Liam Sharp

Liam Sharp
Nationality	British
Area(s)	Artist, writer, publisher
Notable works	Testament

Liam Roger Sharp (born May 2, 1968) is a British comic book artist, writer, publisher, and some-time rock frontman.

He lives in Derby, East Midlands) with his wife Christina, and three children, Matylda, Lorcan and Jeff, and their cat, Molly.

Biography

Sharp made his debut in the 1980s for the famous science-fiction magazine 2000 AD after a year's apprenticeship with the legendary Don Lawrence, artist on the seminal Dutch comic "Storm". His works included many Judge Dredd stories, the origin of Finn, ABC Warriors series and one of Tharg's Future Shocks. Sharp's fame increased markedly when he moved to Marvel UK, for which he drew the famous mini-series Death's Head II. Thereafter he began working mainly in the United States on books as diverse as X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Venom, Man-Thing (for Marvel Comics), Superman, Batman for DC Comics, and Spawn: The Dark Ages for Todd McFarlane.

Sharp has also worked on more mature themed books for Verotik, doing GOTH, Jaguar God and Frank Frazetta's "The Death Dealer". He briefly worked on a strip originated by Stan Winston. More recently he created the Wildstorm series The Possessed with writer Geoff Johns. A strip for Heavy Metal magazine, entitled "A-crazy-A" featuring Playboy model Tiffany Taylor - for which he provided the art and the script. Likewise for a short story in Vampirella magazine called "Winter Rose".

In 2004 Sharp set up his own publishing company, Mam Tor Publishing, with wife Christina McCormack to publish the artbook Sharpenings: the Art of Liam Sharp.
After the early success with this, Sharp saw a hole in the comic book market for alternative independent comics, and together with designer Tom Muller and friend John Bamber set out to expand the company to start publishing more work. This saw the launch of the critically acclaimed and award -winning anthology, Mam Tor: Event Horizon. Event Horizon features art by Glenn Fabry, Brian Holguin, Ashley Wood, Simon Bisley, Alan Grant, Steve Niles, Emma Simcock-Tooth, Ali Powers, Kev Crossley, Lee Carter and Dave Kendall.

Sharp's most recent project is illustrating the well received DC Vertigo comic Testament written by Douglas Rushkoff and working on the Countdown-related title, Lord Havok and The Extremists with writer Frank Tieri. He is also providing the art for the Wildstorm title based on the video game Gears of War.

In September 2008 he signed an exclusive deal with DC.

Sharp has also written the novel God Killers.

Sharp is involved with a UK Midland based art movement 'Beardism', certain elements of which are similar to Dadaism. The practitioners are required to wear beards, though this can be interpreted as symbolic. A recent exhibition was held in the Crompton Arms, a Derby public house and alternative art gallery, featuring the work of Sharp, Ali Pow3rs, Adam Dutton and Chris Tree.

Bibliography

Comics work includes:

• The Possessed (with writer Geoff Johns, Wildstorm)
• Testament (with (writer Douglas Rushkoff, Vertigo)
• Lord Havok and The Extremists (with writer Frank Tieri, DC, 2007)
• Gears of War (with writer Joshua Ortega, Wildstorm, 2008)

References

• Interrogation: "Critical Mass" (interview conducted by Michael Molcher, in Judge Dredd Megazine #248, 2006)
• Liam Sharp at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• 2000 AD profile

External links

• Official website of Mam Tor Publishing
• Liam Sharp at MySpace
• Liam Sharp at DeviantArt

Interviews

• 2002 interview at Pixelsurgeon
• December 2004 interview at Newsarama
• November 2005 interview at SFFWorld
• Interview at Comic Avalanche