Jen Bartel is an American illustrator and comic artist, best known for her work for

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 ...

and

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

. She co-created the comic ''Blackbird'' for Image with Sam Humphries. She won two Eisner Awards for her work as a cover artist in 2019 and 2022.

Personal life

Jen Bartel was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and is from Korean and Japanese descent. She spent her childhood, from first grade up to graduating high school in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. She identifies as

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Career

Bartel was scouted for mainstream comics cover work after she published her fan art on social media platforms. Bartel created the cover art for ''Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy'', and ''DC: Women of Action'', both published by Chronicle Books. She created graphic designs for

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

brand shoes featuring the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...

character Captain Marvel, and

character

Thanos Thanos () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Jim Starlin, the character first appeared in '' The Invincible Iron Man'' #55 (cover date February 1973). An Eternal– Devia ...

tied in with the releases of the ''Captain Marvel'' and ''Avengers: Endgame'' films in 2019. Bartel also created graphic designs for the Puma and

Foot Locker Foot Locker, Inc. is an American multinational retailer of footwear, sportswear, urban youth apparel and accessories headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in over 40 countries. Although established in 1974, and ...

corporation featuring

DC Extended Universe The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comic ...

character

Harley Quinn Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, PhD) is a fictional American character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She was created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for ''Batman: The Animated Series'' as a henchwoman for the ...

timed to coincide with the release of the

film '' Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)''. In 2021 Bartel created a Marvel variant cover collection to celebrate Women's History Month. She created eight covers that showed off some othe most popular Marvel female characters. Starting in 2022, Bartel was the main cover artist for

Rainbow Rowell Rainbow Rowell (born February 24, 1973) is an American author known for young adult and adult contemporary novels. Her young adult novels '' Eleanor & Park'' (2012), '' Fangirl'' (2013), and '' Carry On'' (2015) have been subjects of critical accl ...

's She-Hulk. In 2023, she continued her freelance work with Marvel. As part of the annual

Hellfire Gala "Hellfire Gala" was initially a 12-part X-Men comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics in June 2021. It is the first storyline featured in the " Reign of X" relaunch after the "X of Swords" storyline. Krakoa opens its gates to non-mutants t ...

event, Bartel was commissioned by Marvel with designing a new gala outfit for Captain Marvel. It was included as a variant cover with ''Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest'' #1. With the new relaunch of the Captain Marvel volume that coincided with The Marvels, she was tasked with redesigning with the characters' costume using her own previous design as the base.

Awards and nominations

She has won two Eisner Awards for her work as a cover artist on Blackbird (

Image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...

) and Submerged (Vault) in 2019 and in 2022 for her

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

and Women of Marvel covers. Besides her two wins she was nominated in 2020 and 2023 for the same award. In 2018, The Marvel Comic ''America'' to which Bartel contributed as one artist among 18 creators, was nominated for a GLAAD media award.

References

External links

Official Bartel website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartel, Jen 21st-century American women artists American female comics artists American LGBTQ people of Asian descent American artists of Japanese descent American artists of Korean descent DC Comics people Image Comics LGBTQ comics creators Living people Marvel Comics people Shoe designers Year of birth missing (living people) American queer artists American queer women