American artist, born in 1970. He was born in
Portland, Oregon, and raised in
Lubbock, Texas, where he was
drawing
pictures from out of TV
commercials while he was still just a
toddler. While he received
art tips from his
mother, a
commercial artist, he picked up his
beliefs on
morality from his
father, a
minister who ran a
children's shelter, among other charitable works.
And he discovered
comic books, which began to
influence his artistic style. Besides some of the obvious influences, like
Berni Wrightson and
George Perez, he also admired
Norman Rockwell, whose
photorealistic painting and attention to
detail appealed to Ross.
He attended the
American Academy of Art in
Chicago, where he began toying with the idea of painting comics. Most comic books are drawn (or penciled) by one person, inked by another, and colored by someone else. There had been painted comics before, but they were usually either
impressionistic or
surrealist and didn't appeal to very many comics readers. After graduating, Ross worked at an
advertising agency and did a little work in comics on the side. His work caught the eye of writer
Kurt Busiek, who suggested a
collaboration.
The result was 1993's "
Marvels", which looked at the
Golden and
Silver Ages of
Marvel Comics through the eyes of a
photojournalist named
Phil Sheldon. Ross' artwork helped make the miniseries wildly
popular--he knew how to draw the
human body realistically, with
fat and
wrinkles and non-cartoonish
muscles and honest-to-god
facial expressions; he knew
light and
shadow, and how different
light sources would affect the appearance of something you saw; he knew how to draw
clothing that wasn't just painted-on
spandex, clothing that actually
wrinkled like real clothing. His characters--
superheroes and
normal folks alike--looked like
real people. They looked like they'd stepped out of a
photograph or out of a
movie. His artwork helped make "Marvels" an even more
powerful piece of
storytelling--the readers got to know
Gwen Stacy as a person, watched the
common man's reaction to the coming of
Galactus, and worried over what finally happened to the little
mutant girl. It was a massive,
star-making accomplishment.
Ross followed up "Marvels" with the equally-
impressive "
Kingdom Come" at
DC. Written by
Mark Waid and set about 20 years into the
future of the
DC Universe, "Kingdom Come" was a literally
apocalyptic vision of a world where
Superman has been forgotten in favor of flashier, more
violent superhumans. The
story is told mainly through the eyes of
Norman McCay, an
elderly minister who is chosen by
the Spectre to observe the coming
disasters. McCay was also the
spitting image of Ross' father, making "Kingdom Come" a more much
personal book than "Marvels" had been. And again, "Kingdom Come" was a
triumph for Ross--copies of the series quickly
vanished from comics stores as readers clamored both for Ross' artwork and for visions of what the future held for
Superman,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
Captain Marvel, and others. The series was so
popular that, for a while, DC planned on making it their
official model for their future
continuity.
Ross began working on smaller-scale projects, though he still had time to work on comics like "
Uncle Sam," "
Earth X," "
Justice," and the 60th
anniversary portfolios of Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman. Ross took care of character designs for Kurt Busiek's "
Astro City" and
covers for a huge number of comics. He also painted a series of covers for "
TV Guide" and created
promotional artwork for the 2002
Academy Awards -- probably the first time that
an inanimate golden statue has been painted to look like a superhero. He painted covers for a couple of albums by heavy metal band
Anthrax. And he produced a number of illustrations which were used during the opening credits of the "
Spider-Man 2" movie.
Just to keep this from being a total love letter for Ross, I've always had some big problems with some aspects of Ross art and personality. First, he litters his art with
in-jokes,
cameos, and
easter eggs. While it can be fun to search through his work and try to find the
cool stuff he's hidden, it can also seriously
distract the reader from the story when they discover panels featuring
Bjork,
Gregory Peck,
Don Knotts,
the Beatles,
the Village People,
Fat Albert, and even
Popeye. Second, Ross has a tendency to let his
ego and his unwavering
devotion to the Silver Age get away from him. He's got an ongoing feud with
Kevin Smith, because Smith pooh-poohed Silver Age artist Steve Ditko. Ross also quit working for a while on "Astro City", either because he was
unhappy with the direction Busiek was taking the book (although Busiek had created the
concept behind Astro City long, long before Ross came on board) or because he felt like Busiek was
slacking off (Busiek had a near-fatal case of
mercury poisoning and had stopped working on "Astro City" to recover). Ross is also part of the crowd that hates Kyle Rayner (the character who replaced
Hal Jordan, the Silver Age's
Green Lantern) with a blind, seething, unreasoning
rage and has said he wants to bring Jordan and the full Green Lantern Corps back, despite the fact that tearing up continuity to satisfy Alex Ross' Silver Age
cravings would surely cost DC a huge number of
readers and
money. Ross, quite frankly, can often dish out more
irritation to me than a whole legion of Todd McFarlanes or Rob Liefelds--but I still dig out "Marvels" and "Kingdom Come" regularly to let myself be
astonished by his
beautiful paintings...
Some research from the biography at Ross' website, http://www.alexrossart.com
Additional info from nrkblue