Bill Koeb is an American
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
,
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
, and
sequential artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
whose work includes illustrations for ''
Washington City Paper'', ''
The Village Voice'', and
Bill Graham Presents
Bill Graham (born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca; January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. On July 4, 1939, he was sent from German ...
. His paintings have been exhibited in shows in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He has illustrated stories for the
Marvel Comics' series ''
Clive Barker's
Hellraiser'', the
Vertigo miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
''Faultlines'' and
Alan Moore's song, "Hair of the Snake That Bit Me". He created the artwork for the character Sarah in the film ''
The Crow: City of Angels'' (1996).
Biography
One of four children, Bill Koeb grew up in
California, where he attended
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
in
San Jose and high school in
Livermore.
[MySpace: Bill Koeb]
From 1985 to 1988, he attended the
Academy of Art College
The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...
in
San Francisco, majored in
Illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
and studied under
Barron Storey
Barron Storey (born 1940, Dallas, TX) is an American illustrator, graphic novelist, and educator. He is famous for his accomplishments as an illustrator and fine artist, as well as for his career as a teacher. Storey has taught illustration since ...
whom he assisted on Barron's rainforest mural for the American Museum of Natural History. Koeb spent 17 years in San Francisco as a freelance illustrator before moving to
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
, where he resides as of 2002.
[Koeb, "Welcome", May 11, 2007]
/ref>
He did the first of several painted stories and covers for the horror fiction anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
'' Clive Barker's Hellraiser'', from Marvel Comics' Epic Comics imprint
Imprint or imprinting may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series
* "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror''
* ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film
...
, that same year, beginning with the 17-page story "The Pleasures of Deception", by Philip Nutman, in issue #2 (no date; 1990). In addition to the series, Koeb painted the 18-page story "For My Son", written by Frank Lovece, for ''Clive Barker's Hellraiser Summer Special'' #1 (1992). That story appears in Checker Publishing's ''Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Volume 1'' (), though with the last page inexplicably missing; the complete story appears in an authorized, free online version from web publisher Wowio.Wowio: ''Hellraiser'' Collection 06
Other comics work includes
pencil-and-
ink art for writer Lee Marrs' six-issue
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
''Faultlines'' (May-Oct. 1997), published by
DC Comics'
Vertigo imprint; and the cover and writer
Alan Moore's eight-page story "The Hair of the Snake That Bit Me" in
Caliber Press' ''Negative Burn'' #17 (1995), reprinted in the 1998 Caliber
one-shot
One shot may refer to:
Film and television
* One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so
* ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake
* ''One Shot'' (2 ...
''Alan Moore's Songbook''. Additionally, Koeb painted the cover and the 28-page story of Marvel/Epic's ''Interface'' #7 (Nov. 1990); drew the
parody comic ''Aesop's Desecrated Morals'' #1 (
Rip Off Press, 1993); and inked
Tom Sutton on
DC Comics' ''
The Hacker Files'' #11-12 (June–July 1993)
From 1998 to 2001 he created over 40 illustrations for a Fireman's Fund national print campaign. In late 2001, with the birth of his son Gabriel, and with fewer jobs coming in as the result of a downturn in the economy, Koeb focused on painting and earned a living primarily from teaching
Photoshop and illustration classes at The Academy of Art, San Francisco.
[Koeb, "Painting", May 17, 2007]
/ref> In late 2006, he joined Goodwill Community Foundation, doing artwork for interactive lessons for a functional literacy program.
In 2003, Koeb had his first one-man show at Elon College, Elon, NC, and in 2009, his second solo show at Flanders 311 in Raleigh, NC. He currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife and son and is working on paintings and a children's book. He will be exhibiting monotypes at his solo show, "Eminence Front" at Gallery AD in November 2015.
Bibliography
*''ReMemory The Art of Bill Koeb'' ( Cartouche Press/Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''.
History
Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...
, 2003) ;
Footnotes
References
Koeb.com
(official site)
Grand Comics Database: Bill Koeb credits
Blog
External links
GCF LearnFree.org: The Everyday Life Project
(artwork)
/Artwork for sale
(Artwork for sale)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koeb, Bill
American comics artists
Living people
Painters from California
Artists from San Jose, California
Year of birth missing (living people)