Nathan Massengill is an American comic book artist, most known for his work as a brush

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 ...

. His work includes

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

' ''Deadpool'' and

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 ...

' the ''Justice Society of America''. He is best known for inking

Ed McGuinness Edward McGuinness is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on books such as ''Superman'', ''Superman/Batman'', ''Deadpool'', and ''Hulk''. His pencil work is frequently inked by Dexter Vines, and as such, their cove ...

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...

on the ''

Deadpool Deadpool is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist/writer Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (cover-dated Feb. 1991). Initially, Deadp ...

'' series. He is also known for his inking work over pencilers

Mike Wieringo Michael Lance Wieringo (June 24, 1963 – August 12, 2007), who sometimes signed his work under the name Ringo, was an Americans, American comics artist best known for his work on DC Comics' ''The Flash (comic book), The Flash'', Marvel Comics' '' ...

(Image Comics' ''Tellos''),

Dale Eaglesham Dale Eaglesham (born 1962) is a Canadian comic book illustrator who has been working in the American industry since 1986. He is best known for his work on titles like '' Conan'', ''Punisher'', ''Green Lantern'', ''Villains United'', ''Justice Soc ...

(DC Comics ''JSA''), Steve Scott (''Marvel Adventures Hulk''), and Sanford Greene (''Marvel Adventures Spider-Man'').

Early life

Nathan Massengill was born in 1970 in Hickory, North Carolina.http://nathanmassengill.com/blog/?p=30 He says, "I was always drawing. I have comic book pages with panels and superhero characters that I was working on in kindergarten." His only formal education comes from the

Joe Kubert School The Kubert School, formerly the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and Joe Kubert School, is a private, for-profit technical school focused on cartooning and located in Dover, New Jersey. It teaches the principles of sequential art an ...

of Cartoon and Graphic Arts, which he attended for two years ('89-90). Of the school, he says, " twas, and remains, a fantastic school."

Career

He started his professional career in the early 1990s, producing the book "''Poets Prosper''" for Tome Press, an imprint of

Caliber Press Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

. Shortly thereafter, in 1992-3 came his first work for DC Comics, inking an issue of ''The Jaguar'' and penciling an issue of ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...

''. Also during this time, he worked for

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Supe ...

at Continuity as a blue-line colorist. Between 1993-4, he concentrated primarily on watercolor painting heavily influenced by the techniques and work of Burton Silverman. He contributed painted covers and a series of painted graphic novels for Raven Publications. He painted a short story in the first issue of ''

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, ...

'', a series to which he has often contributed. In 1993, Massengill's painted work was nominated for a Chesley Award. In 1995, he returned to inking over new penciler

, working on five issues of ''

Vampirella Vampirella () is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine ''Vampirella'' #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of '' Cre ...

'' for Harris Publications. After leaving Harris, the pair moved to Marvel Comics. After working together on the 1996 ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

Annual'', Ed and Nathan started work on the ''Deadpool'' ongoing series, launching the title from #1 (with writer Joe Kelly and inker

Norman Lee Norman Lee (10 October 1898 – 2 June 1964) was a British screenwriter and film director. Selected filmography * '' The Lure of the Atlantic'' (1929) * '' The Streets of London'' (1929) * '' Night Patrol'' (1930, documentary) * '' Doctor ...

). Massengill worked on the series until issue #13. Issue #12, penciled by

Pete Woods Peter Woods is an American comic book artist, known for his work on titles such as ''Backlash'', ''Deadpool'', '' Robin'', ''Catwoman'', '' Amazons Attack'', and ''Action Comics''. Career Woods worked as an intern for Wildstorm comics in April ...

, was nominated for a 1998

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

for Best Single Issue. After leaving ''Deadpool'', McGuinness and Massengill worked on varying titles included Marvel's ''The Hulk'', ''Cable'', and Awesome Entertainment's ''The Fighting American''. In 1998, Massengill worked on Image Comics' '' Tellos'' over the late Mike Wieringo. In 2004, Massengill reunited with penciler Pete Woods on a short run in ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

''. After that series arc, he continued with Detective to work on the twelve-issue arc entitled "''The City of Crime''" written by

David Lapham David Lapham is an American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on the independent comic book '' Stray Bullets''. Career David Lapham started his career in 1990 as a penciller at Valiant Comics. He went on to wor ...

. Following this, Massengill has worked with penciler Steve Scott, contributing limited-animation art to ''

Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...

'' Season 6 and the DVD extras for that season. He also worked with Scott on ''Marvel Adventures Hulk'' and a promotional comics for the movie '' Batman: The Dark Knight''. He has also worked with penciler Sanford Greene on many projects, including DC Comics' ''

Wonder Girl Wonder Girl is the alias of multiple list of superheroines, superheroines featured in comic books published by DC Comics. Donna Troy, the original Wonder Girl, was created by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani and first appeared in ''The Brave and the ...

'' mini-series. Massengill worked with penciler

on five issues of DC Comics' ''The Justice Society of America''. This series included writing and painted art by

Geoff Johns Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer. Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Superman, has drawn critical acclaim. He serve ...

and

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...

, and used characters from Ross's best-selling graphic novel "'' Kingdom Come''". The work was later collected in the trade paperback, "Justice Society, Thy Kingdom Come." Massengill then returned to ''Deadpool'' with Deadpool #900 and the Marvel Holiday Magazine (2010), in which Deadpool teams up with Santa Claus. His next ''Deadpool'' project was Deadpool Team-Up #894, featuring '' Franken-Castle''. In 2010, Massengill contributed pencils, inks, and color to

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

's The Guardian Project. In 2013, Massengill released the first graphic novel in his creator-owned series, Viscera: Epic Frail. For this project, he is the writer, artist, and publisher. A dark feminist superheroine, Viscera is an anti-

rape culture Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-s ...

paranormal thriller. In addition to the graphic novel, Viscera is also a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

Techniques

Massengill is known as a "brush"

, a style of inking noted for the predominant use of brush rather than pen-based linework. He has written an article on the inking process which includes proposed new terminology related to the field of inking.Massengill, Nathan
The INKING FAQs"
nathanmassengill.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012.

Notes

References

Nathan Massengill
at the

Big Comic Book DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated feat ...

External links

Official websiteOfficial website of VisceraOriginal Art
at Comic Art Fans * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Massengill, Nathan American comics artists Comics inkers Living people 1970 births