William Messner-Loebs

William Messner-Loebs
William Messner-Loebs at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expos in Columbus, Ohio in 2007. Photograph by Margaret Liss.
Born	February 19, 1949 (1949-02-19) (age 59)
Occupation	Writer, Cartoonist
Nationality	American
Genres	superhero, historical
Notable work(s)	Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, Wonder Woman, The Flash
Influences Will Eisner

William Francis Messner-Loebs, Jr. (born February 19, 1949) is an American comic book writer and artist from Michigan, also known as Bill Loebs and Bill Messner-Loebs.

Since the 1980s he has written substantial runs of series published by DC, Image, Comico, and other smaller comics publishers, including both high-profile publisher-owned superheroes and original creator-owned works which he has also illustrated.

Biography

Loebs' right arm was amputated in infancy because of a cancerous tumor; he writes and draws with his left hand. His first comics work was for Power Comics and on Noble Comics' Justice Machine with Mike Gustovich. His first ongoing series was Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, about 19th century Michigan frontier life, which he both wrote and illustrated. It was published from 1983 to 1986 by Aardvark-Vanaheim and Fantagraphics, followed by a limited series Journey: Wardrums. He wrote the 31-issue Jonny Quest series published by Comico from 1986 to 1988.

In 1988, he took over writing the recently relaunched series The Flash with issue #15 and continued through #61 (penciled by Greg Larocque). Meanwhile he wrote Dr. Fate #25-41, and the Jaguar series for DC's Impact Comics imprint. He wrote Epicurus the Sage which was illustrated by Sam Kieth and scripted The Maxx (illustrated and co-written by Kieth).

In 1992 Loebs took over writing the Wonder Woman series begun several years earlier by George Pérez, with pencils by Mike Deodato. During his run from #63 to #100, he created the character Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, for whom he wrote the mini-series Artemis: Requiem. Meanwhile he wrote Hawkman #9-27, penciled primarily by Steve Lieber. In 1996 he had a brief run writing Marvel Comics' Thor. From 1997 to 1999 he wrote Impulse #29-49, penciled by Craig Rousseau. In 1999 he wrote a "V2K" mini-series Brave Old World for Vertigo, penciled by Guy Davis.

His financial situation, following years of limited freelance work and the loss of his and his wife's home in the early 2000s, was publicized in the local newspaper and comics news sites and message boards on the Internet.^[1][2][3]

His financial situation has improved since then, and he has had a number of works published, including an issue of Green Arrow in 2006, and a piece in The Three Tenors (Aardwolf Publishing). A new "Journey" story was included in the one-shot Many Happy Returns (About Comics) in 2008, and IDW Publishing is reprinting the original material in paperback.

Upcoming work includes Necronomicon for Boom! Studios.^{[4] [5]}

He is in talks with publishers for additional, more substantial new works.

Bibliography

• Necronomicon (with art by Andrew Ritchie, 4-issue mini-series, Boom! Studios, 2008-ongoing)

Awards

He received an Inkpot Award in 1987.

Notes

References

External links