Mark Bagley

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Bagley's cover for Ultimate Spider-Man #65. Bagley's run on the book has been one of the longest of his career.

Mark Bagley (born August 7, 1957) is an American comic book artist for Marvel Comics. He has worked on titles such as The Amazing Spider-Man, Thunderbolts, New Warriors, and Ultimate Spider-Man.

Early life

Mark Bagley was born to a military family in Frankfurt, Germany. He had always wanted to break into the comic book business and at 18 he joined the military so that he could qualify for the GI Bill and go to art school. After his work in the military and art school, he continued trying to break into the comic industry but ended up working for Lockheed Martin making technical drawings.

Later in life, he fathered a child, a daughter named Angela, who is a teacher.

Marvel Tryout Contest

In 1986, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter created the Marvel Try-out book to draw new talent into the comic book industry. The contest involved a deconstructed comic book in which contestants could complete the comic and submit it to Marvel. The winner would be awarded a professional assignment with Marvel. At 27 years old, Mark Bagley entered the contest and won first place for penciling. This led to a series of low profile penciling jobs including jobs for Marvel's New Universe line and backup stories in Captain America.

The New Warriors

Bagley's cover for New Warriors #1 (July, 1990).

In 1990, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created a team of teenage superheroes called the New Warriors. Given the positive fan reaction, Marvel created a new series based on these heroes and assigned Bagley and Fabian Nicieza to the title. Though not an instant success, the title rose in fame to become one of Marvel’s more successful titles in the 1990s.

The Amazing Spider-Man

A couple of years into the New Warriors run, New Warriors editor Danny Fingeroth became responsible for the Spider-Man line of titles. At the same time, Erik Larsen vacated his spot as penciler on Spider-Man’s flagship title The Amazing Spider-Man. Fingeroth decided to take a chance on Bagley, who was a relatively inexperienced artist to be assigned what is arguably Marvel’s flagship title. After a rough start Bagley hit his stride on Spider-Man and eventually grew to be considered the definitive Spider-Man artist of the mid 90s. His artwork was used extensively for licensed material appearing on everything from plates and cups to credit cards. Bagley also holds the distinction of being the artist on Marvel’s first web-based comic book, featuring Spider-Man, which appeared on Marvel’s official web site.

Thunderbolts

Bagley's cover for Thunderbolts #4.

After working on Spider-Man for several years, Bagley began to feel burnt out on Spider-Man. Needing a change, he next collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek on a new team of superheroes, the Thunderbolts. The concept behind the Thunderbolts was that of a team of super villains who posed as superheroes in order to gain the public’s trust. As the title progressed, some of the villains began to realize they enjoyed the role of a hero and no longer wanted to be villains. The title enjoyed modest success and though its sales did decline over time, the decline was so slow and the fan base was so dedicated that the title continued to be published even after Bagley left the title in 2001 (at issue 50).

Ultimate Spider-Man

Bagley's cover to Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1

Bill Jemas, publisher at Marvel in the year 2000, was looking to relaunch Marvel’s primary franchises in a way that would make them accessible to younger readers. Designed as a 6-issue mini series, Ultimate Spider-Man would be a title that began the Spider-Man mythos from the beginning set in modern times. Marvel wanted Bagley on the title from the beginning but, still being burnt out from his earlier run, he resisted. Eventually though, he (reluctantly) agreed and was assigned Ultimate Spider-Man with writer Brian Michael Bendis. The title was an instant hit and soon turned from a limited series to an ongoing series by Bendis and Bagley. They went on to enjoy the longest continuous run of any creative team on a mainstream Marvel superhero comic beating the record set by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with Ultimate Spider-Man #103 (published in December 2006). He eventually left the title after #111 was published in July 2007. Bagley is collaborating again with Bendis on the latter's second story arc of "Mighty Avengers". This may be his last work for Marvel as it has been reported recently that he had signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics and will start his first work for the company in 2008.

Selected works

• New Mutants Annual #5

External links

• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Mark Bagley Interview at Newsarama
• Mark Bagley credits on Spider-Man
• Mark Bagley on Marvel.com
• Mark Bagley Image Gallery at Comic Art Community