It's often a dark and rainy night in the world of Shawn Martinbrough (BFA 1993 Illustration), or at least in the world of his atmospheric comic book characters. Martinbrough's stylistic penchant for noir—its low-key lighting, stark contrasts and dramatic shadows—has made him a distinctive presence in the comics industry over the course of his 26-year career, one that started even before he graduated from SVA. Martinbrough's created some of the moodier renditions of classic characters like Captain America, Black Panther, The Punisher and the Dark Knight himself, Batman. He was, in fact, the first black artist to draw a monthly Batman series for DC Comics; select art from his 1999 – 2001 run on Detective Comics is currently on view in New York City at the Society of Illustrators exhibition "Illustrating Batman: Eighty Years of Comics and Pop Culture."

"When you go to that show there's so much history of Batman, so many amazingly talented artists," he says, "and then I'm on the wall as part of this Batman history, and that's really trippy—I actually contributed something to that universe."

Martinbrough keeps busy, and has been steadily working as an artist since he brought pages to an editor at New York Comic Con while still in school, which landed him a gig at Marvel. He went on to work at Milestone Comics, DC, Dark Horse and, at Skybound/Image Comics, with Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman on the crime series Thief of Thieves, which recently wrapped after seven years.

Features