Nelson Alexander “Alex” Ross is a prolific name in the comic book industry, known for his hyper realistic paintings and art style. He has worked on several notable series, namely Marvels and Earth X for Marvel Comics, as well as Justice and the industry redefining series Kingdom Come for DC Comics.
Ross’ art is a stark contrast to the more animated and cartoon like art style of other comic book artists, which has brought him both fame and criticism throughout his career. This realism has been compared to that of Normal Rockwell, who, as a young man, Ross admired and whose art he wanted to bring into the realm of comic books. He also admired the works of other infamous comic book artists such as George Perez(Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman, The New Teen Titans). Ross came from artistic backgrounds, as his mother was a commercial artist and his grandfather designed toys. For college, he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago, realizing that he was already far ahead of many of his peers. One area where he excelled the most was in drawing a model and bringing it to life. There was not a class designated for inking comic books, but Ross would later take the painting skills he had acquired there and apply it to comic books, a medium of art that had not at the time(and still usually hasn’t) been applied to comics very often. After attending the Academy of Art, he was later pursued by Kurt Busiek, and editor for Marvel Comics. Having seen Ross’ art, Busiek was interested in creating a series with Ross. The result was Marvels, a 1994 graphic novel that was essentially a celebration of the history of the Marvel universe and its characters, all from the perspective of an everyday Joe.
This was the series put Alex Ross on the map. Ross also created a series called Astro City for Wildstorm Publications(formerly owned by Image, now owned by DC), which viewed superheroes from the same everyman perspective as Marvels. Ross’ finest hour, however, had not yet COME.
Image, the comic book company that originally owned Wildstorm, was known for reveling in the “Dark Age” type of comics ushered in by books such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Heroes of moral character such as Superman and Captain America seemed outdated compared to new “edgier” characters such as Spawn, a character who was literally from hell, and Youngblood, a group of muscular showboats covered with guns and pouches. Fans of older characters began to dislike these new “heroes” and what they represented. Thus, in 1995, Alex Ross collaborated with Kurt Busiek once again for Kingdom Come, a tale of heroism and hope in the dismal future of the DC universe. In the story, Superman was in self-exile after failing to stop the Joker from killing the employees of the Daily Planet, namely his wife Lois. Wonder Woman had been banished from Themyscira by the other Amazons for failing to protect the outside world, and Batman was no longer the pinnacle of human physical perfection, with Gotham City reduced to a police state under protection from a legion of giant Bat-robots. In the absence of the older heroes, a new generation of heroes had appeared, clearly based off of the Cables, Spawns, and Youngbloods of the day. These heroes were overly violent and would rather fight each other than stand up for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Thus, Superman reappeared with a new Justice League to end the Dark Age of the world.
Marvel would then ask him to do a similar series for Marvel, and the trilogy of Earth X, Universe X, and Paradise X were created. For their 60th Anniversary, DC asked Ross to make a series of tabloid sized graphic novels(Batman: War on Crime, Superman: Peace on Earth, Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth) with Paul Dini(who worked on Batman: The Animated Series), as well as TV Guide covers promoting the TV series Smallville.
For his work, Ross hires many of his friends and coworkers for models. For instance, in the series “Justice”, Ross based the appearance of Superman’s nemesis Brainiac off of fellow comic book creator Grant Morrison. Alex Ross currently does the bulk of his work for Dynamite Entertainment, who create comics based off of movies, older TV shows, and public domain superheroes from the 1930s and 40s. In series in particular is Project Superpowers, which Ross created with Jim Krueger, his “Justice” co-writer.
To this day, Alex Ross is one of the most popular and important artists in the comic book industry, both for his art and the stories in which it is used in. Using a medium that most would never think of using in comics, he has helped create series’ just as unbelievable.
