Variant
incentive cover for 
A cover of the comic book Fathom drawn by Michael Turner. The superheroine, who possesses water-based powers, is one of Mr. Turner’s most popular character.
|
|
|
Michael Turner |
|
New
& Recent Conflicts
War
and Conflict
Links Portal
for pages on the history of
comics and superhero
characters Portal
for pages on the nations of the
world Portal
for pages on military history Lists
of wars throughout history and
from around the world Biographical
files on individuals who impact
American politics, culture,
business, education and other
arenas of life in the United
States. Pages
on the governmental systems of
selected nations. United
States national government and
politics. The
latest changes to the History Guy
site. Information
on the History Guy, the origin of
the website, along with
commentaries
and a site
map. "The
History Guy" is a Registered
Trademark. |
World
Biography: Michael
Turner Michael Layne Turner
(April 21, 1971-June 27, 2008), was an
American comic book artist best known for
creating the graphically beautiful and
alluring female characters,
Witchblade and Fathom,
which were both published by Top Cow
comics. Turner also worked on DC
comics titles The Flash , Identity
Crisis, Supergirl, and
Superman/Batman, and various
Marvel comics titles.
Michael Turner founded and owned the
comic entertainment company Aspen
MLT. Turner died of complications
from bone cancer in a hospital in Santa
Monica, California. More
Micheal Turner Art here... Michael
Turner Michael Layne Turner
(April 21, 1971-June 27, 2008), was an
American comic book artist best known for
creating the graphically beautiful and
alluring female characters,
Witchblade and Fathom,
which were both published by Top Cow
comics. Turner also worked on DC
comics titles The Flash , Identity
Crisis, Supergirl, and
Superman/Batman, and various
Marvel comics titles.
Michael Turner founded and owned the
comic entertainment company Aspen
MLT. Turner died of complications
from bone cancer in a hospital in Santa
Monica, California. Family,
Career, and Personal Highlights Children:
none
Mother:
Grace Crick Siblings:
Jake Turner Place
of Birth: Education College:
University of Tennessee Professional
Career Links and
Resources: New
York Times Obit on Michael
Turner Michael
Turner, a popular comic-book artist who
came to fame in the mid-1990s and was
best known for creating two sexy female
lead characters, Witchblade and Fathom,
died on June 27 in Santa Monica, Calif.
He was 37. The
cause was complications from treatment
for bone cancer, his colleague Vince
Hernandez said in a statement. Armed
with only a hastily assembled five-page
sample of his work, Mr. Turner was
discovered at a comic-book convention
in 1993 by Marc Silvestri, one of seven
artists who founded Image Comics in
1992. Within months, Mr. Turner went
from waiting tables to being a
top-selling artist. Mr.
Turner, along with Mr. Silvestri and a
few others, soon created his best-known
character, Witchblade, named after a
supernatural weapon that affixed itself
to the arm of Sara Pezzini, a homicide
detective in New York; the
transformation left her provocatively
clad, armed and dangerous. The
novelist and part-time comic-book
writer Brad Meltzer, in a special
edition of the comics-industry magazine
Wizard that was devoted to Mr. Turner
before he died, said: “Anyone who
says they didn’t become aware of
Mike when they saw one of his hot girl
drawings is a liar. That’s when he
hit the radar.” Witchblade
first appeared in comic books in 1995
and became the basis of a live-action
series on the cable channel TNT in
2001. It ran for about two seasons. In
1998, Mr. Turner created the aquatic
Fathom, published by Top Cow
Productions. In her secret identity
Fathom was a marine biologist with a
model’s looks named Aspen
Matthews. Two
years later, Mr. Turner learned he had
a type of cancer called chondrosarcoma
in his right pelvis. He lost his hip,
40 percent of his pelvis and three
pounds of bone and underwent nine
months of radiation therapy. He
eventually went into remission, only to
have the cancer return several times. In
2002, Mr. Turner founded Aspen MLT, an
entertainment publishing company. The L
stood for Lane, his middle name, which
he rarely used. The company’s
comics were delayed by a yearlong legal
battle with Top Cow regarding the
rights to Fathom and other properties.
The case was settled out of court the
next year. In
2004, Mr. Turner began contributing
work to DC and Marvel, the comics
industry giants. His cover art brought
him particular attention, including his
illustrations for Identity Crisis, a
top-selling seven-part mystery written
by Mr. Meltzer, in which DC
superheroes, including Superman, Green
Arrow and Hawkman, are forced to
question their culpability in a
vengeful murder. As
with every cover they worked on,
“Mike and I spoke at length about
the design” of the final one for
the project, Mr. Meltzer wrote in an
e-mail message. The cover presented the
characters as empty costumes, which
ambiguously represented either the end
of the age of superheroes or a rebirth.
Mr.
Meltzer continued: “The only thing
we argued about, as only two geeks can:
whether Batman’s cowl should be
flat and empty, or stiff and armored. I
lost. He won. And he was right. But
make no mistake, with Mike gone, the
capes and cowls are most certainly
empty. His covers were the first thing
every reader saw. And he was the one
true ‘big name’ on the book.
That’s why people picked it
up.” Fans
were important to Mr. Turner. He was
always appreciative of people who
stopped to say hello at conventions,
and he signed countless autographs,
even when he was confined to a
wheelchair, Gareb Shamus, the publisher
of Wizard, said. Mr.
Turner was born in Crossville, Tenn.,
on April 21, 1971, and is survived by
his mother, Grace, and his brother,
Jake. In
high school, Mr. Turner took an art
class, but he mostly drew for his own
amusement. In 1993, he was encouraged
to put together a sampling of his work
and to attend the San Diego Comic-Con,
the nation’s largest comic
convention. It was there he met the
staff of Top Cow. “We
gave him his first shot,” Mr.
Silvestri said. “That will always
be important: that we had a little
something to do with bringing Mike to
the world of comics.” One
of the first tests for the new artist
was to draw a building. It looked
awful, “like a lump of
bread,” Mr. Silvestri recalled.
Still, he found Mr. Turner so affable
that they tried again, this time with
help from a reference book on New York
architecture. The results were
remarkable. “I
did a double take,” Mr. Silvestri
said. “It was beautiful, incredible.
More than I would’ve possibly
expected from a seasoned professional. I
asked him flat out, ‘Where did this
come from?’ He said, ‘No one
ever told me to look at a picture
before.’ ” "The
History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Contact
the webmaster |
Join
the FREE Historyguy Update list. Receive
regular updates delivered right to your
inbox.
Email
Marketing You Can Trust |
|||||||||||||
