Colleen Doran

S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 variant cover. An example of Colleen Doran's art for Marvel Comics
Colleen Doran

Colleen Doran at New York Comicon 2008.
Born (1964-07-24) July 24, 1964
Nationality American
Area(s) Writer, Penciller, Inker, Letterer, Colourist
Notable works
 Sandman, The Amazing Spider-Man, A Distant Soil, Orbiter, Gone to Amerikay, Mangaman,The Legion of Superheroes, The Book of Lost Souls
http://www.colleendoran.com

Colleen Doran (born July 24, 1964) is an American writer/artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a "New York Times" bestseller.[1] Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, and International Horror Guild Awards.

She illustrated the works of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Joe R. Lansdale, Anne Rice, J. Michael Straczynski, Peter David and Tori Amos.

Notable credits include: The Sandman, Wonder Woman, Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans,The Vampire Diaries comics,[2] Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and her space opera series, A Distant Soil.[3]

She was one of two people listed among the top 25 female comic creators of all-time in both the writer and artist categories, ranking #7 among artists and #21 among writers.[4] Comics Alliance listed Doran as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.[5]

Early Work

At age five, Doran won an art contest sponsored by the Walt Disney Company. Doran created her comic book series, A Distant Soil, at age twelve.[6]

Doran landed her first work for an advertising agency at age fifteen.[7] She attended Christopher Newport University and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and used her professional works for curriculum credit. Science fiction artist Frank Kelly Freas was her mentor, and she apprenticed with him in the early 1980s.[8][9]

She broke into the comic book industry when still a teenager, scouted by Tom Long for his fanzine Graphic Showcase.[10] Long hired Doran to draw a revival of the 1940s character Miss Fury. Underage Doran quit the assignment due to its adult content.[7][11] She also contributed illustrations to the Hugo Award nominated fanzine Lan's Lantern[12]

A Distant Soil was published in fanzines as early as 1979, then scouted by The Donning Company Starblaze imprint before it was contracted by WaRP Graphics. Doran left the company after nine issues due to an acrimonious dispute with WaRP,[13] which attempted to claim copyright and trademark on her work.[14][15][16] The WaRP version of the story has never been reprinted despite its unusual all-pencil style, and Doran's ownership of the publishing rights.

Career

Doran discarded the 300 pages of work she did at Warp, and rewrote and redrew the entire A Distant Soil story from scratch, first with Donning, then as a self-publisher. A 1000 page long-form comics narrative, it has been published by Image Comics since 1996. It sold more than 700,000 copies in multiple printings.[17] The production archives were destroyed by the printer, and an extensive restoration process brought the series back to publication in 2013.[7]

Doran was scouted by Keith Giffen to work at DC Comics after he saw her work in the Legion of Superheroes fanzine Interlac.[18][19] They went on to become frequent collaborators at DC on The Legion of Superheroes projects, Justice League 3001, and the series Reign of the Zodiac. Her art also appeared in Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld #12, multiple issues of Who's Who in the DC Universe and Who's Who in the Legion of Superheroes, Superman: Man of Steel Gallery, Christmas with the DC Superheroes, Captain Atom, Star Trek, and Hawkman Annual. She did art for several Teen Titans and Wonder Woman projects.[20]

She illustrated portions of the "Dream Country" and "A Game of You" story arcs in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.[21][22] The character Thessaly in Neil Gaiman's Sandman is based on Doran.[23] Other Vertigo appearances include Shade, The Changing Man, Lucifer (DC Comics), Transmetropolitan and the original graphic novel Orbiter (comics) written by Warren Ellis.

Doran's premiere at Marvel Comics was in 1986, The Swords of the Swashbucklers #9 and 11, with issue 11 having the dubious distinction of being one of the books confiscated in the 1986 Friendly Franks "obscene" comics raid that precipitated the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.[24][25] Swords of the Swashbucklers was eventually excluded from the prosecution proceedings.[26]

Doran worked on other projects at Marvel including The Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #3, The Silver Surfer, Marvel Fanfare, Excalibur #28, Captain America: Drug Wars, Amazing Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a Power Pack mini-series, Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Mutant X, X-Factor, Marvel Girl Comics, and X-Men Millennial Visions for which she wrote and drew an entry. She also worked in the Special Projects Department on promotional, educational, and greeting card art, sometimes working directly with Stan Lee.[27][28][29]

At Marvel Comics' Epic division, she worked on Clive Barker's Nightbreed #21 and #22 as interior and cover artist, and Clive Barker's Hellraiser #5 and #14, as artist and colorist.

Doran was a web columnist for Wizard Magazine in the early 1990's, and illustrated Super Idol for Warren Ellis in 2001, an early webcomics format experiment at Artbomb.[30]

Doran is featured in the films Ringers (a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fans), Scenes From the Small Press: Colleen Doran by Rich Henn, Sex, Lies and Superheroes, the documentary The Cartoonist about Bone creator Jeff Smith,[31] and Captured Ghosts, a documentary about writer Warren Ellis.[32] She was also featured in the Dec. 12, 2011 episode of "Stalked: Someone's Watching," a Discovery ID television series that profiles stalking incidents, focusing on interviews with victims.[33]

Doran worked as a creator rights activist, as lobbyist in Washington DC, and served on the advocacy committee of the Graphic Artists Guild. Lecture venues include the Smithsonian Institution, The Singapore Writers Festival, the Comics Masterclass in Sydney, Australia, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.[34] She spoke at CREATE: Protecting Creativity from the Ground Up at the Newseum in Washington DC, with Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, Rick Carnes President of the Songwriters Guild of America, musician Suzanne Vega, and other artists and technology policy specialists.[34]

Current Work

Doran illustrated best-selling young adult novelist Barry Lyga's first graphic novel for Houghton Mifflin, Mangaman in 2011. It received a starred review at Kirkus,[35][36] as well as awards at the New York Book Show and New England Book Builders of Boston, both granted to the design team.[37]

Gone to Amerikay a graphic novel drawn by Doran and written by Derek McCulloch was released in 2012 from DC/Vertigo. It is a "multi-generational Irish saga."[38] It was profiled in The Wall Street Journal,[39] Boing Boing[40] and Irish Echo.[41] Gone to Amerikay themed cover art was featured in the St Patrick's Day edition of Irish Echo, which was then presented to President Obama by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Northern Ireland. Gone to Amerikay was chosen for inclusion in the 2013 Best American Comics.[42]

Doran produced cover art for The Walking Dead #1 (2015, Image Comics), Red Sonja (Dynamite, 2014), Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 (2015), and Squirrel Girl #7 (2016). For DC Comics, she wrote and drew stories for The Vampire Diaries (2014) comics based on the TV show, and art for Justice League 3001 #6, 9 and 10 (2015-2016). For IDW's Womanthology (2012), she contributed biographical essays about classic cartoonists Rose O'Neill and Ethel Hays.

In 2015, she illustrated the bestselling autobiography Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee co-written by Lee and Peter David.[28]

With Alan Moore, she did the art for Big Nemo,[43] a dystopian sequel to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland as an experimental webcomic created for the award-winning Electricomics app.[44][45]

She is working on an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story "Troll Bridge" as a graphic novel for Dark Horse for September 2016 release.[46][47]

Bibliography

Awards and honors

Notable works

Exhibits

References

  1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2015-11-22/hardcover-graphic-books/list.html
  2. ↑ "Review: Chicks Dig Comics | Girls Read Comics Too". Girlsreadcomics.com. 2012-04-09. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  3. ↑ "Wondercon Special Guests"; Comic-Con magazine; Winter 2010; Pages 18–19
  4. ↑ "Top 50 Female Comic Book Writers and Artists Master List - Comics Should Be Good @ CBR". Comics Should Be Good @ CBR.
  5. ↑ ca-staff (29 January 2016). "12 Women in Comics Who Deserve Lifetime Achievement Recognition". Comics Alliance.
  6. ↑ "About | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran". Adistantsoil.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  7. 1 2 3 Archived March 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "Frank Kelly Freas was one of the most... - Official Colleen Doran Fan Page". Facebook. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  9. ↑ Wells, Chuck (2008-10-21). "The Comic Book Catacombs: Profile Antics: Colleen Doran". Comicbookcatacombs.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  10. ↑ Richmond Independent Press: A History of the Underground Zine Scene Dale M. Brumfeld, The History Press 2013
  11. ↑ "I hope I'll get permission to print some... - Official Colleen Doran Fan Page". Facebook. 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  12. ↑ "Lan's Lantern - Fancyclopedia 3".
  13. ↑ "SpiderBaby Archives: The DC/Marvel Ratings Debacle 1986-87, Part 6". SRBissette.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  14. ↑ "The Battle for A Distant Soil," The Comics Journal #108 (May 1986), pp. 7–12.
  15. ↑ "Doran/WaRP Dispute Now Settled," The Comics Journal #110 (August 1986), p. 17.
  16. ↑ "Donning Sues WaRP," The Comics Journal #123 (July 1988), p. 8-9.
  17. ↑ "About | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran". Adistantsoil.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  18. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=1BgZon6quWcC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=Colleen+Doran+keith+Giffen&source=bl&ots=8x0oxTDFsh&sig=kPeZYDayw2a1BahiGXrrO973W8k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-38W1lJvLAhVBVGMKHRMkChcQ6AEIXDAO#v=onepage&q=Colleen%20Doran%20keith%20Giffen&f=false
  19. ↑ http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=1891
  20. ↑ http://www.dccomics.com/talent/colleen-doran
  21. ↑ Bender, Hy (1999). The Sandman Companion. DC Comics. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-1563894657.
  22. ↑ Burgas, Greg (January 7, 2013). "Comics You Should Own – Sandman". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on April 10, 2014.
  23. ↑ Kwitney, Alisa; Gaiman, Neil (2003-11-28). Sandman: King of dreams. ISBN 978-0-8118-3592-3.
  24. ↑ http://cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/cbldf-case-files/correa/
  25. ↑ http://www.flyingelfbooks.com/si/_cl_im1amend.html
  26. ↑ http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-comic-art-marvel-swords-of-swashbucklers
  27. ↑ http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/david-doran-tell-the-amazing-fantastic-incredible-stan-lee-story
  28. 1 2 http://www.salon.com/2015/11/19/the_shakespeare_of_marvel_comics_just_as_stan_lees_writing_humanized_superheroes_in_the_1960s_this_book_humanizes_lee/
  29. ↑ http://marvel.com/comics/creators/1034/colleen_doran
  30. ↑ http://www.artbomb.net/comics/superidol.jsp
  31. ↑ Archived August 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  32. ↑ "Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts (2011)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  33. ↑ "Stalked". Investigation Discovery. 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  34. 1 2 "Arts+Labs Hosts: CREATE Protecting Creativity from the Ground Up". Business Wire. 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  35. ↑ Smith, Vicky (2011-11-27). "An East-Meets-West Comic-Book Romance". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  36. ↑ Inzana, Ryan (2011-11-14). "MANGAMAN by Barry Lyga , Colleen Doran". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  37. ↑ Archived April 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
  38. ↑ "WC10: Colleen Doran". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  39. ↑ "An Irish-American Epic Told in Comic Book Form - Speakeasy - WSJ". Blogs.wsj.com. 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  40. ↑ "Gone to Amerikay: masterful, heart-tugging Irish immigrant graphic novel / Boing Boing". Boingboing.net. 2012-04-30. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  41. ↑ Fox, Aine. "At 107, Mae is queen of March — Irish Echo". Irishecho.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  42. ↑ "Best American Comics 2013 Table of Contents - Drawing Words Writing Pictures". Dw-wp.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  43. ↑ http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-09/29/electricomics-alan-moore-interview
  44. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/25/best-iphone-ipad-apps-2015
  45. ↑ http://pipedreamcomics.co.uk/interview-leah-moore-electricomics-2016/
  46. ↑ Melrose, Kevin (2012-08-20). "Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran collaborating on Dark Horse graphic novel - Robot 6 @ Comic Book ResourcesRobot 6 @ Comic Book Resources". Robot6.comicbookresources.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  47. ↑ "UPDATE: Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran working on a graphic novel for Dark Horse — The Beat". Comicsbeat.com. 2012-08-20. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  48. ↑ "The Best American Comics 2013". Hmhco.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  49. ↑ "2013 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 2013-09-02. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  50. ↑ "Great Graphic Novels 2012 | Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)". Ala.org. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  51. ↑ Jonker, Travis (2015-10-07). "Best Adult Books 4 Teens 2012 | School Library Journal". Slj.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  52. ↑ "SDCC 09: 2009 EISNER AWARDS Winners". Newsarama.com. 2009-07-25. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  53. ↑ "2009". Harvey Awards. 2014-02-27. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  54. ↑ "THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY wins International Horror Guild Award! — The Beat". Comicsbeat.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  55. ↑ "2007 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards". Hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  56. ↑ "Lulu Awards | Friends Of Lulu". Friendsoflulu.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  57. ↑ "Young & Visionary: Contemporary Voices - Events - Freer and Sackler Galleries".
  58. ↑ "Mid Atlantic and Washington, DC Art News, Criticism and Gallery Openings".
  59. ↑ "22nd Annual Comic Buyers Guide Fan Awards (2004)". Hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  60. ↑ Archived October 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  61. ↑ "From the YALSA Office | Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)". Ala.org. 2002-12-01. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  62. ↑ "Gaylactic Spectrum Awards - 2001 Information". Spectrumawards.org. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  63. ↑ "nichibei manga symposium". Comicbox.co.jp. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  64. 1 2 "1993 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  65. 1 2 "1992 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Hahnlibrary.net. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  66. ↑ "Other American Awards". Hahnlibrary.net. 1989-10-27. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  67. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/She-Ra-Princess-Power-Season-Vol/dp/B000IU37T8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456677361&sr=8-2&keywords=She-Ra+dvd
  68. ↑ http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Gallery.cfm/sid/73097/1994-Topps-Star-Wars-Galaxy-Series-2?PageIndex=9
  69. ↑ https://www.lambiek.net/comics/disney_usa.htm
  70. ↑ http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/08/komacon.html
  71. ↑ http://www.mtv.com/news/2430331/neil-gaiman-celebrates-sandman-anniversary-with-new-comic-and-more/
  72. ↑ "Gallery Nucleus presents the Sandman-themed Endless Reflections exhibit". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  73. ↑ http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/403/exhibition
  74. ↑ "KAM: Traveling Exhibitions". Kam.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  75. ↑ Melissa Mitchell (2008-10-14). "News Bureau | ILLINOIS". News.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-11.

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