Nathan Massengill (born 1970) is an American comic book artist, most known for his work as a brush

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. After the penciller creates a drawing with pencil, the inker interprets this drawing by outlining and embellishing ...

. His work includes

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 ...

' ''Deadpool'' and

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 ...

' the ''Justice Society of America''. He is best known for inking

Ed McGuinness Edward McGuinness is an American comic book artist and penciller, who has worked on books such as ''Superman (comic book), Superman'', ''Superman/Batman'', ''Deadpool (comic book), Deadpool'', and ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), Hulk''. His p ...

penciler A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step ...

on the ''

Deadpool Deadpool is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in ''New Mutants'' #98 (December 1990). In his comic book appearances, Deadpool is ...

'' series. He is also known for his inking work over pencilers Mike Wieringo (Image Comics' ''Tellos''),

Dale Eaglesham Dale Eaglesham is a Canadian comic book illustrator who has been working in the American industry since 1986. He is best known for his work on titles like '' Conan'', '' Punisher'', ''Green Lantern'', ''Villains United'', ''Justice Society of Amer ...

(DC Comics ''JSA''), Steve Scott (''Marvel Adventures Hulk''), and Sanford Greene (''Marvel Adventures Spider-Man'').

Early life

Nathan Massengill was born in 1970 in Hickory, North Carolina. He says, "I was always drawing. I have comic book pages with panels and superhero characters that I was working on in kindergarten." His only formal education comes from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts, which he attended for two years ('89-90). Of the school, he says, " twas, and remains, a fantastic school."

Career

He started his professional career in the early 1990s, producing the book "''Poets Prosper''" for Tome Press, an imprint of

Caliber Press Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed (comics), Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is rank ...

. Shortly thereafter, in 1992-3 came his first work for DC Comics, inking an issue of ''The Jaguar'' and penciling an issue of ''

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 ...

''. Also during this time, he worked for

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a Creator ownership, creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and re ...

at Continuity as a blue-line colorist. Between 1993-4, he concentrated primarily on watercolor painting heavily influenced by the techniques and work of Burton Silverman. He contributed painted covers and a series of painted graphic novels for Raven Publications. He painted a short story in the first issue of ''

Negative Burn ''Negative Burn'' is a black-and-white comics anthology, anthology comic book published beginning in 1993 by Caliber Press, and subsequently by Image Comics and Desperado Publishing. Edited by Joe Pruett, ''Negative Burn'' is noted for its eclecti ...

'', a series to which he has often contributed. In 1993, Massengill's painted work was nominated for a

Chesley Award The Chesley Awards are the "pinnacle award" for art in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Established in 1985 by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, the awards recognize individual artistic works and achievements during a g ...

. In 1995, he returned to inking over new penciler

, working on five issues of ''

Vampirella Vampirella () is a vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine ''Vampirella'' #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of '' Creepy'' and ''E ...

'' for Harris Publications. After leaving Harris, the pair moved to Marvel Comics. After working together on the 1996 ''

Wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

Annual'', Ed and Nathan started work on the ''Deadpool'' ongoing series, launching the title from #1 (with writer Joe Kelly and inker

Norman Lee Norman Lee (10 October 1898 – 2 June 1964) was a British screenwriter and film director. Selected filmography * '' The Lure of the Atlantic'' (1929) * '' The Streets of London'' (1929) * '' Night Patrol'' (1930, documentary) * '' Doctor J ...

). Massengill worked on the series until issue #13. Issue #12, penciled by

Pete Woods Peter Woods is an American comic book artist, known for his work on titles such as ''Backlash (Marc Slayton), Backlash'', ''Deadpool (comics), Deadpool'', ''Robin (comics), Robin'', ''Catwoman'', ''Amazons Attack'', and ''Action Comics''. Career ...

, was nominated for a 1998

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for Best Single Issue. After leaving ''Deadpool'', McGuinness and Massengill worked on varying titles included Marvel's ''The Hulk'', ''Cable'', and Awesome Entertainment's ''The Fighting American''. In 1998, Massengill worked on Image Comics' '' Tellos'' over the late Mike Wieringo. In 2004, Massengill reunited with penciler Pete Woods on a short run in ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' (later retitled as ''Batman Detective Comics'') is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is ...

''. After that series arc, he continued with Detective to work on the twelve-issue arc entitled "''The City of Crime''" written by

David Lapham David Lapham is an American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on the independent comic book ''Stray Bullets (comics), Stray Bullets''. Career David Lapham started his career in 1990 as a penciller at Valiant Co ...

. Following this, Massengill has worked with penciler Steve Scott, contributing limited-animation art to ''

Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produce ...

'' Season 6 and the DVD extras for that season. He also worked with Scott on ''Marvel Adventures Hulk'' and a promotional comics for the movie '' Batman: The Dark Knight''. He has also worked with penciler Sanford Greene on many projects, including DC Comics' ''

Wonder Girl Wonder Girl is the alias of multiple list of superheroines, superheroines featured in comic books published by DC Comics. They are associated with the superheroine Wonder Woman and possess Amazons (DC Comics), Amazonian powers. The Wonder Girl a ...

'' mini-series. Massengill worked with penciler

on five issues of DC Comics' ''The Justice Society of America''. This series included writing and painted art by

Geoff Johns Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer. Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash (comics), Flash, and Superman has drawn critical accl ...

and

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book creator, comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which ...

, and used characters from Ross's best-selling graphic novel "'' Kingdom Come''". The work was later collected in the trade paperback, "Justice Society, Thy Kingdom Come." Massengill then returned to ''Deadpool'' with Deadpool #900 and the Marvel Holiday Magazine (2010), in which Deadpool teams up with Santa Claus. His next ''Deadpool'' project was Deadpool Team-Up #894, featuring '' Franken-Castle''. In 2010, Massengill contributed pencils, inks, and color to

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

's The Guardian Project. In 2013, Massengill released the first graphic novel in his creator-owned series, Viscera: Epic Frail. For this project, he is the writer, artist, and publisher. A dark feminist superheroine, Viscera is an anti-

rape culture Rape culture is a setting, as described by some sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to that setting's attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blamin ...

paranormal thriller. In addition to the graphic novel, Viscera is also a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

Techniques

Massengill is known as a "brush"

, a style of inking noted for the predominant use of brush rather than pen-based linework. He has written an article on the inking process which includes proposed new terminology related to the field of inking.Massengill, Nathan
The INKING FAQs"
nathanmassengill.com. Retrieved June 2, 2012.

Notes

References

Nathan Massengill
at the

Big Comic Book DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated fea ...

External links

Official websiteOfficial website of VisceraOriginal Art
at Comic Art Fans * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Massengill, Nathan American comics artists Comics inkers Living people 1970 births