Valdis "Val" Semeiks (;
. Accessed March 18, 2008 born 5 February 1955) is an American

comic book 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 and ...

who has mostly worked for

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 ...

and

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 ...

Biography

Val Semeiks was born in the U.S. to

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n parents. Semeiks graduated from college with degrees in

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, before pursuing a career in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

, working as "an art director for a regional ad agency". He has been working in the

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

field since 1986, mostly as a

penciller 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 ...

although he has been known to ink his own work. His first professional credit was with

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

, drawing ''

King Kull Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a fictional character created by writer Robert E. Howard. The character was more introspective than Howard's subsequent creation, Conan the Barbarian, whose first appearance was in a re-write of a rejec ...

'' back-up stories for ''

The Savage Sword of Conan ''The Savage Sword of Conan'' was a black-and-white magazine-format comic book series published beginning in 1974 by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of American company Marvel Comics, and then later by Marvel itself. ''Savage Sword of Conan'' starred ...

'', which ultimately led to him becoming the monthly artist on ''

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films (including '' Conan the Barbarian'' and '' Conan the Destroyer'') ...

'', allowing him to leave his day job and forge a fulltime career as a comics artist. He is perhaps best known for his next major credits, long runs on both ''The

Demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

'' and '' Lobo'' for

primarily working with writer Alan Grant, whose plots Semeiks calls "laugh-out-loud funny," leading him to call his time on '' Lobo'' (upon which he worked with

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 ...

John Dell) "about as much fun as anyone can have drawing comics". He also provided the artwork to Alan Grant and

John Wagner John Wagner (born 1949) is an American-born British comics writer. Alongside Pat Mills, he helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be active in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. ...

's 1995 DC/ 2000 AD crossover title ''Lobo/

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology Comic book, comic. He is the ...

: Psycho-Bikers vs. The Mutants From Hell

(As part of the 1996 ''

DC vs. Marvel ''DC vs. Marvel'' (issues #2–3 titled ''Marvel vs. DC'') was a comic book miniseries intercompany crossover published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics from April to May 1996. Each company would publish two issues of the series, thus the title di ...

'' event, the DC and Marvel Universes briefly combined to form the Amalgam Universe. Alan Grant and Semeiks were reunited in 1997 to produce a comic as part of the

Amalgam Comics Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., DC Comics' Batman and Marvel Comics' Wolverine become the Amalgam C ...

line, when Val drew the all-too-brief adventures of "Lobo the Duck", where he demonstrated his versatility with a much more

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

-like approach to the artwork.) Returning briefly to Marvel, Semeiks was reunited with his first editor -

Larry Hama Larry Hama (; born June 7, 1949) is an People of the United States, American comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor role ...

- this time acting as writer on ''

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for "gluttony, 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 ...

'', upon which Semeiks worked, alongside a number of other titles. Returning again to DC, Semeiks worked on a number of

JLA JLA may refer to: * '' JLA'', a comic book series 1997–2006 * The Justice League of America, a fictional DC Comics superhero team * JLA (company), a laundry equipment provider * Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviat ...

projects with then-JLA-writer

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...

, including ''JLA/

WildC.A.T.S. Wildcats, sometimes rendered WildCats or WildC.A.T.s, is a superhero team created by the United States, American comic book artist Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi. Publication history The team first appeared in August 1992 in the first issue o ...

'', ''

DC One Million ''DC One Million'' is a comic book crossover storyline that ran through a self-titled, weekly miniseries and through special issues of almost all of the "DCU" titles published by DC Comics in November 1998. It featured a vision of the DC Unive ...

'', and the 1999

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

''Superman's Nemesis:

Lex Luthor Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Lex Luthor originally appeared in ''Action Comics'' #23 (cover dated: Apr ...

'' with writer

David Michelinie David Michelinie (; born May 6, 1948) is an American comic book writer best known for scripting Marvel Comics' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and '' Iron Man'' and the DC Comics feature Superman in ''Action Comics''. Among the characters he created o ...

. Semeiks also drew 2 Batman stories penned by

Dwayne McDuffie Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television, known for producing and writing the animated series ''Static Shock'', '' Damage Control'', ''Justice League Unlimited'' and ''Ben 10 ...

in 2002 and 2003 for '' Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight'' (in issues #156-158) and (issues #164-167). In 2006, he helped wrap up the second volume of ''

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

'', illustrating issues #227-230. He contributed to Marvel's relaunch of ''

Web of Spider-Man ''Web of Spider-Man'' is the name of two different monthly comic book series starring Spider-Man that have been published by Marvel Comics since 1985, the first volume of which ran for 129 issues between 1985 and 1995, and the second of which ran f ...

'' in 2009.http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13044 He has also worked on non-Superhero projects including cartoon work for ''

MAD Magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several r ...

'' and DC's "Big Book" series (from

Paradox Press Paradox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton the imprint was renamed. It is best known for graphic novels like '' ...

) as well as "video game and toy design work too". He illustrated fantasy author

R.A. Salvatore Robert Anthony Salvatore (born January 20, 1959) is an American author best known for ''The Legend of Drizzt'', a series of fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and starring the popular character Drizzt Do'Urden. He has also written ''The ...

's ''

Icewind Dale Trilogy ''The Icewind Dale Trilogy'' is a trilogy of epic fantasy novels by the American writer R.A. Salvatore. The books are ''The Crystal Shard'', '' Streams of Silver'' and ''The Halfling's Gem''. They tell the tale of ranger Drizzt Do'Urden the dro ...

'' in three comicbook mini-series (''Crystal Shard'', ''Streams of Silver'' and ''Halfling's Gem'').

References

External links

*
Val Semeiks' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semeiks, Val American comics artists Living people 1955 births American people of Latvian descent