Chris Eliopoulos

Chris Eliopoulos (born September 30, 1967) is an American cartoonist and letterer of comic books.

Chris Eliopoulos
Chris Eliopoulos at the March 31, 2012 launch party for Ultimate Spider-Man
at Midtown Comics in Manhattan
Born (1967-09-30) September 30, 1967
Astoria, Queens, New York, US
NationalityAmerican-Greek
Area(s)Letterer, penciller, inker, writer
Notable works
Desperate Times
Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius
Misery Loves Sherman
AwardsHarvey Award 2008
Official website

Early life

Eliopoulos attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City from 1985 to 1989.[1] He majored in graphic design and minored in illustration. He is a resident of River Vale, New Jersey.[2]

Career
Eliopoulos presents in 2019

Eliopoulos is known as a prolific letterer, in particular for hand-lettering the first 100 issues of the ongoing Savage Dragon series, even after much of the comic book industry (including Eliopoulos himself, on other titles) had come to rely on computer-generated fonts for dialogue; this was done at Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen's request; Larsen preferring the individual look of hand-lettered dialogue.

He designed the fonts for Marvel Comics' in-house computer lettering unit.[3] He has also contributed lettering work to Valiant Comics, DC Comics, and other publishers. For Dark Horse Comics, Eliopoulos wrote and/or drew some Star Wars stories.

Eliopoulos is also known for his comic strip Desperate Times, which showcases art admittedly inspired by the work of Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame. Desperate Times features the misadventures of bachelor losers Marty and Toad, which ran as a back-up feature in Savage Dragon, and later Desperate Times comics from Savage Dragon publisher Image Comics and AAArgh! Comics, a part of After Hours Press.

Eliopoulos quoted in interview about art inspiration.

Visually. I was REALLY into Bloom County at the time--still am--and that spoke to me more. But I liked his (Watterson's) zaniness as well. It pushed me to be a better cartoonist. I realized that comic strips didn't have to look so bad--they could look amazing. Between the two is where I would love to do a strip. The all-out humor of Bloom County with the quality art of a Calvin and Hobbes.

Following the September 11 attacks, Eliopoulos contributed a story to a Marvel Comics benefit book about how his family was affected by the event, which shares the date of his wedding anniversary.

He is the artist and co-writer on Marvel Comics' former back-up feature and current series of one-shot comics, Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, teamed with writer Marc Sumerak. The first one-shot in the series was nominated for an Eisner Award and a Harvey Award in 2005.

Eliopoulos also created a daily webcomic, Misery Loves Sherman, until abandoning it around 2015. He has contributed cartoon strips to the book series The Complete Idiot's Guide... and to Sports Illustrated.

On January 14, 2014 Dial Books published I am Amelia Earhart and I am Abraham Lincoln, the first two books in writer Brad Meltzer's series of 29 children's books, Ordinary People Change the World, which are illustrated by Eliopoulos. The series focused on 23 historical figures (six books were compilations) such as Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Lucille Ball, Sacagawea, and Jackie Robinson.[4][5] Eliopoulos promoted the series during an October 7, 2016 appearance on the NBC talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers, which included a live drawing demonstration in which Meyers participated.[6]

Eliopoulos appeared as a guest on the August 8, 2020 episode of The George Lucas Talk Show with fellow guest Lauren Lapkus, in which he discussed his work and career with "retired filmmaker George Lucas" (actor and comedian Connor Ratliff).[7]

Reception

Doug Zawisza, reviewing the 2011 Fear Itself miniseries for Comic Book Resources, praised Eliopoulos' lettering, singling issue #4 in particular, for which he positively compared Eliopoulous' work to letterer John Workman, to whom Zawisza felt Eliopoulos was paying homage.[8]

Awards

Awards include:

Nominations include:

Bibliography

References
  1. Eliopolous's LinkedIn profile. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  2. "People to Watch in 2008", (201), January 2008.
  3. Contino, Jennifer. "ABCs with Orzechowski," Comicon.com: The Pulse (Dec. 30, 2003). Retrieved January 3, 2010. Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Noted author and illustrator to visit Maplewood bookstore". NorthJersey.com. August 25, 2016.
  5. "Thursday, Sept. 8: MEET 'ORDINARY PEOPLE' ARTIST CHRISTOPHER ELIOPOULOS". Chicago Tribune. 2016.
  6. Late Night with Seth Meyers (October 7, 2016). NBC. Season 4, Episode 12.
  7. "The George Lucas Talk Show Episode VI with Lauren Lapkus and Chris Eliopoulos". Youtube. August 25, 2020.
  8. Zawisza, Doug (July 6, 2011). "Review for Fear Itself #4". Comic Book Resources.
  9. 2008 Harvey Award Winners, Comic Book Resources, September 28, 2008
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Interviews
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