Dan Jurgens

Dan Jurgens
Dan Jurgens
Born	June 27 1959 (1959--) (age 48)
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Penciller, Inker, Writer
Notable works	Booster Gold Superman Thor Tangent Comics

Dan Jurgens (born June 27, 1959) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is best known for creating the superhero Booster Gold, and for his lengthy runs on the Superman titles Adventures of Superman and Superman (vol. 2), particularly during The Death of Superman storyline. Other series he has been associated with include The Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1), Thor (vol. 2), Captain America (vol. 3), Justice League America, Metal Men, Teen Titans (vol. 2), Zero Hour, Tomb Raider: The Series and the DC Comics' imprint Tangent.

Career

His first professional comic work was for DC Comics on Warlord #63 which he was hired for due to a recommendation of the preceding artist of the Warlord-series Mike Grell who was deeply impressed by Jurgens' work after Jurgens had shown him his private portfolio at a convention. In 1986, created the character Booster Gold, who became a member of the Justice League and who went on to have a very successful run in the series thanks to the writing of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis.

His first work on Superman was doing the pencilling in the 1987 Annual of Adventures of Superman. In 1989, Dan began working full-time on Superman when he took over the writing/pencilling of the monthly Adventures of Superman with Art Thibert providing inks, and later on Brett Breeding being Jurgens' regular inker.

The cover to Superman vol. 2, #75 (January 1993). Art by Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding

Dan Jurgens was the penciller of the 1990 - 1991 Limited Series Armageddon 2001 and co-created the hero "Waverider" with comic legend Archie Goodwin.

In 1991 Dan took over the writing/pencilling of the main Superman comic book, where he created a supporting hero named Agent Liberty. During his run on Superman (vol. 2), Dan created two very popular villains - Doomsday and the Cyborg. Doomsday was the main antagonist in the runaway hit Death of Superman. He also wrote and drew the Justice League America for about 1 year.

In 1993, Jurgens pencilled the Metal Men 4-issue miniseries, which was a retcon of their origin story.

Jurgens wrote and pencilled the landmark 1994 comic book miniseries and crossover Zero Hour storyline that ran in DC Comics. Jurgens also wrote & penciled layouts (with finished art by Brett Breeding) to the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey miniseries, which was a follow-up to the successful Death of Superman storyline (Jurgens would write & pencil another miniseries later on, Superman: The Doomsday Wars).

In 1995 Jurgens and Italian artist Claudio Castellini worked on the highly publicized crossover Marvel Vs DC. In the same year, he gave up the pencilling duties on Superman (vol. 2) to artists Gil Kane, Ron Frenz and Steve Epting with Joe Rubinstein as inker.

Superman vs. Aliens #1. Art by Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan

Jurgens scripted and provided layout art for the Superman vs. Aliens mini-series. The story was about a battle between Superman and the aliens created by H. R. Giger (a.k.a. the Xenomorphs), from the Alien film series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in unison with DC Comics in 1995.

Cover to Teen Titans vol. 2, #5, featuring the 1996–98 team. Art by Dan Jurgens & George Pérez

In January 1996, Jurgens was writer and penciller of the new Spider-Man series, The Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1), at Marvel Comics. The title was initially conceived to be the flagship showcase for the new Ben Reilly Spider-Man (it replaced the Web of Spider-Man series). The initial seven issues (#0-6, January-July, 1996) were written and pencilled by Jurgens, who had helped revive interest in Superman for DC Comics in the mid 1990s. Jurgens pushed strongly for the restoration of Peter Parker as the true Spider-Man and plans were made to enact this soon, but Bob Harras, the new Editor-in-chief, demanded the story be deferred until after the Onslaught crossover. Jurgens had by this stage become disillusioned with the immense amount of group planning and constant changes of ideas and directions and took this as the last straw, resigning from the title.

Jurgens had also written & pencilled Teen Titans (vol. 2) for its entire 2-year, twenty four-issue run. New Teen Titans co-creator George Pérez came on board on this incarnation of the Titans as inker for the series' first 15 issues. The series debuted in October 1996, and ended in September 1998. Jurgens' run was unpopular with readers due to the use of new characters that had no ties with previous incarnations of the team.

In the fall of 1999, after 10 years working on the character, he ended his Superman run as the book's writer with Superman (vol. 2) # 150 (November 1999).

Jurgens was also the debut writer of the comic book Tomb Raider: The Series licensed to Top Cow Productions and Image Comics, which started in 1999. The debut issue of Tomb Raider was the number one-selling comic book of 1999. Jurgens remained as writer of the series up to issue #21.

In November 2002, Jurgens wrote & pencilled the 4-issue weekly miniseries Superman: Day of Doom (cover dated January 2003), which was a special 10 year anniversary look back to the Death of Superman event from 1992.

Dan also worked with Marvel Comics as writer/artist on Captain America (vol. 3), writer on Thor (vol. 2) with pencilling from John Romita Jr and as writer/artist on Solar from Valiant Comics where he was inked by the legendary Dick Giordano.

After a hiatus from comics, Dan recently returned to DC Comics and has been doing art in the weekly series 52. He has been recently announced as the new artist on the series Nightwing with returning writer/creator Marv Wolfman. He and Marv will work together on a four part story, from issues 125-128, before Jurgens begins work on Metamorpho: Year One. Jurgens also provided layouts for an issue of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man (issue #33, April 2007).

Jurgens was also recently writer & artist of the "History of the Multiverse" back-up stories in the weekly Countdown (which appears in issues #49 through #38).

At the Los Angeles Comic Con in March 2007, DC announced a new, ongoing Booster Gold series written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Jurgens, to begin shortly after the end of 52. Norm Rapmund will ink Jurgens' pencils.

Bibliography

Comics work includes:

Dark Horse Comics

• Superman vs. Aliens (1995 limited series; story and layout art)

DC Comics

• Warlord
• Booster Gold
• Adventures of Superman (writer & penciller, 1989-1991)
• Armageddon 2001
• Superman (vol. 2) (writer & penciller, 1991-1999; writer: 1991-1999; pencils: 1991-1995)
• Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey (1994 limited series; story & layouts)
• Superman: The Doomsday Wars
• Superman: Day of Doom
• Justice League America
• Metal Men
• Zero Hour
• Teen Titans (vol. 2)
• 52
• Infinite Crisis: Secret Files and Origins 2006
• Nightwing
• Metamorpho: Year One
• Firestorm: The Nuclear Man (vol. 3) #33 (April 2007) (layouts only)
• Countdown (writer & artist of the "History of the Multiverse" back-up stories in issues #49 through #38)

Marvel Comics

• Captain America (vol. 3) #25-50 (writer), #33-50 (penciller)
• The Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #0-6 (January-July, 1996) (writer & penciller)
• Thor (vol. 2) #1-79 (writer); Annual 1999; Annual 2000

Valiant Comics

• Solar

Awards

His work has earned him several awards over the years, including the 1994 National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book.

External links

• Interview with b-independent.com (1998)
• Interview with Top Two Three Films (2004)
• Interview with Comic Book Resources, April 30, 2006

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