Bart Whitman Sears (born 1963) is an American

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

, toy and packaging designer and author, known for his work on such books as '' Justice League Europe'', ''

Legends of the Dark Knight ''Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight'', often simply called ''Legends of the Dark Knight'', is the name of several DC comic books featuring Batman. The original series launched in 1989 as the third major monthly Batman title, following the popu ...

'', '' X-O Manowar'', '' Turok'', '' Violator'', ''The Helm'' and The Masters.

Career

In addition to comic art, Sears has worked as a designer of action figures and packaging, most notably for Hasbro on the C.O.P.S., G.I. Joe, and

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

toy lines and on many of the early

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

action figures for

ToyBiz Toy Biz (also stylized as ToyBiz), was a toy company which later became a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment and was renamed to Marvel Toys. It was best known for producing action figures and toys and holding the Marvel Comics license from 1990 t ...

. Sears ran his own comic company briefly in 1994, called Ominous Press, which published three creator owned titles. In 2000, he joined

CrossGen Cross Generation Entertainment or CrossGen was an American comic book publisher and entertainment company that operated from 1998 to 2004. The company's assets were acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2004, and designated to Disney Publishing ...

as an artist, and was later promoted to act as one of the company's art directors. After the collapse of CrossGen, Sears returned to work at

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

on books like ''

Captain America and the Falcon ''Captain America and the Falcon'' was a comic book series published for fourteen issues in 2004 and 2005 by Marvel Comics. The series' title is a reuse of the cover title of Captain America's solo series during a period in which the Falcon was giv ...

'', ''Sabretooth: Open Season'' and ''Weapon X: Days of Future Now'', before returning to

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...

to work on a relaunch of

Warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

. Most recently, Sears worked in-house for Heatwave Interactive (2008–2010) creating concept art and story for several properties, as well as developing in-game assets for multiple games across various platforms. After this, he launched Ominous Studios, Inc, through which he created and directed the production of concept art and assets for game developers and studios. Sears has also taught at

The Kubert School The Kubert School, formerly the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art and Joe Kubert School, is a private, for-profit technical school focused on cartooning and located in Dover, New Jersey. It teaches the principles of sequential art a ...

and is the author of the monthly series Brutes and Babes that was featured in early issues of '' Wizard Magazine'', as well as the how-to book ''Drawing Powerful Comics: Volume One''. In 2022 Sears contributed an alternate cover to Issue #1 of Austin Hough's The Masters from Power Comics, Inc. Based on DC Comics Justice League Europe #1 which Sears originally created as an homage to Kevin Maguire's cover to Justice League #1 back in 1987.Austin Hough Publisher Power Comics, Inc. Sears replaced the members of the JLE with

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

Public Domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

super heroes recreated just for Power Comics. It features the

Black Owl The Black Owl is the name of two fictional superhero characters. Both appeared in the Prize Publications title ''Prize Comics'' in the 1940s. Publication history In 1940, Prize Publications, which was already established as a producer of pulp ma ...

(redesigned by Alan Weiss), Fly-Man (redesigned by Val Mayerik), Arrow (redesigned by Arvell Jones),

Airman An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions. In civilian aviation usage, t ...

(redesigned by Ron Wilson), Plymo the rubber man (redesigned by Alex Saviuk) and Twister (redesigned by Alan Weiss). Mark Pennington contributed the inks and Mort Todd the colors to the cover. He has also contributed the art for ten interior pages to The Masters Issue #5, to be published in Spring 2023.

References

External links

*
Ominous Studios

Bart Sears collecting site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sears, Bart 1963 births American comics artists Artists from Ithaca, New York Living people The Kubert School alumni