Paul Ryan (comic artist)

Paul Ryan (born September 23, 1949 in Somerville , Massachusetts - † March 6, 2016 ) was an American comic artist. Ryan was best known as an artist on the newspaper comic strip The Phantom .

Life

After attending St. Polycarp Grammar School in Somerville and St. Mary of the Annunciation High School, which he graduated in 1967, Ryan began studying at the Massachusetts College of Art . He left this in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in graphic design. In 1971 he joined the American National Guard and was stationed at Fort Dix . During his officer training at the Massachusetts Military Academy in Wakefield, he was recruited by the Graphics Department of Metcalf & Eddy Engineering in Boston , for which he would work for eleven years.

Early career

In 1983 Ryan's comic story Breed was included by the comic publisher "Charlton Comics" in its in-house mail "Charlton Bullseye". Since the series was discontinued before it was first published, the Breed story only came to print with the support of the small publisher Americomics from Florida.

With the help of some Boston comic book dealers, Ryan was finally hired by the illustrator Bob Layton as his assistant. Then Ryan was hired as an independent artist with the pencil drawings for numerous series of the comic book publisher Marvel Comics . So Ryan got ink and / or pencil drawings as a guest artist for the series The Thing (# 27 and # 29), Iron Man (# 202), Squadron Supreme (# 6.9-12), Eternals (# 12) and Quasar before he was hired as a regular artist for the long- standing Marvel series Avengers . This was followed by further engagements at Marvel as a draftsman for series such as Avengers West Coast , Iron Man , Ravage 2099 and Fantastic Four (# 356-414).

In 1992, at Stan Lee's request, Ryan took over the drawings for the newspaper comic strip Spider-Man, which was distributed by King Features . Ryan oversaw the newspaper equivalent of the famous comic series about the web-swinging superhero for a little over three years before moving to Marvel's rival DC Comics in 1996 .

There Ryan guest-drew for series such as Flash , Superboy , Green Lantern and Batman , before he was hired to succeed Tom Grummet as a regular artist for the quarterly series Superman: Man of Tomorrow . During this time he was granted the opportunity to work as a draftsman on the special edition Superman: The Wedding album , which tells of the marriage of the superhero with his "eternal love" Lois Lane and is one of the best-selling comic books of the time.

In 1999, Ryan briefly returned to Marvel Comics as an illustrator for the Fantastic Five series , before illustrating a comic novel in the Left Behind series at Wildstorm and as a fill-in artist for series such as Ruse and Crux .

Later work

In January 2005 Ryan took over the execution of the daily newspaper comic The Phantom for King Features , which he co-wrote with the author Tony DePaul. In 2005, the previous draftsman George Olesen announced his resignation. King Features boss Jay Kennedy then selected Paul Ryan to design the daily stories. In October 2006, Graham Nolan , the illustrator of the weekly Sunday Strips, announced his departure. Kennedy was able to convince Ryan to help design the Sunday Strip for King Features. Ryan's first Sunday strip appeared on April 1, 2007, but he later wanted to reduce his daily workload again and on July 31, 2011 Eduardo Barreto took over the work on the Sunday strip. After Barreto's sudden death in late 2011, Ryan briefly returned to designing Sunday work until, in January 2012, Terry Beatty was found as the new draftsman.

Drawing style and influences

Ryan named Curt Swan and Wayne Boring as artistic influences , whose straightforward, naturalistic style is reflected in his clear drawing style .

Web links

• Paul Ryan's website
• Paul Ryan on the King Features website
• interview

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brett White, "Fantastic Four," "Avengers" Artist Paul Ryan Passes Away. In: Comic Book Resources. comicbookresources.com, March 7, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 .