Colleen Doran

She broke into the comic book industry when still a teenager, scouted by Tom Long for his fanzine Graphic Showcase. Long hired Doran to draw a revival of the 1940s character Miss Fury.

Underage Doran quit the assignment due to its adult content.

She also contributed illustrations to the Hugo Award nominated fanzine Lan's Lantern.

Colleen Doran (born July 24, 1964) is an American writer-artist and cartoonist.

She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible Stan Lee, which became a New York Times bestseller.

She adapted and did the art for the short story "Troll Bridge" by Neil Gaiman, which also became a New York Times bestseller.

Her books have received Eisner, Harvey, Bram Stoker, Locus, and International Horror Guild Awards.

A Distant Soil was published in fanzines as early as 1979, then scouted by The Donning Company Starblaze imprint before it was contracted by WaRP Graphics.

Doran left the company after nine issues due to an acrimonious dispute with WaRP, which attempted to claim copyright and trademark on her work.

The WaRP version of the story has never been reprinted despite its unusual all-pencil style, and Doran's ownership of the publishing rights.

Doran discarded the 300 pages of work she did at Warp, and rewrote and redrew the entire A Distant Soil story from scratch, first with Donning, then as a self-publisher.

A 1000-page long-form comics narrative, it has been published by Image Comics since 1996.

It sold more than 700,000 copies in multiple printings.

Science fiction artist Frank Kelly Freas was her mentor, and she apprenticed with him in the early 1980s

Doran's premiere at Marvel Comics was in 1986, Swords of the Swashbucklers No. 9 and 11, with issue 11 having the dubious distinction of being one of the books confiscated in the 1986 Friendly Franks "obscene" comics raid that precipitated the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Swords of the Swashbucklers was eventually excluded from the prosecution proceedings.

Doran worked on other projects at Marvel including The Guardians of the Galaxy Annual No. 3, The Silver Surfer, Marvel Fanfare, Excalibur No. 28, Captain America: Drug Wars, Amazing Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a Power Pack mini-series, Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Mutant X, X-Factor, Marvel Girl Comics, and X-Men Millennial Visions for which she wrote and drew an entry.

She also worked in the Special Projects Department on promotional, educational, and greeting card art, sometimes working directly with Stan Lee.

At Marvel Comics' Epic division, she worked on Clive Barker's Nightbreed No. 21 and No. 22 as interior and cover artist, and Clive Barker's Hellraiser No. 5 and No. 14, as artist and colorist.

Doran was a web columnist for Wizard Magazine in the early 1990s, and illustrated Super Idol for Warren Ellis in 2001, an early webcomics format experiment at Artbomb.

Doran is featured in the films Ringers (a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fans), Scenes From the Small Press: Colleen Doran by Rich Henn, Sex, Lies and Superheroes, the documentary The Cartoonist about Bone creator Jeff Smith, and Captured Ghosts, a documentary about writer Warren Ellis.

She was also featured in the December 12, 2011 episode of "Stalked: Someone's Watching," a Discovery ID television series that profiles stalking incidents, focusing on interviews with victims.

Doran worked as a creator rights activist and as a lobbyist in Washington D.C., and served on the advocacy committee of the Graphic Artists Guild.

Lecture venues include the Smithsonian Institution, The Singapore Writers Festival, the Comics Masterclass in Sydney, Australia, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

The production archives were destroyed by the printer, and an extensive restoration process brought the series back to publication in 2013.

Doran was scouted by Keith Giffen to work at DC Comics after he saw her work in the Legion of Superheroes fanzine Interlac.

They went on to become frequent collaborators at DC on The Legion of Superheroes projects, Justice League 3001, and the series Reign of the Zodiac.

Her art also appeared in Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld No. 12, multiple issues of Who's Who in the DC Universe and Who's Who in the Legion of Superheroes, Superman: Man of Steel Gallery, Christmas with the DC Superheroes, Captain Atom, Star Trek, and Hawkman Annual.

She did art for several Teen Titans and Wonder Woman projects.

She illustrated portions of the "Dream Country" and "A Game of You" story arcs in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.

The character Thessaly in Neil Gaiman's Sandman is based on Doran.

Other Vertigo appearances include Shade, The Changing Man, Lucifer (DC Comics), Transmetropolitan and the original graphic novel Orbiter (comics) written by Warren Ellis.

Her 2019 graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's short story Snow, Glass, Apples, won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel., the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium, the Ringo Award and was also nominated for the Eisner for Best Penciller/Inker and Best Artist Ringo.

It was also nominated for the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society for Best Graphic Novel.

Her adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Chivalry received the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium, Locus Award for Best Illustrated and Art Book for 2023, a nomination for the Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel, the Ringo Award, and it was shortlisted for the Excelsior Award.

She also illustrated the works of Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Joe R. Lansdale, Anne Rice, J. Michael Straczynski, Peter David and Tori Amos.

At age five, Doran won an art contest sponsored by the Walt Disney Company.

Doran created her comic book series, A Distant Soil, at age twelve.

Doran landed her first work for an advertising agency at age fifteen.

She attended Christopher Newport University for one year and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh online for one semester and used her professional works for curriculum credit.