J. Scott Campbell

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J. Scott Campbell
Danger Girl

Jeffery Scott Campbell (born April 12, 1973) is an American

Wildstorm Comics, though he has since done work for Marvel Comics (most notably as a cover artist on The Amazing Spider-Man), and the video game industry
.

Early life

Jeffery Scott Campbell was born in

Denver, Colorado, which he regards as his home. He has a younger sister, who is a digital architect who fills out the orders for Campbell's e-commerce website, and a younger brother who is a musician.[1]

As a child, Campbell was interested in cartoons, rather than comics. He first became interested in comics when, as a teenager, he visited a friend's house, where his friend showed him

Uncanny X-Men Annual #10, which featured artwork by Arthur Adams,[2] whose style would greatly influence Campbell's own.[3][4] Campbell, explains, "I immediately went nuts over the book. That book had such detail. The art was fantastic. It just started me going. It just turned me around. All of a sudden I wanted to do this, and I felt I could." Campbell began collecting, purchasing books based on the art, not the title, which he says made his collecting habits somewhat difficult at times.[2]

In 1989, Campbell, then age fifteen, entered for and won an "Invent the Ultimate Video Game" contest featured in the issue 6 of Nintendo's official magazine, Nintendo Power, whereby submitted contest entries were to consist of drawings and concepts for a video game. Color drawings from "Lockarm," the videogame idea he pitched, were published in the magazine as the winning entry.[5]

Career

Wildstorm / DC Comics

Campbell (left) was greatly influenced by Arthur Adams (right), seen here during an appearance at Campbell's booth at the 2017 New York Comic Con.

After graduating from high school in

WildC.A.T.S Sourcebook.[2][6] and Stormwatch #0.[2]

Campbell went on to co-create the teen superhero team

Deathmate Black (September 1993), before going on to star in their own five-issue miniseries in January 1994. The series was initially co-written by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, but Campbell became a co-writer with issue #3. The team was eventually given their own regular ongoing series, which debuted in March 1995.[2]
Campbell was co-writer on the series until issue #18, and was the regular artist, leaving the book after issue #20 (June 1997).

In 1998, Campbell, together with fellow comics artists

Danger Girl
through this imprint. The story, which followed the adventures of a group of female secret agents, made the most of Campbell's talents drawing well-endowed women and dramatic action sequences.

The

Danger Girl series has since generated a video game for the Sony PlayStation
, as well as several comic spinoffs in the forms of limited series and one-shots that were drawn by different artists in the American comics industry. Most of these spin-offs featured story outlines from Campbell himself.

In August 2005, Campbell published Wildsiderz, which he co-created with his Danger Girl writing partner Andy Hartnell.

In February 2006, the 200th issue of Nintendo Power included a poster featuring prominent Nintendo characters drawn by Campbell in his unique art style, along with an interview whereby Campbell recalled his memories of the "Invent the Ultimate Video Game" Contest.[dead link][7]

That same year, Campbell provided a variant incentive cover for Justice League of America (vol. 2) #0, the first issue of Brad Meltzer's run on the title.

In 2007, Campbell illustrated the covers to the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash six-issue limited series.

Marvel Comics

Campbell at the 2017 New York Comic Con

At the WizardWorld 2006 Comic Convention held in Los Angeles, Marvel Comics announced that Campbell signed an exclusive contract with the company, and to work on a Spider-Man series with writer Jeph Loeb.[8] Between 2001 and 2013 Campbell did numerous covers for The Amazing Spider-Man, including issues 30 - 35 in 2001, 50 - 52 and 500 in 2003, and seven issues done sporadically from issues 601 in 2009 and 700 in 2013. His cover to issue #30 was used as the cover of the 2003 trade paperback that collected issues 30 and 31.

In October 2016, Marvel Comics and New York-based retailer

reverse engineered one of Iron Man's armored suits to wear herself, in a midriff-baring crop top, in contrast to the more modest way in which artist Stefano Caselli depicted the character in the book's interior art. Campbell called the decision "unfortunate," explained that his rendition of the character was intended to depict "a sassy, coming-of-age young woman". He regarded the reaction to the cover as a "faux controversy", saying, "I gave her a sassy 'attitude'...'sexualizing' was not intended. This reaction is odd." Brian Michael Bendis, the writer on the series, was pleased with the decision to pull the cover, saying that while he liked the face Campbell had drawn on Riri when he viewed the art as a work in progress, he disliked the completed art, saying, "Specialty covers are not in my purview and it was being produced separately from the work of the people involved in making the comic. Not to pass the buck but that’s the fact. If I had seen a sketch or something I would have voiced similar concerns. I am certain the next version will be amazing."[11]

Technique and materials

Campbell sketching

Campbell does his pencil with a

electric eraser. He often sharpens the eraser to a cornered edge in order to render fine detailed work.[14]

References

  1. ^ Chiu, Bobby (January 18, 2011). "J. Scott Campbell Interview 02 of 06". Bobby Chiu/YouTube. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Wizard #41 (January 1995). pp 125 - 126.
  3. ^ Cooke, Jon B. "The Art of Arthur Adams". Reprinted from Comic Book Artist #17, November 15, 2001
  4. CBR.com. Archived from the original
    on March 14, 2020.
  5. ^ "Jeffery Scott Campbell Unlocks His Imagination". Nintendo Power. Vol. 1, no. 6. 1989. p. 95.
  6. Wildstorm Productions
    . pp. 11, 17, 19, 26 and 30.
  7. ^ "Go Behind the Scenes with Comic Genius and Nintendo Super Fan J. Scott Campbell". Nintendo Power. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  8. ^ "J. Scott Campbell signs exclusive with Marvel". Newsarama. 2006-03-17. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  9. CBR.com
    . Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  10. The Mary Sue
    . Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  11. ^ Flood, Alison (October 21, 2016). "Marvel pulls Iron Man cover after accusations of 'sexualising' teenage girl". The Guardian. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  12. ^ a b c Campbell, J. Scott (March 4, 2008). "Pencils". DeviantArt. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  13. ^ Campbell, J. Scott (September 15, 2015). "Untitled". Twitter. Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  14. ^ Campbell, J. Scott (March 4, 2008). "Drawing Supplies Erasers". DeviantArt. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.

External links