Ethan Van Sciver

Infobox Comics creator

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imagesize =
caption = Ethan Van Sciver drawing at Comicon fest, Athens, 2008
birthname = Ethan Daniel Van Sciver [http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/112398029693175.htm Storniolo, Mike, "Ethan Van Sciver: In Brightest Day..." Interview] . Accessed October 2, 2008]
birthdate = September 3, 1974 [ [http://www.cbgxtra.com/default.aspx?tabid=42&view=topic&forumid=34&postid=154 "Comics Industry Birthdays" at the CBGXtra Forum] by "Comic Buyer's Guide"'s Maggie Thompson and John Jackson Miller. Accessed October 2, 2008.]
location = Utah
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = Penciller
alias =


notable works = ""
awards =

Ethan Van Sciver (b. 1974) is an American comic book artist, best known for illustrating a number of DC Comics titles, including "Green Lantern", and a notable .

Early life

Van Sciver was born in Utah, and grew up in South New Jersey. He decided on a career in the comic book field after seeing "" as a kid," but read comics "mostly just... for the pictures, until John Byrne's "Man of Steel" in 1986, the first time he really started reading the books." [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17542 Collins, Sean T., "CCI: Spotlight on Ethan Van Sciver,"] at Comic Book Resources.com July 21, 2008. Accessed October 2, 2008] He was involved in art in various forms before his comics work, speaking in 2005, he said:

He cites Chris Claremont and Jon Bogdanove's "Fantastic Four vs. X-Men" as a strong influence, telling a group of fans at Comic-Con International that::"I'm trying in my own comics to recreate the feeling I got from that four-issue miniseries."

Career

Van Sciver's entry into the comics medium-proper came when he was 19 years old, and created, "a horrible little character called Cyberfrog." Cyberfrog was written and drawn by Van Sciver, and published by Hall of Heroes, and later, Harris Comics. He has contributed to a number of high-profile series for both Marvel Comics, and primarily DC Comics. Titles include his own "Cyberfrog" and such titles as "X-Men", "The Flash", "Green Lantern", and "Batman".

Major works

Van Sciver's first major work was on the "Impulse" series for DC Comics with writer Todd Dezago. Van Sciver recalled that Paul Kupperberg offered him a fill-in role on "Impulse", with the chance to try and save the title. Van Sciver recalls, "we did save the book for a while."

Many of Van Sciver's most notable works have been produced in collaboration with writer Geoff Johns. Van Sciver feels he may have had a "bad influence" on the writer, working with him early on on the superhero-horror one-shot "". The artist described his approach on the issue as "taking well known, maybe well worn superhero concepts, make them scary, make them upsetting in some way."

For Marvel, Van Sciver produced several issues of Grant Morrison's "New X-Men", starting as a two-issues-per-year fill-in artist for regular series artist Frank Quitely. Initially intending to also work on an "X-Men" miniseries with Johns while producing his small yearly commitment to Morrison's story, Van Sciver soon found himself asked to produce more and more issues, until a third 'regular' artist (Igor Kordey) was brought on board, and the Johns-penned miniseries was abandoned.

Van Sciver is fond of inserting hidden elements in some of his work, including the incorporation of the word "sex" onto almost every page of "New X-Men" #118. [ [http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/article/showquestion.asp?faq=4&fldAuto=77 Luzifer, Peter, "Sex Sells - New X-Men #118" at "Uncanny X-Men.net", June 15, 2002] . Accessed October 2, 2008]

In 2004, Johns and Van Sciver brought Hal Jordan back to the DC Universe as Earth's main Green Lantern officer in the six-issue miniseries "", before the duo re-launched the "Green Lantern" title itself with a new volume. Van Sciver's work on the Green Lantern mythos helped explain and retcon many elements of the Green Lantern story which some fans and writers found nonsensical, such as the reasons of the power rings uselessness against the color yellow, and Hal Jordan's transformation into the supervillain Parallax.

In 2007, Johns, Van Sciver, Dave Gibbons and Ivan Reis produced the eleven-issue "Sinestro Corps War" across the two "Green Lantern" monthly titles, the second part of a mooted trilogy of Green Lantern tales. This story launched the Sinestro Corps, the antithesis of the Green Lantern Corps, led by rogue Green Lantern Sinestro and his Qwardian yellow power ring. The series set the stage for a complete overhaul of the Lantern Corps, and introduced the emotional spectrum of power which provides energy to many different color variations of power rings.

Other work

In 2008, he was the guest artist on an issue of "Justice League of America" (vol. 2) #20 (June 2008). Currently, Ethan is doing work on the third part of the "Green Lantern" trilogy, ', due to come out in 2009, as well as the six-issue mini-series ', starting in January 2009.

Personal life

Van Sciver is married and resides in Orlando, Florida. He and his wife have a son, Hunter. He has mentioned in interview that he is "obsessed by historical tragedies."

Ethan's younger brother is the underground comic artist Noah Van Sciver.

References

External links

* [http://ethanvs.blogspot.com/ "No Superheroes to See Here," Van Sciver's Blog]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=177998695 Ethan Van Sciver at MySpace]
* [http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=140352 THE LANTERN'S ARTISTS, I - ETHAN VAN SCIVER 12-20-2007]
* [http://www.pipelinernd.com/Ethan_Van_Sciver_Interview.php Recent Ethan Van Sciver Interview]
* [http://ethanvansciver.comicbloc.com Ethan Van Sciver's Blog]