Research 18 - 22

22. John Romita, Sr. was born the son of a baker in New York City, on January 24, 1930. Before 1947 he was educated at Manhattan's School of Industrial Art. While working at Forbes Lithograph in 1949, a friend offered to pay him to be a ghost penciler for a comic he was putting together. His friend was Lester Zakarin, and the company was Timely, which would eventually become Marvel. In 1951, Romita was drafted, and he attained the rank of corporal in about 8 months. He did work for Marvel, then DC, then returned to Marvel for his most famous work on "The Amazing Spider-Man." Later he was promoted to art director of Marvel, and still does pencil spots from time to time.


21. John Romita, Jr. was born in 1956 in New York City. He aspired to be a famous comic book artist like his father, John Romita, Sr. He started out drawing sketches for reprint covers for Marvel UK, but his first published work was a six-page comic in Spider-Man Annual #4. This was his breakthrough, and it bought him a 3 1/2 year stint on "Iron Man." He also spent three years on "The Amazing Spider-Man" before getting to work on "The Uncanny X-Men." He has worked on many projects since then, including "Cable," "Punisher War Zone," "Daredevil," and "Wolverine." He received the Inkpot Award in 1994 and an Eisner Award in 2002.


20. Jimmy Palmiotti was born August 16, 1961. He went to school at the High School of Art and Design, NY. In the late 1980s, he has been co-creating popular comic lines, like "Ash" and "Painkiller Jane." He continued his career at Marvel in 1991, doing inking on "Ghost Rider," "Punisher," and "The Nam." Since then he has done many more, and he wrote and storyboarded short films for Nike's "Hooptown." He has been dating Amanda Conner, known comic book artist. He frequently works with Justin Gray, and the three co-founded Paperflims.


19. Steve Dillon was born in the city of Big Ben, London, England in 1962. His first professional comic work was done at the tender age of 16, drawing Marvel UK's Hulk Weekly. Since then he has worked on numerous titles, like "Escape from the Planet of the Apes," "Nick Fury," "Doctor Who Magazine," "Hellblazer," "Preacher," "Hitman," "Punisher," and "Wolverine." He often collaborates with gritty writer Garth Ennis. Dillon spent a few years in Ireland before returning to England and settling in the town of Luton.


18. Rowena Morrill was born 1944. She began her twenty year career in New York City, where she resided all but four years of it. Her art deals with science-fiction and fantasy subjects and has been published in several famous magazines and books, for example "Omni" and "Playboy." She put out several books of her own, such as "The Art of Rowena," "Imagination," "The Fantastic Art of Rowena," "Tomorrow and Beyond," "Infinite Worlds," and "Imagine." Currently, she lives in the countryside near upstate New York because nature gives her inspiration.

Research 13 - 17

17. Julie Bell was born in Beaumont, TX, in 1958. Despite frequent moving during her childhood, Bell kept working on her interest in art. She took classes at six different colleges, and it certainly paid off. She has done work for many major companies, like Coke, Nike, and Ford. She has also worked for DC, Image, and was the first woman to do a Conan cover for Marvel Comics. Perhaps her most famous idea is her "metal flesh" painting, which broke ground on the cover of Heavy Metal. She took up body building, and she is happily married to Boris Vallejo.


16. Boris Vallejo spent his early years in his hometown of Lima, Peru. At first he desired a career as a concert violinist, but after seven years of lessons he changed his mind, and switched over to medicine. His new interest only lasted for 2 years before he decided that his real calling was art. He received a 5 year scholarship at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes where he won a gold medal for his art. With only a few dollars to his name and not knowing English, Vallejo left for the United States. His first job was illustrating for a department store, but 8 years later he decided to become a freelance artist. From the 1970s Vallejo has illustrated over 300 covers, not limited to Tarzan, Conan, Heavy Metal, and cards for Marvel.


15. Kris Verwimp is from Belgium, where he paints a great deal of epic battle-type pictures, which become album covers and illustrations for a host of metal bands. His first album cover was commissioned in 1993 for Ancient Rites's album "The Diabolic Serenades." Verwimp shies away from computer-generated pictures, preferring to work in acrylics on paper or cardboard. As a boy, he went to see the movie Conan, and he was also influenced by Frank Frazetta and X-Men comics, plus many other comics.


14. "Don" Ed Hardy spent his childhood in Southern California, where he was born in 1945. He studied tattooing under a man named Sailor Jerry, but Hardy is known for his need to experiment with tattoo designs. He kept inking tattoos for a total of forty years, and he is now known as the godfather of contemporary tattoos. His designs incorporate Japanese, American, Cholo, surf, and hotrod cultural images. However, Hardy currently pursues other forms of art, having retired from inking. He enjoys printmaking, painting, and of course, drawing. He participated in many exhibitions to date, and even curated a show called, "Pierced Hearts and True Love" in New York at The Drawing Center.


13. Rob Sato was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. He graduated from California College of Arts and Crafts with a B.F.A. His work has been shown in numerous shows in California, to name just a few: Game Over, Printed Matter, Dirty Paper Machines, Sacred & Profane, You Only Exist Because of Us, Unofficial Masters, Just Say No, and From the Collection of a Swiss Lady. Sato received a grant in 2004 for "Burying Sandwiches" from Xeric Foundation of Self Publishing.