Brian Apthorp

A native of Los Angeles, I fell in love with comic books when I was nine, inspired by the visceral, emotional art of Jack Kirby and later, reprints of the more formal Alex Raymond, finding help through a library copy of Andrew Loomis’ “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth”. At CSU Northridge, I discovered a deep attraction to classical and 19th-Century art, although like comics, the latter was still largely denigrated at the time. On graduating, I studied with Glen Vilppu, while free-lancing in illustration and graphic design. A deepening appreciation for comics’ capacity to communicate at once so personally and universally fed my childhood ambition, and I broke in working for comics great Neal Adams at Continuity Graphics, Burbank--though my work is perhaps better known through Dark Horse and DC Comics, including several Batman “Specials” and a Bram Stoker Award-nominated issue of “The Dreaming”. I'm currently working on a graphic novel of my own, honoring a pact made with myself as an adolescent. My wife Lori and I are creator/producers of the online HD video podcast series, “For Art’s Sake”, commissioned by OnNetworks, and “Artist’s On Art” on our own site. I’ve taught visual story-telling since 1994, first at the Learning Tree University, then UCLA & Otis Extension programs, and since 2002, ongoing at The Laguna College of Art & Design. I’ve taught anatomy at Art Center, Pasadena, given an Artist’s Talk at the Getty Center and several talks on comics at Ryman Arts, CSU Long Beach, and the Art Institute of California, Los Angeles.