Valdis "Val" Semeiks (;
. Accessed March 18, 2008 born 5 February 1955) is an American

comic book 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 literary ...

who has mostly worked 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

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 ...

Biography

Val Semeiks was born in the U.S. to

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n parents. Semeiks graduated from college with degrees in

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, before pursuing a career in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

, working as "an art director for a regional ad agency". He has been working in the

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

field since 1986, mostly as a

penciller 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 ...

although he has been known to ink his own work. His first professional credit was with

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

, drawing '' King Kull'' back-up stories for '' The Savage Sword of Conan'', which ultimately led to him becoming the monthly artist on ''

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...

'', allowing him to leave his day job and forge a fulltime career as a comics artist. He is perhaps best known for his next major credits, long runs on both ''The

Demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

'' and '' Lobo'' for

primarily working with writer Alan Grant, whose plots Semeiks calls "laugh-out-loud funny," leading him to call his time on '' Lobo'' (upon which he worked with

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 ...

John Dell) "about as much fun as anyone can have drawing comics". He also provided the artwork to Alan Grant and John Wagner's 1995 DC/ 2000 AD crossover title ''Lobo/

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of the British weekly anthology Comic book, comic ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977). He is the magazi ...

: Psycho-Bikers vs. The Mutants From Hell''. (As part of the 1996 ''

DC vs. Marvel ''DC vs. Marvel'' (issues #2–3 titled ''Marvel vs. DC'') is a comic book miniseries intercompany crossover published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics from February to May 1996. Each company would publish two issues of the miniseries, thus the t ...

'' event, the DC and Marvel Universes briefly combined to form the Amalgam Universe. Alan Grant and Semeiks were reunited in 1997 to produce a comic as part of the

Amalgam Comics Amalgam Comics was a collaborative publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones (e.g., the DC Comics character Batman and the Marvel Comics character Wolver ...

line, when Val drew the all-too-brief adventures of "Lobo the Duck", where he demonstrated his versatility with a much more

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

-like approach to the artwork.) Returning briefly to Marvel, Semeiks was reunited with his first editor –

Larry Hama Larry Hama (; born June 7, 1949) is an People of the United States, American comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s. During the 1970s, he was seen in minor roles ...

– this time acting as writer on ''

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 ...

'', upon which Semeiks worked, alongside a number of other titles. Returning again to DC, Semeiks worked on a number of JLA projects with then-JLA-writer

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...

, including ''JLA/ WildC.A.T.S.'', '' DC One Million'', and the 1999 limited series ''Superman's Nemesis:

Lex Luthor Alexander "Lex" Joseph Luthor () is a supervillain in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the character first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #23 (published on February 22, 1940, with a cover d ...

'' with writer

David Michelinie David Michelinie (; born May 6, 1948) is an American comic book writer best known for scripting Marvel Comics' ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and ''Iron Man'' and the DC Comics feature Superman in ''Action Comics''. Among the characters he created or ...

. Semeiks also drew two Batman stories penned by Dwayne McDuffie in 2002 and 2003 for '' Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight'' (issues #156-158) and (issues #164-167). In 2006, he helped wrap up the second volume of ''

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Barry Allen ** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...

'', illustrating issues #227-230. He contributed to Marvel's relaunch of ''

Web of Spider-Man ''Web of Spider-Man'' is the name of two different monthly comic book series starring Spider-Man that have been published by Marvel Comics since 1985, the first volume of which ran for 129 issues between 1985 and 1995, and the second of which ran ...

'' in 2009.http://marvel.com/catalog/?id=13044 He has also worked on non-Superhero projects including cartoon work for ''

MAD Magazine ''Mad'' (stylized in all caps) is an American humor magazine which was launched in 1952 and currently published by DC Comics, a unit of the DC Entertainment subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. ''Mad'' was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman an ...

'' and DC's "Big Book" series (from

Paradox Press Paradox Press was a division of DC Comics formed in 1993 after editor Mark Nevelow departed from Piranha Press. Under the initial editorship of Andy Helfer, Andrew Helfer and Bronwyn Carlton, the imprint was renamed. Paradox was best known for pu ...

) as well as "video game and toy design work too". He illustrated fantasy author R.A. Salvatore's '' Icewind Dale Trilogy'' in three comicbook mini-series (''Crystal Shard'', ''Streams of Silver,'' and ''Halfling's Gem'').

References

External links

*
Val Semeiks' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semeiks, Val American comics artists Living people 1955 births American people of Latvian descent