Norm Breyfogle

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Norm Breyfogle
Norman Breyfogle Portrait.jpg
Norm Breyfogle by Michael Netzer
Born Norman Keith Breyfogle
(1960-02-27) February 27, 1960 (age 64)
Iowa City, Iowa[1]
Nationality American
Area(s) Writer, Penciller, Inker, Letterer
Notable works
 Batman
Detective Comics
Prime

Norman Keith "Norm" Breyfogle (b. February 27, 1960)[1] is an American comic book artist, fine artist, illustrator, and writer. He was involved with the character of Batman consistently from 1987-1995. Breyfogle has worked on many different characters for most comic book publishers at one time or another. He co-created the character of Prime for Malibu Comics, and created and owns the copyright and trademark for the character Metaphysique.

Biography

Early life and career

When Breyfogle was 12 years old, he began taking private lessons from commercial artist Andrew Benson. Around this time, he also won his first award at a town and country art show. The Daily Mining Gazette, a newspaper in Houghton, Michigan, profiled him in 1976 as "Norm Breyfogle: Near Master Cartoonist at 16." During his time in high school, he co-plotted, wrote, and illustrated a comic book titled Tech-Team for Michigan Technological University.

After high school, Breyfogle attended Northern Michigan University, studying painting and illustration. During his time in college, Breyfogle worked as an illustrator for a local magazine and also for a graphics company. In 1980, he illustrated a book titled Bunyan: Lore’s Loggin’ Hero, published by Book Concern.

Shortly after college, in 1982, Breyfogle moved to California. He went to work as a draftsman, and later worked for United Space Boosters as a technical illustrator designing a training manual for the Space Shuttle program.

Early comics work

In 1984, Mike Friedrich (President of Star Reach, a talent representative agency) saw his work hanging at the San Diego Comic-Con Art Show and began a professional relationship with Breyfogle. Breyfogle also at this time penciled a six-page story for DC’s New Talent Showcase,[2] beginning a short run in the title. This was followed by several issues of First Comics’ American Flagg, penciling a back-up story titled "Bob Violence", in 1985. During this time he also drew for Tales of Terror, a horror anthology published by Eclipse Comics. Following that, and still breaking into the comic scene, Breyfogle wrote, illustrated, and lettered a Captain America story in Marvel Fanfare in 1986.[3] He then drew Whisper for First Comics in 1986-1987 — his first monthly book — before landing on Detective Comics (starring Batman, published by DC Comics).

Batman

Batman and Robin as drawn by Breyfogle. The cover is a modernization of Batman #9, drawn by Bob Kane.

Teamed with writer Alan Grant, Breyfogle worked on Detective Comics. They introduced the Ventriloquist in their first Batman story together[4] and the Ratcatcher in their third.[5] He drew the Batman for six years (1987–93), penciling Detective Comics from 1987–1990, then moving to Batman to introduce the new Robin[6] from 1990–1992, and finally starting a new Batman series for DC titled Batman: Shadow of the Bat from 1992-1993[7] which saw the Grant/Breyfogle team create three new characters, Jeremiah Arkham, Mr. Zsasz,[8] and Amygdala. During his six-year run on the character of the Batman, he also did a few one-shots, two of them being Batman: Holy Terror, the first DC comic book to feature the Elseworlds logo,[9] and Batman: Birth of the Demon,[10] which he hand painted. He also provided pencils to a 10-page short story in Superman 80-Page Giant #1 (Feb. 1999).

Later work

In 2001, DC offered him the job of penciling The Spectre monthly, which he drew for one year. Later he spent 2003 pencilling and inking the title Black Tide, published by Angel Gate Press.[3]

In 2004, Breyfogle began work on an illustrated children's book for the Society of St. John Monastery, finished many commissions for fans, put together a couple printed sketchbooks showcasing his work, and continued writing his novel, getting halfway done, finishing through chapter six. He also wrote over forty poems and over 1,300 haikus in a five-month marathon, and a number of short stories.

In February 2005 he accepted an offer to pencil and ink the interiors and covers of the new ongoing monthly title Of Bitter Souls from studio Relative Comics, originally published by Speakeasy Comics.[3] It is written by Chuck Satterlee. Shortly before Speakeasy Comics went out of business, Relative Comics joined with Chimaera Studios and moved to publisher Markosia Comics.

Since 2005, Breyfogle has produced illustrations for a wide variety of clients outside of the comics industry including Nike, Inc., Mojo, The Red Bulletin, Time Out, Company, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, and various bands such as 12 Stone Toddler, among many others.

In 2007, he provided art for the main story interiors and the covers for the comic book title The Danger's Dozen. He also began a professional relationship with the London-based art agency Debut Art.

Starting in 2006, he began a working relationship with Mazz Press, contributing stand-alone illustrations to two novels by Stephen Pytak, The .40 Caliber Mousehunt and The Wild Damned.

In 2008, Breyfogle began drawing Archie's New Look, for Archie's Double Digest, published by Archie Publications. Breyfogle drew two titles for Archie Comics: Archie loves Betty and Archie loves Veronica.[3]

He drew DC Retroactive: Batman - The '90s with Alan Grant, in October 2011. Breyfogle illustrated DC's relaunch of the Batman Beyond comic book with Adam Beechen as writer in 2012.[11]

Health issues

In December 2014, Breyfogle suffered a stroke.[12]

Bibliography

DC Comics

First Comics

Malibu Comics

  • Firearm #5 (1994)
  • Hardcase #1 (1993)
  • Prime #1-12 (1993-1994)
  • Prime: Gross and Disgusting #1 (1994)

Marvel Comics

Valiant Comics

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Norm Breyfogle at the Grand Comics Database
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 247: Batman #457 (Dec. 1990) "In this tale by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle, Robin finally got a new uniform...When DC editorial made the decision to modify the classic costume of the iconic Boy Wonder, they called upon several artists to put their own spin on it. It was legendary artist Neal Adams who delivered the winning concept."
  7. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 253: "Shadow of the Bat lasted ninety-four issues. Handled by the former team on Detective Comics - writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle - the first issue was released in both a newsstand and deluxe polybagged format."
  8. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dougall, p. 194: "Shadow of the Bat was writer Alan Grant's newest forum to tell Batman stories on a monthly basis, along with his partner, artists Norm Breyfogle. The pair introduced the new head of Arkham, Jeremiah Arkham, as well as the new villain Mr. Zsasz."
  9. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dougall, p. 193: Batman: Holy Terror became the first Elseworlds special. This tale by writer Alan Brennert and artist Norm Breyfogle featured a Gotham City ruled by the church and Batman as a vigilante man of the cloth."
  10. ↑ Manning "1990s" in Dougall, p. 198: "The third and final installment of the Ra's al Ghul hardcover trilogy arrived in this origin volume by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Norm Breyfogle."
  11. ↑ Manning "2010s" in Dougall, p. 326: "This new digital-first ongoing series featured a Batman tale by writer Adam Beechen and artist Norm Breyfogle."
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Preceded by Detective Comics artist
1987–1990		 Succeeded by
Flint Henry and
Mike McKone
Preceded by Batman artist
1990–1992		 Succeeded by
Cam Kennedy
Preceded by
n/a
 Batman: Shadow of the Bat artist
1992		 Succeeded by
Dan Jurgens
Preceded by
n/a
 Prime artist
1993–1994		 Succeeded by
Darick Robertson
Preceded by The Spectre artist
2002–2003		 Succeeded by
n/a
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