Bart Whitman Sears (born 1963) is an American

comics artist 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 a ...

, toy and packaging designer and author, known for his work on such books as ''

Justice League Europe ''Justice League Europe'' (''JLE'') is a comic book series published by DC Comics that was a spin-off of the comic book ''Justice League America'' (which was then named '' Justice League International'' (vol. 1) for issues #7 to #25). ''Justice ...

'', '' Legends of the Dark Knight'', ''

X-O Manowar X-O Manowar (Aric of Dacia) is a fictional superhero co-created by writers Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart, and artists Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith. The eponymous comic book series published by Valiant Comics has sold more than 8 million ...

'', ''

Turok Turok is a fictional character who first appeared in American comic books published by Western Publishing through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in ''Four Color Comics'' #596 (October/November 1954). After a second ''Four Color'' appear ...

'', '' Violator'', ''The Helm'' and The Masters.

Career

In addition to comic art, Sears has worked as a designer of action figures and packaging, most notably for Hasbro on the C.O.P.S.,

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

, and

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

toy lines and on many of the early

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to lo ...

action figures for

ToyBiz Toy Biz (also stylized as ToyBiz), was a toy company which later became a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment and was renamed to Marvel Toys. It was best known for producing action figures and toys and holding the Marvel Comics license from 1990 t ...

. Sears ran his own comic company briefly in 1994, called Ominous Press, which published three creator owned titles. In 2000, he joined CrossGen as an artist, and was later promoted to act as one of the company's art directors. After the collapse of CrossGen, Sears returned to work at

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 ...

on books like ''

Captain America and the Falcon ''Captain America and the Falcon'' was a comic book series published for fourteen issues in 2004 and 2005 by Marvel Comics. The series' title is a reuse of the cover title of Captain America's solo series during a period in which the Falcon was gi ...

'', ''Sabretooth: Open Season'' and ''Weapon X: Days of Future Now'', before returning to

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 ...

to work on a relaunch of

Warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

. Most recently, Sears worked in-house for Heatwave Interactive (2008–2010) creating concept art and story for several properties, as well as developing in-game assets for multiple games across various platforms. After this, he launched Ominous Studios, Inc, through which he created and directed the production of concept art and assets for game developers and studios. Sears has also taught at

The 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 a ...

and is the author of the monthly series Brutes and Babes that was featured in early issues of ''

Wizard Magazine ''Wizard'' or ''Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture'' (previously titled ''Wizard: The Guide to Comics'' and ''Wizard: The Comics Magazine'') was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by W ...

'', as well as the how-to book ''Drawing Powerful Comics: Volume One''. In 2022 Sears contributed an alternate cover to Issue #1 of Austin Hough's The Masters from Power Comics, Inc. Based on DC Comics Justice League Europe #1 which Sears originally created as an homage to Kevin Maguire's cover to

Justice League The Justice League (also known as The Justice League of America) are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). The team was conceived b ...

#1 back in 1987.Austin Hough Publisher Power Comics, Inc. Sears replaced the members of the JLE with

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

Public Domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

super heroes recreated just for Power Comics. It features the

Black Owl The Black Owl is the name of two fictional superhero characters. Both appeared in the Prize Publications title ''Prize Comics'' in the 1940s. Publication history In 1940, Prize Publications, which was already established as a producer of pulp ...

(redesigned by Alan Weiss), Fly-Man (redesigned by

Val Mayerik Val Mayerik (born March 29, 1950) is an American comic book and commercial artist, best known as co-creator of the satiric character '' Howard the Duck'' for ''Marvel Comics''. Biography Early life and career Val Mayerik was born in Youngstow ...

), Arrow (redesigned by

Arvell Jones Arvell Jones (whose earliest work is billed Arvell Malcolm Jones) is an American comics artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for DC Comics and its imprint Milestone Media. Biography Jones and his brother, Desmond, were raised ...

Airman An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions. In civilian aviation usage, t ...

(redesigned by Ron Wilson), Plymo the rubber man (redesigned by

Alex Saviuk Alex Saviuk (; born August 17, 1952) is an American comics artist primarily known for his work on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. Early life Alex Saviuk grew up on Long Island, New York, graduating from Floral Park Memorial High Schoo ...

) and Twister (redesigned by Alan Weiss). Mark Pennington contributed the inks and

Mort Todd Mort Todd (born Michael Delle-Femine, November 9, 1961) is an American writer and media entrepreneur, best known as an editor-in-chief of '' Cracked'' magazine, and later, Marvel Music. He is owner of Comicfix, a media company that has developed ...

the colors to the cover. He has also contributed the art for ten interior pages to The Masters Issue #5, to be published in Spring 2023.

References

External links

*
Ominous Studios

Bart Sears collecting site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sears, Bart 1963 births American comics artists Artists from Ithaca, New York Living people The Kubert School alumni