Kevin Nowlan (born 1958)[1] is an
Americancomics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".[2]
Early life
Nowlan was born in 1958 in Nebraska.[3] He has four older brothers and sisters. His brother read comic books, particularly DC Comics titles, and Nowlan has had comics around him since he can remember.[4] As an illustrator, Nowlan is mostly self-taught, but did attend a trade school for approximately a year and a half to learn design and layout.[5]
Nowlan first came to the industry's attention in the early 1980s via illustrations in the fan press, most notably The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes.[1][5]
Nowlan's first published work for
Marvel Comics was Doctor Strange #57 (Feb. 1983).[3][6] He has worked for
DC Comics and other comics publishers. He contributed to the
adultPenthouse Comix. In 1992, he inked the Batman: Sword of Azrael miniseries which introduced the character
Azrael.[7] He drew the short story "The Castle" in Vertigo Jam #1 (Aug. 1993) which featured the
Sandman and was part of "
The Kindly Ones" story arc.[8] One of Nowlan's prominent contribution to comics is the creation of
Jack B. Quick with writer
Alan Moore. This character appeared several times in Tomorrow Stories under the
America's Best Comics imprint.[6]
Nowlan has described himself as a "finisher" rather than an inker, although only in specific reference to work "where you see too much of me", and has expressed an ambivalence towards this role, saying "it's not the right way to ink someone else's pencils".[5]
His style gives a strong emphasis towards both facial expression and posture, and in neither case is he constrained by the conventions of the comic-book hero, and his protagonists are often depicted with awkward expressions or body postures. [citation needed]
Steve Gerber's posthumous Man-Thing story The Screenplay of the Living Dead Man, with art by Nowlan, originally planned as a 1980s graphic novel before being left uncompleted by the artist,[9] was revived in the 2010s and appeared as a three-issue miniseries cover-titled The Infernal Man-Thing (Early Sept.-Oct. 2012).[10] The story was a sequel to Gerber's “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” in Man-Thing #12 (Dec. 1974).[9]
Nowlan inked the 1990s variant cover penciled by Dan Jurgens for
Action Comics #1000 (June 2018)[11] and inked the "Actionland!" chapter drawn by José Luis García-López in that same issue.[6]
Awards
Inkwell Award for Favorite Finisher/Embellisher (2008)
^Per Bob Schreck commentary in the "Contents" page, this story was originally intended for publication in Secret Origins vol. 2 but was not printed at that time as it had mysteriously vanished. After some pressure from Mike Mignola and a few phone calls, Schreck was able to track it down.
^Manning, Matthew K. (2010). "1990s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom:
Dorling Kindersley. p. 255.
ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Azrael, one of the most important characters of the modern Batman mythos, was dropped right under the noses of an unsuspecting reading populace in the debut issue of Batman: Sword of Azrael by esteemed bat-scribe Denny O'Neil, talented young penciler Joe Quesada, and inker extraordinaire Kevin Nowlan.
^Bender, Hy (1999). The Sandman Companion. New York, New York: DC Comics. p. 270.
ISBN978-1563894657.
Kevin Nowlan (born 1958)[1] is an
Americancomics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic production, from "design to draftsmanship to dramatics".[2]
Early life
Nowlan was born in 1958 in Nebraska.[3] He has four older brothers and sisters. His brother read comic books, particularly DC Comics titles, and Nowlan has had comics around him since he can remember.[4] As an illustrator, Nowlan is mostly self-taught, but did attend a trade school for approximately a year and a half to learn design and layout.[5]
Nowlan first came to the industry's attention in the early 1980s via illustrations in the fan press, most notably The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes.[1][5]
Nowlan's first published work for
Marvel Comics was Doctor Strange #57 (Feb. 1983).[3][6] He has worked for
DC Comics and other comics publishers. He contributed to the
adultPenthouse Comix. In 1992, he inked the Batman: Sword of Azrael miniseries which introduced the character
Azrael.[7] He drew the short story "The Castle" in Vertigo Jam #1 (Aug. 1993) which featured the
Sandman and was part of "
The Kindly Ones" story arc.[8] One of Nowlan's prominent contribution to comics is the creation of
Jack B. Quick with writer
Alan Moore. This character appeared several times in Tomorrow Stories under the
America's Best Comics imprint.[6]
Nowlan has described himself as a "finisher" rather than an inker, although only in specific reference to work "where you see too much of me", and has expressed an ambivalence towards this role, saying "it's not the right way to ink someone else's pencils".[5]
His style gives a strong emphasis towards both facial expression and posture, and in neither case is he constrained by the conventions of the comic-book hero, and his protagonists are often depicted with awkward expressions or body postures. [citation needed]
Steve Gerber's posthumous Man-Thing story The Screenplay of the Living Dead Man, with art by Nowlan, originally planned as a 1980s graphic novel before being left uncompleted by the artist,[9] was revived in the 2010s and appeared as a three-issue miniseries cover-titled The Infernal Man-Thing (Early Sept.-Oct. 2012).[10] The story was a sequel to Gerber's “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” in Man-Thing #12 (Dec. 1974).[9]
Nowlan inked the 1990s variant cover penciled by Dan Jurgens for
Action Comics #1000 (June 2018)[11] and inked the "Actionland!" chapter drawn by José Luis García-López in that same issue.[6]
Awards
Inkwell Award for Favorite Finisher/Embellisher (2008)
^Per Bob Schreck commentary in the "Contents" page, this story was originally intended for publication in Secret Origins vol. 2 but was not printed at that time as it had mysteriously vanished. After some pressure from Mike Mignola and a few phone calls, Schreck was able to track it down.
^Manning, Matthew K. (2010). "1990s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom:
Dorling Kindersley. p. 255.
ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Azrael, one of the most important characters of the modern Batman mythos, was dropped right under the noses of an unsuspecting reading populace in the debut issue of Batman: Sword of Azrael by esteemed bat-scribe Denny O'Neil, talented young penciler Joe Quesada, and inker extraordinaire Kevin Nowlan.
^Bender, Hy (1999). The Sandman Companion. New York, New York: DC Comics. p. 270.
ISBN978-1563894657.