Shawn McManus

Infobox Comics creator


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birthdate = birth date and age|1958|06|30
location = Brookline, Massachusetts
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nationality = American
area = Penciller, Inker
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Shawn McManus (b. June 30,1958, Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American artist who entered the comic book field in the early 1980s with work for "Heavy Metal" and DC Comics.

McManus gained wider attention when he illustrated two 1980s issues of "Swamp Thing" written by Alan Moore. He received a nomination, with Alan Moore, for a 1985 Jack Kirby award for "Pog" in "Swamp Thing" 32. The story, an inventive science fictional reinterpretation of Walt Kelly's "Pogo", was written by Moore specifically for McManus, who rose to the challenge with an appropriate Kellyesque art style.

Since then he has drawn issues of "Omega Men", "Batman", "Doctor Fate" and a pair of limited series about the witch Thessaly written by Bill Willingham. Randy Lander reviewed the debut issue of "The Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad"::This is mostly an issue to set the stage, to establish the world as one that is full of hidden magic and very abnormal things existing alongside normal life. McManus does a terrific job in depicting this type of thing. The realism of city streets or university buildings contrast nicely with the ghostly war dogs being used to hunt Thessaly, and the gore and destructive behavior demonstrated later on serves more as dark humor than disturbing violence. I also quite enjoyed the very normal designs for Thessaly and Fetch, which contrasts with their not-at-all normal lives.

Grains of Sandman

McManus also drew most of "" for Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman", and his other Sandman credits include "The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales", "The Sandman Presents: Thessaly, Witch for Hire", "The Sandman: Fables & Reflections". Other Vertigo titles by McManus include "Winter's Edge" 3.

His work on the "Tom Strong" series (America's Best Comics) includes "Tom Strong's Terrific Tales" 2 and "Tom Strong" 3. His story "Jenny Panic & the Bible of Dreams", scripted by Steve Aylett, was collected in the hardback "Tom Strong Collected Edition", Book Five, edited by Scott Dunbier.

For the June 1983 issue of "Heavy Metal" he collaborated with Bhob Stewart and John Coffey on "Zenobia". Six months later, McManus and Stewart teamed with Jim McDermott on "Symbiosis", also in "Heavy Metal" (December, 1983).

McManus' artwork for Marvel Comics includes "Peter Parker Spider-Man Annual '97" (1997) and "Daredevil" #351. In an interview with Kuljit Mithra, John Rozum, who scripted that issue of "Daredevil", recalled::I thought Shawn McManus's art was great. I'd like to work with him again sometime, though we didn't really work together here. At the time I wrote it, I had no idea who'd be drawing it. Shawn and I have never even met or spoken with each other. I always write full script though, and unlike some other artists, Shawn actually pays attention to the script. I think his artwork was a nice pairing with the story. McManus has contributed to titles from a variety of other publishers, including Atomeka Press ("A1"), Dark Horse ("Cheval Noir"), Exhibit A Press (""), First Comics ("GrimJack"), Image ("Supreme"), Malibu ("The Man Called A-X") and DC's Paradox Press ("The Big Book of Freaks"). More recently, he has worked on Leah Moore and John Reppion's "Wild Girl" (Wildstorm, 2004-2005) with J.H. Williams III, about 13-year-old Rosa Torez who discovers that she can communicate with animals. At least one issue was inked by Andrew Pepoy, but for some issues McManus did all the penciling and inking.

In animation, he worked in 1987 on the series "Dinosaucers".

External links

* [http://www.komikwerks.com/comic_title.php?ti=12 CyberCinema]
* [http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/credits/shawn_mcmanus.html "Spider-Man" credits]
* [http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards/ Comic Book Awards Almanac]