Mike Allred

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox comics creator Michael Dalton "Mike" Allred (born 1962) is an American comic book artist and writer. He is most well known for his independent comics creation Madman and for co-creating and drawing the comic book series iZombie. His work often draws upon pop art, as well as commercial and comic art of the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

Michael Dalton Allred was born in 1962 in Roseburg, Oregon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His father, Dale Leroy Allred (May 20, 1926 – October 5, 2007),Template:Sfn was born in Portland, Oregon. He was a psychologist and professor at Umpqua Community College and the University of Oregon, and received a Doctor of Philosophy in 1959 at Purdue University.Template:Sfn Allred's mother, RaeBell Jenkins (née Bird; July 19, 1934 – February 17, 2014), was born in Bluebell, Utah. The two married in December 1951 in Salt Lake City, Utah.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1973, Allred's parents divorced, and he stayed with his father in Eugene, Oregon, while his brothers and mother moved to Utah.<ref name="SlateMormon">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1980, he attended Ricks College as an art major but switched to broadcasting fearing that he could not make a living as an artist.Template:Sfn

Career

Mike Allred began his career as a radio host on KYES AM 950 (KY95) in Roseburg, Oregon. He later became a television reporter in Europe, and started drawing comics in 1989 with the 104-page graphic novel Dead Air (Slave Labor Graphics). The story loosely followed his stint in radio as a sidebar to the true focus of the novel, the effects of post-nuclear war over a small Oregon town. He followed this up with his similarly titled works Graphique Musique (1990) and Grafik Muzik (Caliber Comics 1990–1991), in which he set out the style that he was to become known for with his most famous character, Madman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Madman first appeared as Frank Einstein in Creatures of the Id and Grafik Muzik published in 1990, but it was not until March 1992 that the first Madman miniseries debuted from Tundra Publishing in March 1992.<ref name="Blair"/> The series gained further recognition with its move to Dark Horse Comics in April 1994,<ref name="GCD">Template:Gcdb and Template:Gcdb</ref> where it was relaunched as Madman Comics and went on to be nominated for several Harvey Awards.<ref>Template:Cite web
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Template:Cite web</ref> Madman Comics ran for 20 issues and ended in 2000. From 2007 to 2009, Image Comics published Madman: Atomic Comics for 17 issues.<ref name="Blair"/>

Allred drew part of the 1993 "Worlds' End" story arc in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Allred appeared as himself in the 1997 feature film Chasing Amy as part of the opening scene at a comic book convention, signing copies of his comic Madman. He also provides the artwork for the fictional comic book Bluntman and Chronic.<ref name="Blair">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Allred himself gained further mainstream attention with the science-fiction/rock-and-roll comic Red Rocket 7 (Dark Horse, 1997) and his art for writer Peter Milligan's series X-Force, which he began drawing in July 2001, and subsequently became X-Statix.<ref name="GCD" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Manning "2000s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 313: "The further adventures of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's version of X-Force now received a name – X-Statix."</ref> In 2000, AAA Pop published Allred's The Atomics, featuring a group of beatniks with superpowers.<ref name="Blair"/> Issue #116 of X-Force, the first collaboration between Allred and Milligan, was the first Marvel comic book to not have the Comics Code Authority stamp of approval since 1971.<ref name="Blair"/>

In 2004 and 2005, Allred wrote and drew The Golden Plates, an adaptation of the Book of Mormon. Allred is a Latter-Day Saint, and completed much of the work on this project in collaboration with his wife Laura Allred.<ref name="AML">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="SlateMormon" />

Allred seated, drawing
Allred sketching in 2010

Allred worked again with Neil Gaiman in 2009 on the Metamorpho feature in Wednesday Comics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special! was published in April 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Allred and writer Matt Fraction crafted a Fantastic Four spinoff series, FF, in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year, Allred and writer Dan Slott launched a new Silver Surfer series at Marvel.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His comic book series iZombie, which ran from 2010 to 2012, was adapted into a 2015 television series of the same name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Allred drew the 1960s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His wife, Laura, frequently works as his colorist.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Gcdb</ref> Allred worked with Mark Russell on the Superman: Space Age (2022)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Batman: Dark Age (2024) series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Allred was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He considers himself a Mormon, though a liberal-leaning one, and has stated that he still identifies with the beliefs. Allred considers the Book of Mormon to be a phenomenal and fascinating story, irrespective of its factual accuracy.<ref name="SlateMormon"/>

Awards

Allred's retro-styled artwork is a frequent nominee for comics awards such as the Harveys, the Eisners, and the Eagles. In his career, he has received:

Bibliography

Covers only

Other work

As artist

As writer

  • Astroesque (1996)
  • G-Men from Hell (2000)

As musician

  • The Gear – Son of Red Rocket Seven (1998)
  • The Gear – Left Of Center Of The Universe (2009)

References

Citations

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Works cited

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Template:S-start Template:Succession box Template:S-end Template:IZombie Template:Inkpot Award 2000s Template:Eisner Award for Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

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