| Brett Breeding | |
|---|---|
 Breeding in 2023 | |
| Born | (1961-06-13)June 13, 1961 (age 64) |
| Area | Penciller,Inker,Colourist |
Notable works | The Amazing Spider-Man The Mighty Thor Action Comics "The Death of Superman" Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Avengers Next |
| Collaborators | Ron Frenz Dan Jurgens |
| Awards | Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame[1] |
Brett Breeding (born June 13, 1961) is anAmericancomic book artist who was active in the industry in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily as aninker. He is most well known for his work on theDC Comics characterSuperman.
A freelancer, Breeding worked for both DC andMarvel Comics during his career, penciling covers and stories in various comics, but mostly focusing on "finish inking" over breakdown layouts. Breeding has worked extensively with pencilersRon Frenz andDan Jurgens, and is the co-creator of the characterDoomsday, as well as Shadowdragon, Saviour, andBlaze and Satanus.
Breeding got his first professional comics work three months after graduating high school in 1979 asBob Layton's background assistant. He started out inking backgrounds on the popularDavid Michelinie/Layton first run ofIron Man, and also worked on the 1981 intercompanycrossover bookSuperman and Spider-Man.[2]
Breeding began his career at DC Comics in 1980 onWeird War Tales, moving on toThe Superman Family andGreen Arrow backup stories, and eventually working withDon Heck andGeorge Pérez onJustice League of America.
Breeding moved to Marvel in late 1980 where he worked regularly through 1987. His first stint as a regular inker at Marvel was onThe Avengers, in 1982–1983. Breeding inkedBob Hall on the four-issuelimited seriesWest Coast Avengers, published in 1984. Also in 1984, he teamed for the first time withRon Frenz onThe Amazing Spider-Man issue #252, the first appearance ofSpider-Man's black suit. In 1985–1986, he started regularly working on the Spider-Man titles, beginning withThe Spectacular Spider-Man storyline "The Death of Jean DeWolff"; and then moving toThe Amazing Spider-Man withRon Frenz, and began regularly providing finishing inks. In 1987–1988 he and Frenz moved as a team ontoThor. In the late 1980s, he inked most issues ofThundercats, published by the Marvel imprintStar Comics.
In 1986, starting with theSuperman Annual #1, Breeding began his long association withSuperman, providing finish inks overRon Frenz's layouts and then re-teaming with Frenz in 1987 forSuperman Annual #2. In 1988, he was hired by Superman editorMike Carlin to provide finishing pencils overGeorge Pérez's rough layouts and finished inks onAction Comics. While waiting for Pérez to begin work onAction Comics, Breeding started his first regular Superman work onSuperman #26 with pencillerKerry Gammill, moving toAction Comics with Pérez on issue #643.
Working regularly on the Superman titles for over a decade, Breeding at one time or another worked on all the titles in the line, starting withSuperman, thenAdventures of Superman, andAction Comics; and he was one of the inkers on the first issue of the long-running Superman titleSuperman: The Man of Steel. In 1991, Breeding moved to finish inkingSuperman until 1993. During that time, Breeding was the primary finish inker (overDan Jurgens' breakdowns) on the seminal 1992 Superman story-lines "The Death of Superman" and "The Return of Superman" followed by the popular prestige format limited seriesSuperman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey. Breeding worked with Jurgens many times over the years, including the titlesAdventures of Superman,Metal Men,Superman, and various entries inWho's Who in the DC Universe. He finish-inked the first eleven issues ofSuperman: The Man of Tomorrow (overTom Grummett andPaul Ryan, respectively), published in 1995–1998. Breeding also contributed to the 1996 landmarkone-shotSuperman: The Wedding Album.
In 1998, Breeding returned to Marvel Comics to work once again with long-time collaborator and friendRon Frenz onAvengers Next.[citation needed]
After leaving regular work in the comics industry in 2000, Breeding set up the company Digital Rainbow Images,[3] which also highlighted his wildlife photography.
In 2005, Breeding returned to comics work, now working for DC's Licensing Department providing finish inks, and frequently pencilling, art for licensed products, toy packaging, as well as animation and sculptor turnarounds and creatingstyle guides for their various characters. While working for DC Licensing, he designed, penciled and inked nearly 100 character turnarounds, many specifically for Mattel'sDC Universe Classics action figure line. The "hand" illustration used in the MattelDC Universe Classics 4 figure line "bubble-hand" packaging is an inked rendering of Breeding's own hand, fingerprints not included.[citation needed]
In late 2010, early 2011, Breeding was commissioned by DC's Licensing Publishing Department to create complete art for the bookDraw the DC Universe, published byKlutz Press. Many of the illustrations included are based on works by other artists, as directed by the publishers.[citation needed]
When DC closed down their licensing department at the end of 2010, Breeding moved toWarner Brothers Consumer Products, continuing to produce the same types of character art andstyle guides that he previously created for DC Licensing. In addition to the WBCP Style Guide work, in 2012 Breeding began work for Warner Brothers Global Publishing, producing full artwork (pencils, inks, digital coloring and animations) for a series of Classic Superman interactive storybook apps for theiPad. Breeding commissionedRon Frenz to provide the storytelling breakdowns for all the apps. The first two stories,Superman: Toppling Titano andSuperman and Bizarro Save the Planet, were released asE-books in June 2013, to be released as fully interactive apps in the near future.[citation needed] Breeding also worked on the third and fourth installments;Superman and Supergirl vs. Chemo and a Superman/Batman team-up. In late 2013, he produced storybooks highlightingThe New 52 versions of the DC characters.
| Preceded by | Avengers inker 1982–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Thor inker 1987–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by multiple | Action Comics inker 1989–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Superman inker 1992–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by N/A | Superman: The Man of Tomorrow inker 1995–1998 | Succeeded by |
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