User:Ryan.bnjmn

Professional comic book illustrator[RYAN BENJAMIN]

Early career Ryan Benjamin was born in St. Croix, U.S.V.I, but moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 1983. Ryan became an athletic swimmer for his high school, Stranahan High, breaking a breaststroke record held since 1973. He was recruited to swim for the Hall of Fame Junior Olympic swim team. But, He never forgot his love for the illustrated arts. Because of that he turned down a swimming scholorship and decided to pursue art at a private art college, International Fine arts college in Miami. After he graduated, he decided to return to college to study digital art. Fellow classmates Brett Booth and Sean Ruffner were hired by Aegis Entertainment(Wildstorm Studios) which awoke Benjamin to the opportunity to draw comics. After 6 submissions he was hired to come aboard with other artist Jason Scott Campbell, Travis Charest and Dan Norton. His first professional comic was The Unknown Solider story, then he was given Gen 13 #0. Later he was a fill in artist for Scott Clark on Storm Watch. In early 1995, the opportunity to work on [Jim Lee's] creation , [Grifter], the original series. Next, Marvel and Image did a major cross over which landed him the opportunity to draw the Iron Man comic series. After some time, he decided to leave WiildStorm comics and go 100% freelance.This opened the doors and gave him a chance to work on giant titles like Uncanny Xmen and Star Wars. After 6 years of freelancing, He eventually found himself back with his old Wildstorm crew but with one difference. Wildstorm was now Wildstorm/DC. This opened the doors for him to work on the Batman titles. [Batman] the Regular series, Batman and the Outsiders and the giant hit, [Batman Beyond]. Which the Hush series was #1 in the New york times. It became a #1 fan hit book for some time. Later he worked as a cover artist for Smallville and the same Batman Beyond series he was previously on.