Mark Lipka is a 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...

 artist who has inked

Inker

The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...

 such comics as Batman

Batman (comic book)

Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...

, Star Wars, Justice League of America, Wolverine

Wolverine (comics)

Wolverine is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Born as James Howlett and commonly known as Logan, Wolverine is a mutant, possessing animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing...

, Gambit & Bishop, Green Lantern

Green Lantern

The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...

, Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing, a fictional character, is a plant elemental in the created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. He first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century . The Swamp Thing then returned in his own series, set in the contemporary world and in...

, Aliens versus Predator

Aliens versus Predator (comics)

Aliens vs. Predator comics are part of the crossover franchise originated and published by Dark Horse Comics...

, Daredevil

Daredevil (Marvel Comics)

Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...

, among others.

He has worked with penciller

Penciller

A penciller is an artist who works in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms.The penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout to showcase...

s including Cary Nord

Cary Nord

Cary Nord is an artist noted for his work in comic books. He started his career with a letter and some original artwork sent into the editors of Marvel Comics's Marvel Comics Presents. They were so impressed, he was awarded with a professional job penciling a Shang Chi serial. He eventually became...

, Rick Leonardi

Rick Leonardi

Rick Leonardi is an American comic book illustrator who has worked for various books for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including Cloak and Dagger, The Uncanny X-Men , The New Mutants, Spider-Man 2099, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern Versus Aliens and Superman...

, Yanick Paquette

Yanick Paquette

Yanick Paquette is a Canadian penciller in North American comics. He has worked for Antarctic Press, Topps, Marvel and DC Comics and since 1994.-Career:...

, Roger Petersen, Karl Waller

Karl Waller

Karl Waller is an American artist whose work has appeared in comic books and roleplaying and collectible card games.-Early life and education:He graduated from the Pennsylvania School of Art in 1987, with a diploma in communication arts.-Career:...

, Adam Hughes

Adam Hughes

Adam Hughes is an American comic book artist who has worked for companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros...

, Toby Cypress, Rick Burchett

Rick Burchett

Rick Burchett is an American comic book artist known for his work on such characters as Batman and Superman.Burchett began his artistic career in St...

, Steve McNiven

Steve McNiven

Steven "Steve" McNiven is a Canadian comic book artist. He first gained prominence on CrossGen's Meridian, before moving onto books such as Ultimate Secret, New Avengers and Civil War.-Career:...

, Steve Scott, Joe Phillips

Joe Phillips

Joe Phillips is an American artist, known for his mainstream comic book art and for his work depicting his views of gay life. He currently lives in San Diego, California.-Early Years and Comic Work:...

 and Tom Raney

Tom Raney

Tom Raney is an American comic book artist, known for illustrating titles as Annihilation Conquest, Alpha Flight, Ultimate X-Men and Uncanny X-Men for Marvel Comics, DV8 and Stormwatch for Image Comics, and Outsiders for DC Comics....

.

Lipka's first professional comic work was for Rock Fantasy Comics, published by Michael Valentine Smith, in 1991, on an ultimately unpublished story in which Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood

Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...

 (of Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

) taught Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...

 (Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...

) the magical arts. Throughout the 1990s Lipka worked for several independent comic book publishers while working also on commercial art projects. He was mentored by friend and fellow artist Karl Waller, who lived near Lipka in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...

, and by Nathan Massengill

Nathan Massengill

Nathan Massengill is an American comic book artist, most known for his work as a brush inker. His work includes Marvel Comics' Deadpool and DC Comics' the Justice Society of America. He is best known for inking Ed McGuinness, penciler on the Deadpool series...

 (also a friend and fellow artist). Lipka's first published work with a major publisher was 1997's "Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence" for (Image

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

). Shortly after starting The Savage Dragon

Savage Dragon

Savage Dragon is an ongoing American comic book series created by Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics and taking place in the Image Universe. The comic features the adventures of a superheroic police officer named the Dragon...

 book, Mark started to receive mentoring from Brian Stelfreeze

Brian Stelfreeze

Brian Stelfreeze is an American comic book artist. Stelfreeze, an accomplished painter, penciller, inker and colorist, has worked for nearly every major American comic book publisher and is one of the original members of Atlanta's Gaijin Studios, a prominent breeding ground for some of comics' most...

.

Lipka is nicknamed "the Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...

 of CrossGen

CrossGen

Cross Generation Entertainment, or CrossGen, was an American comic book publisher that operated from 1998 to 2004.CrossGen Comics, Inc. was founded in 1998, by Tampa, Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a...

comics". He was the first freelancer to work for CrossGen, who had intended to use only in-house artists on their books.