Mike Wieringo

Flash vol. 2, #97 (Jan. 1995), with Bart Allen a.k.a. Impulse, second from left. Cover by Wieringo.

Michael Lance "Mike" Wieringo (June 24, 1963 - August 12, 2007) was an American comic book artist best known for his work on DC Comics' The Flash and Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four.

Biography

Early life and career

Mike Wieringo was born in Italy and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, USA, graduating with a degree in Communication Arts and Design, and broke into comics as a penciler with the Millennium Publications series Pat Savage and Doc Savage: Doom Dynasty in 1991. Two years later, he penciled the cover of the anthology comic book Negative Burn #1 (1993), from Caliber Press.

Wieringo broke into mainstream publisher DC Comics penciling the cover and co-penciling (with Lee Moder) the 30-page Justice League International lead story in Justice League Quarterly #11 (Summer 1993). Wieringo then penciled a 13-page backup feature starring the superheroines Doctor Light and Ice in Justice League Quarterly #12 (Autumn 1993). In a late 1990s interview, Wieringo recalled that

Brian Stelfreeze and Carl Story, the guys at Gaijin Studios ... lined the [Millennium] job up for me, because I had met them at [comics conventions] over the years and showed them my work. They got some of my samples and sent them to the guy and [he] liked them and gave me the job. ... From there, it was dry for a while, and I did some more samples and took them to [Comic-Con International in] San Diego in 1992, and about October that year, I got a call from Ruben Diaz, who was an assistant editor at DC at the time, [who] asked me to do a Justice League Quarterly story. When I started doing that, they asked me to do another one, and while I was in the process of finishing the second one, they asked me if I'd be interested in taking over The Flash because the artist had just left.

The Flash

Wieringo gained prominence working with writer Mark Waid on DC Comics' super-speedster series The Flash vol. 2, penciling all but two issues from #80-92 (Early Sept. 1993 - July. 1994), plus #0 (Oct. 1994); he additionally penciled covers through #100, #118-124, and 128-129, and for Flash 80-Page Giant #2 (April 1999). Wieringo co-created, with Waid, the young speedster Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse, in The Flash vol. 2, #91 (cameo) and #92 (first full appearance).

Wieringo followed this with a short run on Robin, another DC title, with writer Chuck Dixon, while concurrently penciling Marvel Comics' Rogue #1-4 (Jan.-April 1995), a miniseries starring that X-Men superheroine. During this period, he also penciled occasional Marvel covers and small miscellaneous jobs for that company.

Other work around this time included, for the publisher Malibu Comics, penciling the cover and co-penciling (with Rob Haynes) the lead story of Firearm #0 (Nov. 1993) and penciling the back cover and one story in Godwheel #2 (Feb. 1995). For the small independent publisher Explorer Press, he penciled the cover of Explorers #2 (1995).

Marvel and Tellos

File:FF509.jpg

Promotional art for Fantastic Four #509 (March 2004), by Wieringo.

Wieringo became regular artist on the Spider-Man title The Sensational Spider-Man, teamed with writer Todd DeZago, beginning with issue #8 (Sept. 1996). He penciled all but five issues through #32 (Oct. 1998), including the quirkily numbered issue # -1 (July 1997), and during its run signed a two-year contract with Marvel, beginning December 1997..

After Spider-Man, Wieringo's next major project was at Image Comics, where he reteamed with DeZago on their creator-owned fantasy series Tellos. The comic, a coming-of-age adventure sent in a magical, piratical world, ran 10 issues (May 1999 - Nov. 2000). The last three issues were released by Gorilla Comics, a short-lived Image imprint co-founded by Wieringo and several other creators in 2000. Following the demise of the series, Wieringo also penciled one 13-page story in a post-series one-shot, Tellos: Maiden Voyage #1 (March 2001).

Wieringo returned to DC Comics for all but one issue of Adventures of Superman #592-600 (July 2001 - March 2002), with writer Joe Casey. He then returned to Marvel and reunited with writer Mark Waid on Fantastic Four. Beginning with issue #51 (March 2002, Wieringo eventually drew 27 issues of Waid's 36, wrapping up their run with #507 (Jan. 2004), by which time the previously relaunched series had returned to its original numbering. As the comics-hobbyist magazine Newsarama.com commented, the Waid-Wieringo run "was perhaps best known for fan outcry when Marvel announced that [it was] going to replace the team. Marvel quickly reversed [its] decision, and the two completed their run on the series".

Wieringo pencilled the interior art on issues #1-5,#8-10 of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and being the front cover artist on #1-19 (Dec. 2005 - June 2007), with writer Peter David. Wieringo and writer and former studio-mate Jeff Parker then began the miniseries Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four in April 2007.

Death

Wieringo died of a heart attack at his home in North Carolina on August 12th, 2007. He was 44.

Bibliography

• Nolen-Weathington, Eric, and Mike Wieringo. Modern Masters Volume 9: Mike Wieringo (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006) ISBN-10 1893905659; ISBN-13 978-1893905658

References

• Official Mike Wieringo website -- site experiencing bandwidth challenges, click the link below for the Google cache if it is down
  • Cached homepage as of August 7, 2007
  • Additional alternate, to Wieringo's blog, when cached site is down
• Lamiebk Comiclopedia: Mike Wieringo
• Grand Comics Database
• Newsarama.com (no date): "5 Questions for… Mike Wieringo
• ComicBloc.com (July 14, 2007): "Tellos About You: An Interview with Mike Wieringo
• iF (Aug. 13, 2007): "Tellos Artist Mike Wieringo Dead at 44", by Tony Whitt