Michael Manley (born October 19, 1961) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

artist, most notable as a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and comic book

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. The penciller creates a drawing, the inker outlines, interprets, finalizes, retraces this drawing by using a pencil ...

and penciller. Manley currently draws two syndicated comic strips, '' Judge Parker'' and '' The Phantom''. He is also known for co-creating the Marvel Comics character Darkhawk.

Personal life

Manley was born in Detroit, Michigan. Manley's grandfather was a commercial artist, and Manley was therefore aware as a child that one could make a living at drawing. He says he always liked comics and cartooning, and recalls being impressed when '' The Wonderful World of Disney'' showed the

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

artists working behind the scenes. As a youth in Michigan, Manley visited a

comic book store The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * four major comic distributors: ** Luna ...

every day after school, and became a serious collector and reader. By the time he was a teenager, Manley had decided he wanted to be a comic book artist or animator or illustrator. " Frank Frazetta seemed to be able to do everything, so he was my role model," Manley said. "How could you escape him, he so influenced the art world that you would still get influenced by him through other artists who were influenced by him even if somehow you never knew his art." A commercial art class in high school in

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

enabled Manley to assemble a portfolio, which led to his start in commercial printing at age fifteen. He attended

Washtenaw Community College Washtenaw Community College (WCC) is a public community college in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan.Detroit Metro Times'' as art director. Two years after, he had his first comic book art assignment at DC Comics. He cites other artists in addition to Frazetta as inspiration:

Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist who was best known for creating the '' Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into m ...

Stan Drake Stanley Albert Drake (November 9, 1921 – March 10, 1997) was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip ''The Heart of Juliet Jones''. Born in Brooklyn, Drake worked in the back of a Dugan's Donut truck for a do ...

, Leonard Starr, John Prentice, and Al Williamson. In his late twenties, Manley would have the opportunity to work for a brief but intensely formative time alongside Williamson, in that artist's Honesdale, Pennsylvania studio. Manley lives in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania just outside Philadelphia.

Career

Comic book artist

Mike Manley has worked as an artist for major publishers such as Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Dark Horse Comics. Manley, with writers Danny Fingeroth and Tom DeFalco, co-created in 1991 the ''Darkhawk'' series, which he drew for the first half of its run. He has also contributed to other comic book titles such as ''

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 ...

'', ''

Quasar A quasar is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a m ...

'', ''

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

'', ''

Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of ...

'', and ''

The Power of Shazam! ''The Power of Shazam!'' is a 1994 hardcover graphic novel, written and painted by Jerry Ordway for DC Comics. The 96-page story, depicting the revamped origins of former Fawcett Comics superhero Captain Marvel, was followed by an ongoing series ...

''. His extensive bibliography in comic books includes a large number of short runs and fill-in issues on a wide variety of titles. In his run on the ''Batman'' series, Manley was one of the artists of ''Batman'' #500 in which the character Azrael replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman. He drew the series during the " KnightsEnd" storyline and the '' Zero Hour: Crisis in Time'' crossover. 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 his award-winning on-line web comic, ''G.I.R.L. Patrol''. In 2007, while primarily working as an art teacher, Manley illustrated a new ''

Secret Agent Corrigan ''Secret Agent X-9'' is a comic strip created by writer Dashiell Hammett ('' The Maltese Falcon'') and artist Alex Raymond (''Flash Gordon''). Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996. Premise and publ ...

'' story for the Swedish publisher Egmont Publishing (Manley's mentor Al Williamson had famously drawn the character's syndicated strip).

Book illustrator

Concurrently with some of his time at Marvel Comics, between 1985 and 1990, Manley illustrated children's books utilizing licensed characters. For Macmillan Publishing, he illustrated books in their

Raggedy Ann and Andy Raggedy Ann is a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) that appeared in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and a triangle nose. Gruelle re ...

series. For Golden Books and Western Publishing he worked on several children's fun and activity books, with Barbie,

He-Man He-Man is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the sword and planet ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise, which includes a toy line, several animated television series, comic books and a feature film. He-Man is characterized by h ...

Captain Power ''Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future'' is a science fiction-action television series, merging live action with animation based on computer-generated images, that ran for 22 episodes in Canadian and American syndication. A toy line was ...

, Tiny Toons,

Ghost Busters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, thr ...

and the Muppets as some of the characters featured. In 1989 Manley worked for West End Games on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

books in the

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 ...

line.

Animation artist

In 1996 Manley moved into the animation field, first working as a storyboard artist on '' Superman: The Animated Series'' for Kids' WB. The first of the seven episodes that included his work featured

Lobo Lobo may refer to: Places *Lobo, Batangas, a municipality in the Philippines *Lobo, Texas, a ghost town *Lobo, Indonesia *Lobo, Cameroon, a town in Cameroon *Lobo Hill, near Belchite, Aragon, Spain * Lobo, Ontario, near London, Ontario, Canada Pe ...

, and was titled "The Main Man, Part 2". Manley also worked on the storyboards team for three episodes of '' The New Batman Adventures'' between 1997 and 1998. Throughout the 2000s, Manley created storyboards as a freelance artist on TV cartoons such as: '' Samurai Jack'' (on which series he also received two writing credits); ''

Kim Possible ''Kim Possible'' is an American animated action comedy-adventure television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The title character is a teenage girl tasked with fighting crime on a regular basis while coping wi ...

''; '' The Fairly OddParents''; ''

The Venture Brothers ''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animated action comedy TV series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as "Jackson Publick") for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on February 16, 20 ...

''; '' Growing Up Creepie''; and '' The Secret Saturdays''. Other projects in this period included: ''

Spy Groove ''Spy Groove'' (also known as SG) is an American adult animated series that aired for one season on Teletoon Detour in Canada and for six episodes on MTV in the United States. It premiered on June 26, 2000 and ended on July 13, 2002. ''Spy G ...

'' for

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

; '' Spawn'' for HBO; ABC's ''

One Saturday Morning ABC Kids (originally titled Disney's One Saturday Morning until 2002) was an American Saturday morning children's programming block that aired on ABC from September 13, 1997 to August 27, 2011. It featured a mixture of animated and live-actio ...

''; '' Clerks: The Animated Series'', based on the Kevin Smith movie; and '' Justice League: The New Frontier''. Between 1998 and 2001, Manley was a

background key designer Background may refer to: Performing arts and stagecraft * Background actor * Background artist * Background light * Background music * Background story * Background vocals * ''Background'' (play), a 1950 play by Warren Chetham-Strode Reco ...

for ''Superman: The Animated Series'' (nine episodes, following his time as a storyboard artist on that series), and background key designer then background designer on '' Batman Beyond'' (thirty-three episodes overall). He is also credited as

character designer In visual arts, a model sheet, also known as a character board, character sheet, character study or simply a study, is a document used to help standardize the appearance, poses, and gestures of a character in arts such as animation, comics, and v ...

on eight episodes of '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' between 2008 and 2009.

Art teacher

While working in both comics and animation, Manley created and edited ''Draw! Magazine'', a 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'', also distributed by TwoMorrows. In 2000, Manley started a new career as an art teacher. He taught in the animation department at the

Delaware College of Art and Design Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) was founded in 1997 through a partnership between the Pratt Institute and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. DCAD's mission is to educate talented and committed students to become art makers, idea g ...

(DCAD) until 2009 and became a senior lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Manley then enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, finishing his

certificate Certificate may refer to: * Birth certificate * Marriage certificate * Death certificate * Gift certificate * Certificate of authenticity, a document or seal certifying the authenticity of something * Certificate of deposit, or CD, a financial pro ...

in painting on his way toward completing his master's degree.

Comic strip artist

Manley was hired to draw the serial newspaper comic strip '' Judge Parker'' for four weeks beginning March 15, 2010, filling in for regular artist Eduardo Barreto during an illness. The syndicate essentially held a "two-man tryout" for Barreto's replacement, with Manley's audition following John Heebink's; Manley was offered the full-time job after he turned in his second week of art for the strip. Manley and Heebink had known each other since high school. Manley draws the strip for all seven days of the week. In late March 2016, it was announced that Manley would succeed

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...

, who had died unexpectedly, as artist on '' The Phantom'' daily strips (the Sundays would continue to be drawn by the incumbent,

Terry Beatty Terry Beatty (born January 11, 1958''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107) is an artist who has worked as a penciler and inker in the American comic book industry, where he is perhaps best known for his co-creation of the fema ...

). Manley's tenure began with the strip dated May 30, 2016. Manley noted that he and Paul Ryan are numbered among a small and notable group of artists who have professionally drawn the adventures of both Batman and The Phantom. The others have been Jim Aparo, Terry Beatty, Don Newton,

Carmine Infantino Carmine Michael Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creat ...

(as a ghost for

Sy Barry Seymour "Sy" Barry (born March 12, 1928)
at the

Joe Giella Joe Giella (born June 27, 1928)
at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved February 11, 2012
Bob Kane) and Graham Nolan. The choice of Manley to take on the Phantom received an endorsement from ''Comic Strip of the Day.com'': "He's one of the few who has found a way to maintain some detail in an ever-shrinking print medium that has driven most artists to a simplified style that works better in shrinky-dink mode than when the comics are read on line, at least on a real computer with a real monitor."

Bibliography

Dark Horse Comics

* '' Aliens Vs. Predator: War'' #1 (1995)

DC Comics

* '' Adventures in the DC Universe Annual'' #1 (1997) * '' Adventures of Superman'' #519 (1995) * '' Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis'' #49 (2007) * ''

'' #500–506, 508–511, #0, ''Annual'' #19 (1993–1995) * ''Batman: Brotherhood of the Bat'' #1 (1995) * '' Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual'' #3 (1993) * '' Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' #16 (1993) * '' Birds of Prey'' #66 (2004) * ''Cartoon Network Action Pack'' #29–30, 32, 34, 36, 39–40 (2008–2009) * '' Catwoman'' vol. 3 #14 (2003) * ''Catwoman Secret Files and Origins'' #1 (2002) * '' Convergence Justice League International'' #1–2 (2015) * ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Dexter, a short, enthusiastic boy-genius with a hid ...

'' #7, 12, 24, 33 (2000–2003) * ''

Green Arrow Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 in November 1941. His secret identity, real name is Olive ...

'' vol. 2 #46 (1991) * ''Guardians of Metropolis'' #1–4 (1994–1995) * '' Hardware'' #4, 6–7 (1993) * ''

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

'' #7 (1992) * ''

Power of Shazam ''The Power of Shazam!'' is a 1994 hardcover graphic novel, written and painted by Jerry Ordway for DC Comics. The 96-page story, depicting the revamped origins of former Fawcett Comics superhero Captain Marvel, was followed by an ongoing seri ...

'' #1–27, 37, ''Annual'' #1 (1995–1998) * ''

Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic T ...

'' #7 (2000) * '' The Question Quarterly'' #4–5 (1991–1992) * '' Robotech Defenders'' #2 (1985) * '' Samurai Jack Special'' #1 (2002) * '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' #18 (1991) * '' Superboy'' vol. 3 #68 (1999) * '' Supergirl Plus'' #1 (1997) * ''

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

'' #660 (2007) * ''

'' vol. 2 #95 (1994) * ''

Superman Adventures ''Superman Adventures'' is a DC Comics comic book series featuring Superman. It is set in the continuity (and style) of '' Superman: The Animated Series''. It ran for 66 issues between 1996 and 2002. Writers on the series included Paul Dini, Mark E ...

'' #9, 25, 28, 34, 41, ''Special'' #1 (1997–2000) * ''

Young Heroes in Love ''Young Heroes in Love'' was an American comic book series published by DC Comics; it ran for 18 issues (including the #1,000,000 issue) from 1997 to 1998. An uncommon combination of the superhero and romance genres, it introduced two LGBT male ch ...

'' #4 (1997)

First Comics

* ''

Jon Sable ''Jon Sable Freelance'' is an American comic book series, one of the first series created for the fledgling publisher First Comics in 1983. It was written and drawn by Mike Grell and was a fully creator-owned title. The comic was one of the first ...

, Freelance'' #44, 46–49 (1987)

Image Comics

* ''Action Planet Comics'' #3 (1997) * ''

Deathmate ''Deathmate'' was a six-part comic book crossover between Valiant Comics and Image Comics published in 1993 and 1994. Background Designated by color rather than issue numbers (namely Yellow, Blue, Black, and Red) plus two book-end issues, ''Dea ...

Yellow'' #1 (1993)

Marvel Comics

* '' Alpha Flight'' #71, 73–82, 84–91, 93–96 (1989–1991) * ''

Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...

'' vol. 4 #9–10 (1999) * ''

'' #447, ''Annual'' #10 (1991–1996) * '' Clive Barker's Night Breed'' #7–8 (1991) * ''

Daredevil Daredevil may refer to: * A stunt performer Arts and media Comics * Daredevil (Lev Gleason Publications), a fictional 1940s superhero popularized by writer-artist Charles Biro * Daredevil (Marvel Comics character), a Marvel comic book superher ...

'' #264 (1989) * '' Darkhawk'' #1–25, ''Annual'' #1 (1991–1993) * '' Deathlok'' vol. 2 #1–7, 9–15, ''Annual'' #1 (1991–1992) * '' The Destroyer'' #2 (1989) * ''

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man ''Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man'' is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics. The title is derived from a trademark self-referential comment often made by Spider-Man (as in "just another service provided by your friendly neig ...

'' #9–10 (2006) * '' Ghost Rider'' vol. 3 #38 (1993) * ''Ghost Rider/ Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance'' #14–15 (1993) * ''Marvel Double-Shot'' #3 (2003) * ''Marvel Holiday Special'' #4 (1994) * ''Marvel Universe'' #4–7 (1998) * ''

Moon Knight Moon Knight is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in ''Werewolf by Night'' #32 (August 1975). The son of a rabb ...

: Divided We Fall'' #1 (1992) * '' New Mutants'' #73 (1989) * ''Powerline'' #8 (1989) * '' Power Pack'' #50, 52 (1989) * '' The Punisher War Zone'' #7–11 (1992–1993) * ''

'' #7–17 (1990) * '' A Shadowline Saga: Critical Mass'' #2, 4–5, 7 (1990) * '' Sleepwalker'' #8–10, 13–14, 17 (1992) * '' The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual'' #10 (1990) * ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...

'' #55 (1995) * ''Spider-Man Holiday Special '95'' #1 (1996) * '' The Transformers'' #9 (1985) * ''Ultimate Civil War: Spider-Ham'' #1 (2007) * ''

Weaveworld ''Weaveworld'' is a 1987 dark fantasy novel by English writer Clive Barker. It is about a magical world that is hidden inside a tapestry, known as the Fugue, to safeguard it from both inquisitive humans and hostile supernatural foes. Two norm ...

'' #1–3 (1991–1992) * '' Web of Spider-Man'' #66 (1990) * '' West Coast Avengers Annual'' #4 (1989)

Valiant Comics

* ''Destroyer'' #0 (1995) * ''

Ninjak Ninjak is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books published by Valiant Comics. The original incarnation of the character was created by Mark Moretti and Joe Quesada, The character was first introduced as a ninja and spy in the Valiant Comic ...

'' #18–21 (1995) * ''

Solar, Man of the Atom Solar is an American fictional comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in ''Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom'' #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appea ...

'' #57–58 (1996) * ''

Timewalker Ivar Anni-Padda, also known as the Timewalker or the "Forever Walker," is a fictional superhero in the Valiant Comics universe. Created by artist and writer Barry Windsor-Smith, he first appeared in the 1993 flipbook issue Archer and Armstrong #8 ...

'' #0 (1996) * '' X-O Manowar'' #4 (1992)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manley, Mike 1961 births American animators American children's book illustrators American comics artists American educators American storyboard artists Background artists Living people Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Role-playing game artists