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Mike Norton is an American
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
artist and writer, known for his work on '' Battlepug''.


Early life

Mike Norton first discovered comics as a child when his father gave him a copy of ''
The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a bim ...
'' #163, before he was old enough to read. Norton names that comic and ''
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 ...
'' as his greatest childhood influences. His biggest childhood artistic influence were
John Romita Sr. John V. Romita (; born January 24, 1930) is an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and for co-creating characters including the Punisher and Wolverine. He was inducted into the Will Eis ...
, John Byrne, and
John Buscema John Buscema (; ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...
.Cadusbane (January 18, 2016),
Bringing Back The Dead With Revival Creators Tim Seeley And Mike Norton (Interview)
" Geeks with Wives. Retrieved July 27, 2016 During the 1980s and 1990s, he was also influenced by
independent comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which i ...
creators such as Bill Reinhold,
Matt Wagner Matt Wagner (born October 9, 1961) is an American comics artist and writer who is best known as the creator of the series '' Mage'' and '' Grendel''. Career Matt Wagner's first published comic book work was '' Comico Primer'' #2 (1982), which w ...
,
Howard Chaykin Howard Victor Chaykin (; born October 7, 1950) is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker. Early life ...
, and
Mike Allred Michael Dalton Allred is an American comic book artist and writer most famous for his independent comics creations, ''Madman'' and ''iZombie''. His style is often compared to pop art, as well as commercial and comic art of the 1950s and 1960s ...
. While in high school, Norton played in a band and considered careers in music and
veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
before deciding on a career in comics.


Career

In 2001, Norton became Art Director for
Devil's Due Publishing Devil's Due Publishing (often abbreviated as DDP) is an independent comic book publisher in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, DDP is best known for its wide selection of genres, including licensed and original creator-owned proper ...
, and drew that publisher's first ''
Voltron ''Voltron'' is an Animation, animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant Super Robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe (Executive Producer) and Ted Koplar through his production compa ...
'' miniseries. In 2005 Norton became a freelancer and worked on books such as ''
Queen & Country ''Queen & Country'' is an American comic book published by Oni Press and written by Greg Rucka with various artists illustrating. It was inspired by the British ITV television series ''The Sandbaggers'' (1978–1980), which was created and prima ...
'', ''Gravity'', '' Runaways'' '' The All-New Atom'' and '' Green Arrow/Black Canary''. In February 2007, Norton signed an exclusive contract with DC and has worked on the '' All New Atom'', written by
Gail Simone Gail Simone (aka Gladys Simonetti) is an American writer best known for her work in comics on DC's ''Birds of Prey'', '' Batgirl'', Dynamite Entertainment's Red Sonja, and for being the longest running female writer on Wonder Woman to date. Othe ...
. He took over pencil duties on ''
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 ...
/
Black Canary The Black Canary is the name of two superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics: Dinah Drake and her daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. The original version was created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and ...
'' from issue 7, worked on several issues of ''
Countdown to Final Crisis ''Countdown'', also known as ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' for its last 24 issues based on the cover, was a comic book limited series published by DC Comics. It debuted on May 9, 2007, directly following the conclusion of the last issue of '' 52 ...
'', illustrated a fill-in issue of ''
Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...
'' and contributed to the backup stories in DC's weekly series, ''
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
''. In July 2010, Norton was announced as the artist for the comic book adaptation of the ''
Young Justice Young Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes. The team was formed in 1998 when DC's usual teen hero group, the Teen Titans, had become adults and changed their name to the Titans. Like the original ''Teen ...
'' animated series. In February 2011, Norton launched his web comic, '' Battlepug''. A dark-humored, sword and sorcery revenge story, Battlepug is about the surviving member of the Kinmundian Tribe known simply as "The Warrior", his steed, the Battlepug, and their traveling companion, Scrabbly. The story is narrated by Moll, who recounts the tale to her talking dogs, a
Pug The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (Fawn (colour) ...
named Mingo and a French Bulldog named Colfax. The first year of strips was collected into a hardcover by Dark Horse Comics and released July 4, 2012. Also in 2011, Norton was a founding member of Four Star Studios in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
where he shares workspace with
Tim Seeley Tim Seeley is an American comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as '' Grayson'', '' Nightwing'', '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'', ''G.I. Joe vs. Transformers'' and ''New Exiles''. He is also the co-creator of the Im ...
,
Jenny Frison Jenny Frison is an American comic book cover artist. Her interest in comics began with a Wonder Woman storybook she enjoyed as a young girl. She majored in illustration at Northern Illinois University before attending The Kubert School of Art.Wic ...
, Chris Burnham, and other comic professionals.Phegley, Kiel (March 31, 2012)
ECCC12: Seeley & Norton go rural noir with "Revival"
" Comic Book Resources. Retrieved July 15, 2016
Kotler, Kate (January 23, 2013),
When Imitation is NOT the Most Sincere Form of Flattery
" Bleeding Cool. Retrieved July 15, 2016
In mid-2012, Mike Norton won the Best Digital Comic Eisner award for ''Battlepug''. In July 2012, he partnered with Seeley on a creator-owned series called '' Revival''.Zawisza, Doug (July 15, 2012),
Revival #1
" Comic Book Resources. Retrieved July 23, 2016)
The series debuted to strong sales and critical acclaim.Revival
," Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved July 27, 2016
Phegley, Kiel (November 23, 2012),
Tim Seeley digs deep into Revival
" Comic Book Resources. Retrieved July 15, 2016)
Along with ''Battlepug'' and ''Revival'', Mike Norton is providing penciling duties to ''It-Girl and the Atomics'' and providing art assists to Jaime McKelvie on Marvel's ''The Defenders''.


Personal life

Norton is a fan of Rudy Ray Moore movies and hip hop music, including
Doomtree Doomtree is an American hip hop collective and record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The collective has seven members: Dessa, Cecil Otter, P.O.S, Sims, Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, and Lazerbeak. The collective is known for incorporatin ...
and Adam Warrock. He names Ireland as his favorite place to travel.


References


External links


Mike Norton's official website
*
The Crankcast podcast official websiteBattlepug web comic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Mike American comics artists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)