Kyle Baker

Kyle Baker (born 1965 in Queens, New York City, United States) is an American writer and illustrator of comic books as well as an animator. He is also an award-winning publisher of two anthologies, "Cartoonist" and "Cartoonist Vol. 2: Now with More Bakers".

Biography

Early life and career

As a high school intern at Marvel Comics, Baker came into contact with such artists as John Romita, Jr., Al Milgrom and Walter Simonson. He eventually became an assistant inker, working on backgrounds. He got further inking work at Marvel while attending the School of Visual Arts. Finding himself already gainfully employed in comics and illustration, he eventually dropped out of SVA.

Comics and graphic novels

The Dolphin imprint of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in his "Cowboy Wally" comic strips, which he expanded into a 128-page graphic novel published in 1988. Baker went on to draw the pulp revival series "The Shadow" and "Justice, Inc." for DC Comics, as well as the Classics Illustrated series "Through the Looking Glass" and "Cyrano". In 1990, Baker released two graphic novels, one an adaptation of the film "Dick Tracy", the other an original story, "Why I Hate Saturn". He went to Los Angeles, where he wrote a TV show called "Cosmic Slop" for HBO. He next spent three years illustrating the weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for "New York" magazine. in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring the hip hop singer KRS-ONE , called "Break The Chain".

Baker's other graphic novels as writer-artist include "You Are Here", "King David", and "I Die At Midnight". He has also illustrated a graphic novel written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin titled "Birth of a Nation".

Later career

Beginning in the 1990s, Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in "Businessweek, Details, Entertainment Weekly, ESPN, Esquire, Guitar World, MAD Magazine, National Lampoon, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin magazine, Us, Vibe" and "The Village Voice". His animation has appeared on BET and MTV, and in animated "Looney Tunes" projects, including "", an animated feature. He also was guest art director for Cartoon Network's "Class of 3000". He also storyboarded the "Class of 3000" Christmas special.

In the 2000s, Baker drew the miniseries "," a Captain America storyline with parallels to the infamous Tuskegee experiment, which was later collected as a trade paperback. He also wrote and drew the comedic adventures of the DC Comics superhero Plastic Man, and was one of contributors to the Dark Horse Comics series "The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist", a spin-off of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay".

In 2006, his company, Kyle Baker Publishing, serialized a four-part comic book series about Nat Turner, and published the series "The Bakers", based on his family life.

In 2008, Watson-Guptill published "How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning", Baker's art instruction book.

Awards

Baker won two Eisner Awards in 2000 for the controversial story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter". He has won a total of eight Eisner Awards, including four wins in the "Best Writer/Artist: Humor" category for a variety of works, and one each for "Best New Series" (2004) and "Best Title for Younger Readers" (2005) for his Plastic Man comics. Baker has also won five Harvey Awards. Baker has also won several Glyph Comics Awards. In 2006, he won three awards for "Nat Turner" (Best Cover, Best Artist, and Story of the Year); in 2007, he won Best Artist for "The Bakers".

Bibliography

*"Through the Looking-Glass" (Classics International Entertainment; year n.a.; reprinted Berkley Publishing, 1990; illustrator)) ISBN 1-57209-002-2 (orig.); ISBN 0-425-12022-8 (rep.)
*"Why I Hate Saturn" (DC Comics/Piranha Press, 1990; reprinted DC Comics/Vertigo, December 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 0-930289-72-2
*"The Residents: Freak Show" (Dark Horse Comics, collected 1992; illustrator) ISBN 1-56971-001-5
*"The Cowboy Wally Show" (Doubleday, 1988; reissued Marlowe & Company, 1996; DC/Vertigo, 2003;writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56924-834-6
*"You Are Here" (DC Comics, November 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-442-4
*"I Die at Midnight" (DC Comics/Vertigo, 2000; writer, illustrator) ISBNB0006RONA0
*"King David" (DC Comics/Vertigo, 2002; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-866-7
*"Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin" (DC Comics, collected ephemera 2003; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0104-0
*"" (Marvel Comics, collected February 2004; co-creator with Robert Morales, illustrator) ISBN 0-7851-1072-0
*"Cartoonist" (Kyle Baker Publishing, May 2004; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-0-9
*"Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel" (Crown; July 2004; illustrator) ISBN 1-4000-4859-1
*"Plastic Man: On the Lam" (DC Comics, collected 2005; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0343-4
*"Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits" (DC Comics, collected 2006; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0729-4
*"Cartoonist, Volume 2: Now With More Bakers" (Kyle Baker Publishing; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0974721417
*"The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere?" (Kyle Baker Publishing, collected 2006; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-3-3
*"The Bakers: Babies and Kittens Image Comics) ISBN 978-1582408132
*"Nat Turner" (Abrams)ISBN 978-0810995352

Other works

*"Class Of 3000" Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers
*"Phineas and Ferb" (2007 Children's Television Series, Disney Channel )
*"Cosmic Slop", HBO TV show.
*Foohy Markers animated commercial
*"Bad Publicity" (1990s comic strip, "New York" magazine, illustrator)
*"New Mutants" vol. 1 #40, 44-47 (inker)

References

* [http://www.kylebaker.com Kyle Baker's official site]
* [http://thebakersanimationcartoons.blogspot.com/ Kyle Baker's official blog]
* [http://comics.org/search.lasso?type=penciller&query=kyle+baker&sort=alpha&Submit=Search The Grand Comic-Book Database: Kyle Baker search results]
* [http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards/index.html Comic Book Awards Almanac]
* [http://www.ultrazine.org/ultraparole/baker_english.htm "Ultrazine": Kyle Baker interview]
* [http://www.popimage.com/content/kylebaker2005.html "PopImage": Kyle Baker interview]
* [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/BMISC.HTM The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators: "Break the Chain"]

External links

* [http://www.spookybug.com/baker/index.html "Jitterbug Fantasia": "I Make People Laugh" (1991 interview)]