Michael Turner (comic artist)

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Michael Turner (born April 21, 1971 in Crossville , † June 27, 2008 in Santa Monica ) was an American comic artist who became known for his work on comics such as Witchblade or Fathom . With Aspen MLT - named after the protagonist of the series Fathom "Aspen Matthews" - he founded his own comic book publisher in order to be able to realize his ideas.

Life and work

First work in the 1990s

Michael Turner began working full-time as a comic artist in the late 1990s, after he was discovered by the editor Marc Silvestri at a comic fair and hired as a commissioned artist for his company Top Cow Productions . After initially working as a background artist at Top Cow, Turner co-developed the fantasy series Witchblade , most of the first two years of which he drew himself. In 1998 he presented Fathom, the first comic series developed entirely by himself, to which he also held the rights. Other works he made for Top Cow Productions were the three-part mini-series Ballistic and the two one-shot crossovers Tomb Raider / Witchblade and Witchblade / Tomb Raider .

illness

In March 2000, Turner was diagnosed with bone cancer ( chondrosarcoma ). Lengthy operations followed in which his right hip and 40% of his pelvis were removed. Another therapeutic measure was an elaborate nine-month radiation therapy, which forced him to withdraw from the business for the time being. During this time, Turner did not officially work on comics, but developed ideas for his own comic stories and characters and drafted initial sketches for their appearance. In June 2008, Turner died of his illness at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 37.

Own ways

In 2002 Turner founded his own publishing company Aspen MLT (where MLT stands for his initials: Michael Layne Turner) and left Top Cow because he saw no possibility there to realize his ideas. As a result, a lawsuit developed in rights for the characters on his series Fathom, as well as other ideas that arose around the time Turner was employed by Top Cow. Top Cow claimed that this gave the publisher the rights to the characters, since Turner was a contract draftsman. Turner defended the artistic property rights to the characters in a long legal battle and was ultimately able to publish the series in his own publishing house with a delay.

First of all, he published preview books of three series with several cover variants. These included the Aspen , Soulfire and Ekos series , which never went into series. From his main series Fathom three series have appeared. There are now many spin-offs for the series (for example Soulfire: Dying of the Light, Fathom: Dawn of War) as well as other series that take place completely outside the Fathom universe (Shugged !, Iron and the Maiden). In addition, there are variant covers or convention exclusive covers for many issues, which are difficult to obtain in Germany.

In 2004 Turner entered into an alliance with DC Comics publisher , for whom he made a large number of covers for comic series such as Flash , Supergirl , Justice League of America and Identity Crisis . As a draftsman, Turner designed the inside of some issues of the Superman / Batman series (# 8–13) . In 2005, Turner took on a number of jobs for Marvel Comics as a cover artist for titles such as the miniseries Civil War and Fantastic Four .

Most of his works have also appeared in German and were mainly published by Infinity.

Bibliography of the original works

comics

  • Code name: Strykeforce # 14 (Image 8/1995)
  • Ballistic # 1-3 (Top Cow, 1995). Mini-series in 3 issues about a female character from the Cyberforce series.
  • Witchblade # 1-8, 10-22 & 25 (Top Cow, 1997-1998)
  • Tomb Raider / Witchblade and Witchblade / Tomb Raider (Top Cow, 1997)
  • Fathom (vol. 1) # 1-14 (Top Cow, 1998-2000)
  • Aspen # 1-3 (Aspen MLT, 2003)
  • Superman / Batman # 8-13 (DC Comics, 2004)
  • Soulfire # 1-10 (Aspen MLT, 2004–2009, its last pages were published in No. 8. The series was completed by the cartoonist Joe Benitez after his death).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Turner, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comic artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Crossville (Tennessee) , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 2008
Place of death Santa Monica