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EspañolKYLE BAKER
'Kyle Baker' (born 1965 in Queens, New York City, United States) is an American writer and illustrator of comic books as well as an animator. He is also an award-winning publisher of two anthologies, ''Cartoonist'' and ''Cartoonist Vol. 2: Now with More Bakers''.
As a high school intern at Marvel Comics, Baker came into contact with such artists as John Romita, Jr., Al Milgrom and Walter Simonson. He eventually became an assistant inker, working on backgrounds. He got further inking work at Marvel while attending the School of Visual Arts. Finding himself already gainfully employed in comics and illustration, he eventually dropped out of SVA.
The Dolphin imprint of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in his ''Cowboy Wally'' comic strips, which he expanded into a 128-page graphic novel published in 1988. Baker went on to draw ''The Shadow'' for DC Comics, and as well as ''Through the Looking Glass'' and ''Cyrano'' for Classics Illustrated. In 1990, Baker released two graphic novels, one an adaptation of the film ''Dick Tracy'', the other an original story, ''Why I Hate Saturn''. He next spent three years illustrating the weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for New York Magazine. in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring the hip hop singer KRS-ONE, called "Break The Chain".
Baker's other graphic novels as writer-artist include ''You Are Here'', ''King David'', and ''I Die At Midnight''. He has also illustrated a graphic novel written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin titled ''Birth of a Nation'', no relation to the famous, slightly differently-named D.W. Griffith movie, ''The Birth of a Nation''.
Beginning in the 1990s, Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in ''Details'', ''Entertainment Weekly'', ESPN, ''Esquire'', ''Guitar World'', ''MAD Magazine'', ''National Lampoon'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Times'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Spin magazine'', ''Us'', ''Vibe'' and ''The Village Voice''. His animation has appeared on BET and MTV, and in animated ''Looney Tunes'' projects.
For mainstream comics in the 2000s, Baker drew the miniseries ''Truth,'' a Captain America storyline with parallels to the infamous Tuskegee experiment, later collected as a trade paperback. He also wrote and drew the comedic adventures of the DC Comics superhero Plastic Man, and was one of contributors to the Dark Horse Comics series ''Michael Chabon Presents...The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist,'' a spin-off of Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay''.
As of 2006, his company, Kyle Baker Publishing, is serializing a four-part comic book series about Nat Turner, as well the series ''The Bakers'', based on his family life.
His work is known for its sense of whimsy and wit, often veering into caricature. Some of the motifs to which he often returns include satires of the dating game, gender roles, and hipster culture. His characters often throw each other into high relief, with thoughtful cynics playing off guileless straight men.
Baker in 2000 won two Eisner Awards for the controversial story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter". He has won a total of eight Eisner Awards, including four wins in the "Best Writer/Artist: Humor" category for a variety of works, and one each for "Best New Series" (2004) and "Best Title for Younger Readers" (2005) for Plastic Man. Baker has also won five Harvey Awards.
'''Publishers Weekly''' on ''The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere?'' ISBN 0-9747214-3-3
"Baker, the outrageously talented Eisner- and Harvey Award-winning artist behind such diverse projects as KING DAVID, PLASTIC MAN and cult classic WHY I HATE SATURN, has turned his attentions to more personal matters with this full-color collection of cartoon vignettes about family life. The family in question, based on Baker's own, consists of three irrepressible children and the harried couple who are their parents. In this world of alternatively angelic and screaming kids, no detail of domestic life is too petty for good-natured skewering. Feeding techniques, getting kids dressed, and secret tips for frustating parents all make an appearance. No surprise that Daddy Baker, who comes complete with dreadlocks and credit card, is frequently depicted with a smile bordering on a grimace. The tumult and confusion of this world is implied rather than spelled out. The brief comics are virtually text-free, with exaggeratedly cartoonish yet expressive artwork doing double duty as both explication and illustration. The physical comedy of the family's silent movie exploits gives the cartoons a silent retro feel that echoes the antic humor found in MAD magazine. This combination of Baker's inventive visual gags and chuckling familiarity makes the project endlessly appealing."
'Variety.com' ''on Nat Turner'': "Nat Turner is the first of four issues devoted to the true tale of the slave who led a rebellion in 1831 Virginia. Baker begins his nearly silent story (only one page has any text to read — a short entry from the journal of a slave ship captain) with a kind of action setpiece as a slaving party in Africa captures villagers to be sent to American shores. Baker’s storytelling is magnificent and he really lets the story breathe, rarely using more than three panels per page and designing lots of white space to give the book a unique, non-comicbooky look. Further setting the book apart from other Baker projects such as Plastic Man or Birth of a Nation, each panel is drawn in a pencil/charcoal style that makes the eye linger on each page. An excellent book. Grade: A"
'''Publishers Weekly''' on ''Birth of a Nation'' ISBN 1-4000-4859-1: "''The Boondocks'' creator [Aaron] McGruder, filmmaker [Reginald] Hudlin and ''Why I Hate Saturn'' cartoonist Baker are a kind of dream team, and this work (drawn in Baker's animation-storyboard style) has a fairly hilarious premise. When the virtually all-black population of East St. Louis, Ill., is disenfranchised en masse in electoral shenanigans that result in a George W. Bush–like Texan governor being elected president, the impoverished city decides to secede from the U.S. Renaming itself "Blackland," the city becomes a wildly rich money-laundering capital. Baker is a gifted caricaturist—every facial expression and bit of body language he comes up with is funny"
★ ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (Classics International Entertainment; year n.a.; reprinted Berkley Publishing, 1990; illustrator)) ISBN 1-57209-002-2 (orig.); ISBN 0-425-12022-8 (rep.)
★ ''Why I Hate Saturn'' (Piranha Press, 1990; reprinted Vertigo, Dec. 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 0-930289-72-2
★ ''The Residents: Freak Show'' (Dark Horse Comics, collected 1992; illustrator) ISBN 1-56971-001-5
★ ''The Cowboy Wally Show'' (Marlowe & Company, 1996; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56924-834-6
★ ''You Are Here'' (DC Comics, Nov. 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-442-4
★ ''I Die at Midnight'' (Vertigo, 2000; writer, illustrator) ISBNB0006RONA0
★ ''King David'' (DC Comics, 2002; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-866-7
★ ''Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin'' (DC Comics, collected ephemera 2003; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0104-0
★ ''Truth: Red, White and Black'' (Marvel Comics, collected Feb. 2004; co-creator with Robert Morales, illustrator) ISBN 0-7851-1072-0
★ ''Cartoonist'' (Kyle Baker Publishing, May 2004; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-0-9
★ ''Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel'' (Crown; July 2004; illustrator) ISBN 1-4000-4859-1
★ ''Plastic Man: On the Lam'' (DC Comics, collected 2005; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0343-4
★ ''Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits'' (DC Comics, collected 2006; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0729-4
★ ''Cartoonist, Volume 2: Now With More Bakers'' (Kyle Baker Publishing; writer, illustrator, publisher)
★ ''The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere?'' (Kyle Baker Publishing, collected 2006; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-3-3
★ ''Bad Publicity'' (1990s comic strip, ''New York'' magazine, illustrator)
★ ''Phineas and Ferb'' (2007 Children's Television Series, Disney Channel )
★ New Mutants vol. 1 #40, 44-47 (inker)
★ Kyle Baker's official site
★ Kyle Baker's official blog
★ The Grand Comic-Book Database: Kyle Baker search results
★ Comic Book Awards Almanac
★ ''Ultrazine'': Kyle Baker interview
★ ''PopImage'': Kyle Baker interview
★ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators: ''Break the Chain''
★ ''Jitterbug Fantasia'': "I Make People Laugh" (1991 interivew)
1998 graphic novel by writer-artist Kyle Baker
| Contents |
| Biography |
| Early life and career |
| Comics and graphic novels |
| Later career |
| Style |
| Awards |
| Quotes |
| Bibliography |
| Other works |
| References |
| External link |
Biography
Early life and career
As a high school intern at Marvel Comics, Baker came into contact with such artists as John Romita, Jr., Al Milgrom and Walter Simonson. He eventually became an assistant inker, working on backgrounds. He got further inking work at Marvel while attending the School of Visual Arts. Finding himself already gainfully employed in comics and illustration, he eventually dropped out of SVA.
Comics and graphic novels
The Dolphin imprint of the publishing house Doubleday expressed interest in his ''Cowboy Wally'' comic strips, which he expanded into a 128-page graphic novel published in 1988. Baker went on to draw ''The Shadow'' for DC Comics, and as well as ''Through the Looking Glass'' and ''Cyrano'' for Classics Illustrated. In 1990, Baker released two graphic novels, one an adaptation of the film ''Dick Tracy'', the other an original story, ''Why I Hate Saturn''. He next spent three years illustrating the weekly strip "Bad Publicity" for New York Magazine. in 1994, Baker directed an animated video featuring the hip hop singer KRS-ONE, called "Break The Chain".
Baker's other graphic novels as writer-artist include ''You Are Here'', ''King David'', and ''I Die At Midnight''. He has also illustrated a graphic novel written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin titled ''Birth of a Nation'', no relation to the famous, slightly differently-named D.W. Griffith movie, ''The Birth of a Nation''.
Later career
Beginning in the 1990s, Baker's cartoons and caricatures began appearing in ''Details'', ''Entertainment Weekly'', ESPN, ''Esquire'', ''Guitar World'', ''MAD Magazine'', ''National Lampoon'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Times'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Spin magazine'', ''Us'', ''Vibe'' and ''The Village Voice''. His animation has appeared on BET and MTV, and in animated ''Looney Tunes'' projects.
For mainstream comics in the 2000s, Baker drew the miniseries ''Truth,'' a Captain America storyline with parallels to the infamous Tuskegee experiment, later collected as a trade paperback. He also wrote and drew the comedic adventures of the DC Comics superhero Plastic Man, and was one of contributors to the Dark Horse Comics series ''Michael Chabon Presents...The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist,'' a spin-off of Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay''.
As of 2006, his company, Kyle Baker Publishing, is serializing a four-part comic book series about Nat Turner, as well the series ''The Bakers'', based on his family life.
Style
His work is known for its sense of whimsy and wit, often veering into caricature. Some of the motifs to which he often returns include satires of the dating game, gender roles, and hipster culture. His characters often throw each other into high relief, with thoughtful cynics playing off guileless straight men.
Awards
Baker in 2000 won two Eisner Awards for the controversial story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter". He has won a total of eight Eisner Awards, including four wins in the "Best Writer/Artist: Humor" category for a variety of works, and one each for "Best New Series" (2004) and "Best Title for Younger Readers" (2005) for Plastic Man. Baker has also won five Harvey Awards.
Quotes
'''Publishers Weekly''' on ''The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere?'' ISBN 0-9747214-3-3
"Baker, the outrageously talented Eisner- and Harvey Award-winning artist behind such diverse projects as KING DAVID, PLASTIC MAN and cult classic WHY I HATE SATURN, has turned his attentions to more personal matters with this full-color collection of cartoon vignettes about family life. The family in question, based on Baker's own, consists of three irrepressible children and the harried couple who are their parents. In this world of alternatively angelic and screaming kids, no detail of domestic life is too petty for good-natured skewering. Feeding techniques, getting kids dressed, and secret tips for frustating parents all make an appearance. No surprise that Daddy Baker, who comes complete with dreadlocks and credit card, is frequently depicted with a smile bordering on a grimace. The tumult and confusion of this world is implied rather than spelled out. The brief comics are virtually text-free, with exaggeratedly cartoonish yet expressive artwork doing double duty as both explication and illustration. The physical comedy of the family's silent movie exploits gives the cartoons a silent retro feel that echoes the antic humor found in MAD magazine. This combination of Baker's inventive visual gags and chuckling familiarity makes the project endlessly appealing."
'Variety.com' ''on Nat Turner'': "Nat Turner is the first of four issues devoted to the true tale of the slave who led a rebellion in 1831 Virginia. Baker begins his nearly silent story (only one page has any text to read — a short entry from the journal of a slave ship captain) with a kind of action setpiece as a slaving party in Africa captures villagers to be sent to American shores. Baker’s storytelling is magnificent and he really lets the story breathe, rarely using more than three panels per page and designing lots of white space to give the book a unique, non-comicbooky look. Further setting the book apart from other Baker projects such as Plastic Man or Birth of a Nation, each panel is drawn in a pencil/charcoal style that makes the eye linger on each page. An excellent book. Grade: A"
'''Publishers Weekly''' on ''Birth of a Nation'' ISBN 1-4000-4859-1: "''The Boondocks'' creator [Aaron] McGruder, filmmaker [Reginald] Hudlin and ''Why I Hate Saturn'' cartoonist Baker are a kind of dream team, and this work (drawn in Baker's animation-storyboard style) has a fairly hilarious premise. When the virtually all-black population of East St. Louis, Ill., is disenfranchised en masse in electoral shenanigans that result in a George W. Bush–like Texan governor being elected president, the impoverished city decides to secede from the U.S. Renaming itself "Blackland," the city becomes a wildly rich money-laundering capital. Baker is a gifted caricaturist—every facial expression and bit of body language he comes up with is funny"
Bibliography
★ ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (Classics International Entertainment; year n.a.; reprinted Berkley Publishing, 1990; illustrator)) ISBN 1-57209-002-2 (orig.); ISBN 0-425-12022-8 (rep.)
★ ''Why I Hate Saturn'' (Piranha Press, 1990; reprinted Vertigo, Dec. 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 0-930289-72-2
★ ''The Residents: Freak Show'' (Dark Horse Comics, collected 1992; illustrator) ISBN 1-56971-001-5
★ ''The Cowboy Wally Show'' (Marlowe & Company, 1996; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56924-834-6
★ ''You Are Here'' (DC Comics, Nov. 1998; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-442-4
★ ''I Die at Midnight'' (Vertigo, 2000; writer, illustrator) ISBNB0006RONA0
★ ''King David'' (DC Comics, 2002; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-56389-866-7
★ ''Undercover Genie: The Irreverent Conjurings of an Illustrative Aladdin'' (DC Comics, collected ephemera 2003; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0104-0
★ ''Truth: Red, White and Black'' (Marvel Comics, collected Feb. 2004; co-creator with Robert Morales, illustrator) ISBN 0-7851-1072-0
★ ''Cartoonist'' (Kyle Baker Publishing, May 2004; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-0-9
★ ''Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel'' (Crown; July 2004; illustrator) ISBN 1-4000-4859-1
★ ''Plastic Man: On the Lam'' (DC Comics, collected 2005; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0343-4
★ ''Plastic Man: Rubber Bandits'' (DC Comics, collected 2006; writer, illustrator) ISBN 1-4012-0729-4
★ ''Cartoonist, Volume 2: Now With More Bakers'' (Kyle Baker Publishing; writer, illustrator, publisher)
★ ''The Bakers: Do These Toys Belong Somewhere?'' (Kyle Baker Publishing, collected 2006; writer, illustrator, publisher) ISBN 0-9747214-3-3
Other works
★ ''Bad Publicity'' (1990s comic strip, ''New York'' magazine, illustrator)
★ ''Phineas and Ferb'' (2007 Children's Television Series, Disney Channel )
★ New Mutants vol. 1 #40, 44-47 (inker)
References
★ Kyle Baker's official site
★ Kyle Baker's official blog
★ The Grand Comic-Book Database: Kyle Baker search results
★ Comic Book Awards Almanac
★ ''Ultrazine'': Kyle Baker interview
★ ''PopImage'': Kyle Baker interview
★ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators: ''Break the Chain''
External link
★ ''Jitterbug Fantasia'': "I Make People Laugh" (1991 interivew)
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