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Greg Land (born 1956) is an American
comic book 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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary ...
, best known for his work on books such as ''
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 ...
'', ''
Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...
'', and ''
Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...
''.


Career

Greg Land first got a job with an independent publisher as the artist for ''StormQuest'' after advertising himself at a Mid-Ohio Con comic convention. After that, he was hired by
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 ...
in 1999 to finish the covers for ''
Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...
'', based on the sketches of Brian Stelfreeze. He also had runs as interior penciler on both ''Birds of Prey'' and ''
Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero alias used by multiple characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The most prominent bearer is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who adopts the Nightwing identity to assert his independence from Batman. ...
''. Later, Land began to work at
CrossGen Cross Generation Comics or CrossGen Comics 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 ...
Comics on '' Sojourn''. The series ran from July 2001 through May 2004, for a total of 34 issues. After CrossGen went out of business, Land went on to work at
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
, where he did covers to various series. This led to a collaboration with writer
Greg Pak Greg Pak is an American comic book writer and film director. He is best known for his work on books published by Marvel Comics, including ''X-Men'' (most notably '' X-Treme X-Men''), several titles featuring the Hulk, and Hercules.Truitt, Brian ...
as the main artist of '' X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong''. Next, Land became the penciler for ''
Ultimate Fantastic Four ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running ''Fantastic Four'' comic book franchise as part of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. The Ultimate ...
''. He did the artwork for a crossover between Marvel's Supremeverse and the
Ultimate Universe The Ultimate Universe is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics beginning in 2023; the imprint is overseen by writer Jonathan Hickman. It reimagines several classic Marvel characters in a new fictional continuity, after Hickman and ...
, entitled '' Ultimate Power'', which was written by
Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an Americans, American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime fiction, crime and hardboiled, noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero fiction, superhero work. While a ...
,
J. Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski, known as J. Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is known as the creator of the science fiction televi ...
and
Jeph Loeb Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III () is an American film and television writer, producer and comic book writer. Loeb was a producer/writer on the TV series ''Smallville (TV series), Smallville'' and ''Lost (2004 TV series), Lost'', writer for the films ''C ...
. He then did the covers for '' Marvel Zombies 3'' which were all homages to posters of notable zombie movies. In 2008, Land illustrated ''
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 ...
'' #500. From then until December 2011 he would illustrate several sporadic sets of issues, totaling 22 in all, his last being issue #544. During this same period he also illustrated issue #210 and 235–237 of '' X-Men: Legacy''. In 2012, Land illustrated issues #5–8 and 11–12 of the relaunched ''Uncanny X-Men''.


Plagiarism accusations

Land has been accused of going beyond the accepted bounds of photographic reference, lifting images from sources that include hardcore pornography, and copying them into his pages outright with minimal
Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editin ...
alterations to make the work appear to be an original drawing, a reputation he developed from his work on ''
Ultimate Fantastic Four ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running ''Fantastic Four'' comic book franchise as part of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. The Ultimate ...
'' and '' Ultimate Power''. Land has agreed that he does employ photo reference to a large extent, and that he uses pornography as a source, but denies that the extent to which he does so is questionable.
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
included him in their 2009 list of "21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)" for this reason. Commenting on Land's work on ''
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 ...
'' #510, Brian Cronin of CBR.com remarked that the issue "possibly has the most harmful art to a story that I’ve seen in a comic," saying that Land's limited supply of poses and use of the same models for multiple characters "results in terrible art and particularly terrible storytelling." He was also mocked for his limited use of facial expressions on the Thing. Land has also been accused of directly swiping art from other comics artists, and is considered "notorious" for tracing his art from other sources. Land's art for Marvel's '' Aliens Omnibus'' was pointed out by artist Tristan Jones as containing direct copies of various pieces of Jones' own ''Aliens'' artwork. Similarities were also found between elements of Land's cover and an Alien portrait by Andy Brase, a catalog photo of a sculpted Alien egg toy by NECA, and a screenshot from the
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
video game '' Aliens: Colonial Marines.''


Bibliography


DC Comics

*''
Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...
'' #743 (1998) *''
Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...
'' #1–6, 8–10 (full pencils); #13 (along with
Patrick Zircher Patrick Zircher () is an American comic book artist and penciller. Career Zircher's early career as an illustrator began with production of several completed works for '' Villains and Vigilantes'', '' Champions'' and other pen-and-paper role-pl ...
) (1999–2000) *''Birds of Prey: Black Canary – Batgirl'' (one shot) (1998) *'' JLA'' #15 (along with Howard Porter) (1998) *'' New Titans'' ''Annual'' #11 (1995) *''
Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero alias used by multiple characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The most prominent bearer is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who adopts the Nightwing identity to assert his independence from Batman. ...
'' vol. 1 #1–4 (1995) *''Nightwing'' vol. 2 #41–43, 45–46, 48–50, 52, 54–56, ''Annual'' #1 (2000–2001) *''Nightwing/ Huntress'' #1–4 (1998) *''
Supergirl Supergirl is the name of several fictional superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original, current, and most well known Supergirl is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Kara Zor-El, the cousin of superhero Superman. Th ...
'' vol. 4 #11–12, ''Annual'' 2 (1997)


Marvel Comics

* '' Avenging Spider-Man'' #4 (2012) * ''
Astonishing X-Men ''Astonishing X-Men'' is the name of four X-Men comic book series from Marvel Comics, the first two of which were Limited series (comics), limited series. The third volume, an ongoing series, began in 2004 in comics, 2004, with its first run writt ...
'' vol. 2 #13 (2018) * ''
Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and has historically been cross ...
X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...
: Pixies and Demons'' (2008) * ''Future Imperfect'' #1–5 (2015) * '' Incredible Hulk'' #709–713 (2017–2018) * ''
Iron Man Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appearan ...
'' vol. 5 #1–9 (2013) * ''
Mighty Avengers ''The Mighty Avengers'' is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics. Originally written by Brian Michael Bendis, also the writer of ''New Avengers'', the title first featured an officially sanctioned Avengers team of registered s ...
'' vol. 2 #1–4 (2013–2014) * ''
Ultimate Fantastic Four ''Ultimate Fantastic Four'' is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running ''Fantastic Four'' comic book franchise as part of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. The Ultimate ...
'' #21–32 (2005–2006) * '' Ultimate Power'' (2006–2008) * ''
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 ...
'' #500–503, 508–511, 515–517, 520–521, 530–531, 540–542 (2008–2011) * ''Uncanny X-Men'' vol. 2 #6–8, 11–12 (2012) * ''Uncanny X-Men'' vol. 4 #1–5, 11–15 (2016–17) * ''
Weapon X Weapon X is a fictional government genetic research facility project appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were conducted by Department K, which turned willing and unwilling beings into living weapons to carry out c ...
'' vol. 3 #1–4 (2017) * '' X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong'' (2005) * '' X-Men Unlimited'' #13 (1996) * '' X-Men: Legacy'' #235–237 (2010) * '' Predator vs. Wolverine'' #1 (2023)


Other publishers

*''StormQuest'' #1 (1994) (Caliber Press) *'' Sojourn'' #1–6, 8–11, 13–16, 18–20, 22–25, 27–29, 31–33 (2001–2004) (CrossGen)


References


External links

*
Greg Land
Comic Art Community Gallery. {{DEFAULTSORT:Land, Greg 1956 births American comics artists Artists from Indiana DC Comics people Indiana State University alumni Living people Marvel Comics people Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American male artists