Phil Jimenez – Comic Artist Extraordinaire
Phil Jimenez grew up a latch-key kid in Southern California, and entertained himself by creating his own little worlds, playing with his toy dinosaurs, and watching a lot of TV — where a lifelong fascination with Wonder Woman began.
You wanted to reach out and touch her; she was amazing. I mean, she was, like, six foot in her stocking heels, she walked around in the costume like she owned it, and she was just… stunning. The Lynda Carter Wonder Woman turn was kind of big for a lot of gay guys I know. Some people talk about it a lot, the transformation of her doing it, spinning around, going from this dowdy, secretive woman and suddenly she’s this gorgeous superheroine. I practiced the spin when I was little. Probably because I was gay. I mean, I’m going to assume that it has something to do with all… all this.
Phil Jimenez moved to NYC to attend college at the School of Visual Arts (where he now teaches a life drawing course as part of the undergraduate cartooning program). His first published work was four pages in the DC Comics miniseries War of the Gods in 1991, but he first gained significant recognition for the Tempest mini-series.
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He came out as gay in 1992 at the age of 22, and his first open relationship was with his first editor and mentor at DC, Neal Pozner, who was HIV-positive when they started dating, and was hesitant about dating someone younger and HIV-negative. Jimenez became Pozner’s caretaker until his death in 1994 and in the last issue of the Tempest miniseries, Jimenez dedicated the miniseries to Pozner, and wrote an editorial page in which he came out publicly for the first time. “It got over 150 letters,” he says, “including the classic letter from the kid in Iowa: ‘I didn’t know there was anyone else like me.’ Coworkers at DC were surprised to hear Jimenez referred to as Pozner’s partner at his memorial as their relationship wasn’t public knowledge.
Best known for his 2 year run as writer/artist on Wonder Woman, his work as the main penciller of the DC miniseries crossover event Infinite Crisis, his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The Invisibles and his recent work on Amazing Spider-Man, Phil Jimenez is on a very short list of beloved and gifted next generation Modern Age comic book master artists.
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Anyone familiar with Jimenez’s richly detailed art style can see he was raised on the realistic art of George Pérez who is best know for his intricate artwork on The New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Wonder Woman.
It is likely no coincidence that a large part of Phil Jimenez’ work is also related to these three works by Perez: Jimenez has worked repeatedly in several Titans-related series (some issues of the ongoing series New Titans and Team Titans, and the miniserieses JLA/Titans, Titans/Legion of Super-Heroes: Universe Ablaze and Tempest), was the main artist of Infinite Crisis, a sequel of Crisis on Infinite Earths and highly related to the historical limited series, and did a large run as writer & artist of Wonder Woman (as did Perez in the 80’s).
The two actually worked together on a few occasions. For Infinite Crisis, Jimenez was the main penciller, and Perez drew some sequences and covers for the series) and DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy was written by Jimenez and inked by Perez.
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It was announced at the 2007 San Diego ComicCon that Jimenez had signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics. He will be one of the four artists to be working on Marvel’s flagship title, The Amazing Spider-Man, the company’s sole Spider-Man title, in which Marvel upped its frequency of publication to three issues monthly, and inaugurated the series with the “back to basics” story arc “Brand New Day” at the beginning of 2008. His first work on Spider-Man was in the Free Comic Book Day 2007: Spider-Man #1 (June 2007) comic book, with writer Dan Slott, which served as a prelude to Brand New Day.
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Phil’s been nominated for Eisner and GLAAD awards, listed as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “101 Gay Movers and Shakers,” and featured in The Advocate and OUT. He also created the art for the first permanent AIDS awareness exhibit in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and had the good fortune to be Peter Parker’s hands, working in a scene as a hand double for Toby Maguire, in the scene from Spider-Man where Peter Parker sketched out his costume.
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via GayCelebrities, Prism Comics WonderPhil and ComicArtCommunity
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