| Mike Royer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Royer in 2020 | |
| Born | Michael W. Royer (1941-06-28)June 28, 1941 (age 84) Lebanon, Oregon, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
| Pseudonym | Mike |
| Awards | Inkpot Award 1978 Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award (2021) |
| http://www.michaelroyer.com | |
Michael W. Royer (/ˈrɔɪ.ər/; born June 28, 1941) is an Americancomics artist andinker, best known for his work withpencilersRuss Manning andJack Kirby. In later life Royer became a freelance product designer and character artist forThe Walt Disney Company.
Mike Royer was born on June 28,[1] 1941, inLebanon, Oregon.[2][3] He moved to southern California in early 1965 to pursue a career incomic book art,[4] although his first confirmed credit,inkingpencilerTony Strobl on the two-page story "Pluto Helps Babysitting" in publisherGold Key Comics'Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #282 (March 1964), appeared a year earlier.[5] He became an assistant to artistRuss Manning on Gold Key'sMagnus, Robot Fighter comic book, beginning with issue #12 (Jan. 1966), andTarzan, beginning with issue #158(June 1966).[5] By the following year, he was also working with artistsWarren Tufts andAlberto Giolitti on the company'sKorak, Son of Tarzan comic. He fully drew two 10-page stories, featuring theThree Musketeers and a group called the Arabian Knights, in Gold Key's children's comicHi-Adventure Heroes #2 (Aug. 1969). He also worked, uncredited, writing and drawing the Gold Key comicsSpeed Buggy andButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, and drew covers for the publisher'slicensedHanna-Barbera propertyTV Adventure Heroes.[4]
While continuing to work primarily for Gold Key, Royer began freelancing forWarren Publishing's line of black-and-whitehorror comics magazines, drawing writer James Haggenmiller's eight-page "Space Age Vampire" inEerie #23 (Sept. 1969), and later drawing a handful of stories inCreepy andVampirella as well.[5]
Beginning in 1970, Royer illustrated thealbum covers for the multi-part, year-by-yearCruisin' series of earlyrock and roll hits on Increase Records. The covers, when read as panels, created a fauxromance comics story.
Royer inked the covers of writer-pencilerJack Kirby'sTheForever People #2 and #5 (May and Nov. 1971), andTheNew Gods #5 (Nov. 1971) in Kirby's "Fourth World" epic atDC Comics, which he began after leaving Marvel Comics. He became Kirby's primary inker at DC, working on those titles and another title connected to the Fourth World seriesMister Miracle, as well as on the preexisting series,Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen which was incorporated into the same narrative. He additionally inked Kirby's next two DC series,The Demon andKamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, and, among other Kirby projects, inked the extantwar comics feature "The Losers" in several issues ofOur Fighting Forces in 1975.[5]
Royer alsolettered and inked the last six months ofRuss Manning'sTarzan Sunday-newspapercomic strip and, in the late 1970s, the first four months of Manning's daily and SundayStar Wars comic strips.[4]
Beginning in 1979, Royer spent 14 years on staff withThe Walt Disney Company, doing art and design for books, comic books and comic strips, andtheme park and licensed merchandise for its Consumer Product/Licensing division. His comics work there included designing andart directing the movie tie-inDick Tracy and3-D Rocketeer comic books, and helping launch aWinnie the Pooh licensing program in late 1993; for the latter, he was featured in a 43-minute video,How To Draw Pooh, sent to licensees. Royer left his staff position in June 1993 to freelance full-time for Disney, primarily on Winnie the Pooh projects.[4]
Since 2000, Royer has produced freelance art and design, including work onDigimon products, screen icons for theFox Familycable television channel environment and itsFox Kids programming bloc, "floor plans" forcomputer game animators,Reader Rabbit workbooks, andRescue Heroes toy packaging.[4] Since 2001, Royer and his wife and concept collaborator, Laurie, have lived inMedford, Oregon.[4] In 2019,TwoMorrows Publishing releasedJack Kirby's Dingbat Love, a collection of previously-unpublished work which Kirby had drawn for DC Comics in the 1970s. This included a "Dingbats of Danger Street" story inked by Royer.[6]
Royer received anInkpot Award in 1978.[7] In 2018, Royer was theInkwell Awards Guest of Honor at the annual live ceremony. He was awarded theInkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award in May 2021 for his inking career.[8][9]
| Preceded by | New Gods inker 1971–1972 | Succeeded by Dan Adkins (in 1977) |
| Preceded by Vince Colletta | Mister Miracle inker 1971–1974 | Succeeded by Ilya Hunch (in 1977) |
| Preceded by n/a | Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth inker 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by D. Bruce Berry | Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth inker 1976 | Succeeded by |
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