William Messner-Loebs
Encyclopedia
William Messner-Loebs is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comic book writer and artist from Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, also known as Bill Loebs and Bill Messner-Loebs. His hyphenated surname is a combination of his and his wife's unmarried surnames.

Since the 1980s
1980s in comics
This article lists major events in the field of comics during the 1980s.Publications: 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989-1982:*Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo debuts in Young Magazine.- March :...

 he has written substantial runs of series published by DC
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

, Image
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

, Comico
Comicó
Comicó is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina....

, and other smaller comics publishers, including both high-profile publisher-owned superheroes and original creator-owned works which he has also illustrated.

Biography

Loebs's right arm was amputated in infancy because of a cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

ous tumor; he writes and draws with his left hand.

His first comics work was for Power Comics Company and on Noble Comics' Justice Machine
Justice Machine
The Justice Machine is a fictional team of superheroes originally created by Michael Gustovich and appearing in comic books from many small publishers in the 1980s and 1990s.-Publication history:...

with Mike Gustovich. His first ongoing series was Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, about 19th century Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...

 life, which he both wrote and illustrated. It was published from 1983 to 1986 by Aardvark-Vanaheim
Aardvark-Vanaheim
Aardvark-Vanaheim is a Canadian independent comic book publisher founded in 1977 by Dave Sim and Deni Loubert. It is best known for publishing Sim's Cerebus....

 and Fantagraphics, followed by a limited series Journey: Wardrums. He wrote the 31-issue Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest is a media franchise that revolves around a boy named Jonny Quest who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures. The franchise started with a 1964-65 television series and has come to include two subsequent television series, two television films, and a video game.-1964–1965...

series published by Comico
Comicó
Comicó is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina....

 from 1986 to 1988.

In 1988, he took over writing the recently relaunched series The Flash with issue #15 and continued through #61 (penciled by Greg LaRocque
Greg LaRocque
Greg LaRocque is an American comic book illustrator.Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, LaRocque worked as an assistant teacher at the Professional Institute of Art while still a teenager. He started his art career in the advertising field...

). Meanwhile he wrote Dr. Fate #25-41, and the Jaguar series for DC's Impact Comics
Impact Comics
Impact Comics was an imprint of DC Comics that was aimed at younger audiences. It was begun in 1991 and ended by 1993....

 imprint. He wrote Epicurus the Sage
Epicurus the Sage
Epicurus the Sage was the name of a 2-issue limited series written by William Messner-Loebs, with art by Sam Kieth. Each issue was bound in a graphic novel format, and was 48 pages long, without advertisements...

which was illustrated by Sam Kieth
Sam Kieth
Sam Kieth is a New York Times best-selling American comic book writer and illustrator, best known as the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl.-Comics career:...

 and scripted The Maxx
The Maxx
The Maxx is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth and published originally monthly by Image Comics and now collected in trade paperback collections from DC Comic's Wildstorm imprint. The comic book, which stars a character of the same name, spawned an animated series that aired on the...

(illustrated and co-written by Kieth).

In 1992 Loebs took over writing the Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....

series begun several years earlier by George Pérez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...

, with pencils by Mike Deodato
Mike Deodato
Mike Deodato , sometimes credited as Mike Deodato Jr., is the professional pseudonym of Brazilian comic book artist Deodato Taumaturgo Borges Filho.-Biography:...

. During his run from #63 to #100, he created the character Artemis of Bana-Mighdall
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is a fictional Amazon superheroine, a comic book character published by DC Comics. She debuted in Wonder Woman Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is a fictional Amazon superheroine, a comic book character published by DC Comics. She debuted in Wonder Woman Artemis of Bana-Mighdall is...

, for whom he wrote the mini-series Artemis: Requiem. Meanwhile he wrote Hawkman
Hawkman
Hawkman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in Flash Comics #1, published by All-American Publications in 1940....

#9-27, penciled primarily by Steve Lieber
Steve Lieber
Steve Lieber is a comic-book illustrator. His best known work includes runs on Detective Comics and Hawkman, the graphic novel Whiteout and its Eisner Award-winning sequel, Whiteout: Melt. He is also the co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel.-Early life:Lieber was...

. In 1996 he had a brief run writing Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

' Thor
Thor (Marvel Comics)
Thor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....

. From 1997 to 1999 he wrote Impulse
Bart Allen
Bartholomew "Bart" Allen is a superhero in the . Allen first appeared as the superhero Impulse. He would later go on to become the second Kid Flash and the fourth Flash. Allen's first cameo appearance was in The Flash #91, while his first full appearance was in issue #92...

#29-49, penciled by Craig Rousseau
Craig Rousseau
Craig Rousseau is an American comic book artist.During his career Rousseau has worked for various comic book companies, but is best known for his work on DC Comics titles like Harley Quinn, Batman Beyond and Impulse...

. In 1999 he wrote the "V2K" mini-series Brave Old World for Vertigo, penciled by Guy Davis.

His financial situation, following years of limited freelance work and the loss of his and his wife's home in the early 2000s, was publicized in the local newspaper and comics news sites and message boards on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. Author Clifford Meth
Clifford Meth
Clifford Lawrence Meth is an American writer and editor best known for his dark fiction. He has said that his work is often "self-consciously Jewish."-Early life:...

 teamed up with artist Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...

 to create a benefit auction to help Messner-Loebs. The two also created an art tribute book entitled Heroes & Villains (Two Morrows Press) will all proceeds aiding Messner-Loebs.

His financial situation has improved since then, and he has had a number of works published, including an issue of Green Arrow
Green Arrow
Green Arrow is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City...

in 2006, and several pieces in The Three Tenors (Aardwolf Publishing), which he shared credits for along with Clifford Meth
Clifford Meth
Clifford Lawrence Meth is an American writer and editor best known for his dark fiction. He has said that his work is often "self-consciously Jewish."-Early life:...

 and artist Dave Cockrum
Dave Cockrum
David Emmett Cockrum was an American comic book artist known for his co-creation of the new X-Men characters Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus...

. A new "Journey" story was included in the one-shot Many Happy Returns (About Comics) in 2008, and IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...

 reprinted the original material in paperback. He has done writing for Boom! Studios
Boom! Studios
BOOM! Studios is an American comic book company headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. The "BOOM!" in BOOM! Studios is always capitalized by the company.-History:BOOM! was founded June 22, 2005 with Zombie Tales #1....

, including the 4-issue Necronomicon and a story for Zombie Tales. He has done illustration work for the 2007 humor book Chicken Wings for the Beer Drinker's Soul and produces a monthly cartoon for the Livingston [County, MI] Parent Journal. He is in talks with publishers for additional, more substantial new works.

External links

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