Anthony Del Col | |
|---|---|
 Del Col at NYCC 2019 | |
| Born | Porcupine, Ontario, Canada |
| Alma mater | Wilfrid Laurier University |
| Occupation | Writer / Producer |
| Known for | I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp,Son of Hitler,Luke Cage: Everyman,Kill Shakespeare,Shakespeare, andAssassin's Creed: Trial by Fire |
Anthony Del Col is aCanadian-born,Pulitzer Prize-winning[1] creator, writer and entrepreneur. Del Col is the writer of theInsider comicI Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp, the co-creator and co-writer of theJoe Shuster Award-nominated comic,Kill Shakespeare,[2]Audible'sAssassin's Creed: Gold (starring Oscar-winnerRiz Ahmed),[3] Marvel'sLuke Cage: Everyman and the controversialImage Comics graphic novelSon of Hitler.
Del Col was born and raised inTimmins, Ontario, Canada[4] and is a graduate ofWilfrid Laurier University,[5] theCanadian Film Centre[6] and theSundance Institute's New Frontier Story Lab,[7]
Del Col has produced feature films in Canada, including serving as executive producer on theNelly FurtadoLoose Live album CD.[citation needed]
Del Col is also an accomplished film pitch consultant; He won theTelefilm Canada Pitch This contest in 2006[8] and 2010.[9] Anthony also served as a coach for the contest in 2011 and 2012.
Del Col has written for a number of podcasts, includingWondery's hit seriesAgainst the Odds.[10]
Along with Conor McCreery, Del Col is the co-creator and co-writer ofKill Shakespeare, which debuted in comic book format in April 2010.[2]Kill Shakespeare is described by the New York Times as, "gripping, violent and dark fun, even if you're not fully versed in Shakespearean lore".[11] As of 2011[update], more than 50,000 copies in more than a dozen countries.[12]
Under Del Col's watch,Kill Shakespeare has been produced in a variety of media. In addition to its publication as a comic book, Del Col and McCreery, along withSoulpepper, have staged a theatrical production ofKill Shakespeare, called "Kill Shakespeare Live!".[12] The theatrical production ofKill Shakespeare has been performed in Toronto bySoulpepper,[13] in Montreal at the 2012 Montreal Comiccon,[14] in Chicago byStrawdog Theatre Company,[15] as well as atMEFCC 2013 in Dubai.[16] Del Col and McCreery are also working with Katie Musgrave, an academic, and Brian Kelly, a teacher, to create a teacher's guide forKill Shakespeare in an effort to encourage teachers to useKill Shakespeare as an educational tool.[17] TheKill Shakespeare board game was successfully crowdfunded viaKickstarter and was released on February 19, 2014.[18] Del Col and McCreery have also discussed plans to release aKill Shakespeare mobile app game.[19]
Del Col has also given lectures on comic writing, adapting Shakespeare, and Shakespeare in education. In May 2015, Del Col spoke atShakespeare's Globe in London as part of the theatre's Shakespeare Inspired special event series.[20]
In March, 2017Dynamite Entertainment released Anthony Del Col's reboot of classic charactersNancy Drew andThe Hardy Boys with NANCY DREW & THE HARDY BOYS: THE BIG LIE. Del Col has been a lifelong fan of the characters and was successful in working with Simon & Schuster to secure the comic book rights and then pitch to publishers.
Inspired by Archie Comics'Afterlife with Archie, Del Col is quoted as saying, "So, then I started to think, 'Huh, I wonder what other characters are out there that are well-known that could be rebooted like that,'" Del Col said. "That's when I started to look around and I looked in some properties, and then I thought, 'Wait a minute. Nancy Drew. Hardy Boys. Oh, that would be really cool to do a hard-boiled noir take on them.' "[21]
The series finds characters Frank and Joe Hardy accused of murdering their father, Fenton Hardy, and turning to a femme fatale-esque Nancy Drew to clear their names. The series features artwork by Italian artist Werther Dell'Ederra with covers by UK artist Fay Dalton. Del Col credits editors Matt Idelson and Matt Humphreys with helping him shape the direction of the series.[22]
The series debuted to positive reviews. Comics blog Readingwithaflightring.com declared it, "the best 'modern' approach to updating a franchise like this that I've seen. It works on every level and still fully embraces the heart of who they are."[23] Aintitcool.com reviewer Lyz Reblin stated, "The strength of the series thus far is Ms. Drew, who was absent for most of the first issue. She is a pitch-perfect modernized femme fatale, who could hold her own up against any present-day Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, or the like."[24]
Del Col followed up the series withThe Death of Nancy Drew in 2020. The series, with art by Joe Eisma, was announced in early 2020 and immediately received a great deal of coverage. Fans of the character immediately voiced their dissent online, including author Melanie Rehak (Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her), stating, "The idea of killing her really flies in the face of her appeal as a character — if they have killed her, which we don’t actually know."[25] The controversy was profiled by CNN,[26] Newsweek,[27] Polygon[28] and other sources.
Del Col, along with his Kill Shakespeare co-writer Conor McCreery, was hired by Titan Comics to launch a new comic series based on the successful Assassin's Creed video game franchise. The series was the first to star a female modern-day lead character, Charlotte de la Cruz and garnered a great amount of positive reviews. Leading comics site TheMarySue.com said, "It's a fantastic video game based title; it really captures a lot of spirit of Assassin's Creed…captures your imagination from the get-go."[29]
Del Col and McCreery's run on the series ran from 2015 – 2017.
In 2018, Del Col co-created the Image original graphic novelSon of Hitler with writer Geoff Moore and artist Jeff Mccomsey.[30] Matt O'Keefe of ComicsBeat called it a "page-turning graphic novel", offering "an alternate history story with obvious respect for the actual events of World War 2".[31]Son of Hitler is a noir spy-thriller centering around a conspiracy to take down Hitler in the last days of World War Two. Del Col expressed his personal love for historical fiction, noting his love for the "shadows and blindspots" that populate the area between historical fact and fiction.[32]Son of Hitler brings together many aspects of Del Col's comics work in one volume; it shares the historical elements of Del Col'sKill Shakespeare andAssassin's Creed comics and the classic mysterious noir elements of hisNancy Drew & The Hardy Boys.
In 2018, Del Col wrote the seriesLuke Cage: Everyman for Marvel Comics. Jahnoy Lindsay provided the interior art with covers by Declan Shalvey.Everyman was a Marvel Digital Original released as 3 single issues and collected as a trade paperback in November 2019. Reviewers praised it for being "bold" and "political", pitting Luke Cage against a CTE diagnosis as well as villains in his own community.[33]Everyman was called an interesting unconventional look at the Marvel universe, with critics highlighting Del Col's humanizing portrayal of Luke Cage and Lindsay's realistic depiction of Harlem.[34]
On May 8, 2022, Del Col — along with collaboratorsFahmida Azim,Josh Adams, and Walter Hickey — were the recipients of the first-everPulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary for their work on "I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp," published byInsider.[35] The story is a first-person retelling of Zumrat Duwat's experience imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for being aUyghur Muslim. It was the first Pulitzer forInsider.[36] The victory received some controversy, as theAssociation of American Editorial Cartoonists subsequently called for the Pulitzers to restore its previous category of Editorial Cartooning.[37]
As of 2014, Del Col lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Lisa, and their children.[38]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning from 1922–2022 | ||
| .png) | |
