- For the American football player, see Dave Lapham.
David Lapham (b. 1970) is an Eisner Award winning American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on his groundbreaking independent comic book Stray Bullets. He started his career in 1990 as a penciller at Valiant Comics where he was discovered by editor Jim Shooter. He went on to join Shooter at Defiant Comics where they co-created Warriors of Plasm in 1993. In 1995 he set up his own publisher El Capitan Books to publish Stray Bullets which he wrote, drew and lettered himself. By the end of that year Miramax had hired Lapham to write and direct a feature film. It is unclear what came of this contract as no movie has yet been produced. In 2000 he took a sabbatical from Stray Bullets to produce his nine issue period murder mystery Murder Me Dead also from El Capitan Books. In 2005 Lapham began accepting more mainstream comics work, writing a storyarc for Top Cow Comics' The Darkness ("Hell House", Vol. 2 #17-20), a 12 part Batman storyline in Detective Comics ("City of Crime" #801-808 and 811-814) for DC Comics and writing and pencilling the six part Daredevil Vs. Punisher: Means And Ends limited series for Marvel Comics. In late 2006, Marvel released Giant-Size Wolverine #1, with a 34 page Lapham story illustrated by David Aja, and DC began releasing Tales of the Unexpected with an 8 issue arc starring the Spectre which was also written by Lapham. Vertigo published the original graphic novel Silverfish in July 2007. His next project, Terror, Inc., will be at Marvel's MAX line. This choice to do more mainstream work -- in order to better provide for his family -- has led to the near-abandonment of Stray Bullets (with one issue left in the current arc), as well as a self-published futuristic science fiction limited series, The Parallax Man. The series was announced to debut in 2005 but Lapham had less time to devote to it, and issues have never been solicited. He has expressed that he is still interested in both projects, but is unsure when he will be able to complete them [1].
Harbinger: The Beginning
In May 2005, Valiant Entertainment announced that they would be releasing a deluxe Hardcover collection of the complete Harbinger origin story (Harbinger #0-7) entitled Harbinger: The Beginning. The collection would digitally recolor and remaster the original books and include a new "Origin of Harada" story by Jim Shooter, the writer who had penned the most beloved Harbinger stories.
The press release from Valiantfans.com:
"This 192-page deluxe hardcover edition collects the full Harbinger origin story from Harbinger issues 0-7 digitally recolored and remastered, and also features an all-new "Origin of Harada" story written by comics legend JIM SHOOTER and illustrated by BOB HALL (Shadowman). This "Origin of Harada" story includes its own original cover and features the first appearance of a new character in the Valiant Universe! Valiant's goal is to make this deluxe hardcover edition something special for Valiant fans and a great introduction to the Harbinger saga for new Valiant fans. The book retails for $24.95 and will be available in comic book stores in August 2007. Diamond Previews orders from comic book retailers are due July 5th, 2007."
Awards
External links
- Harbinger: The Beginning Hardcover Solicitation in Previews Magazine
- Harbinger: The Beginning article at The Splash page
- Harbinger: The Beginning article at Variety Online
- Harbinger: The Beginning Press Release at Newsarama
- Harbinger cover gallery at Valiantfans.com
- The Ten Most Important Comic Books of the 1990s (Harbinger by David Lapham is ranked #1)
- "Valiant Days, Valiant Nights - A Look Back at the Rise and Fall of Valiant
| Preceded by Andersen Gabrych | Detective Comics writer 2005–2006 | Succeeded by James Robinson |
