| J. David Spurlock | |
|---|---|
 Spurlock in 2015 | |
| Born | Jess David Spurlock (1959-11-18)November 18, 1959 (age 65) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Area(s) | Writer,Penciller, Editor |
Jess David Spurlock (born November 18, 1959) is an American author, illustrator, editor, and artist's-rights advocate best known as the founder ofVanguard Productions, a publisher of art books, graphic novels, and prints.
J. David Spurlock was born on November 18, 1959, inMemphis, Tennessee.[1][2] He moved toDallas, Texas in 1973.[2]
He has taught art atThe University of Texas at Arlington, theJoe Kubert School, and theSchool of Visual Arts in New York.[3] He has served as a president of theDallas Society of Illustrators.[4]
As acomic book artist, he co-penciled andinked thealternative press comicSparkplug #1 (March 1993), fromHeroic Publishing's Hero Comics imprint, credited as David Spurlock. The following year he contributed a text page to a Dallas, Texas, tribute comic honoring industry legendJack Kirby, who had recently died.[4]
Spurlock founded Vanguard Productions in 1993,[5] although he had used that name, in conjunction with Sparrowlake Enterprises, to self-publish thecomic bookBadge #1 in 1981.[6] The company initially had been founded to publish a comics anthology,Tales from the Edge, with 15 issues released as of 2010.[7] The company then moved into art books, biographies and eventuallygraphic novels, includingNeal Adams'Monsters (2003),[8] (originally serialized in the comics anthology seriesEchoes of Future Past, published by Adams'Continuity Studios), with four additional story pages plus additional Adams material.[9]DC Comics editorJulius Schwartz, an architect of theSilver Age of Comic Books, said "Spurlock's line of books serve as the vanguard of Silver Age comics histories."[10] Other comics magazines and collections published by Vanguard beginning in 2001 includeSpace Cowboy,Jesse James Classic Western Collection,Steve Ditko: Space Wars andWally Wood'sThe Complete Lunar Tunes andThe Wizard King.[11]
In an article on theFort Worth, Texas, comics artistPat Boyette,Don Mangus, who assisted Spurlock during this time, wrote of the early Vanguard comics that,
David was showcasing top-flight magazine illustrators and comic book talents in hisTales from the Edge comic book title[, in which he] either reprinted underexposed, hard-to-find 'gems', or debuted intensely personal (and thus unseen in the staid, traditional illustration markets) projects that the creators were eager to see displayed for public distribution. The initial concept ... was to combine the modern, cutting-edge illustrators such asBarron Storey,Marshall Arisman,Bill Sienkiewicz,George Pratt, etc., legends in the editorial realm of magazine illustration, with the more traditional and mainstream graphic storytelling by comic book veterans such as Pat Boyette, Wally Wood, andHoward Nostrand (often through reprints). Bridging this mix was to be David Spurlock's own quasi-retro, 1950s-styled space-western [feature], "Rick Montana, Space Cowboy", which he would draw in a genre-appropriate[Al] Williamson/'Fleagle'-homage art style.[12]
Spurlock co-created theWally Wood Scholarship Fund with Wood's brother, Glenn Wood, for students of theSchool of Visual Arts.[13][14] In a joint venture withMarvel Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors, Vanguard Productions in 2002 sponsored artistJim Steranko's "The Spirit of America" benefit print,[15] created to fund an art scholarship "for victims of anti-American terrorism".[16]
In 2008, Spurlock, with artist and publisherNeal Adams and theDavid S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Arts & Letters Council, spearheaded a petition campaign in which over 450 comic book creators and cartoonists urged theAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to return to artistDina Babbitt seven portraits she was forced to paint in the Auschwitz death camp in 1944.[17]
Vanguard Productions'Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators, Father of the Adventure Strip was a finalist for a 2003Independent Publisher Book Award (the IPPY) in the "Popular Culture" category.[18] It was nominated for a 2002Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Book".[19]
Vanguard'sWally's World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death ofWally Wood, the World's Second-Best Comic Book Artist (2004), by Spurlock and Steve Sarger, was nominated for a 2007 Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Book".[20]
The original self-published limited edition ofThe Art ofNick Cardy by John Coates (Coates Publishing, 1999), which was reissued in a wider edition by Vanguard in 2001, was nominated for a 2000 Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Book".[21][22]
In March 2011, he was namedInkwell Awards Special Ambassador. He still holds that recognition at present.[23]
Media related toJ. David Spurlock at Wikimedia Commons
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