Superman - Firmato da Alex Ross - Sketchbook 2012 - 1 Comic - First edition

Alex Ross
Sketchbook 2012
Signed on the cover

Alex Ross

Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Lubbock, Texas, he first approached drawing at the age of three when, according to his mother, he reproduced on a sheet of paper the content of a television commercial he had seen shortly before. Ross’s family included a large number of artists: his mother was a commercial artist, and his grandfather enjoyed drawing and building toys as a hobby. He became passionate about the world of superheroes after watching an episode of the live-action Spidey Super Stories, a series of live-action shorts featured within the children's program The Electric Company. A major influence in his development was his father; Clark Ross, Alex’s father and a Protestant pastor, supported various charities, providing assistance to the homeless and orphans of Lubbock. It was precisely because of this likeness to the superheroes of comics that he was often used by Alex as a model for some characters, such as Reverend Norman McCay in the famous Elseworld miniseries Kingdom Come. At the age of twelve, Ross began to seriously consider working in the comic book world, copying drawings by George Pérez and Bernie Wrightson. At sixteen he was greatly impressed by the photorealistic works of illustrators Andrew Loomis and Norman Rockwell, and he decided to adapt Rockwell’s style to the comic medium; a year later, he moved to Chicago to attend the American Academy of Art, where his mother had also studied.

His career as a comics artist began in 1993; after three years at the academy, and after graduating, Ross found work at an advertising agency. During this period Marvel Comics editor Kurt Busiek saw his work and contacted him to propose working together on a project for the publishing house. This project would become the graphic novel Marvels, in which the story of the characters of the House of Ideas is viewed through the eyes of an ordinary man. With it he made his debut in the world of comics, receiving excellent feedback from the public and critics. In 1995, still in collaboration with Kurt Busiek, he designed the characters and the covers for the series Astro City, published by Image Comics. Subsequently, in 1997, he was approached by DC Comics, for whom he first produced an Annual for the Sandman Mystery Theatre series and then, on a script by Mark Waid, Kingdom Come, another successful work that firmly established him in the comics scene. Given the success of Kingdom Come, Ross settled financially and decided to briefly abandon the superhero genre to publish under the Vertigo label the miniseries Uncle Sam, in which he critically highlights the dark side of American history. In 1999, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman characters, Ross was commissioned to draw, with scripts by Paul Dini, four graphic novels dedicated to the aforementioned characters; thus Superman: Pace in Terra, Batman: War on Crime, Shazam!: Power of Hope, and Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth were born. Toward the end of 2001 he returned to Marvel where he created the concept and design for a trilogy formed by the series Terra X, Universe X and Paradise X, written by Jim Krueger and drawn by Doug Braithwaite & Bill Reinhold. Also with Jim Krueger he created the miniseries Justice for DC Comics and the series Project Superpowers for Dynamite Entertainment. In 2004 he drew some scenes from the Spider-Man film for the opening credits of Spider-Man 2. In 2008 he returned to Marvel Comics with a team-up titled Avengers/Invaders. Ross also did the cover art in 2011 for the comic A Game of Thrones. (from wikipedia)