Alexander Cannon (born November 1, 1972) is an American cartoonist, known for his work on books such as '' Top 10'', '' Smax'' and ''

Kaijumax Kaijumax is a comic series by two time Eisner Award winning creator Zander Cannon published by Oni Press. The comic is centered around an island prison whose inmates are kaiju (monsters) and guards have powers similar to Ultraman ''Ultra ...

''.

Career

Cannon's first professional comics work was ''

The Chainsaw Vigilante This article details the characters found in all four versions of ''The Tick''. Main characters The Tick The Tick is a superhero in a blue bug suit (which may or may not be part of his body). He is the main protagonist of the Tick franchise. Ar ...

'', a spin-off from ''

The Tick ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', from

New England Comics New England Comics is an American comic book retail chain and publisher headquartered in Brockton, Massachusetts, U.S. They have locations in Quincy, Brookline, Brockton, Cambridge, Malden, New Bedford and Norwood. The chain is known for publish ...

. Beginning in the mid-1990s, he wrote and drew '' The Replacement God'', a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

comic book about a former slave named Knute who is pursued across the fictional land of Mun by a tyrannical king and his beatnik Visigoth Death Horde. The first eight issues were published by

Slave Labor Graphics Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) is an independent American comic book publisher, well known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics. Creators associated with SLG over the years include Evan Dorkin, Roman Dirge, Sarah Dyer, Woodrow Phoenix, Jhon ...

, a subsequent five issues were published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

, and one issue was self-published by Cannon under his Handicraft Guild imprint. Cannon worked as layout artist on '' Top 10'', with writer

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell' ...

and finishing artist

Gene Ha In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

, and pencilled its spin-off miniseries '' Smax'', with Moore and inker Andrew Currie, for

America's Best Comics America's Best Comics (ABC) is a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics. History ''America's Best ...

. Cannon won a joint Eisner for Best Continuing Series in 2001 for his work on Top 10. In August 2004 Cannon co-founded

Big Time Attic Big Time Attic is a Limited Liability Corporation. It is the operational name of Twin Cities comic artists Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon (no relation). It was founded in August 2004, between the Cannons and Shadi Petosky. History The beginn ...

with former co-publisher

Shadi Petosky Shadi Petosky is a television show runner. She is best known for her work on ''Danger & Eggs'' and ''The Sandman'' (2022 TV series). Early life Petosky was born in Kalispell, Montana, growing up in a rural area. Petosky cites Ani DiFranco and ...

and fellow

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

alumnus

Kevin Cannon Kevin Cannon is an American cartoonist and illustrator. Life and career Cannon first published work was ''Johnny Cavalier'', published by Grinnell College Press, which included 100 pages of weekly strips that originally ran in the ''Scarlet and ...

. With Big Time Attic, he has illustrated a book with

Jim Ottaviani Jim Ottaviani is an American writer who is the author of several comic books about the history of science. His best-known work, ''Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists'', features biographical stories about Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, N ...

entitled ''

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards ''Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology'' is a 2005 graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. The book tell ...

''. Petosky then spun off BTA's multimedia studio Puny Entertainment (founded in 2007) to be an independent company, leaving BTA as the commercial partnership of the two Cannons. Zander and Kevin Cannon have worked together on many comics & illustration projects, including several nonfiction graphic novels. In 2012 they launched the digital comics magazine ''Double Barrel'', in which Zander Cannon is serializing the graphic novel ''Heck'', his first long-form solo comics project since ''The Replacement God''. Top Shelf Productions collected ''Heck'' into graphic novel format in 2013. "Heck" was nominated for an Eisner for "Best Graphic Album—Reprint" in 2014 but did not win. Cannon has been developing the ''

'' series since 2015 as writer and artist. ''Kaijumax'' tells the story of a ''kaiju'' (monster in Japanese) jail.

Bibliography

*'' Chainsaw Vigilante'' (

, 1993–1994) *''The Replacement God'' (Amaze Ink/SLG, 1995-1997) *''The Replacement God and Other Stories'' (Image/Handicraft Guild, 1997-1998) *''Top 10'' (with

and

, America's Best Comics/Wildstorm, 1999-2001) *''Smax'' (with Alan Moore et al.), America's Best Comics/Wildstorm, 2003-2004) *''

'' (with

and Big Time Attic), G.T. Labs, 2005, ) *''Top 10: Season Two'' (with

and Gene Ha, America's Best Comics/Wildstorm, 2008-2009) *''The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA'' (with Mark Schultz and Kevin Cannon, Hill & Wang, 2009) *''T-Minus: The Race to The Moon'' (with Jim Ottaviani and Kevin Cannon, Aladdin, 2009) *''Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth'' (with Jay Hosler and Kevin Cannon, Hill & Wang, 2011) *''Double Barrel'' (with Kevin Cannon,

Top Shelf Productions Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, originally owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock and a small staff. Now an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf is based in Marietta, Georgia. Top Shelf pub ...

, 2012-) *''Heck'' (Top Shelf Productions, 2013) *''

'' (Oni Press, 2015) *''Kaijumax Season 2'' (Oni Press, 2016) *''Kaijumax Season 3'' (Oni Press, 2017) *''Kaijumax Season 4'' (Oni Press, 2018) *''Kaijumax Season 5'' (Oni Press, 2019)

References

External links

Big Time Attic
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Zander Grinnell College alumni Writers from Boston American comics artists 1972 births Living people