Chris Samnee

Chris Samnee is an American comic book artist. He received the 2011 Harvey Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his work on the '' Thor: The Mighty Avenger'', and won a 2013 Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker for his work on '' The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom'' and '' Daredevil''. He was also nominated for the 2006 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award. In 2020 he co-created the Image Comics series ''Fire Power'' alongside writer Robert Kirkman.

Early life

Chris Samnee grew up in De Soto, a nearby suburb of St. Louis. His earliest experiences superheroes came through the ''Super Friends'' cartoon. He was not aware of the print source material for those cartoons until his grandmother began buying him three-packs of comics from a grocery store. His first comic book was a ''Batman'' book that he read when he was five or six years old, and that became his favorite character. He began copying the work of 80s artists whose work he was exposed to, like Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo and Alan Davis. He would also research those who influenced these artists, such as comic strip artist Milton Caniff, whom Samnee read in an interview in ''Comics Journal'' was an influence on Aparo, and Frank Robbins. Samnee's grandmother further encouraged Samnee to expand his reading to the ''Dick Tracy'' comic strips found in a collection at a local library. By his mid-teens he was also heavily interested in Japanese manga and anime."Chris Samnee: The Devil is in the Details, Part 1"
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Samnee was about 10 years old when he realized he wanted to produce comics for a living. He convinced his parents to drive him an hour and a half to the airport Holiday Inn, where local comics conventions were held, and where he would bombard writers and artists with questions on how to produce comics and break into the industry. One particularly helpful creator was ''Conan'' artist Mike Doherty, who advised him on what to draw, and gave him some 11 x 14 Marvel Comics illustration board to draw on. Samnee was so in awe of holding professional board with the Marvel logo printed on it that he could not bring himself to draw on it, and in a 2013 interview, indicated that he still had it.

Career

Samnee was 15 when his first work was published, art for an eight-page Silver Age Batman-type story for Gary Carlson's book, ''Big Bang Comics'', which was being published by Image Comics at the time. He was not paid for the work, but did the job as stepping stone to future paid work. He would continue working odd jobs, such as flea market caricature artist, a pizza cook, a cable guy in order to pay bills until he could find paying comics work. He did unpaid art for ''FemForce'' for AC Comics while working as a barista at Borders Books. He drew the Oni Press graphic novel '' Capote in Kansas'' around 2004 or 2005, inking his own pencils because that book's budget did not provide for an inker. That work was published in 2006, and Samnee was nominated for the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award. Today he inks his own pencils, as he describes his pencils as "just awful", and not something he would envision another person inking.

While he was still working at Borders, he signed a contract to do a graphic novel for Vertigo, though it would be months before the writer finished the script that Samnee could begin drawing. During this time he did some short stories, ''American Splendor'' an issue of ''Exterminators'' that Tony Moore had recommended him for, and three issue of ''Queen & Country'' with writer Greg Rucka. Prior to doing the last issue of ''Queen & Country'', he drew an issue of ''Area 10'' for Vertigo.

In 2009 Samnee drew a story written by Ed Brubaker for '' Daredevil'' #500. That same year he drew ''The Mighty'' for DC Comics, working with writer Peter J. Tomasi. Tomasi would later recommend Samnee to draw a couple of short stories he wrote for DC's 2009–2010 "Blackest Night" storyline. Tomasi would also subsequently hired Samnee to illustrate the latter portion of Tomasi's creator-owned Image Comics series, ''Battlegrounds'', when the initial artist on it, Peter Snejbjerg, was forced to leave it before completing it.

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