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, or abbreviated as 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 ...

s and

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

. Nelson's style has been described as "carefully articulated". Nelson is an accomplished artist and educator, having taught at Northern Illinois University for two decades and worked at Raven Software and Madison Area Technical College. He later served as art director/head concept artist at Pi Studios and now runs Grazing Dinosaur Press with his wife. Nelson has illustrated numerous ''Dungeons & Dragons'' books, other games, and comic books for various publishers since the 1980s. Additionally, he has contributed to Eureka Productions' ''Graphic Classics'' series and authored an instructional book, ''Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures'', published in 2019.

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 f ...

and received his M.A. from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He taught at

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...

for twenty years. One of his students was Tom Baxa. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Nelson worked for

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation (trade name: Raven; formerly Raven Software, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most ...

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, or simply Madison College or MATC, is a public technical college in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It serves students in south-central Wisconsin and is part of the Wisconsin Technical College System. The co ...

. Nelson was art director/head concept artist at

Pi Studios Pi Studios was a video game developer 2002 in video gaming, 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''. ...

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 (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' books and ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' 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 200 ...

'' and ''

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

'' (

FASA FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargaming, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA In ...

), and ''

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

'' ( White Wolf), and illustrated cards for the '' Magic: The Gathering'' 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 bo ...

First Comics First Comics is an American comic book publisher that was active from 1983 to 1991 and then from 2011 to present (stylized as 1First Comics), known for titles like '' American Flagg!'', '' Grimjack'', ''Nexus'', ''Badger'', '' Dreadstar'', and '' ...

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 store, comic book specialty stor ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

, 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 hardcov ...

. 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, a lifeform with ext ...

''. He contributed to the magazine '' Hero Illustrated''. Nelson illustrated the cover of Joe R. Lansdale's novel ''Blood Dance''. Nelson has made numerous contributions to

Eureka Productions Eureka Productions is an Australian-American television production company majority-owned by Fremantle (company), Fremantle. Launched in 2016 by former Endemol Shine Australia executives Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin with backing from Freman ...

' ''

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 Allan ...

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

Jack London John Griffith London (; 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 t ...

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 one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

, 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 Ma ...

, 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, book ...

in 2019.

References

External links

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