Mike Grell

Mike Grell
Grell sketching at Bell Con 2007 in Bellingham, Washington.
Area(s)	Writer, Penciller, Inker
Notable works	Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters Green Lantern/Green Arrow Jon Sable Freelance Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Warlord
http://www.mikegrell.com

Mike Grell (born September 13, 1947) is a comic book writer and artist, known for his work on books such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Warlord, and Jon Sable Freelance.

Early life and education

Grell studied at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, and took the Famous Artists School correspondence course in cartooning. Hoping to avoid service in Vietnam during the war, he served in Asia in the U.S. Air Force.

Career

Grell's entry into the comics industry was in 1972, as an assistant to Dale Messick on the Brenda Starr comic strip.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes

In 1973 Grell moved to New York, and began his long relationship with DC Comics. His first assignment at DC was on Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, a high-profile assignment for an artist with no prior experience illustrating a monthly comic book. Grell says he got that job because he was walking in the editor's door to ask for work, literally, as the previous artist (Dave Cockrum) was walking out the door, having just quit. Grell inked a Cockrum penciled story ("Lost: A Million Miles from Home!") in issue #202 and became the penciler of the book with issue #203 (August 1974) which featured the death of Invisible Kid. These stories were written by Cary Bates with later issues by Jim Shooter. Grell drew All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (1978), a treasury-sized special written by Paul Levitz in which longtime Legion members Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad were married.

DC Comics and The Warlord

The cover of The Warlord #67. Art by Mike Grell.

A writer as well as artist, Grell cemented his status as a fan-favorite with his best-known creation, The Warlord. The character first appeared in 1st Issue Special #8 (Nov 1975) and was soon given his own ongoing title (The Warlord #1, Jan/Feb 1976). In this book, Air Force pilot Travis Morgan crash-lands in the prehistoric "hidden world" of Skartaris (a setting highly influenced by Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar). For years thereafter, Morgan engages in adventures dressed only in a winged helmet, wristbands, boots, and breechclout, and armed with a sword and a .44 Auto Mag.

At DC, Grell also worked on characters such as Aquaman, Batman, and the Phantom Stranger, and with writer Dennis O'Neil on the re-launch of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow series in 1976.

Tarzan

Grell wrote and drew the Tarzan comic strip from July 19, 1981 to February 27, 1983 (except for one strip, February 13, 1983, by Thomas Yeates). These strips were rerun in newspapers in 2004 - 2005.

First Comics: Jon Sable Freelance and Starslayer

Cover to Jon Sable Freelance #7. Art by Mike Grell.

Through the 1980s Grell developed creator-owned titles such Jon Sable Freelance and Starslayer. Jon Sable Freelance was published by the now-defunct First Comics. Starslayer, a space-born science fiction series, started at Pacific Comics, but shifted to First.

The titular character of Jon Sable Freelance was a former Olympic athlete, later an African big-game hunter, who became a mercenary. First appearing with a cover date of June 1983, Jon Sable was a precursor to what would eventually be called, by some, "the Dark Age of Comics," when even long-established super-heroes would become increasingly grim and violent.

The character was heavily influenced by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels as well as drawing on pulp fiction crime stories. Also, many of the stories of Sable's hunting exploits in Africa were influenced by Peter Hathaway Capstick's novels. At a convention in the late 1980s, Grell stated that his idea for Sable was "something like a cross between James Bond and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer."

Sable was adapted into a short-lived television series and the character's origin tale, "A Storm Over Eden," from the comic book, was expanded and novelized by Grell under the title Sable, which was published in 2000 by Tor Books.

Back at DC: Green Arrow

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1. Mike Grell's gritty redefinition of Green Arrow. Painted cover by Grell.

In 1987, Mike Grell wrote and drew the 3-issue prestige format limited series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. He redesigned the character's costume, away from the costume Neal Adams had designed in 1969, and recast Green Arrow as an "urban hunter" going up against non-super-powered, real world villains such as serial killers, terrorists, street gangs, American mobsters and Japanese Yakuza. He did away with Green Arrow's arsenal of "trick arrows" and instead rearmed him with penetrating broadheads with which he actually killed his opponents. The Longbow Hunters showed the first instance in which Green Arrow ever deliberately killed someone; in the follow-on series this occurred frequently.

The popularity of Longbow Hunters led to an assignment writing – and occasionally drawing – an ongoing Green Arrow series for 80 issues from 1988 to 1994. During this run, Grell avoided references to the fantastical elements of the DC Universe (e.g. in a guest appearance by Green Lantern the character is out of costume and does not use his powers). Notably, believing "Green Arrow" was "a stupid name," in no Mike Grell Green Arrow story (with the exception of Longbow Hunters #1) is the character ever referred to as Green Arrow anywhere other than on the cover.

James Bond

In 1988, Grell authored and illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of the Timothy Dalton James Bond film Licence to Kill, and in 1989 wrote and drew an original Bond story, the three-issue mini-series Permission to Die, both published by Eclipse Comics.

Shaman's Tears and Bar Sinister

Shaman's Tears was a more ecologically themed outing for Grell. Main character Joshua Brand, the son of a half-Sioux father and an Irish mother, as an adult returns to the reservation he ran away from as a child. Discovering he mystically possesses the powers of all animals and the Earth itself, he becomes the protector of the planet. Jon Sable guest starred in issues #5-9 of this 12 issue series (May 1993 - Aug 1995). There was also a number 0 issue published in Nov 1995.

Grell wrote and drew the covers, but did none of the interior artwork, for issues 1-4 of the Shaman's Tears spinoff series Bar Sinister (Jun - Sep 1995) from Windjammer, the creator-owned imprint of Valiant Comics. This series followed the adventures of a group of escaped government experimental subjects, animals genetically engineered to human intelligence and, basically, human form, as potential bio-weapons.

During this time period, Grell also wrote and penciled a Shaman's Tears/Turok Dinosaur Hunter cross-over limited series for Valiant Comics and a two issue Turok limited series entitled Turok The Hunted, as well as several fill-in issues of the ongoing Turok series.

Marvel Comics: Iron Man

It was during Grell's run (2002–03) that Iron Man chose to reveal his secret identity as Tony Stark to the world, a plot twist met with mixed fan reaction.

Later work

After his work on Iron Man, Grell came back to comics in 2008, providing a variant incentive cover for Action Comics #861, part four of the Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes story. DC sought variant drawings for this story from artists who had worked on the Legion in the past, such as Steve Lightle, Keith Giffen, and Grell.

Other work includes a new ongoing series of Warlord launched to coincide with the 35th anniversary. Grell brought the lead character's story to an end and drew some issues. Grell also worked for Marvel drawing some stories of X-Men Forever. His last collaboration with DC to date has been the Green Lantern story for the DC Retroactive series, in 2011, where he provided the art.

Grell is also rewriting the Jon Sable screenplay, working on an adaptation of Shaman's Tears, and writing two stories for ComicMix.com, a new Jon Sable story and The Pilgrim with Mark Ryan. In December 2010 he was announced as editor-in-chief of Ardden Entertainment.

Personal life

Grell is an avid big-game hunter, which serves as an influence on his artwork and storylines, particularly in the Jon Sable Freelance series.

In the early 1980s, Grell was married to the former Sharon Wright, who also was a writer in the comics industry. In fact, the last two years of Grell's scripts on Warlord were ghost-written by Sharon Grell, as revealed in the letter column of a later issue.

Grell currently lives in Washington state with his wife, Lauri, noted horsewoman and creator of the EQUUEST (tm) system of equine communication.

Bibliography

Comics work (interior pencil art) includes:

DC

• Action Comics (Atom) #442; (Green Arrow) #441, 444-446, 450-452, 456-458 (1974–76)
• Adventure Comics (Aquaman) #435-437; (Crimson Avenger) #440 (1974–75)
• All-New Collector's Edition (Legion of Super-Heroes) #C-55 (1978)
• Amazing World of DC Comics #12 (previously unpublished story) (1976)
• Batman #287-290 (1977)
• Batman Family (Robin & Batgirl) #1 (1975)
• DC Super-Stars (Green Arrow) #17 (1977)
• DC Retroactive: Green Lantern - The '70s #1 one-shot (2011)
• Detective Comics (Robin) #445; (Batman) #455; (Atom) #463; (Black Canary) #464 (1975–76)
• 1st Issue Special (Warlord) #8 (1975)
• The Flash (Green Lantern backup stories) #237-238, 240-243 (1975–76)
• Green Lantern, vol. 2, (Green Lantern/Green Arrow) #90-100, 106, 108-110 (1976–78)
• Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, miniseries, #1-3 (1987)
• Green Arrow: The Wonder Year, miniseries, #1-4 (1993)
• Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 2, #45 -4 pages only- (1988)
• Phantom Stranger, vol. 2, #33 (1974)
• Superboy (Legion of Super-Heroes) #203-224, 235 (1974–78)
• Warlord, vol. 1, #1-52, 59, Annual #1 (1976–82)
• Warlord, vol. 3, #7-12, 15-16 (2009–10)
• Weird War Tales #67 (1978)

Image

• Maggie the Cat #1-2 (1996)
• Shaman's Tears #1-12 (1993–95)
• Spawn: The Impaler, miniseries, #1-3 (1996)

Marvel

• Iron Man, vol. 3, #50-61 (2002–03)
• X-Men Forever Giant-Size #1 (2010)
• X-Men Forever, vol. 2, #9-10 (2010)

Other Publishers

• Jon Sable Freelance #1-43 (First) (1983–86)
• Starslayer #1-6 (Pacific) (1982–83)

External links

• Official website
• ComicNews.Info Interview