Val Semeiks
Val Semeiks | |
---|---|
Born | Valdis Semeiks February 5, 1955 |
Area(s) | Penciller; Inker |
Notable works | Conan the Barbarian (Marvel) The Demon Lobo DC One Million |
Valdis "Val" Semeiks (/ˈsɛmɪks/;[1] born 5 February 1955) is an American comic book artist who has mostly worked for DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Biography[]
Val Semeiks was born in the U.S. to Latvian parents.
Semeiks graduated from college with degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics, before pursuing a career in advertising, working as "an art director for a regional ad agency".[1] He has been working in the comics field since 1986, mostly as a penciller although he has been known to ink his own work. His first professional credit was with Marvel, drawing King Kull back-up stories for The Savage Sword of Conan, which ultimately led to him becoming the monthly artist on Conan the Barbarian, allowing him to leave his day job and forge a fulltime career as a comics artist.[1]
He is perhaps best known for his next major credits, long runs on both The Demon[2] and Lobo for DC Comics primarily working with writer Alan Grant, whose plots Semeiks calls "laugh-out-loud funny," leading him to call his time on Lobo (upon which he worked with inker John Dell) "about as much fun as anyone can have drawing comics".[1] He also provided the artwork to Alan Grant and John Wagner's 1995 DC/2000 AD crossover title Lobo/Judge Dredd: Psycho-Bikers vs. The Mutants From Hell[1]. (As part of the 1996 DC vs. Marvel event, the DC and Marvel Universes briefly combined to form the Amalgam Universe. Alan Grant and Semeiks were reunited in 1997 to produce a comic as part of the Amalgam Comics line, when Val drew the all-too-brief adventures of "Lobo the Duck", where he demonstrated his versatility with a much more cartoon-like approach to the artwork.)
Returning briefly to Marvel, Semeiks was reunited with his first editor - Larry Hama - this time acting as writer on Wolverine, upon which Semeiks worked, alongside a number of other titles. Returning again to DC, Semeiks worked on a number of JLA projects with then-JLA-writer Grant Morrison, including JLA/WildC.A.T.S., DC One Million,[3] and the 1999 limited series Superman's Nemesis: Lex Luthor with writer David Michelinie.
Semeiks also drew 2 Batman stories penned by Dwayne McDuffie in 2002 and 2003 for Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (in issues #156-158) and (issues #164-167).
In 2006, he helped wrap up the second volume of Flash, illustrating issues #227-230. He contributed to Marvel's relaunch of Web of Spider-Man in 2009.[4]
He has also worked on non-Superhero projects including cartoon work for MAD Magazine and DC's "Big Book" series (from Paradox Press) as well as "video game and toy design work too".[1] He illustrated fantasy author R.A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy in three comicbook mini-series (Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver and Halfling's Gem).
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Semeiks' website: About Val Semeiks Archived 2008-01-28 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed March 18, 2008
- ^ Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1990s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9.
Etrigan returned for a new series in July [1990] entitled The Demon, by writer Alan Grant and artist Val Semeiks.
CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) - ^ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 285: "Grant Morrison headed back to the future with the crossover event DC One Million, a glimpse into the future world of the 853rd century...Drawn by Val Semeiks, this four-issue miniseries spun off into a series of specials, each with a cover number of #1,000,000."
- ^ http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13044
External links[]
- Val Semeiks at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Val Semeiks' website
- American comics artists
- Living people
- 1955 births
- American people of Latvian descent