Mazzucchelli received his
BFA from the
Rhode Island School of Design, and started working in comics in the early 1980s, first at
Marvel Comics where, after a few fill-in jobs, he became the regular artist on
Daredevil. He worked with writer
Denny O'Neil and culminated his work on this title with the
Daredevil: Born Again (Feb.–Aug. 1986) story arc, written by
Frank Miller. Miller and Mazzucchelli collaborated again on the graphic novel
Batman: Year One, serialized in issues #404–407 (Feb.–May 1987) of
DC Comics' monthly
Batman title, and published in a single volume shortly afterwards.
Batman: Year One is considered one of the best Batman stories ever produced. Mazzucchelli had previously drawn Batman in a five-page backup story in ''
World's Finest Comics'' #302 (April 1984). After
Batman: Year One, Mazzucchelli drew an
Angel story in
Marvel Fanfare #40 (Oct. 1988). He then moved on to focus on more personal projects. He published three issues of his own independent anthology,
Rubber Blanket, co-edited by his wife, painter
Richmond Lewis, in which he began finding his voice as a writer in addition to exploring new avenues of visual expression. His evocative and haunting stories in
Rubber Blanket, notably "Near Miss," "Dead Dog," "Discovering America," and "Big Man," set the stage for his work to come. Mazzucchelli's work in
Rubber Blanket, and especially his use of two-color printing to create his artwork, influenced a number of young indie-comics artists through the 1990s and 2000s, including
Darwyn Cooke, Frank Santoro, and
Dash Shaw. With writer/artist
Paul Karasik, he co-wrote and illustrated an adaptation of
Paul Auster's
City of Glass, published first by Avon Books in 1994, then by Picador in 2004 as
City of Glass: The Graphic Novel. Auster's later book
The Brooklyn Follies features a character with the name Nancy Mazzucchelli, an homage to David. He continued to write and draw short comics for various publishers until 2000. Mazzucchelli was one of the artists on the ''
Superman and Batman: World's Funnest'' one-shot written by
Evan Dorkin. In 2009,
Pantheon Books published Mazzucchelli's graphic novel,
Asterios Polyp. The book was named a
New York Times Notable Book for that year, and won the 2010
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for graphic novels. Mazzucchelli has done illustrations for various publications, including interior pieces and covers for
The New Yorker Mazzucchelli has taught a cartooning course for BFA students at the
School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. ==Awards==