Thomas Stanford Lyle (November 2, 1953 – November 19, 2019) was an American

comics artist 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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...

, best known for his work on '' Starman'' and '' Robin'' for

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 ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

'' 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 ...

Career

Tom Lyle's comics career began in the mid-1980s penciling titles such ''

Airboy Airboy is a fictional Golden Age of comic books, Golden Age aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II, before ending his initial run in 1953. The hero was the costumed identi ...

'', '' Strike!'', and '' Airwolf'' for

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 ...

. From 1988 to 1990, he penciled

' '' Starman'' series with writer

Roger Stern Roger Stern (born September 17, 1950) is an American comic book author and novelist. Biography Early career In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine ''CPL'' (''Contemporary Pictorial Literature''), one of the first platfo ...

, introducing the second Blockbuster in ''Starman'' #9 (April 1989). Lyle worked on the first solo '' Robin'' limited series with writer

Chuck Dixon Charles Dixon (born April 14, 1954) is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on the Marvel Comics character the Punisher and on the DC Comics characters Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and early 2000s. Early life D ...

. The series was reprinted a number of times, and led to two

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

miniseries – ''Robin II: Joker's Wild'' and ''Robin III: Cry of the Huntress'' – by the same creative team. Dixon and Lyle also co-created the Electrocutioner 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 ...

'' #644 (May 1992) and Stephanie Brown in ''Detective Comics'' #647 (August 1992). Meanwhile, in 1991 he worked on '' The Comet'' for DC's Impact Comics imprint, which he pencilled and plotted, with writer Mark Waid contributing the scripts. In 1993, Lyle started working for

, as penciler of ''

''. He was one of the artists on the " Maximum Carnage" and " Clone Saga" storylines which ran through the Spider-Man titles, during which time he designed the original blue

hoodie A hoodie is a type of sweatshirt with a hood that, when worn up, covers most of the head and neck, and sometimes the face. The most common 'pullover' style hoodies often include a single large knife pocket or muff on the lower front, whil ...

-and-red spandex costume worn by the

Scarlet Spider The Scarlet Spider is an alias used by several fictional Character (arts), characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most notably Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker, both of whom are genetic clones of Peter Parker, the sup ...

, a clone of Spider-Man. He also co-created the character Annex in ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...

Annual'' #27 with writer Jack C. Harris. Lyle penciled the three-issue miniseries '' Venom: Funeral Pyre'', which co-starred the Punisher and introduced the villain

Pyre A pyre (; ), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire. In discussi ...

. Lyle's other work for Marvel included '' Punisher'' vol. 3 with writer John Ostrander from 1995 to 1997, a ''

Warlock A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives '' warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver". The term came to apply special ...

'' mini-series which he wrote himself in 1998, and issues of '' Mutant X'' in 2000 and 2001. He drew several issues of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' for

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 ...

in 2000. He was the artist on the 2004 series ''Chickasaw Adventures'' for the Chickasaw Nation. Between 2005 and his death in 2019, he taught

sequential art In comics studies, sequential art is a term proposed by comics artist Will Eisner Will Eisner, '' Comics and Sequential Art'', Poorhouse Press, 1990 (1st ed.: 1985), p. 5. to describe art forms that use images deployed in a specific order for the ...

at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

References

External links

*
Tom Lyle
at Mike's Amazing World of Comics

at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyle, Tom 1953 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists American comics artists American art educators Artists from Jacksonville, Florida DC Comics people Marvel Comics people American role-playing game artists Savannah College of Art and Design faculty