David Lapham

For the American football player, see Dave Lapham.

David LaphamJJJ
Born	1970
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	Stray Bullets Murder Me Dead Young Liars
Awards	"Best Writer/artist" Eisner Awards (1996)

David Lapham (born 1970) is an Eisner Award winning American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on his groundbreaking independent comic book Stray Bullets.

Biography

Lapham started his career in 1990 as a penciller at Valiant Comics where he was discovered by editor Jim Shooter. He went on to join Shooter at Defiant Comics where they co-created Warriors of Plasm in 1993.

He set up his own publisher El Capitan Books in 1995, in order to publish Stray Bullets which he wrote, drew and lettered himself. By the end of that year Miramax had hired Lapham to write and direct a feature film. It is unclear what came of this contract as no movie has yet been produced. He then took a sabbatical from Stray Bullets in 2000, to produce his nine issue period murder mystery Murder Me Dead also from El Capitan Books.

Lapham began accepting more mainstream comics work from 2005 onwards, writing a storyarc for Top Cow Comics' The Darkness ("Hell House", Vol. 2 #17-20), a 12 part Batman storyline in Detective Comics ("City of Crime" #801-808 and 811-814) for DC Comics and writing and pencilling the six part Daredevil Vs. Punisher: Means And Ends limited series for Marvel Comics. In late 2006, Marvel released Giant-Size Wolverine #1, with a 34 page Lapham story illustrated by David Aja, and DC began releasing Tales of the Unexpected with an 8 issue arc starring the Spectre which was also written by Lapham. Vertigo published the original graphic novel Silverfish in July 2007 and his interpretation of Terror, Inc. was released under the Marvel MAX line. He then wrote the Vertigo series Young Liars and took over from Garth Ennis as writer on Crossed.^[1][2]

This choice to do more mainstream work has led to the near-abandonment of Stray Bullets (with one issue left in the current arc), as well as a self-published futuristic science fiction limited series, The Parallax Man. The series was announced to debut in 2005 but Lapham had less time to devote to it, and issues have never been solicited. He has expressed that he is still interested in both projects, but is unsure when he will be able to complete them.^[3] In March 2010 reported he planned with Dark Horse a Comic series over the Predator franchise.^[4]

Harbinger: The Beginning

In August 2007, Valiant Entertainment released a deluxe Hardcover collection of the complete Harbinger origin story (Harbinger #0-7) entitled Harbinger: The Beginning. The collected stories feature Lapham's art and Jim Shooter's writing, and include an original story by Shooter exclusively for the collection.

Bibliography

Lapham's cover for Stray Bullets #1 (1995).

• Magnus Robot Fighter #5-8, Oct. 1991 - Jan. 1992, Valiant (artist)
• Harbinger #1-7 (artist), #8-9 (co-writer & artist), #10-13 (writer & artist), Jan. 1992 - Jan. 1993, #0, Feb. 1993, (writer & artist), Valiant
• Shadowman #1-2, May - June 1992, Valiant (artist)
• Rai #0, Nov. 1992, Valiant (artist)
• H.A.R.D. Corps #1, Dec. 1992, Valiant (artist)
• Superman Annual Jan. 1993 DC Comics (artist)
• Birth of the Defiant Universe #1, May 1993 Defiant (artist)
• Splatterball #1, Jun 1993 Defiant (writer & artist)
• Warriors of Plasm #0-11 (artist), #13 (co-writer & artist) June 1993 - Aug. 1994, Defiant
• Stray Bullets #1-40, Mar. 1995 - Oct. 2005, El Capitan Books (writer & artist)
• Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor #4, June 1995 Dark Horse (artist)
• Amy Racecar: Color Special #1-2 July 1997 - Oct. 1999 El Capitan Books (writer & artist)
• Murder Me Dead #1-9, July 2000 - Oct 2001, collected in hardcover and trade paperback, El Capitan Books (writer & artist)
• The Darkness vol. 2 #17-20, Nov 2004 - Feb 2005, Top Cow Comics (writer)
  • included in trade paperback as The Darkness - volume 6: Depths of Hell
• Detective Comics #801-808 and 811-814, January 2005 - February 2006, DC Comics (writer)
  • collected in trade paperback as Batman: City of Crime
• Daredevil Vs. Punisher: Means And Ends #1-6, Sept 2005 - Jan 2006, collected in hardcover and trade paperback, Marvel Comics (writer & artist)
• Tales of the Unexpected #1-8, Dec 2006 - July 2007 DC Comics (writer)
  • Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre collects 1-3
  • The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected collects 4-8
• Wolverine, Marvel Comics
  • Giant-Size Wolverine #1, December 2006; included in Wolverine: Blood & Sorrow (writer)
  • Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales, July 2008 (writer)
• Silverfish published in hardcover and trade paperback, June 2007, Vertigo (writer & artist)
• Terror, Inc. #1-5, collected in trade paperback, Oct 2007 - Apr 2008, MAX (writer)
• Spider-Man: With Great Power... #1-5, Mar - July 2008, Marvel Comics (writer)
• Young Liars #1-18, Vertigo, May 2008-September 2, 2009 (writer & artist)
  • Daydream Believer trade paperback collects Issue #s 1-6
  • Maestro trade paperback collects Issue #s 7-12
  • Rock Life trade paperback collects Issue #s 13-18
• 30 Days of Night: 30 Days 'till Death #1-4, December 2008 - March 2009, IDW Publishing (Story and Art)
• Terror, Inc. - Apocalypse Soon #1-4, July - September 2009, MAX (writer)
• Modern Warfare 2: Ghost #1-6, January - October 2010, WildStorm (writer)
• Crossed: Family Values, #1-7, April 2010 - January 2011, Avatar (writer)
• Sparta: USA #1-6, May - October 2010, WildStorm (writer)
• Driver, Issue #0, July 2010, WildStorm (writer)
• G.I. Joe: Origins, #20-23, October 2010 - January 2011, IDW (writer)
• DeadpoolMAX #1 December 2010 - ongoing, MAX (writer)
• PunisherMAX: Tiny Ugly World One-shot, December 2010, MAX (writer)

Awards

• Eisner Awards
  • 1996 - Best Writer/Artist (for Stray Bullets).
  • 1997 - Best Graphic Album: Reprint (for Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism)

Notes

1. ^ Lapham, David (February 16, 2010). "David Lapham On Writing Crossed Volume 2: Family Values". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/16/david-lapham-on-writing-crossed-volume-2-family-values/. Retrieved February 16, 2010. 
2. ^ Johnson, Rich (February 16, 2010). "David Lapham To Write Crossed Volume 2: Family Values". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/16/david-lapham-to-write-crossed-volume-2-family-values/. Retrieved February 16, 2010. 
3. ^ Lorah, Michael (April 25, 2007). "David Lapham: Down Among The Silverfish". Newsarama. http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=110197. Retrieved April 25, 2007. 
4. ^ Dark Horse Prepping Predators Prequel and Sequel

References

• David Lapham at the Grand Comics Database
• David Lapham at the Comic Book DB

External links

• Harbinger: The Beginning Hardcover Solicitation in Previews Magazine
• Harbinger: The Beginning article at The Splash page
• Harbinger: The Beginning, Variety
• Harbinger: The Beginning Press Release at Newsarama
• Harbinger cover gallery at Valiantfans.com
• The Ten Most Important Comic Books of the 1990s (Harbinger by David Lapham is ranked #1)
• "Valiant Days, Valiant Nights - A Look Back at the Rise and Fall of Valiant, Newsarama

Preceded by Andersen Gabrych

Detective Comics writer 2005–2006

Succeeded by James Dale Robinson

Persondata
Name	Lapham, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1970
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death