Mike Okamoto (born Detroit, Michigan, United States) is an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator best known for his award-winning work on Marvel Comics' Atomic Age; as a prominent "good girl art" cartoonist; and as the five-time Golf Illustrator of the Year. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating Commercial art is a subsector of Creative services, and refers to Art created for commercial purposes primarily Advertising. Marvel Comics is an American comic book company owned by Marvel Publishing Inc Good girl art ( GGA) is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing Cartoons Traditionally much of this work was and still is humorous and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes

Biography

Early life and career

Atomic Age #1 (Nov. 1990): Cover art by Okamoto & Kevin Nowlan

Raised in Detroit, Mike Okamoto attended the Parsons School of Design, in New York City, on a full scholarship from 1971-1975. Parsons The New School for Design (abbreviated Parsons) is a Design school founded in 1896 (see below The City of New York Influenced by the work of such fine artists and comics artists as N.C. Wyeth, Carl Barks, Mort Drucker, Frank Frazetta, and Al Williamson, he began doing spot illustrations and other commercial art for magazines, developing a style of "realisic caricature" that has since been used by Drew Friedman and others. Fine art is any Art form developed primarily for Aesthetics rather than Utility. Newell Convers Wyeth ( October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945) known as N Carl Barks ( March 27, 1901 &ndash August 25, 2000) was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and Comic book creator who Mortimer "Mort" Drucker (born on March 29, 1929) is a Cartoonist born in Brooklyn New York. Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is an American fantasy and Science fiction Artist, noted for his Buck Rogers Al Williamson (born March 21 1931) is an American cartoonist comic book artist and illustrator of partly Colombian descent best known for his science-fiction A caricature is either a Portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness or in literature a description Drew Friedman is an American cartoonist who has long been renowned for his " Stippling "-like style of caricature employing thousands of pen-marks to simulate the look

He began in comic books illustrating writer Mike Barr's The Maze Agency #15 (Aug. A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms Mike W Barr, is an American writer of Comic books and mystery, and Science fiction novels The Maze Agency is an American mystery comic book series created by Mike W 1990) and Hero Alliance #11-12 (Nov. The Hero Alliance is a fictional American team of Comic book Superheroes in an eponymous series published by different companies -Dec. 1990) for Innovation Comics, where he later drew painted covers for the licensed series Lost in Space and drew the painted series Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality: On a Pale Horse. Innovation Publishing was an American Comic book company based in Wheeling West Virginia. Lost in Space is a Science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, produced by 20th Century Fox Television, and Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born August 6, 1934 in Oxford England) is an English American writer in the Science fiction Incarnations of Immortality is the name of an eight-book Fantasy series by Piers Anthony.

For Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1990, he and writer Frank Lovece created the four-volume graphic novel Atomic Age, a 1950s-style science fiction story reimagined from a contemporary perspective. Epic Comics was a creator-owned Imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982 lasting through the mid-1990s and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s Frank Lovece is an American Journalist, Author, Comedy performer and Comic-book Writer. A The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive Inker Al Williamson, one of Okamoto's role models, won the 1991 Eisner Award for Best Inker for his work here and elsewhere the preceding year. The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional Comic book, or Graphic novel. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American Comic books It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner Okamoto also painted a story for Epic's Clive Barker's Hellraiser series.

Later career

Hero Alliance #12 (Dec. 1990): Good girl art by Okamoto, inked by Mike Witherby

His other comics art includes the story "Nursery Crime" in Epic's Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Dark Holiday Special; and covers for the Chaos Comics miniseries Suspira: The Great Working (1992). Good girl art ( GGA) is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated until 2002 He is among the artists whose work appears in poet Hart D. Fisher's 1998 book Still Dead.

The actress June Lockhart commissined Okamoto for the painted portrait of her as Lost in Space character Maureen Robinson, which she sells as autographed posters. June Lockhart (born on June 25, 1925, in New York City, New York) is an American Television and Film Actress In the 2000s, Okamoto moved to Moundsville, West Virginia, where he has become an award-winning illustrator for golfing magazines. Moundsville is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally

With his wife, graphic designer and writer-editor Diana Light, Okamoto co-created the science fiction/fantasy project Zone21, which they show as a work-in-progress at comic book conventions. A graphic designer (also known as a graphic artist and communication designer) is a professional within the Graphic design and Graphic arts industry A fan convention, or con, is an event in which fans of a particular TV show, Comic book, or Actor, or an entire style of entertainment

Awards

For Atomic Age and for his painted work on Innovation's five-issue adaptation of the Piers Anthony novel On a Pale Horse in 1991, Okamoto won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, given annually at the San Diego Comic Con. The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award is an award presented to a Comic book artist whose first professional work appeared within the previous two years Comic-Con International San Diego, commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, is an annual multigenre Fan convention founded as the Golden

From 1999 to 2003, when he asked to be taken out of the running, Okamoto won the International Network of Golf Illustrator of the Year Award, for his work in Golf Illustrated magazine.

Quotes

Maurice Harter, The Monthly Aspectarian, on Suspira: The Great Working: "[T]his mini-series is worth a look-see for two reasons: the engaging story, and lavish airbrushed painted art which is gorgeous. Artist Mike Okamoto visualizes demons that are truly creepy". ^[1]

Nuclear Texts & Contexts #6 (Spring 1991): "Atomic Age. . . is a four-part series dealing with alien invaders set during the Sputnik era. . . . Although no nuclear war is featured, there is plenty of wry satire on Cold War paranoia, and on racism". Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that ^[2]

Footnotes

References

• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• The Grand Comic Book Database
• The Art Pages of Mike Okamoto (official site)
• The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award
• Clive Barker official site: Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Dark Holiday Special
• The Hellbound Web: Comics
• Lisfan #7 (1992), pp. 29-30: "Interview: Mike Okamoto"
• Thompson, Maggie, "'Atomic Age' Features '50s SF". Comics Buyer's Guide #885 (Nov. Comics Buyer's Guide ( (CBG is the second longest-running Periodical reporting on the Comic book industry 2, 1990)