Thursday, October 15, 2:00-3:30pm, SAIC Ballroom
A self-taught artist, Michigan-based Guy Davis (b. 1966) combines illustrative realism in classic adventure-strip style with a distinctive flare for design and atmosphere and a sensibility equally at home among Gothic, baroque, and punk aesthetics. He has excelled at myriad genres, from horror and urban fantasy to science fiction to period crime drama and pulp adventure. One of the foremost illustrators in today's comic books, he is also a designer and storyteller of a highly personal bent, as seen in his creator-owned projects such as Baker Street (Caliber Press, 1989-1991) and the recently-revived The Marquis (Caliber, 1997; Oni Press, 2000-2003; Dark Horse Comics, 2009-).
Davis began cartooning while still in high school with a strip that ran in his hometown newspaper. After graduating in 1984, he continued working towards a career in comics, and in 1986 he started his professional work as penciller on The Realm (Arrow Comics). Within a few years he would write and illustrate Baker Street, his first creator-owned project (at first co-written with Gary Reed), which was nominated for a Harvey Award. It was Baker Street that led him to Vertigo/DC Comics and his acclaimed work on the series Sandman Mystery Theatre (1993-1999), written by Matt Wagner and Steve Seagle, for which he served as designer and most frequent artist.
Since then Davis has been prolific and hard to pin down. He has worked for Marvel Comics as artist on the Eisner Award-winning Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules (2003), written by James Sturm, for Dark Horse Comics on The Nevermen (2000), written by Phil Amara, and for the French publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés on Les zombies qui ont mangé le monde (The Zombies That Ate the World, 2004-2008), written by Jerry Frissen. His other works have included illustration and conceptual design for various role-playing games and multimedia projects, including designs for the animated television pilot based on Mike Mignola’s The Amazing Screw-On Head and animated comics for both the Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy 2 DVDs.
Currently, Davis is continuing to publish with Dark Horse, extending his labor of love The Marquis and working as series artist (since 2004) for the ongoing Hellboy spinoff B.P.R.D., written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi.
You can find out more about Guy Davis at his website, The Art of Guy Davis, from whence many of the above images came.
