Kyle Baker
Encyclopedia
Kyle John Baker is an American
cartoonist
, comic book
writer-artist, and animator
known for his graphic novel
s and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man
.
Baker has won numerous Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for his work in the comics field.
, New York City
, the son of art director
John M. Baker and high-school audiovisual-department manager Eleanor L. Baker. He has a brother and a sister. Their parents had both attended Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn
, New York
, and their father, who "worked in advertising [and] made junk mail", would "draw pictures for us and entertain us." Aside from this exposure to art, Baker has said, his early artistic influences included comic book
artist Jack Kirby
, caricaturist
Jack Davis
, and painter and magazine illustrator Norman Rockwell
. He noted:
Other influences included the Charlton Comics
artwork of Jim Aparo
and Steve Ditko
.
, Baker became an intern at Marvel Comics
, making photocopies and filing fan mail. "I sort of fell into Marvel because I happened to know somebody there," he said. "But I always thought I was going to do funny stuff" rather than superhero
comics. He became background assistant to Marvel inker
Josef Rubinstein
, and later also assisted Vince Colletta
and Andy Mushynski. He cited Marvel artists Walt Simonson
, Al Milgrom
and Larry Hama
and writer and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter
as providing him art and storytelling advice. Part of his duties involved photocopying, and he would take copies of John Buscema
penciling home on which to practice inking
. While working for Marvel, Baker attended the School of Visual Arts
, in Manhattan
, studying graphic design
and printmaking
, but dropped out after two years. Through that connection, however, he began freelancing with famed graphic designer Milton Glaser
, an SVA instructor, assisting him on a set of children's books
.
Baker's first credited work at Marvel is penciling the half-page entry "Kid Commandos
" in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #13 (Feb.1984). After a handful of inking assignments on issues of Transformers
, The Avengers Annual
#14 (1985) and elsewhere, Baker made his professional story-illustration debut as penciler and inker of the publisher Lodestone Comics' Codename: Danger #2 (Oct. 1985), with a 23-page story written by Brian Marshall, Mike Harris, and Robert Loren Fleming
. Cover penciling and more interior inking for Marvel and occasionally DC followed. His first story penciling for one of the two major comics companies was the three-issue Howard The Duck
: The Movie (Dec. 1986 - Feb. 1987), adapting the 1986 film Howard the Duck
, and which he self-inked.
During this time, Baker also attempted to sell humor spot illustrations, but was rejected by the major newspaper
syndicates
. Jim Salicrup
, a Marvel editor, did commission him "to write a few one-panel gags about [the superhero team] the X-Men
", titled "It's Genetic" and appearing in the Marvel-produced fan magazine Marvel Age
.
of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in Baker's sample strips of the character Cowboy Wally, "and asked if I had any more. I lied and said I did." This led to the 128-page graphic novel
Cowboy Wally. "The character of Noel was pretty much based on me," Baker said in 1999. "I lie all the time. The first part of the books is the collected strips, and the other three chapters were written for the book. "It didn't sell many copies," Baker said, "but at least it convinced DC[ Comics]
I should be allowed to draw, not just ink."
Baker went on to draw DC's 1980s comics revival of the pulp fiction
hero The Shadow
, beginning with The Shadow Annual #2 (1988), followed by the monthly series from issue #7 to the final issue, #19 (Feb. 1988 - Jan. 1989). He did assorted other DC work including Justice, Inc.. In 1990, Baker and writer Len Wein
produced three issues of Dick Tracy
for The Walt Disney Company
's Hollywood Comics, the first two issues containing original stories, the third adaption the 1990 Dick Tracy film.
He began scripting comics around this time: Baker penciled and inked First Comics
' Classics Illustrated
#3 & 21 (Feb. 1990 & March 1991), adapting, respectively, Through the Looking Glass and Cyrano de Bergerac
While Peter David
scripted the latter, Baker himself wrote the adaptation of the Lewis Carroll
work. "I'd never planned to become a writer," Baker said in 1999. "I wrote short gags, like the kind you see in the newspapers and Cowboy Wally, but not stories. I only learned to write stories because people kept paying me to write them. In the years 1991-1994, 90 percent of my income was from writing, and I received very few offers to draw. I figured I should learn to write."
Baker achieved recognition and won an Eisner Award
for his 1990 graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn, published by the DC Comics imprint
Piranha Press
. Baker said in 1999 of his breakthrough work,
Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in BusinessWeek
, Details
, Entertainment Weekly
, ESPN
, Esquire
, Guitar World
, Mad
, National Lampoon, New York
, The New York Times
, Rolling Stone
, Spin magazine, Us, Vibe
, and The Village Voice
. He spent three years illustrating the weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for New York
magazine.
and MTV
, and in animated Looney Tunes
projects, including the animated feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action
. Baker was "guest art director" for Cartoon Network's Class of 3000
, and storyboard
ed the Class of 3000 Christmas special.
in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring the hip hop
singer KRS-ONE
, called "Break The Chain". Marvel Comics had published Break the Chain as a comic book packaged with a read-along hip-hop audiocassette. That same year and next, he contributed to the four-issue Dark Horse Comics
humor anthology Instant Piano (Dec. 1994 - June 1995), including drawing the cover of the premiere. For another anthology, DC's Elseworlds
80-Page Giant #1 (Aug. 1999), Baker drew, colored
, lettered
and with his wife, teacher Elizabeth Glass, whom he married July 18, 1998, wrote the 10-page parallel universe
story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter
". It would win a "Best Short Story" Eisner Award
despite DC destroying all copies intended for the North American
market after deeming some of the content unsuitable, through copies were still distributed in Europe
.
Baker said in 1999 he was writing a Christmas movie
for Paramount Pictures
, titled U Betta Watch Out, and was animating a TV-movie title Corey Q. Jeeters, I'm Telling on You.
At this point in his career, Baker stated in an interview, "Nobody tells me what to write or how to draw. Only an idiot would dare tell Kyle Baker how to make a good cartoon. Hollywood and the magazine world are full of idiots. They water my stuff down and make it unfunny."
#1-4 (Jan.-April 2003), a Captain America
storyline with parallels to the Tuskegee experiment. He also wrote and drew all but one issue (#7) of the 20-issue comedic adventure series Plastic Man
vol. 4 (Feb. 2004 - March 2006), starring the Golden Age of Comic Books
superhero
created by Jack Cole
for Quality Comics
. Baker contributed to the Dark Horse Comics
series The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist
, a spin-off of Michael Chabon
's 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 two anthologies, Cartoonist and Cartoonist Vol. 2: Now with More Bakers. He has also continued to provide comics material sporadically to Marvel, DC and Image Comics
through at least 2010. In 2007 and 2008, Image Comics
published Baker's six-issue Image Comics
miniseries Special Forces, a teen-soldier military satire
that criticizes the exhortation of felons and disabled Americans into military service. The New York Times
reviewed the 2009 trade-paperback collection of the first four issues, calling it "the harshest, most serrated satire of the Iraq War yet published."
In 2008, Watson-Guptill published How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning, Baker's art instruction book. That same year, Baker hosted the comics industry's Harvey Award
s. In 2010, he became regular artist on Marvel Comic' mature-audience MAX
-imprint
series, Deadpool Max.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer-artist, and animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
known for his graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man
Plastic Man
Plastic Man is a fictional comic-book superhero originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 ....
.
Baker has won numerous Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards for his work in the comics field.
Early life and career
Kyle Baker was born in the borough of QueensQueens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the son of art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
John M. Baker and high-school audiovisual-department manager Eleanor L. Baker. He has a brother and a sister. Their parents had both attended Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and their father, who "worked in advertising [and] made junk mail", would "draw pictures for us and entertain us." Aside from this exposure to art, Baker has said, his early artistic influences included comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
, caricaturist
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
, and painter and magazine illustrator Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
. He noted:
Other influences included the Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...
artwork of Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo
James N. "Jim" Aparo was an American comic book artist best known for his 1960s and 1970s DC Comics work, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre....
and Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....
.
Breaking into comics
In his senior year of high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, Baker became an intern at 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...
, making photocopies and filing fan mail. "I sort of fell into Marvel because I happened to know somebody there," he said. "But I always thought I was going to do funny stuff" rather than superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
comics. He became background assistant to Marvel inker
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
Josef Rubinstein
Josef Rubinstein
Josef "Joe" Rubinstein is a comic book artist and inker, most associated with inking Marvel Comics' The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.-Career:...
, and later also assisted Vince Colletta
Vince Colletta
Vincent Joseph Colletta was an American comic book artist and art director best known as one of industry legend Jack Kirby's frequent inkers during the 1950s-1960s period called the Silver Age of comic books...
and Andy Mushynski. He cited Marvel artists Walt Simonson
Walt Simonson
Walter "Walt" Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist. After studying geology at Amherst College, he transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972. His thesis project there was The Star Slammers, which was published as a black and white promotional comic book...
, Al Milgrom
Al Milgrom
Allen "Al" Milgrom is an American comic book writer, penciller, inker and editor, primarily for Marvel Comics. He is known for his 10-year run as editor of Marvel Fanfare; his long involvement as writer, penciler, and inker on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man; his four-year tenure as West...
and Larry Hama
Larry Hama
Larry Hama is an American comic book writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s....
and writer and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter
Jim Shooter
James Shooter is an American writer, occasional fill-in artist, editor, and publisher for various comic books. Although he started professionally in the medium at the extraordinarily young age of 14, he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comics' ninth...
as providing him art and storytelling advice. Part of his duties involved photocopying, and he would take copies of John Buscema
John Buscema
John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...
penciling home on which to practice inking
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
. While working for Marvel, Baker attended the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
, in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, studying graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
, but dropped out after two years. Through that connection, however, he began freelancing with famed graphic designer Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
, an SVA instructor, assisting him on a set of children's books
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
.
Baker's first credited work at Marvel is penciling the half-page entry "Kid Commandos
Kid Commandos
The Kid Commandos is a fictional organization in the Marvel Universe.-Publication history:The Kid Commandos first appeared as a team in Invaders #28 , and were created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins....
" in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #13 (Feb.1984). After a handful of inking assignments on issues of Transformers
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
, The Avengers Annual
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...
#14 (1985) and elsewhere, Baker made his professional story-illustration debut as penciler and inker of the publisher Lodestone Comics' Codename: Danger #2 (Oct. 1985), with a 23-page story written by Brian Marshall, Mike Harris, and Robert Loren Fleming
Robert Loren Fleming
Robert Loren Fleming is an American comic book writer.-Biography:Fleming worked for DC Comics initially as a proofreader and later writer, creating Thriller, and was writing an Aquaman limited series and one-shot special in 1989 with plotter/breakdown artist Keith Giffen and artist Curt Swan.He is...
. Cover penciling and more interior inking for Marvel and occasionally DC followed. His first story penciling for one of the two major comics companies was the three-issue Howard The Duck
Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, "funny...
: The Movie (Dec. 1986 - Feb. 1987), adapting the 1986 film Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck (film)
Howard the Duck is a 1986 American science fiction comedy film directed by Willard Huyck and produced by George Lucas. It is loosely based on the Marvel comic book of the same name, created by Steve Gerber and quoting scripts by Bill Mantlo, the film focuses on Howard, an alien from a planet...
, and which he self-inked.
During this time, Baker also attempted to sell humor spot illustrations, but was rejected by the major newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
syndicates
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
. Jim Salicrup
Jim Salicrup
Jim Salicrup is an American comic book editor, known for his tenures at Marvel Comics and Topps Comics. At Marvel, where he worked for twenty years, he edited books such as The Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers and various Spider-Man titles...
, a Marvel editor, did commission him "to write a few one-panel gags about [the superhero team] the X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
", titled "It's Genetic" and appearing in the Marvel-produced fan magazine Marvel Age
Marvel Age
Marvel Adventures is an imprint of Marvel Comics intended for younger audiences, including small children. Unlike the standard comics published by Marvel, which often take place in story arcs spanning several issues, each Marvel Adventures comic tells a standalone story.The idea was initially...
.
First graphic novel
At the recommendation of freelance artist Ron Fontes, an editor at the Dolphin imprintImprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in Baker's sample strips of the character Cowboy Wally, "and asked if I had any more. I lied and said I did." This led to the 128-page graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
Cowboy Wally. "The character of Noel was pretty much based on me," Baker said in 1999. "I lie all the time. The first part of the books is the collected strips, and the other three chapters were written for the book. "It didn't sell many copies," Baker said, "but at least it convinced DC
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...
I should be allowed to draw, not just ink."
Baker went on to draw DC's 1980s comics revival of the pulp fiction
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
hero The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
, beginning with The Shadow Annual #2 (1988), followed by the monthly series from issue #7 to the final issue, #19 (Feb. 1988 - Jan. 1989). He did assorted other DC work including Justice, Inc.. In 1990, Baker and writer Len Wein
Len Wein
Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...
produced three issues of Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
for The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
's Hollywood Comics, the first two issues containing original stories, the third adaption the 1990 Dick Tracy film.
He began scripting comics around this time: Baker penciled and inked First Comics
First Comics
First Comics was an American comic-book publisher that was active from 1983–1991, known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable...
' Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
#3 & 21 (Feb. 1990 & March 1991), adapting, respectively, Through the Looking Glass and Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac
Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac was a French dramatist and duelist. He is now best remembered for the works of fiction which have been woven, often very loosely, around his life story, most notably the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand...
While Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
scripted the latter, Baker himself wrote the adaptation of the Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
work. "I'd never planned to become a writer," Baker said in 1999. "I wrote short gags, like the kind you see in the newspapers and Cowboy Wally, but not stories. I only learned to write stories because people kept paying me to write them. In the years 1991-1994, 90 percent of my income was from writing, and I received very few offers to draw. I figured I should learn to write."
Why I Hate Saturn, commercial illustration
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for his 1990 graphic novel Why I Hate Saturn, published by the DC Comics imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
Piranha Press
Piranha Press
Piranha Press, an imprint of DC Comics from 1989 to 1994, was a response by DC to the growing interest in alternative comics. The imprint was edited by Mark Nevelow, who instead of developing comics with the established names in the alternative comics field, chose to introduce several unknown...
. Baker said in 1999 of his breakthrough work,
Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...
, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
, Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, National Lampoon, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Spin magazine, Us, Vibe
VIBE
Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers...
, and The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
. He spent three years illustrating the weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine.
Animation
Baker's animation has appeared on BETBlack Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, and in animated Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
projects, including the animated feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
. Baker was "guest art director" for Cartoon Network's Class of 3000
Class of 3000
Class of 3000 is an American animated television series on Cartoon Network that was created by, was executively produced by, and starred André 3000 of the Hip Hop group OutKast as superstar and music teacher Sunny Bridges, set at Atlanta, Georgia's Westley School of Performing Arts. Mr...
, and storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
ed the Class of 3000 Christmas special.
in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring the hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
singer KRS-ONE
KRS-One
Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...
, called "Break The Chain". Marvel Comics had published Break the Chain as a comic book packaged with a read-along hip-hop audiocassette. That same year and next, he contributed to the four-issue Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
humor anthology Instant Piano (Dec. 1994 - June 1995), including drawing the cover of the premiere. For another anthology, DC's Elseworlds
Elseworlds
Elseworlds is the publication imprint for a group of comic books produced by DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others...
80-Page Giant #1 (Aug. 1999), Baker drew, colored
Colorist
In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates...
, lettered
Letterer
A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comic's "display lettering": the story title lettering and...
and with his wife, teacher Elizabeth Glass, whom he married July 18, 1998, wrote the 10-page parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter
Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter
"Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" is a comic book story by Kyle Baker, co-written with Liz Glass.-Publication history:The story originally appeared in DC Comics' parallel universe anthology Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 . Baker drew, colored, lettered and, with Elizabeth Glass, wrote the...
". It would win a "Best Short Story" Eisner Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
despite DC destroying all copies intended for the North American
North American
North American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
market after deeming some of the content unsuitable, through copies were still distributed in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Baker said in 1999 he was writing a Christmas movie
Christmas movie
Christmas or Christmas Day is a holidaygenerally observed on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. Although nominally a Christian holiday, Christmas is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians worldwide...
for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, titled U Betta Watch Out, and was animating a TV-movie title Corey Q. Jeeters, I'm Telling on You.
At this point in his career, Baker stated in an interview, "Nobody tells me what to write or how to draw. Only an idiot would dare tell Kyle Baker how to make a good cartoon. Hollywood and the magazine world are full of idiots. They water my stuff down and make it unfunny."
2000s
Baker drew writer Robert Morales' Marvel Comics miniseries TruthTruth: Red, White & Black
Truth: Red, White & Black is a seven-issue comic book limited series written by Robert Morales and drawn by Kyle Baker, published by Marvel Comics.- Synopsis :...
#1-4 (Jan.-April 2003), a Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
storyline with parallels to the Tuskegee experiment. He also wrote and drew all but one issue (#7) of the 20-issue comedic adventure series Plastic Man
Plastic Man
Plastic Man is a fictional comic-book superhero originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 ....
vol. 4 (Feb. 2004 - March 2006), starring the Golden Age of Comic Books
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
created by Jack Cole
Jack Cole (artist)
Jack Ralph Cole was an American comic book artist and Playboy magazine cartoonist best known for creating the comedic superhero Plastic Man....
for Quality Comics
Quality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....
. Baker contributed to the Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
series The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist
The Escapist (character)
The Escapist is a metafictional character, a comic book hero in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, written by Michael Chabon, created as an homage to the heroes of the period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books...
, a spin-off of Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
's 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
Nat Turner
Nathaniel "Nat" Turner was an American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 60 white deaths and at least 100 black deaths, the largest number of fatalities to occur in one uprising prior to the American Civil War in the southern United States. He gathered...
, and published the series The Bakers, based on his family life, in two anthologies, Cartoonist and Cartoonist Vol. 2: Now with More Bakers. He has also continued to provide comics material sporadically to Marvel, DC and Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
through at least 2010. In 2007 and 2008, Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
published Baker's six-issue Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
miniseries Special Forces, a teen-soldier military satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
that criticizes the exhortation of felons and disabled Americans into military service. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reviewed the 2009 trade-paperback collection of the first four issues, calling it "the harshest, most serrated satire of the Iraq War yet published."
In 2008, Watson-Guptill published How to Draw Stupid and Other Essentials of Cartooning, Baker's art instruction book. That same year, Baker hosted the comics industry's Harvey Award
Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
s. In 2010, he became regular artist on Marvel Comic' mature-audience MAX
MAX (comics)
MAX is an imprint of Marvel Comics aimed at a niche 'adults only' audience, launched in 2001 after Marvel broke with the Comics Code Authority and established its own rating system...
-imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
series, Deadpool Max.
Awards
- Eisner AwardEisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
, Best Writer/Artist: Humor:- 1999 - Kyle Baker, You Are Here (DC ComicsDC ComicsDC 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...
/VertigoVertigo (comics)Vertigo is an imprint of the American comic-book publisher DC Comics. Its books are marketed to a sophisticated audience, and may contain graphic violence, substance abuse, frank depictions of sexuality, profanity, and controversial subjects...
) - 2000 - Kyle Baker, I Die at Midnight (DC/Vertigo); "Letitia Lerner, Superman's BabysitterLetitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter"Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" is a comic book story by Kyle Baker, co-written with Liz Glass.-Publication history:The story originally appeared in DC Comics' parallel universe anthology Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 . Baker drew, colored, lettered and, with Elizabeth Glass, wrote the...
" in ElseworldsElseworldsElseworlds is the publication imprint for a group of comic books produced by DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others...
80-Page Giant #1 (DC) - 2004 - Kyle Baker, Plastic ManPlastic ManPlastic Man is a fictional comic-book superhero originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by writer-artist Jack Cole, he first appeared in Police Comics #1 ....
(DC); The New Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing) - 2005 - Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); Kyle Baker, Cartoonist (Kyle Baker Publishing)
- 2006 - Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); The Bakers (Kyle Baker Publishing)
- 1999 - Kyle Baker, You Are Here (DC Comics
- Eisner Award, Best Short Story:
- 2000 - "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" by Kyle Baker in Elseworlds 80-Page Giant (DC)
- Eisner Award, Best New Series:
- 2004 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker (DC)
- Eisner Award, Best Title for Younger Readers/Best Comics Publication for a Younger Audience:
- 2005 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker and Scott MorseScott MorseScott Morse is an American animator, filmmaker, and comic book artist/writer.Much of Morse's published work consists of stand-alone graphic novels, although he is perhaps best known for his epic series Soulwind, a story serialised in a sequence of graphic novels, which was nominated for both the...
(DC)
- 2005 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker and Scott Morse
- Harvey AwardHarvey AwardThe Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
, Best Graphic Album of Original Work:- 1991 - Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker (Piranha PressPiranha PressPiranha Press, an imprint of DC Comics from 1989 to 1994, was a response by DC to the growing interest in alternative comics. The imprint was edited by Mark Nevelow, who instead of developing comics with the established names in the alternative comics field, chose to introduce several unknown...
) - 1999 - You Are Here by Kyle Baker (Paradox PressParadox PressParadox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton the imprint was renamed. It is best known for graphic novels like A History of Violence and Road to Perdition...
)
- 1991 - Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker (Piranha Press
- Harvey Award, Best New Series:
- 2005 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker (DC)
- Harvey Award, Special Award for Humor:
- 2005 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker (DC)
- 2006 - Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker (DC)
- 2006 Glyph Comics AwardsGlyph Comics AwardsThe Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and...
- Story of the Year - Nat TurnerNat TurnerNathaniel "Nat" Turner was an American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 60 white deaths and at least 100 black deaths, the largest number of fatalities to occur in one uprising prior to the American Civil War in the southern United States. He gathered...
, Kyle Baker, writer and artist - Best Artist: Kyle Baker, Nat Turner
- Best Cover: Nat Turner #1, Kyle Baker, illustrator
- Story of the Year - Nat Turner
- 2007 Glyph Comics Awards
- Best Artist: Kyle Baker, The Bakers
- 2008 Glyph Comics Awards
- Best Artist: Kyle Baker, Nat Turner: Revolution
External links
- QualityJollity.com (official site)
- Kyle Baker's official blog
- Archive of KyleBaker.com (former official site)
- Mathews, Ed. "Interview: Kyle Baker", PopImage, 2005, n.d.
- Kyle Baker at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators