Freddie E. Williams II (born May 30, 1977) is an American comic book artist. Williams entered the comic scene in 2005, when he began work with

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

on ''Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle''. He has since gone on to work on several crossover series, including ''

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is a six-issue intercompany crossover comic book miniseries featuring fictional heroes Batman and the IDW incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The series was written by James Tynion IV and il ...

'', '' He-Man/ThunderCats'', ''Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe'', and '' Turtles of Grayskull''.

Early life

Williams was born in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

, grew up in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

, and now lives in

Lees Summit, Missouri Lee's Summit is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri and a suburb of the Kansas City metropolitan area. It resides in Jackson County (predominantly) as well as Cass County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 101,108, making it the 6th ...

, with his wife. He was raised in an impoverished single-parent home, and often dreamed of flying away like

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

. His sister supported his love of comics and his dream of becoming a comic book artist. Williams was inspired to become a comic book artist at the age of 15 after seeing

Jim Lee Jim Lee (; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-born American comic book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. As of 2023, he is the President, Publisher, and Chief creative officer, Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work ...

's artwork in ''

Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the List of X-Men comics, X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of super ...

'' #272.

Career

While attending the 2005

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

, Williams submitted a portfolio to the

talent search. He was hired to do a few issues of ''

Seven Soldiers ''Seven Soldiers'' is a 2005–2006 comic book metaseries written by Grant Morrison and published by DC Comics. It was published as seven interrelated mini-series and two bookend issues. The series features a new version of the Seven Soldiers of ...

'' featuring

Mister Miracle Mister Miracle is the name of three fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first and third are humans Thaddeus Brown and Shilo Norman, while the second is New God Scott Free. The Scott Free incarnat ...

, for which he won an Eisner Award. He is known for drawing characters such as

Robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

the Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

Green Arrow Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in ''More Fun Comics'' No. 73 on September 19, 1941 (cover dated November 1941), th ...

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...

Star-Lord Star-Lord (Peter Jason Quill) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, the character first appeared in '' Marvel Preview'' #4 (January 1976). The son of human Mered ...

, and

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

. Since then, he has illustrated ''

'', ''Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II'', ''Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III'', '' He-Man/ThunderCats'' and ''Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe''. In 2006, Williams signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics. He became the regular artist on ''

'' beginning with issue 149 in 2006, and began illustrating ''

The Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

'' in early 2008. Williams appears frequently on comic book-related

podcasts A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

including ''

Comic Geek Speak ''Comic Geek Speak'' (CGS) is a comics audio podcast that focuses on current mainstream and small-press comic books, featuring creator interviews, reviews, commentary on the comic book craft and industry, comic-related movie discussions and mor ...

'', ''Half Hour Wasted'', ''Raging Bullets'', and ''Fanboy Radio''. He also posted online tutorials about creating digital artwork in comics. The tutorials are available on his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

page. On December 23, 2014, Williams was a featured guest on Episode 26 of the web show '' Best of the Worst'' by

RedLetterMedia Red Letter Media, LLC is an American film and video production company operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans. It was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while he was living in the Scottsdale section of Ashburn, Chica ...

and has since made multiple appearances in RedLetterMedia's videos. Williams is the author of a book about digital artwork, ''The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics''.

Technique and materials

Williams trained in traditional art methods but is primarily a digital artist who uses a "hybrid method", as detailed in ''The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics''. In addition to working digitally, he is also known for working in traditional media, including ink wash (diluted India ink). Williams has made a variety of "How To" videos listed as "work in progress" on his website, to demonstrate the methods he utilizes to create his artwork.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Freddie Williams II Work In Progress "How To" VideosFreddie Williams II Comic Book ChecklistFreddie Williams II Youtube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Freddie, Ii Living people 1977 births American comics artists American comics writers