Nathan L. Butler (born February 1, 1954) is an American
cartoonist
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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary an ...
and writer-illustrator of comics, best known for Christian-themed comics.
Early career
Butler began his full-time professional career at the Albuquerque News/Modern Press organization in 1975, starting in the production department and finishing as advertising art director. He self-published two tabloid-size ''Desperate Planet'' comic books in 1976 and 1977. In 1979 Butler opened his own studio and began freelancing.
While operating his business as Captain Renaissance Studios in the early 1980s, Butler worked almost exclusively with
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
-area clients such as the
Albuquerque Dukes
The Albuquerque Dukes were a minor league baseball team based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
History
The first Dukes team was formed in 1915 as part of the Class D Rio Grande Association. The team finished in third place with a 32-25 record. Fran ...
baseball team. He also contributed cartoon panels to the ''New Mexico Business Journal'', ''Viva New Mexico'', and ''New Mexico Stockman'' magazines, and taught cartooning and advertising layout at the Academy of Art & Design in Albuquerque. The company name changed to The Nate Butler Studio, incorporating in 1990.
Mainstream comics
The Nate Butler Studio, Inc. operated through at least 1995, producing artwork for Jim Henson Productions, ''
Weekly Reader
''Weekly Reader'' was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as ''My Weekly Reader''. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed-i ...
'',
Children's Television Workshop
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...
,
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...
, and
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
. The company worked on comic books, coloring books, magazines, apparel, and other licensed products utilizing characters such as
The Muppets
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses te ...
,
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Mer ...
Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse is an American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character was originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short ''The Mouse of Tomorro ...
,
Rocky & Bullwinkle
''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the American Broadca ...
The Jetsons
''The Jetsons'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It originally aired in prime time from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963, on ABC, then later aired in reruns via syndication, with new episodes produced f ...
Archie Comics
Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Betty and Me'', ''
Archie and Me
''Archie and Me'' was a comic book title published by Archie comics from 1964 to 1987. Most issues and covers focused on the interaction of Archie Andrews and the school principal, Mr. Weatherbee. This suggests that Mr. Weatherbee is the "Me" ment ...
'' and other titles in the mid-1980s. He drew and in some cases scripted the first seven issues of '' Jughead'' (August 1987 - August 1988), and was the primary writer-penciler, and occasionally inker, of '' Jughead's Pal Hot Dog'' (Jan.-Oct. 1990). For
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...
, Butler worked on the licensed series '' Heathcliff'', for the publisher's
Star Comics
Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. The last comic published under the imprint ...
imprint, and inked an issue of ''
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiratio ...
Grand Comics Database
The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...
/
In 1989, Butler attended the 1989 Albuquerque Winter-Con. That same year, he and wife, Susan Butler, co-created a children's book series about baby barnyard animals for the Honey Bear Books imprint of Modern Publishing. In the early 1990s, Butler was one of 125 artists selected to ink
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential c ...
's pencil artwork in the book ''Heroes and Villains'', published by Pure Imagination.
Christian comics
1990 was also the year Butler's studio formed a division called Aida-Zee Comics & Magazines and began to produce Christian comics. The studio's one-shot, Christian color comic ''Aida-Zee'' (1990) featured writers and artists including
Dick Ayers
Richard Bache Ayers (; April 28, 1924 – May 4, 2014) was an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on s ...
,
Murphy Anderson
Murphy C. Anderson Jr. (July 9, 1926 – October 22, 2015) was an American comics artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the Golden Age of Comic Books in ...
Kathleen Webb
Kathleen Webb (born October 6, 1956) is an American comic book writer and artist and one of the first female writers for Archie Comics.
Biography
Kathleen Webb was born in Puyallup, Washington. Mentored by Archie Comics writer-artist Dan DeCar ...
.''Aida-Zee'' at the Grand Comics Database. It contained the last published comic-book work by
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Go ...
comics professional Jay Disbrow, who inked, colored and lettered the five-page story "Alien Operation". The studio also produced the black=and-white one-shot ''Paro-Dee'' for publisher Entity-Parody in 1993, and the
3-D
3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality
* Three-dimensional space
** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data
** 3D film, a ...
one-shot ''Behold 3-D'' in 1996, for the UK's Edge Publishing.
Butler organized the first two Christian comics panels ever held at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1992 and 1995, with
Stan Lynde
Myron Stanford Lynde (September 23, 1931 – August 6, 2013) was an American comic strip artist, painter and novelist.
Biography
Born 23 September 1931 in Billings, Montana, he was raised on a sheep ranch near Lodge Grass. He attended the ...
, and
Kathleen Webb
Kathleen Webb (born October 6, 1956) is an American comic book writer and artist and one of the first female writers for Archie Comics.
Biography
Kathleen Webb was born in Puyallup, Washington. Mentored by Archie Comics writer-artist Dan DeCar ...
participating. Later Butler took part the ''Spirituality in Comics'' panel with
Marv Wolfman
Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's '' The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's ''The New ...
at Supanova 2007 in Australia, where Butler was a Featured Comic Book Guest along with
Stan Lee
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which w ...
and others.
Butler's studio also produced the ''Christian Comics Catalog'' in 1993 and in 1995. The latter contained Gaylord DuBois' last completed comic-book script.
Comics ministry and missions work
Butler went on to found COMIX35, nonprofit comics-training ministry and consulting company.COMIX35 official website The company sponsored the First International Christian Comics Training Conference held in
Tagaytay
Tagaytay, officially the City of Tagaytay ( fil, Lungsod ng Tagaytay), is a 2nd class component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 85,330 people.
It is one of the country's most po ...
, the Philippines, in January 1996.
Butler was an adviser at the start-up of the ''PowerMark'' comic-book series. He had been art director on an earlier ''PowerMark: Creation'' tract and ''Jungle Village: The Adventure Begins'' comic by the same publisher, which were used by
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
In the following years Butler led comics seminars and workshops in Australia, Japan,
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
,
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...
, the US,
Québec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...
, and a number of other countries.
In the mid-2000s Butler, briefly re-opened his own
sole proprietorship
A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole ...
, The Nate Butler Company, to produce comics for ministries. He co-scripted and art directed a
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
about Brother Yun entitled ''Yun: The Illustrated Story of the Heavenly Man'' for Lion Hudson with black-and-white tonal artwork supplied by former DC Comics artist Rico Rival and Joel Chua. He also produced ''The Truth For Youth Bible'' comics for Revival Fires Ministries and the George South wrestling tracts. Then that company was closed.
Butler organized the first International Christian Comics Competition (ICCC) in 2005. The winner in the professional division was Brazilian
Sergio Cariello
Sergio Cariello (born April 23, 1964) is a Brazilian-American comic book artist. He has done work for many major comic publishers through his career, including Marvel Comics and DC Comics, as well as popular independent companies like CrossGen Co ...
. The amateur winner was José Carlos Gutiérrez. The ICCC2 was held in 2007 and was won by American comics artist Kevin Dzuban.
From around 2004 to 2010, Butler traveled to Japan regularly to assist Shinsei Senkyodan (New Life Ministries) with their Bible manga series: ''Manga Messiah'' (Four Gospels), ''Manga Metamorphosis'' (Acts/Letters), ''Manga Mutiny'' (Genesis to early Exodus), ''Manga Melech'' (Exodus through the reign of David), and ''Manga Messengers'' (Solomon through the Prophets).
In 2006, Butler partnered with Australian cartoonist and filmmaker
Graham Wade
Graham Randell Wade
(August 16, 1931–August 2009) was an Australian Christian cartoonist, film maker and communicator. He was best known for his illustrations for Dr. Paul White's '' Jungle Doctor'' series. Wade went on to form Pilgrim Interna ...
and animator Phil Watson to hold a second comics seminar in Sydney, Australia. The next year Butler and Watson held the First Christian Animation Conference in Sydney. In addition to Butler and Watson, the instructors included former Disney animators Matt Baker, Rene Pfitzner, and Ian Harrowell, the Supervising Animator for Simba in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
In 2008 Butler and COMIX35 produced the pilot edition of a comic written and drawn by African Christians for an English-speaking African audience. It was published under two titles, ''The Good Shepherd'' and ''Lifegate Comics Africana''. This led to a partnership with ministries operating in
Francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the ...
(French-speaking) Africa and to co-publishing the comic magazine ''Éclats: Bandes Dessinées d’Afrique'' (''Bursts: Comics of Africa'') with Publications pour la Jeunesse Africaine (PJA), producers of the magazin ''Jouv’Afrique'' COMIX35 has held seminars in
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
and
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...
, Africa.
Butler has taught cartooning classes in prisons and has worked to develop inmate-produced comics. He and COMIX35 are members of Operation Starting Line (OSL), which is part of
Chuck Colson
Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to:
People
Arts and entertainment
* Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet
* Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer
* ...
's Prison Fellowship, and the Coalition of Prison Evangelists (COPE).
In 2013, Butler was chosen to be one of the original 44 EvangelVision bloggers selected by The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at
Wheaton College Wheaton College may refer to:
* Wheaton College (Illinois), a private Christian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois
* Wheaton College (Massachusetts)
Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachus ...
. That same year, Butler began assisting Kingstone Comics, overseeing artists and colorists on various titles. In 2014, he wrote the ''Story of Ruth'' script for the publisher's ''Kingstone Bible''.
Personal life
Born again in 1979, Butler was married to his wife Susan for 30 years until her death in 2011. He married COMIX35 board member Renée Paden Butler in 2012. Butler has three daughters. Butler is famous for always ordering a "yankee" when he eats out, a combination of iced tea and orange juice.