Mark A. Nelson (born 1953)Nelson entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Mar. 3, 2013. is an artist whose work has appeared in

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s and

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

. Nelson's style has been described as "carefully articulated".

Biography

Nelson attended the

Cleveland Institute of Art The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio. History The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at fir ...

and received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He taught at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a Public university, public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of ...

for twenty years. One of his students was

Tom Baxa Thomas M. Baxa is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Biography Tom Baxa grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. He enrolled at Northern Illinois University, where he studied under comic and fantasy artist Mark Nelson. Works To ...

. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Nelson worked for

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the stu ...

doing conceptual work, painting digital skins, and creating textures for computer games. During this period, he was an animation instructor at

Madison Area Technical College Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) is a public technical and community college based in Madison, Wisconsin. It serves students in parts of 12 counties in south-central Wisconsin: Adams, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jeffers ...

. Nelson was art director/head concept artist at

Pi Studios Pi Studios was a computer game software developer founded in 2002 by Robert Erwin, John Faulkenbury, Rob Heironimus, Dan Kramer and Peter Mack whose first commercial work can be found in Activision's '' Call of Duty: United Offensive''. The co ...

in Houston from 2008 to 2011. He now runs his own studio (along with his wife, Anita), Grazing Dinosaur Press.

Work

Illustrator

Nelson has produced interior illustrations for many ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (T ...

'' books and '' Dragon'' magazine since 1985. He has also produced artwork for other games including ''

Villains and Vigilantes ''Villains and Vigilantes'' (abbreviated as ''V&V'') is a superhero-themed role-playing game which competed primarily with ''Champions'' and ''Superworld'' in the early to mid-1980s. Origin ''Villains and Vigilantes'' was the first role-playin ...

'' (

Fantasy Games Unlimited Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent. History Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...

), ''

Earthdawn ''Earthdawn'' is a fantasy role-playing game, originally produced by FASA in 1993. In 1999 it was licensed to Living Room Games, which produced the ''Second Edition''. It was licensed to RedBrick in 2003, who released the Classic Edition in 2005 ...

'' and ''

Shadowrun ''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspi ...

'' (

FASA Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city dat ...

), and ''

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to ...

'' (

White Wolf A white wolf or Arctic wolf is a mammal of the ''Canidae'' family and a subspecies of the gray wolf. It may also refer to: Organizations * White Wolf (band), a Canadian heavy metal band * White Wolf (band), white power oi band from the USA * Wh ...

), and illustrated cards for the ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

'' collectible card game.

Comics

Nelson has worked extensively in the comics industry since the mid-1980s, for publishers such as

NOW Comics NOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comic boo ...

First Comics First Comics was an American comic book publisher that was active from 1983 to 1991, known for titles like '' American Flagg!'', '' Grimjack'', '' Nexus'', ''Badger'', '' Dreadstar'', and '' Jon Sable''. Along with competitors like Pacific Comic ...

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was ...

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

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 ...

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

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hard ...

. His comic book work includes the series ''

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrat ...

''. He contributed to the magazine ''

Hero Illustrated ''Hero Illustrated'' was a comic book-themed magazine published in the early to mid-1990s in the United States. Columnists included Andy Mangels, and Frank Kurtz was at one time a managing editor. The journal won the 1995 Eisner Award for Best Co ...

''. Nelson illustrated the cover of

Joe R. Lansdale Joe Richard Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres - Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense - he's also written comic books and screenplays. Se ...

's novel ''Blood Dance''. Nelson has made numerous contributions to

Eureka Productions Eureka Productions is an Australian-American television production company which develops and produces scripted and unscripted programming in both countries and is owned by Fremantle. The company has produced numerous popular series including '' ...

' ''

Graphic Classics ''Graphic Classics'' is a comic book anthology series published by Eureka Productions of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. ''Graphic Classics'' features adaptations of literary classics by authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and Edgar All ...

'' series, including '' H.P. Lovecraft,

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by ...

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busin ...

, Horror Classics,

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include " The Gift of the ...

, Adventure Classics, Fantasy Classics'', and ''Native American Classics''. He has also illustrated stories in Eureka's ''Rosebud'' #18 and ''The Best of Rosebud.''

Instructional Books

Nelson authored ''Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures'' published through

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

in 2019.

References

External links

* * * 1953 births American comics artists Living people Northern Illinois University faculty Role-playing game artists University of Michigan alumni {{US-comics-artist-stub