Christopher Moeller (born May 1, 1963) is an American writer and painter, specializing in fully painted graphic novels. Moeller's signature creation is the

Iron Empires Iron Empires is a science fiction comic series written and painted by the American artist Christopher Moeller. It has three parts: ''Shadow Empires: Faith Conquers'', first published as a limited series by Dark Horse in 1994, ''Sheva's War'', pub ...

science-fiction universe, comprising three fully painted graphic novels Faith Conquers,

Sheva's War ''Sheva's War'' is a five-issue fully painted limited series graphic novel published in 1998. It was the final title to be released under the short-lived DC Comics imprint Helix. Created, written and painted by Christopher Moeller, the story is ...

and Void, a short story in

Dark Horse Presents ''Dark Horse Presents'' was a comic book published by American company Dark Horse Comics from 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, r ...

, and a second in the anthology

Negative Burn ''Negative Burn'' is a black-and-white anthology comic book published beginning in 1993 by Caliber Press, and subsequently by Image Comics and Desperado Publishing. Edited by Joe Pruett, ''Negative Burn'' is noted for its eclectic range of genres, ...

. In 2006, an Iron Empires role-playing game was published, called

Burning Empires ''Burning Empires'' is an EP from VNV Nation. It contains remixes and alternate versions of tracks from their popular album ''Empires'', plus the "Standing" single. It is a limited edition release of 4,700 copies. The album was made available o ...

Early life and education

Moeller was born in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

and currently lives in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He received a BFA in painting from the University of Michigan School of art, and an MFA in illustration from Syracuse University.

Comics career

His professional debut was in 1991, writing and painting Innovation Comic's '' Rocketman: King of the Rocketmen''. This was followed by a run on the adaptation of

Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels ''The Vampire Chronicles''. B ...

's ''

Interview with the Vampire ''Interview with the Vampire'' is a gothic horror and vampire novel by American author Anne Rice, published in 1976. It was her debut novel. Based on a short story Rice wrote around 1968, the novel centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, w ...

'', also from Innovation, for which he provided artwork and a number of cover illustrations. Moeller moved to

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

in 1994, writing and painting the first of his

graphic novels (at that time called Shadow Empires) '' Faith Conquers'', as well as the short story "The Passage" in ''

'' #79-81. He illustrated Andrew Vachss' short story "Treatment", included in Vachss' 2002 graphics-adapted collection ''Hard Looks''. He also did

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

covers, a number of

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

covers, and a "pop-up" Star Wars book called ''Battle of the Bounty-Hunters''. In 1998, Moeller wrote and painted his second

graphic novel, ''

'', for the short-lived Science Fiction imprint of

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

Helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helices, ...

. That was followed by a run of covers for DC's

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

monthly comic book ''

Shadow of the Bat ''Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' was a comic book Ongoing series, series featuring Batman, published by DC Comics. The series ran for 96 issues, from 1992 to 2000. The stories took place in Batman's then-current continuity along with ''Detective Com ...

''. In 2000, he wrote and painted the graphic novel '' JLA: A League of One''. He did an extended run of covers for the

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

monthly comic book ''Lucifer''. In 2005, he wrote and painted the graphic novel '' JLA Classified: Cold Steel''.

Gaming career

Moeller has worked in the gaming industry in parallel with his comics work. He has done numerous illustrations for

White Wolf Games White Wolf Publishing was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant

, including covers for their

Aberrant ''Aberrant'' is a role-playing game created by White Wolf Game Studio in 1999, set in 2008 in a world where super-powered humans started appearing one day in 1998. It is the middle setting in the greater Trinity Universe timeline, chronologica ...

game books, and miniatures game. He has provided over 250+ illustrations for the trading card game

Magic: the Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), ''Magic'' was the first ...

. He has done illustrations for the

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

trading card game. He did the packaging art for the

Axis and Allies Miniatures Axis & Allies Miniatures is a miniature wargaming system including both a rule set and a line of 1/100 scale miniature armor (15 mm figure scale) collectible miniatures. The game is set in the World War II era with units representing indi ...

game. He also did the artwork for the

Burning Empires (role-playing game) ''Burning Empires'' is a tabletop science fiction role-playing game, designed by Luke Crane and published by The Burning Wheel in 2006. It is based on Christopher Moeller's two critically acclaimed '' Iron Empires'' graphic novels, Faith Conq ...

based on his own

graphic novels.

Selected bibliography

*1991 '' Rocketman: King of the Rocketmen'' graphic novel. 128pp in four comics and paperback collection. Innovation Comics. *1993 "The Passage" short story in the ''Dark Horse Presents ''anthology. 24pp in three chapters( ''colored version included in 2004 Faith Conquers paperback''). Dark Horse Comics. *1994 '' Shadow Empires: Faith Conquers ''graphic novel (later renamed ''Iron Empires: Faith Conquers''). 128pp in four comics ( ''collected in 2004 in paperback''). Dark Horse Comics. *1996 "

Second Passage The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

" short story in the ''Negative Burn ''anthology. Co-written by Kevin Moeller. 48pp in six chapters. Caliber Comics. *1998 '' Iron Empires: Sheva's War ''graphic novel. 150pp in five comics (''collected in 2004 in paperback from Dark Horse Comics'').

(DC Comics imprint) *2001 '' JLA: A League of One ''graphic novel. 102pp. Hardcover & Paperback.

. *2005 '' JLA Classified: Cold Steel ''graphic novel. 96pp in two prestige-format comics. DC Comics. *2014 '' Iron Empires: Void ''graphic novel. 90pp. Forged Lord Comics

References

External links

Official websiteReview of Faith Conquers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moeller, Christopher 1963 births American comics artists Fayetteville-Manlius High School alumni Game artists Living people Writers from Ithaca, New York People from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design alumni Artists from Ithaca, New York Syracuse University alumni