Val Mayerik is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comic-book and commercial

Commercial art

Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...

 artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

, best known as co-creator of Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

' satiric

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. The character first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, "funny...

.

Early life and career

Val Mayerik was born March 29, 1950 in Youngstown

Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. Upon college graduation, he met and began working as an assistant to Ohio-based comic-book artist Dan Adkins

Dan Adkins

Dan Adkins is an American illustrator who worked mainly for comic books and science-fiction magazines.-Early life and career:...

, alongside fellow assistant P. Craig Russell

P. Craig Russell

Philip Craig Russell , also known as P. Craig Russell, is an American comic book writer, artist, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards...

. Through Adkins, who was primarily an inker

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...

 for Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

, Mayerik broke into comics that summer as penciler, over Adkins layouts, of the eight-page story "Spell of the Dragon", starring author John Jakes

John Jakes

John William Jakes is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction.-Early life and education:...

' sword-and-sorcery hero Brak the Barbarian. Published in the horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

-fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

 Chamber of Chills # 2 (Jan. 1973), it appeared a month after his first published comics work, the full-length "The Monster of the Monoliths" in Marvel's Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

# 21, which Mayerik and Russell penciled over Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith

Barry Windsor-Smith, born Barry Smith is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States....

 layouts.

Mayerik quickly found more assignments, penciling Marvel's adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...

, over Adkins layouts, in Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural Thrillers was a horror fiction comic book published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s that adapted classic stories of that genre, including works by Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells, before becoming a vehicle for a supernatural action series starring an original character, The Living...

# 2 (Feb. 1973); and doing his first full penciling, with writer George Alec Effinger

George Alec Effinger

George Alec Effinger was an American science fiction author, born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio.-Writing career:...

's adaptation of Lin Carter

Lin Carter

Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...

's "Thongor! Warrior of Lost Lemuria

Lemuria (continent)

Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of plate tectonics...

" story "Thieves of Zangabal", in Creatures on the Loose # 22 (March 1973).

Howard the Duck

Mayerik became the regular artist of the swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

-monster feature "Man-Thing

Man-Thing

The Man-Thing is a fictional character, a monster in publications from Marvel Comics. Created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1 , and went on to be featured in various titles and in his own series, including...

" in Fear

Adventure into Fear

Adventure into Fear is an American horror comic book series published by Marvel Comics from cover dates November 1970 through December 1975, for 31 issues...

#13 (April 1973). Six issues later, he and writer Steve Gerber

Steve Gerber

Stephen Ross "Steve" Gerber was an American comic book writer best known as co-creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck....

 introduced Howard the Duck. Initially a minor supporting character intended only for an issue or two, the anthropomorphic waterfowl — bedecked in suit and tie as a parody of funny animal

Funny animal

Funny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals, with anthropomorphic personality traits. The characters themselves may also be called funny animals...

 ducks, except for his cigar

Cigar

A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...

-smoking and his angry, ascerbic wit — Howard eventually became a star character with his own satiric series, penciled first by Frank Brunner

Frank Brunner

Frank Brunner is an American comic book artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.-Comics:...

 and then Gene Colan

Gene Colan

Eugene Jules "Gene" Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series, Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series...

. The character shortly afterward became a mainstream pop-culture figure.

Mayerick continued to pencil both the "Man-Thing" and "Thongor" series until the former received his own title, for which Mayerik drew the premiere issue (Jan. 1974). While also doing scattered horror/fantasy/science-fiction anthology stories, Mayerik teamed with Gerber on a second series, the Living Mummy, in Supernatural Thrillers, and took over the art on The Frankenstein Monster

Frankenstein's Monster (Marvel Comics)

Frankenstein's Monster is a fictional character based on the character in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The character has been adapted often in the comic book medium...

. With writer Doug Moench

Doug Moench

Douglas Moench , better known as Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok.-Biography:...

, he did a monumental adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

's Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...

in the black-and-white magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 Marvel Preview # 5-6 (April & Spring 1976). He also penciled the final six issues of the 20-issue, 1974 to 1977 jungle-lord series Ka-Zar

Ka-Zar

Ka-Zar is the name of two jungle-dwelling comics fictional characters published in the United States. The first appeared in pulp magazines of the 1930s, and was adapted for his second iteration, as a comic book character for Timely Comics, the 1930s and 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics...

.

Also interested in acting, Mayerik appears in The Demon Lover (1977),a low-budget horror film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 shot in and around Detroit

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

.

Marvel and New York

In early 1977, Mayerik moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he acted off-off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...

 and found work with artist Neal Adams

Neal Adams

Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...

' Continuity Associates

Continuity Associates

Continuity Studios is a New York City- and Los Angeles-based art and illustration studio formed by cartoonists Neal Adams and Dick Giordano...

 studio, sharing space with fellow fledglings Howard Chaykin

Howard Chaykin

Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book writer and artist famous for his innovative storytelling and sometimes controversial material...

, Walt Simonson

Walt Simonson

Walter "Walt" Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist. After studying geology at Amherst College, he transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1972. His thesis project there was The Star Slammers, which was published as a black and white promotional comic book...

, and Jim Starlin

Jim Starlin

James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters...

.

During this time, he drew the first Howard the Duck Annual (May 1977) and Howard the Duck #22-23 (March–April 1978). He was also an artist on the Howard the Duck newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 in 1977. He co-plotted and co-scripted, in addition to drawing, Howard the Duck #33 (Sept. 1986), the second and last issue of a short-lived series revival coinciding with the release of the movie Howard the Duck. He expanded beyond his prolific Marvel work to draw for Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal (magazine)

Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...

magazine and the Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...

 line of black-and-white comics magazines; the latter work included the continuing samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 feature "Young Master", reprints of which appeared as backup stories in Mayerik and writer Larry Hama

Larry Hama

Larry Hama is an American comic book writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s....

 1987-1989 Young Master series published by New Comics Group

New Comics Group

New Comics Group was a comic book publisher founded by Steve Donnelly and Valarie Jones which operated from 1987–1990. Donnelly acted as Publisher, while Jones held the title of Editor in Chief. New Comics Group was based in San Mateo, California. During the proliferation of small press in the...

.

Mayerik left New York City in 1981, moving first to Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, where he did local TV and film work and regional theater in addition to his art, before settling in Oregon in 1993.

Commercial art

Mayerik continued to draw for comics through the 1980s and early 1990s, working on series for Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics

Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...

, First Comics

First Comics

First Comics was an American comic-book publisher that was active from 1983–1991, known for titles like American Flagg!, Grimjack, Nexus, Badger, Dreadstar, and Jon Sable...

, Now Comics

NOW Comics

NOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comics books....

, Pacific Comics

Pacific Comics

Pacific Comics was an independent comic book publisher that flourished from 1981-1984. It was also a chain of comics shops and a distributor. It began out of a San Diego, California, comic book shop owned by brothers Bill and Steve Schanes...

, and Harvey Pekar's self-published American Splendor

American Splendor

American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by the late Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the most recent in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals...

, in addition to Marvel, but was seguing toward more of a career in advertising art and in illustration for the game

Game

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...

s industry, including the roleplaying game companies TSR, Inc.

TSR, Inc.

Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....

 and Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

. As a spin-off of this, he drew the four-issue Acclaim Comics miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 Magic: The Gathering — The Shadow Mage (July-Oct. 1995).

As of 2010, artist Mayerik and writer James Hudnall produce the comic strip Useful Idiots for the political site BigJournalism.com.

Mayerik has done storyboards and other art for clients ranging from Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

 and Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 to the American Indian College Fund

American Indian College Fund

The American Indian College Fund is an nonprofit organization that helps Native American students, providing them with support through scholarships and funding toward higher education...

 and the Oregon Historical Society

Oregon Historical Society

The Oregon Historical Society is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character...

.

Books interior art

• The Shackled City Adventure Path (Dungeons & Dragons): Paizo Publishing, 2005
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Second Edition (Warhammer FRP): Black Industries, 2005
• Darkness Unleashed (Cartoon Action Hour): Z-Man Games, 2004
• Waves of Blood (7th Sea): Alderac Entertainment, 2001
• Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium: Last Unicorn Games, 2000
• Otosan Uchi (Legend of the Five Rings): Alderac Entertainment, 2000
• Domains of Dread (Ravenloft): TSR, 1997
• Back for Seconds (Feng Shui): Daedalus Games, 1996
• Castles & Ruins (Rolemaster): Iron Crown Enterprises, 1996
• Requiem: The Grim Harvest
  Requiem: The Grim Harvest
  Requiem: The Grim Harvest is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1996....
  
  (Ravenloft): TSR, 1996

Card art

• Magic: The Gathering, 9th Ed.: Wizards of the Coast, 2005
• Mirrodin (Magic: The Gathering): Wizards of the Coast, 2003