Paul Kirchner

Paul Kirchner (born January 29, 1952, in New Haven, CT) is an American writer and illustrator.

Paul Kirchner attended New York’s Cooper Union School of Art but left in his third year when, with the help of Larry Hama and Neal Adams, he began to get work in the comic book industry. He penciled stories for DC’s horror line and assisting on the "Little Orphan Annie" newspaper strip for Tex Blaisdell, who took it over after the death of Harold Gray. In December 1973, Ralph Reese introduced Kirchner to Wally Wood, for whom he worked as assistant for several years.

In the mid-1970s, Kirchner wrote and illustrated the surrealistic comic strip "Dope Rider" for "High Times". For "Heavy Metal magazine" he did an equally surrealistic monthly strip "The Bus" from 1978 to 1985, in addition to writing and illustrating occasional short features. He regularly illustrated for the "New York Times" and other publications. In 1980-1981 he created a line of military action figures, the Eagle Force, for Mego Corp.

In 1981, through his brother Thomas Kirchner, a Zen Buddhist monk, he met the Zen practitioner and author Janwillem van de Wetering. Together they produced a graphic detective novel, "Murder by Remote Control" (Ballantine,1986).

In 1983-1984, Kirchner did the licensing art and in-pack comic books for the RoboForce robot toy line from CBS Toys. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, he wrote and drew comics features for "He-Man", "GoBots", "ThunderCats", "G.I. Joe", and "Power Rangers" magazines, published by Telepictures (later Welsh Publications). He freelanced regularly for Tyco Toys, working on the Dino-Riders, Crash Dummies, and Spy-Tech toy lines, for which he wrote the back stories, did design work, wrote and drew in-pack comics, and wrote scripts for animated programs. He illustrated the long-running “Jack B. Quick” feature in "Sports Illustrated for Kids". He illustrated Col. Jeff Cooper’s "To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth", as well as six subsequent books for the noted firearms authority and big game hunter. He wrote three pop-culture books for Rhino Entertainment. The first, "Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops", inspired an episode of The History Channel's "Modern Marvels", "Failed Inventions", in which Kirchner is featured.

From 1996-2002, he held the post of senior art director at Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor (later Arnold New York). He and his creative partner, writer Andrew Cahill, created a popular campaign for Zest Body Wash featuring football star Craig "Ironhead" Heyward.

Since 2002 Kirchner has returned to freelance illustration, working primarily in advertising.

Kirchner lives in Connecticut. His wife, Sandy Rabinowitz, is a successful illustrator specializing in equine art. They have three children.

References

* “Trajectories", in "Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood" (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003)
* "Toyland: The High-Stakes Game of the Toy Industry" by Sydney Ladensohn Stern and Ted Schoenhaus (Contemporary Books, 1991)
* [http://www.megomuseum.com/eagleforce/EFInterview.html Creating the Eagle Force] - Interview
* [http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/01/paul-kirchner.html Paul Kirchner]
* [http://members.iinet.com.au/~jediboyy/Misc/paulint1.htm Recollections of "Dino Riders"]
* [http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?type=credit&query=kirchner&sort=alpha&Submit=Search Kirchner at the Great Comic Database]
* [http://www.paladin-press.com/authormo_1204.aspx Paladin Press Author of the Month]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE3DA173DF937A35756C0A960948260 "Murder by Remote Control" book review]
* [http://www.wizarduniverse.com/062408robots.html Get 'er, Robo! : Toys]

Books Published

* "Murder by Remote Control" with Janwillem van de Wetering (Ballantine, 1986)
* "Realms" (Catalan Communications, 1987)
* "The Bus" (Ballantine, 1987)
* "Forgotten Fads and Fabulous Flops: An Amazing Collection of Goofy Stuff That Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" (Rhino, 1995)
* "Everything You Know is Wrong" (Rhino, 1995)
* "Oops!: A Stupefying Survey of Goofs, Blunders, and Botches, Great and Small" (Rhino, 1996)
* "The Big Book of Losers: Pathetic but True Tales of the World’s Most Titanic Failures" (DC Comics, 1997)
* "Deadliest Men: The World's Deadliest Combatants Throughout the Ages" (Paladin Press, 2001)
* "Dueling With The Sword and Pistol: 400 Years of One-on-One Combat" (Paladin Press, 2004)
* "Jim Cirillo's Tales of the Stakeout Squad" (Paladin Press, 2008)