John Beatty (illustrator)
Encyclopedia
John Beatty is an American illustrator born in Whitesburg, Kentucky
who has worked for Marvel Comics
and DC Comics
,
John and his family remained in Holly Hill, and John graduated from Mainland Senior High School in 1979. It was already clear that John would pursue a career as an artist. John had, at this point, already made his first “professional sell” and begun working as a professional artist. John had been hired by Camelot Publishing to do cartoons for computer instruction manuals when he was just 15 years old. This gig turned into after school employment during John’s high school years.
John’s goal was to become a comic book artist. He discovered and fell in love with the comic strips “Dennis the Menace” and “Peanuts”. It wasn’t until later that John discovered “Super Hero” comic books when a friend who lived up the street sold John a box of comics for $20.00.
Not long after his discovery of the world of fanzines, John wrote and drew a short comic story starring the hero Crime Smasher. In short order, the Crime Smasher story was printed in Tim Corrigan’s Super Hero Comics! Another very talented artist named Jerry Ordway had a story published in the same issue. Ordway was also starting up his own self-published comic book, titled “OK Comics!” Soon Beatty and Ordway began communicating through the mail. John also connected with artist Mike Zeck, through the RBCC (Rocket Blast Comics Collector), a “pro-zine” of sorts. Zeck encouraged Beatty to continue drawing. Zeck even sent xeroxed pencils of his work to Beatty, so John could ink samples for practice and critiques.
Around this time, John had, for a couple of years, been going to OrlandoCon, an annual comic book convention held in, you guessed it, Orlando, Florida. John and his long time friend, Craig Zablo ( the very talented site creator of Stallonezone, a Sylvester Stallone fansite ), would go over and make a weekend of it. John and Craig headed over to OrlandoCon and John decided to take some art samples to show the professional artists, such as Pat Broderick and Bob McLeod (who were living on the west coast of Florida in Tampa).
This was also the con where John met AC Comics publisher and artist, Bill Black. John showed samples to Bill and was offered inking work on the spot. John would get to ink Bill’s pencils at a rate of $7.00 per page.
John’s destiny seemed to lining up rather quickly… Bob McLeod tagged John to start doing some assistant work, such as filling in blacks and erasing pages. Soon Bob even let John do some background work from time to time!
It was now 1980. Everything was falling into place and all events were leading up to a big break. John decided to head down to the annual MiamiCon. He knew that Marvel Comics’ EIC, Jim Shooter would be there and John planned to show him new samples of his work. (Shooter had reviewed John’s work the previous year and said John was not quite ready.) So Beatty presented Shooter with new samples. Shooter looked over John’s art and said: “If you can come up to New York, I’ll give you a paid try out to work on.” In July 1980, John made the journey up and with the help of Mike Zeck got some gigs from both Marvel and DC.
John is not currently working on a “monthly”, though he spent 20 years doing so on titles such as Captain America, The Punisher, Secret Wars, The ‘Nam, The Adventures of Superman, Batman, JLA, and many, many more.
Currently, John works for the DC Licensing Department, where style guide art is created. This art is used for many things, including package design, clothing, and other things which DC needs to supply to its vendors.
John is a founding member and current Grand Poobah Imperial Master Chief in Arms of the Corduroy Mafia.
He also had a rather substantial mullet in the 80s.
Whitesburg, Kentucky
Whitesburg is a city in Letcher County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,139 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Letcher County.-Culture:...
who has worked for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
,
Biography
John was born and lived in Letcher County, Kentucky for less than a year when his family moved to Holly Hill, Florida, a small city located in between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach.John and his family remained in Holly Hill, and John graduated from Mainland Senior High School in 1979. It was already clear that John would pursue a career as an artist. John had, at this point, already made his first “professional sell” and begun working as a professional artist. John had been hired by Camelot Publishing to do cartoons for computer instruction manuals when he was just 15 years old. This gig turned into after school employment during John’s high school years.
John’s goal was to become a comic book artist. He discovered and fell in love with the comic strips “Dennis the Menace” and “Peanuts”. It wasn’t until later that John discovered “Super Hero” comic books when a friend who lived up the street sold John a box of comics for $20.00.
Not long after his discovery of the world of fanzines, John wrote and drew a short comic story starring the hero Crime Smasher. In short order, the Crime Smasher story was printed in Tim Corrigan’s Super Hero Comics! Another very talented artist named Jerry Ordway had a story published in the same issue. Ordway was also starting up his own self-published comic book, titled “OK Comics!” Soon Beatty and Ordway began communicating through the mail. John also connected with artist Mike Zeck, through the RBCC (Rocket Blast Comics Collector), a “pro-zine” of sorts. Zeck encouraged Beatty to continue drawing. Zeck even sent xeroxed pencils of his work to Beatty, so John could ink samples for practice and critiques.
Around this time, John had, for a couple of years, been going to OrlandoCon, an annual comic book convention held in, you guessed it, Orlando, Florida. John and his long time friend, Craig Zablo ( the very talented site creator of Stallonezone, a Sylvester Stallone fansite ), would go over and make a weekend of it. John and Craig headed over to OrlandoCon and John decided to take some art samples to show the professional artists, such as Pat Broderick and Bob McLeod (who were living on the west coast of Florida in Tampa).
This was also the con where John met AC Comics publisher and artist, Bill Black. John showed samples to Bill and was offered inking work on the spot. John would get to ink Bill’s pencils at a rate of $7.00 per page.
John’s destiny seemed to lining up rather quickly… Bob McLeod tagged John to start doing some assistant work, such as filling in blacks and erasing pages. Soon Bob even let John do some background work from time to time!
It was now 1980. Everything was falling into place and all events were leading up to a big break. John decided to head down to the annual MiamiCon. He knew that Marvel Comics’ EIC, Jim Shooter would be there and John planned to show him new samples of his work. (Shooter had reviewed John’s work the previous year and said John was not quite ready.) So Beatty presented Shooter with new samples. Shooter looked over John’s art and said: “If you can come up to New York, I’ll give you a paid try out to work on.” In July 1980, John made the journey up and with the help of Mike Zeck got some gigs from both Marvel and DC.
John is not currently working on a “monthly”, though he spent 20 years doing so on titles such as Captain America, The Punisher, Secret Wars, The ‘Nam, The Adventures of Superman, Batman, JLA, and many, many more.
Currently, John works for the DC Licensing Department, where style guide art is created. This art is used for many things, including package design, clothing, and other things which DC needs to supply to its vendors.
John is a founding member and current Grand Poobah Imperial Master Chief in Arms of the Corduroy Mafia.
He also had a rather substantial mullet in the 80s.