Paul Ryan
| Paul Ryan | |
| Biographical information | |
| Born: | September 23, 1949 |
|---|---|
| Died: | March 7, 2016 |
| Nationality: |  American
|
| Occupation: | Artist, Cover artist |
| Website: | Paul Ryan's Official Site |
 Best Story (Sweden) 2002: "The Long Bow of Little John" | |
Paul Ryan was an American comic book and comic strip artist who worked on "The Phantom" from 2001 until he passed away in 2016.
Biography
Early Years
Paul Ryan was born September 23, 1949 in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended St. Polycarp Grammar School (Somerville) and graduated from St. Mary of the Annunciation High School in 1967. He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design. After graduation Ryan enlisted in the United States National Guard and was shipped to Fort Dix, NJ for Basic Training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in automotive mechanics. He later attended Massachusetts Military Academy in Wakefield, Massachusetts for officer training.
During this period Ryan landed a job in the Graphics Department of Metcalf & Eddy Engineering in Boston, where he worked for 11 years.
First Steps in Comic Career
An article in the Boston Globe reports that "Ryan began his training as a child, growing up in Somerville. He'd park himself in front of the television each night to watch George Reeves in the Adventures of Superman[1] He has said that as a young comics fan and aspiring artist in the Silver Age of Comic Books, he was influenced by the work of Wayne Boring and Curt Swan on Superman. [2] In 1961, Ryan also became a big fan of the Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, having "bought the first issue at the tender age of 11."[3] It was not until 1983, however, that circumstances and opportunity prompted him to write and draw his first comics story, which he titled BREED. This comic was done in response to a general "open audition" offer from Charlton Comics. Charlton had recently instituted a program whereby they would publish the best of the work submitted by aspiring comic book artists in Charlton Bullseye. There was no money involved but Charlton would give the artist 50 copies of the printed piece. The artist would then have published work to show Marvel Comics or DC Comics in the hopes of landing a job with the Big Two. Charlton accepted Ryan's story but unfortunately the title was cancelled before BREED saw print.
The remaining stories from Bullseye ended up in the hands of Bill Black of Americomics in Florida, and Black published BREED. This brought Ryan to the attention of comic book stores in the Boston area. When Marvel Artist, Bob Layton, moved to Boston and needed an assistant, the employees at these stores recommended Paul Ryan to Layton. Ryan worked for Layton for a year doing his backgrounds, and through him met the editors and staff at Marvel. By this time Ryan, having taken a circuitous route toward a career in comic art, was in his early 30s.
Established at Marvel Comics
Soon, Ryan was getting assignments of his own, starting with inking (The Thing #27 and #29) and then moving on to penciling (Iron Man #202, Squadron Supreme #6, 9, 10, 11, 12 , Eternals #12, and a Thor Graphic Novel).
In 1986, writer Mark Gruenwald and Ryan co-created DP7 for Marvel's New Universe imprint; this comic book series about "Displaced Paranormals" has much in common with the TV series Heroes, which first aired two decades after DP7.
Ryan penciled the first six issues of Quasar followed by work on Avengers, Avengers West Coast, Iron Man, Fantastic Four (a notably long run on Marvel's flagship title, behind only Jack Kirby and John Byrne in total number of issues drawn; his first issue was #356, and his last #414) and Ravage 2099 (a character which he co-created with Stan Lee). In all, Ryan would rack up eleven years of comic book art exclusivity with Marvel Comics.
In 1992 Stan Lee asked Ryan to take over the penciling (with Joe Sinnott inking) on the Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip distributed by King Features. He drew that popular feature for just over three years.
The Move to DC Comics and Beyond
In 1996, Ryan's run on 'Fantastic Four was derailed by the ill-fated Heroes Reborn event. Shortly after, Paul Ryan left Marvel to work for DC Comics. He penciled a Superman Annual, Legends of the Dead Earth, the Flash series, Batman and many other titles. He also regularly pencilled Superman, Man of Tomorrow as well as several fill-in assignments on other Superman titles.
Paul Ryan became the only artist to have contributed to the wedding issues of both Spider-Man (Peter Parker marrying Mary Jane Watson in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, 1987), and Superman (Clark Kent marrying Lois Lane in Superman: The Wedding Album, published in 1996).
He was a contributing artist on the NASCAR/Superman custom comic and on Celebrating the Century, a stamp collecting book that DC produced for the United States Postal Service.
Ryan briefly returned to Marvel in 1999, teaming with writer Tom DeFalco on the Fantastic Five. The turn of the Millenium found Ryan working with Wildstorm, penciling one of the Left Behind Graphic Novels, and working with Crossgen as a regular fill-in artist on such titles as Ruse and Crux. Starting in 2001, Ryan also became a regular contibutor to Fantomen comic books published by Swedish company Egmont (a job which would position him well for his next major assignment).
Taking on the Duties of the Phantom
In 2005, then current penciller George Olesen announced that he was going to retire from "The Phantom" daily strip. Jay Kennedy at King Features Syndicate asked Paul Ryan to assume the artist's role on the daily strips and Ryan agreed. Then in October of 2006 Graham Nolan, artist on "The Phantom" Sunday strip, announced his intended departure from the series. Once again Kennedy called, and Ryan agreed to add the Sunday strip to his duties for King Features, with his first Sunday appearing in newspapers on April 1, 2007. It was the first time since 1994 (when Sy Barry left the strip) that only one artist is responsible for both dailies and Sundays. That lasted until 2011 when Ryan retired from the Sunday stories, however, he made a short revisit in 2012, when his succesor Eduardo Barreto died until Terry Beatty was recruited as new regular artist.
Paul Ryan passed away suddenly on March 7, 2016. He had recently finished a new Phantom story for Team Fantomen, and had only one week of strips left of what became his final daily strip story, "The Baronkhan Sedition".
Artist at Work
When asked how long it takes to produce his daily comic strip, Ryan estimated "four hours to pencil a strip and three hours to ink it in, crafting lighting and shadows." [4] Ryan's art is characterized by a strong story-telling sense, careful attention to design and perspective, and solid knowledge of anatomy-- on a strip that appears 365 days a year.
On "The Phantom", Ryan begins with penciling only the line work. "I work out the lighting, shadows and texture in the inking stage. I go in with the brush first and hit all the shadows and large dark areas. This helps define the page. Then I go in with a finer brush or pen to add details, texture or contour lines." [5]
While Ryan keeps reference books handy, he gives more credit to observation and an artist's eye for his knowledge of human anatomy as well as the structure of the world around us. "Whenever I'm in any situation, I'll constantly try to memorize things. I'll memorize a face, a room, and actually mentally outline everything." [6]
Ryan confesses to having run around his neighborhood as a youngster with a make-shift Superman cape tied around his neck ("I got beat up a lot," he jokes), [7] and his emotional identification with comic characters has continued into his professional years: "I find that while I'm illustrating a story I become so focused that I feel as if I'm [actually] in the story, taking the part of each of the characters as I draw them," Ryan says.[8]
Phantom work by Paul Ryan
Stories
Team Fantomen stories
| # | Title | Writer | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Invisible Phantom" | Raab | Ryan |
| 2 | "The Long Bow of Little John" | Bishop | Ryan |
| 3 | "The Highland Murders" | Bishop | Ryan |
| 4 | "Return of the Halloween Gang" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 5 | "Nebuchadnezzar's Ring" | DePaul | Ryan |
| 6 | "Secret of the Skulls, Part 3" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 7 | "Dogai Singh's Treasure" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 8 | "The 21st Phantom" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 9 | "Molok" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 10 | "The Black Widow" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 11 | "The Grim Reaper" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
| 12 | "Diana's Crisis, Part 2: Diana Disappears" | Reimerthi | Ryan, McLeod |
| 13 | "Temple of the Gods, Part 3: The Secret Sect" | DePaul | Ryan |
| 14 | "Temple of the Gods, Part 4: Servant of Evil" | Bishop, Lindahl | Ryan |
| 15 | "The 22nd Phantom, Part 1: The Empty Throne" | Reimerthi | Ryan |
Daily stories
| # | Title | Writer | Artist | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Temple of the Gods, Part 1: The U-Boat Mystery" | DePaul | Olesen, Williams, Ryan | 3 Jan 2005 | 14 May 2005 |
| 2 | "Temple of the Gods, Part 2: Return to Eden" | DePaul | Ryan | 16 May 2005 | 17 Sep 2005 |
| 3 | "The Crime Apprentices" | DePaul | Ryan | 19 Sep 2005 | 14 Jan 2006 |
| 4 | "The Jungle Trek" | DePaul | Ryan | 16 Jan 2006 | 13 May 2006 |
| 5 | "The Return of Chatu" | DePaul | Ryan | 15 May 2006 | 2 Sep 2006 |
| 6 | "The Doorman" | DePaul | Ryan | 4 Sep 2006 | 30 Dec 2006 |
| 7 | "The Mozznappers" | DePaul | Ryan | 1 Jan 2007 | 28 Apr 2007 |
| 8 | "The Voyaging Canoe" | DePaul | Ryan | 30 Apr 2007 | 25 Aug 2007 |
| 9 | "Graffiti Phantom" | DePaul | Ryan | 27 Aug 2007 | 5 Jan 2008 |
| 10 | "The Patrolwomen" | DePaul | Ryan | 7 Jan 2008 | 3 May 2008 |
| 11 | "The Drill Boss" | DePaul | Ryan | 5 May 2008 | 30 Aug 2008 |
| 12 | "Justice for the Python" | DePaul | Ryan | 1 Sep 2008 | 27 Dec 2008 |
| 13 | "Crocco Island West" | DePaul | Ryan | 29 Dec 2008 | 25 Apr 2009 |
| 14 | "The Hunt for the Unknown Commander" | DePaul | Ryan | 27 Apr 2009 | 22 Aug 2009 |
| 15 | "The Death of Diana Palmer Walker" | DePaul | Ryan | 24 Aug 2009 | 19 Dec 2009 |
| 16 | "The Phantom at Sea" | DePaul | Ryan | 21 Dec 2009 | 17 Apr 2010 |
| 17 | "Terror Cells of New York" | DePaul | Ryan | 19 Apr 2010 | 14 Aug 2010 |
| 18 | "The Trail to Gravelines Prison" | DePaul | Ryan | 16 Aug 2010 | 11 Dec 2010 |
| 19 | "Chatu's Fate" | DePaul | Ryan | 13 Dec 2010 | 5 May 2011 |
| 20 | "The College Kid" | DePaul | Ryan | 9 May 2011 | 13 Aug 2011 |
| 21 | "A Detente with Crime" | DePaul | Ryan | 15 Aug 2011 | 10 Dec 2011 |
| 22 | "The Den of Tigers" | DePaul | Ryan | 12 Dec 2011 | 7 Apr 2012 |
| 23 | "Mexico's Phantom" | DePaul | Ryan | 9 Apr 2012 | 18 Aug 2012 |
| 24 | "The Phantom Lion" | DePaul | Ryan | 20 Aug 2012 | 30 Mar 2013 |
| 25 | "The Aeronaut" | DePaul | Ryan | 1 Apr 2013 | 30 Nov 2013 |
| 26 | "The Scoundrel" | DePaul | Ryan | 2 Dec 2013 | 19 Apr 2014 |
| 27 | "Terror's Mutiny" | DePaul | Ryan | 21 Apr 2014 | 23 Aug 2014 |
| 28 | "John X" | DePaul | Ryan | 25 Aug 2014 | 27 Dec 2014 |
| 29 | "Patrolman X" | DePaul | Ryan | 29 Dec 2014 | 9 May 2015 |
| 30 | "The Challenge" | DePaul | Ryan | 11 May 2015 | 12 Sep 2015 |
| 31 | "The Twins' Futures" | DePaul | Ryan | 14 Sep 2015 | 30 Jan 2016 |
| 32 | "The Baronkhan Sedition" | DePaul | Ryan, Manley | 1 Feb 2016 | 4 Jun 2016 |
Sunday stories
| # | Title | Writer | Artist | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Ossuary" | DePaul | Ryan | 1 Apr 2007 | 23 Sep 2007 |
| 2 | "Plutonium Pirates" | DePaul | Ryan | 30 Sep 2007 | 23 Mar 2008 |
| 3 | "The Accursed Land" | DePaul | Ryan | 30 Mar 2008 | 21 Sep 2008 |
| 4 | "The Jungle Lesson" | DePaul | Ryan | 28 Sep 2008 | 22 Mar 2009 |
| 5 | "The Love Triangle" | DePaul | Ryan | 29 Mar 2009 | 20 Sep 2009 |
| 6 | "The Lost Kingdom of Avaria" | DePaul | Ryan | 27 Sep 2009 | 21 Mar 2010 |
| 7 | "The Dirty Half-Dozen" | DePaul | Ryan | 28 Mar 2010 | 19 Sep 2010 |
| 8 | "The Return of Colonel Weeks" | DePaul | Ryan | 26 Sep 2010 | 20 Mar 2011 |
| 9 | "The Nomad" | DePaul | Ryan, Barreto | 27 Mar 2011 | 18 Sep 2011 |
| 10 | "The Shadows of Rune Noble" | DePaul | Barreto, Ryan, Beatty | 25 Sep 2011 | 1 Apr 2012 |
Covers
Fantomen
External links
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