BILL SIENKIEWICZ

'Boleslav (William) Felix Robert Sienkiewicz' (shin-KEV-itch) (born May 3, 1958, Blakely, Pennsylvania, United States), usually referred to as 'Bill Sienkiewicz', is a visual artist probably best known for his comic books, primarily Marvel Comics' ''. Sienkiewicz often utilizes oil painting, collage, mimeograph and other forms generally uncommon in comic books.

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Later career

Other work

Awards

Foonotes

References

Biography

Early life and career

Bill Sienkiewicz moved with his family from Blakely, Pennsylvania to Hainesville, New Jersey when he was five years old.^[1] There he attended elementary and secondary school. He later attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark, New Jersey.
Sienkiewicz began drawing "when I was about four or five", and continued doing and learning about art throughout his childhood.¹ His early comic-book influences include artist Curt Swan Superman comics, and artist Jack Kirby's ''Fantastic Four''.¹ After art school, Sienkiewicz brought a portfolio of his work to DC Comics' art director Vince Colletta. The artist recalled in 1985,

Later career

Sienkiewicz continued as artist of the ''Moon Knight'' color-comics series, in 1981. Two years later, he began working on the X-Men-related series ''New Mutants'' with writer Chris Claremont, where his distinctive cover paintings and character design gained much attention for the series. His own first writing credit was for the painted story "Slow Dancer" in ''Epic Illustrated'' magazine in 1986.
Sienkiewicz produced covers for a range of Marvel titles, including ''Rom'', ''Dazzler'', ''The Mighty Thor'', ''Return of the Jedi'' and ''The Transformers'', and drew the comic adaptation of ''Dune''.
He illustrated the 1986 eight-issue miniseries '' written by Frank Miller. That same year, he contributed to the ''Brought to Light'' graphic novel with writer Alan Moore. Sienkiewicz both wrote and illustrated the acclaimed miniseries, ''Stray Toasters'', an idiosyncratic work about a criminal psychologist investigating a series of murders. In 1988, Sienkiewicz and Moore published the first two issues of the uncompleted series ''Big Numbers'' Two years later, Sienkiewicz painted the ''Classics Illustrated'' adaptation of the novel ''Moby Dick''.

Other work

In addition to his work in comics, Sienkiewicz has also worked in numerous other media. In 1995, he illustrated the biography of Jimi Hendrix, ''Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi Hendrix''. The following year he provided the artwork for the Bruce Cockburn album ''Charity Of Night'', and went on to provide album covers for RZA's ''Bobby Digital In Stereo'' (1998) and EPMD's ''Business As Usual'' (1990).
He has also published a children's book, ''Santa: My Life & Times (An Illustrated Autobiography)'' (1998). His artwork has been published in magazines including ''Entertainment Weekly'' and ''Spin Magazine''.
In 2004, development began on a script for a ''Stray Toasters'' movie co-written by Sienkiewicz with Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson. Also that year, Sienkiewicz contributed to card art for VS System, a collectible card game published by Upper Deck Entertainment.
In 2006, Sienkiewicz designed the layout and art for The Venture Bros. Season One DVD set.

Awards

★ 1981: Eagle Award, Best New Artist ^[2]

★ 1981: Inkpot Award

★ 1982: Eagle Award, Best Artist

★ 1983: Eagle Award, Best Artist

★ 1986: Yellow Kid Award, Lucca, Italy, for "bridging the gap between American and European artistic sensibilities" ^[3]

★ 1986: The Gran Guigiri Award, Lucca, Italy

★ 1987: Eagle Award, Favourite Artist (penciller)

★ 1987: Kirby Award Best Artist for ''Elektra: Assassin''

★ 1988: March of Dimes Award, for charity work

★ 1989: Haxtur Award Best Cover, for ''Question'' #10

★ 1991: Alpe de Huiz Award, Grenoble, France

★ 1992: Adamson Award, for ''Daredevil'', and graphic experiments

★ 2004: Eisner Award Best Anthology, for contributions to ''The Sandman: Endless Nights''
Sienkiewicz was twice nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1995 and 1996, for his production and character design on ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?''.

Foonotes

1. ''Marvel Age' #53 (July 1985): "The Marvel Age Interview: Bill Sienkiewicz", pp. 20-22
2. Bill Sienkiewicz-Awards, Exhibits
3. 17° SALONE, 1986

References

★ Bill Sienkiewicz's Official Site

★ Lambiek Comiclopedia: Bill Sienkiewicz

★ ''Comic Book Resources'' (July 17, 2001): Bill Sienkiewicz interview

★ The Man Without Fear (January 2000): Bill Sienkiewicz interview