Drew Hayes was a writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and graphic artist who is best known as the creator of the long-running independent comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series Poison Elves

Poison Elves

Poison Elves is a black-and-white comic book by the late artist/writer Drew Hayes, concerning the life and times of an elf named Lusiphur. Hayes originally self-published the series during the early 90's under his company Mulehide Graphics under the title of I, Lusiphur for the first seven issues...

.

Hayes began self-publishing

Self-publishing

Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...

 I, Lusiphur under the Mulehide Graphics imprint in 1991. He changed the series title to Poison Elves with #8, and continued through #20. During this period, he was a prominent example of creators distributing their black and white comics to the direct market

Direct market

The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for North American comic books. It consists of one dominant distributor and the majority of comics specialty stores, as well as other retailers of comic books and related merchandise...

. In 1995 he signed a "lifetime contract" assigning the rights to the series to Sirius Entertainment

Sirius Entertainment

Sirius Entertainment is an American comic book company which celebrated 15 years of publishing in 2009. Sirius has published popular titles such as Dawn, Poison Elves, Akiko, and Mark Smylie's epic fantasy Artesia series during its first years....

, where he produced another 79 issues and a color special, the last of which was published in September 2004. His work has been collected in ten Poison Elves paperbacks. He engaged in an ongoing mock "feud" with fellow comics creator Brian Bendis

Brian Michael Bendis

Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim for his self-published, Image Comics and Marvel Comics work, and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics, with his books selling consistently highly for over a...

 in the letters pages of their books.

Hayes suffered from health problems which hampered his ability to create comics. He was severely obese, had suffered cardiac damage from sleep apnea

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Similarly, each abnormally low...

, and had been hospitalized more than once. He began plans to resume creating new issues of Poison Elves, but died at the age of 37, of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 while suffering from pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

, further complicated by his morbid obesity.

Poison Elves comics

• I, Lusiphur/Poison Elves
• Poison Elves Overstreet Fan Edition
• Lusipher and Lirilith
• Requiem for an Elf
• Traumatic Dogs
• Desert of the Third Sin
• Patrons
• The Mulehide Years (collection of vol 1-4)
• Sanctuary
• Guild War
• Salvation
• Rogues

Other art

• "Season in the Sun" (poster)
• "The Pub Scene" (color print)
• "Hyena" (B&W print)
• "Dryad" (color print)
• "Cover Prints"
• "Strange Attractors/Poison Elves Jam Poster" - with Michael Cohen.
• Poison Elves T-shirts (four different designs)
• Poison Elves Limited Edition Portfolio I - A set of six plates reprinting covers from Mulehide issues of the comic and a new plate.
• Poison Elves trading card
  Trading card
  A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...
  
  s

Art in other comics

• Hunters printed in Elfquest
  Elfquest
  Elfquest is a cult hit comic book property created by Wendy and Richard Pini in 1978. It is a fantasy story about a community of elves and other fictional species who struggle to survive and coexist on a primitive Earth-like planet with two moons. Several published volumes of prose fiction also...
  
   -- Hidden Years, #10, Blood of Ten Chiefs #4, and New Blood #13.
• Necromancer #3
• Moon Marauders (pinup )
• Strange Attractors #6-#8 (coloring for the cover art)
• Drew Fiend's Rare Bit Haze (appears in Roarin' Rick's Rare Bit Fiends #5)
• G.A.S.P. contains excerpt from Poison Elves #17
• Indy #10 for interview with Dan DeBono
  Dan DeBono
  Daniel DeBono is an American writer and novelist. He grew up in Chesterfield, Michigan. He graduated from L'anse Creuse High School North and attended Wayne State University from 1982 to 1985.-Career:...
  
   (cover art with Barry Blair
  Barry Blair
  Barry Blair was a Canadian comics publisher, artist and writer, known for launching Aircel Comics in the 1980s...
  
  )
• Wandering Star #9 (pinup art)
• Overstreet's Fan #7 (illustration of Lusiphur on the cover.)
• Overstreet's Fan #10 (cover art)
• The Crow (appears in Mythography #1)

Miscellaneous art

• "Lady Death Chromium II" (Card #64)
• "Strangers in Paradise Card Set" (Card #76)

Further reading