Sandy Carruthers is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-American artist and retired graphic design instructor, known for his work as the first illustrator of the original ''

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series, and as creator of the webcomic series, ''Canadiana: the New Spirit of Canada''.

Early life and education

Carruthers was born on May 11, 1962 in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. Th ...

. He trained at

Holland College Holland College is the provincial community college for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (PEI). It is named after the British Army engineer and surveyor Captain Samuel Holland. History It was formed by the Government of Prince E ...

between 1979–1981 in its Commercial Design Program, where he later taught full-time for 25 years until he retired in 2017. He also attended

Sheridan College Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology) is a public polytechnic institute of technology located in the west- Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Founded i ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, taking its Illustration program, and took a correspondence course with

The Joe 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 and ...

Career

Carruthers first started working in comics at Malibu Graphics including the illustration of '' The Men in Black,'' written by

Lowell Cunningham Lowell Cunningham (born c. 1958/1959) is an American comic book author. He is best known for creating the comic book '' The Men in Black'', which later became the basis for a media franchise. Early life Lowell Cunningham was raised in Franklin, T ...

, which would later be adapted into the ''Men in Black'' movie franchise. He also worked on ''

Captain Canuck Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero. Created by cartoonist Ron Leishman and artist/writer Richard Comely, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in ''Captain Canuck'' #1 (July 1975). The series was the first successful Canadia ...

''. He worked as the Editorial Cartoonist for the ''

Charlottetown Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a daily newspaper published six days a week in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The paper was originally launched in the 1870s as ''The Presbyterian and Evangelical Protestant Union'', owned by Presbyterian minis ...

'' newspaper. He published a book of his editorial cartoons entitled ''Sh-It Happened''. He has worked on several graphic novels for Graphic Universe, a division of

Lerner Publishing Group Lerner Publishing Group, based in Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota since its founding in 1959, is one of the largest independently owned children's book publishers in the United States. With more than 5,000 titles in print, Lerner Publi ...

(

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

, U.S.) including ''Yu the Great'', written by Paul D. Storrie, ''Sunjata: Warrior King of Mali'' (a 13th-century West African story), written by Justine and Ron Fontes. He also illustrated three graphic novels in the style of

interactive storytelling Interactive storytelling (also known as interactive drama) is a form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined. The author creates the setting, characters, and situation which the narrative must address, but the user (a ...

: ''Terror in Ghost Mansion'' (Paul D. Storrie, writer), "School of Evil" (Marie P. Croall, writer) and "Peril at Summerland Park" (Paul D. Storrie, writer). Beginning in 2004, he worked on the webcomic ''Canadiana'', also known as the ''New Spirit of Canada''. It drew heavily on the traditions of the superhero genre, centred on the adventures and personal life of the titular female superhero. Penciller Jeff Alward and scripter

Mark Shainblum Mark Shainblum (born 1963 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian writer who now lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Though he has worked as a journalist and editor, Shainblum is best known as a science fiction and comic book writer. Early life Shainblu ...

(known for '' Northguard'' and ''Angloman'') and artist Brenda Hickey have also worked on the series. Carruthers has worked with the Charlton NEO group: a revival effort to bring back

Charlton Comics Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T.W.O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton ...

. His art can be found in ''Charlton Arrow'' # 1, 2, and 3 with the reworking of ''Spookman'' (with writer Roger McKenzie and editor Mort Todd), a public-domain character created by Pat Boyette in 1968. He illustrated "Travest: Spirit Talker''",'' a western he and Roger McKenzie co-created for ''Charlton Wild Frontier'' #1, and a horror story "Skin in the Game" with writer Paul Kupperberg. He has worked with writer Nicola R. White and illustrator Kara Brauen as both colorist and letterer on a 5 issue run of ''Wild Rose'', an Irish folktale set against the backdrop of London and rural Ireland in 1790. In September, 2018, Carruthers started a new partnership with fellow comic creators Robert Doan and Greg Webster to produce ''Sandstone Comics Presents'', an anthology series.

References

External links

Sandy Carruthers official site
with some of his work. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carruthers, Sandy Canadian comics artists Canadian webcomic creators 1962 births Living people Sheridan College alumni American artists