Walter Simonson

Walter Simonson (born September 2, 1946) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill.

Walter Simonson was born September 2, 1946, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and lived there for two and a half years.

In 1964 or 1965, Simonson discovered Marvel Comics, in particular that company's version of Thor.

Having already developed an interest in Norse mythology prior to discovering Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's take on the hammer-wielding deity, it became Simonson's favorite title, one that he read for four years.

From this he realized that drawing comics was more fun, and more feasible as a career than working outdoors in hot weather as a geologist or paleontologist, despite harboring a love for the latter that continued the rest of his life.

Simonson came to be heavily influenced by the artists who worked for Marvel, such as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Gil Kane, as well as British artist Jim Holdaway and European artists such as Moebius, Jean-Claude Mézières, Antonio Hernández Palacios and Sergio Toppi.

Although Simonson was embarrassed to be seen by girls buying comics while in high school, he discovered Russ Manning's work on Magnus Robot Fighter right before he started college, and submitted a drawing that was printed in issue #10 in May, 1965, in the publication's fan page, "Robot Gallery."

This was his first published work in comics.

Simonson studied geology at Amherst College, with the intent of becoming an expert on dinosaurs.

In 1967, while in college, Simonson began writing his own epic story starring Lee and Kirby's version of the character, featuring Surtur and the Odinsword.

In later years he would be given the opportunity to publish this story, as the writer on that title.

His thesis project there was the 50-page black and white book The Star Slammers, which took him two years to write, pencil, letter and ink himself, and was initially published as a series of ashcan promotional 5.5" x 8.5" b&w chapter booklets from 1971–1973 to promote the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C. (DisCon II).

Simonson would later revisit Star Slammers throughout his career, publishing it through various publishers over the decades.

He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis.

He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.

Simonson has won numerous awards for his work and has influenced artists such as Arthur Adams and Todd McFarlane.

After graduating from Amherst with a degree in geology, Simonson took a year off, and then enrolled as an art major at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972.

In August 1972, Simonson traveled to New York with his Star Slammers portfolio, and met with Gerry Boudreau, a friend who worked for DC Comics, where, as Simonson recalls, many young artists had begun working in the 1970s, in contrast to Marvel, which Simonson perceived as more stagnant.

Boudreau arranged a meeting between Simonson and editor Archie Goodwin.

After meeting with Goodwin, Simonson went to DC's coffee room, where he saw Howard Chaykin, Michael Kaluta, Berni Wrightson and Alan Weiss sitting together.

Simonson struck up a conversation with the artists, who looked at his portfolio.

Kaluta showed Simonson's work to Assistant Production Manager Jack Adler, who in turn showed it to DC Publisher Carmine Infantino, who after being shown the portfolio, summoned Simonson into his office.

After speaking to Simonson for about ten minutes, he had Goodwin and his fellow editors Julius Schwartz and Joe Orlando give Simonson work.

Simonson walked out of Infantino's office with jobs from each one of them.

At one point Simonson lived in the same Queens apartment building as artists Allen Milgrom, Howard Chaykin and Bernie Wrightson.

Simonson recalls, "We'd get together at 3 a.m. They'd come up and we'd have popcorn and sit around and talk about whatever a 26, 27 and 20-year-old guys talk about. Our art, TV, you name it. I pretty much knew at the time, 'These are the good ole days.'"

Simonson's first professional published comic book work was illustrating writer Len Wein's story "Cyrano's Army", which appeared in DC's Weird War Tales #10, which was cover-dated January 1973.

Such short back-up war stories comprised most of Simonson's early published work.

He also did a number of illustrations for the Harry N. Abrams, Inc. edition of The Hobbit, and at least one unrelated print of a samurai warrior that was purchased by Harvard University's Fogg Museum, and included in its annual undergraduate-use loan program.

Simonson's breakthrough illustration job was "Manhunter", a backup feature in DC's Detective Comics written by Goodwin, which cemented Simonson's professional reputation.

Batman #300 (June 1978) featured a story by Simonson and writer David Vern Reed.

In 1979 Simonson and Goodwin collaborated on an adaptation of the movie Alien, published by Heavy Metal.

It was that book that Simonson began his long working relationship with letterer John Workman, who would go on to letter most of Simonson's work.

He is married to comics writer Louise Simonson, with whom he collaborated as penciller on X-Factor from 1986 to 1989.

When his father, who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture, received a promotion at work that required him to relocate to Washington, D.C., Simonson, his younger brother and his parents moved to Maryland, where Simonson's parents still lived as of 1989.

Simonson first read comics as a child, through the subscriptions to Walt Disney's Comics and Stories that his brother had.

By the age of ten he was an avid fan of the work of Carl Barks, Little Lulu, Little Iodine, and Alex Toth's work on The Land Unknown.

He also enjoyed drawing from a very young age.

In a 2000 interview, Simonson recalled, "What 'Manhunter' did was to establish me professionally. Before 'Manhunter,' I was one more guy doing comics; after 'Manhunter,' people in the field knew who I was. It'd won a bunch of awards the year that it ran, and after that, I really had no trouble finding work."

Simonson then drew other DC series such as Metal Men and Hercules Unbound and co-created Doctor Phosphorus with Steve Englehart.