: "Work" (as artist — with Janine Johnston; a chapter of the graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani, 240 pages, 2001, ISBN 0-9660106-3-9)
    • Suspended in Language (as artist — three 1-page strips written by Jim Ottaviani, graphic novel, 320 pages, 2004, ISBN 0-9660106-5-5)
  • The Interman (script and art, graphic novel self-published as Octopus Press, 128 pages, 2003, ISBN 0-9725553-0-7)
  • Vampirella Comics Magazine #3: "Hate Mail" (script and art, anthology, Harris, 2004)

Covers

Pin-ups

DC Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Adventures

Dynamite Entertainment

Other publishers

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References

External links

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