Dave Simons

Dave Simons stated that he had always wanted to be a comic book artist. "I always wanted to do comics since I was about eight years old ... so I started making a point of drawing something every day. I figured if I just kept doing that, then eventually I'd get better at it." After a stint in the United States Coast Guard, and a chance series of meetings with Frank Robbins, Simons elected to undertake formal training to be an artist. As part of his education Simons attended the art workshops run by Marvel Comics artist John Buscema. It was while attending these classes that he became friends with future comic book artists Ken Landgraf and Armando Gil. It was through Landgraf that Simons produced his first published work, which consisted of mainly commercial illustrations and the occasional soft-core pornographic comic book. ==Career==

Marvel Comics Approaching then-Marvel editor Rick Marschall at a convention in the late 1970s, Simons was able to get his samples seen and assessed. At the time Marschall was overseeing the Curtis Magazines line for Marvel, and Simons was duly assigned the duty of inking the first issue of the Howard the Duck magazine. After submitting the story Simons was assigned a fill-in Falcon story, which he inked with the assistance of Armando Gil over Sal Buscema's pencils. This marked his first professional work for Marvel and in mainstream comic books. Simons was then assigned both pencilling and inking jobs for Marvel. Simons' attention to detail came into high demand in the 1980s and his inking credits include artists such as Keith Pollard, Ron Wilson, Frank Miller, John Buscema, Marc Silvestri, Greg LaRocque, John Romita Jr and Ed Hannigan. Titles that featured his inking include Thor, The Thing, Marvel Premiere, Night Thrasher, Iron Man, King Conan, Doctor Strange, Star Wars, Star Trek, ThunderCats and others. Simons's tenure at Marvel was not limited to inking. "Pencilling, if you're doing it right ... is a much tougher gig than inking. Even though I usually liked to know what was going on, with inking you don't necessarily have to be involved with the story. With pencilling you have to be intimately involved with the story because you're the one who's bringing the writers work and intentions across to the readers, as to what he's trying to communicate there. You have to think of the drama, the camera angles, and the composition, make sure you leave room for the word balloons, all those sorts of things". DC Comics In the 1990s, Simons left Marvel and crossed companies to DC Comics. at Disney Comics. Dungeons & Dragons Simons also worked for TSR on books such as Otherlands (1990), Greyhawk Ruins (1990), Tales of the Lance (1992), DMR2: Creature Catalog (1993), Monstrous Manual (1993), The Knight of Newts (1993), and The Created (1993). Animation career In the late 1990s, Simons left the comic book industry and moved into animation. As an artist he provided storyboards to such shows as Captain Planet, Exo-Squad,He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Zula Patrol, Psi-Kix and Maya and Miguel. "The list of shows I've worked on is certainly longer than the list of comic books that I've worked on at this point", Simons once commented along with contributing art to various trading card sets issued by Rittenhouse. He contributed art for Dynamic Forces and Red Sonja, variant cover series and the 100 Hulks project. In December 2008 Simons accepted a seat on the committee for the Inkwell Awards, and remained a member until his death. He posthumously holds the title of Inkwell Awards Committee Member Emeritus Ad Infinitum. The Inkwell Awards created an annual scholarship, for the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in his name. In 2023, he was posthumously awarded the Inkwell Awards SASRA (Stacey Aragon Special Recognition Award). Death Dave Simons died on June 9, 2009, at the age of 54, following a long battle with cancer. ==References==