A short biography of Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander (Alex) Ross is a noted American comic book illustrator, plotter, and painter. He has worked for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics since the 1990s, while also being very active in creating independent works such as ‘Project Superpowers and Astro City’, both focused on the theme of superheroes. He has earned great respect and notoriety for his realistic anthropomorphic depictions of classic characters. He is primarily a plotter and a cover artist; This is often attributed to the fact that his painting style is time consuming.
Ross initially started out as a storyboard artist and in 1990 his first work called Terminator: The Burning Earth was published. All of his early work was done with pencils through color until 1993 when he completed his first painted superhero job; this was the cover of a Superman novel called Superman: Doomsday & Beyond.
It was during this time that Ross met Kurt Beisek and the cartoonist Brent Anderson with whom he went on to create Astro City, who continued to explore the theme of superheroes; Ross painted the covers, helped organize the wardrobe and the overall look of the collection.
In 1996 he worked on Kingdom Come, a DC Comics limited series with writer Mark Waid; The series considered the potential future of the DC Universe where characters like Superman returned from retirement to face a new generation of antiheroes. It was in this series that he saw the start of Ross’s redesigned versions of classic DC characters.
In the early part of the millennium, Ross designed and plotted characters for a limited series of Marvel Earth X, Universe X and Paradise X. Between 1998 and 2003 with writer Paul Dini he produced a work that celebrated the 60th anniversary of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman as well as specials that included the Justice League. In August 2005, Ross worked on a bimonthly limited series of Justice. After this, he worked on Project Superpowers. In 2010 it was announced that he would be the creative director of The Phantom.
Ross’s work has not been limited to comics; he designed a DVD insert for the M Night Shyamalan movie Unbreakable and in 2002 he also designed the promotional poster for the Academy Awards. It was in the same year that he portrayed Spider-man on the cover of TV Guide, along with four other artists, as a promotional link for the release of the Spider-man movie with Tobey Maguire. After this for Spider-man 2, he designed 15 paintings for the opening credits depicting key moments from the first film. Ross eventually donated them to be auctioned on eBay for the United Cancer Front.
Alex Ross’s art is incredibly popular and sought after by his fans; his work continues to grow.
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