Paul Ryan (September 23, 1949 – March 7, 2016) was an American comic artist. He worked extensively for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on a number of super-hero comic book titles. He is best known for his 1991 to 1996 run as penciler on Fantastic Four, which represents his longest association with an individual comic book series. From 2005 until his death in 2016, Ryan penciled and inked the daily newspaper comic strip The Phantom for King Features Syndicate.
Biography Early years Paul Ryan was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1949. He attended St. Polycarp Grammar School in Somerville, and graduated from St. Mary of the Annunciation High School in 1967. He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design.
After graduation Ryan enlisted in the United States National Guard and was assigned to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for Basic Training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in automotive mechanics. He later attended Massachusetts Military Academy in Wakefield, Massachusetts, for officer training. Ryan was a member of his National Guard pistol team, studied karate and fencing in his younger days, and at one time took up archery and weight training.
As a young man, Ryan found a job in the Graphics Department of Metcalf & Eddy Engineering in Boston, where he worked for 11 years.
First steps in comics According to a 2007 interview, "Ryan began his training [for a career in comic art] as a child, growing up in Somerville. He'd park himself in front of the television each night to watch George Reeves in the Adventures of Superman." Ryan began drawing one-page comic stories in grade school, inspired by his love of comics to create his own. He has said that as a youngster in the Silver Age, he was influenced by the work of Wayne Boring and Curt Swan on Superman. In 1961, Ryan became a big fan of the Fantastic Four of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, having "bought the first issue at the tender age of 11." He has acknowledged that even as a youth he studied the work of Hal Foster, Sy Barry, Dan Barry, and Mac Raboy, adding "I'm pretty much influenced by anybody whose work I admire."
In 1983, in response to a general "open audition" offer from Charlton Comics, Ryan was finally prompted to write and draw his first full-scale comics story, which he titled "BREED". Charlton had recently instituted a program whereby they would publish the best of the work submitted by aspiring comic book artists in Charlton Bullseye. Payment would be in the form of 50 contributor copies of the printed piece. The artist would then have published work to show Marvel Comics or DC Comics in the hopes of landing a job with the "Big Two." Charlton accepted Ryan's story, encouraging him that a career in comics was within reach, but the title was cancelled before "BREED" saw print.
The remaining stories from Bullseye ended up in the hands of Bill Black of Americomics in Florida, and Black published "BREED" in Starmasters #1 (March 1984). This brought Ryan to the attention of comic book stores in the Boston area. When Marvel artist Bob Layton moved to Boston and needed an assistant, the employees at these stores recommended Paul Ryan to Layton. Ryan worked for Layton for a year doing his backgrounds, and through him met the editors and staff at Marvel. Layton is said to have played a vital role in Ryan's development. Ryan said that his only formal training in comics came in that 1983-1984 span, working as Bob Layton's assistant while also preparing his penciling samples for Marvel. By this time Ryan, having taken a circuitous route toward a career in comic art, was in his middle 30s.
At Marvel Comics Soon, Ryan was getting assignments of his own, starting with inking The Thing #27 (September 1985) and then moving on to penciling Iron Man #202, Squadron Supreme, The Eternals, and a Thor graphic novel.
In 1986, writer Mark Gruenwald and Ryan co-created D.P. 7 for Marvel's New Universe imprint. The series featured a then-uncommonly realistic view of what consequences could arise from having paranormal abilities. D.P. 7 has been called "a clear forerunner — both in tone and content — of the television series Heroes."
Ryan said that his favorite creative moment in comics was sitting down with Gruenwald and coming up with the look for D.P. 7: "At Mark’s direction we 'cast' our characters based on real people. This is something that I still do when confronted with new characters. When given a description of a character by the writer I look through various magazines for just the right look."
Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool proclaimed D.P. 7 "a wonderful comic book, everything just seemed to gel together perfectly on that series, and on Quasar that followed it, and I was hooked. Paul had a classically clean style."
In 1987 Ryan drew The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 which featured the wedding of Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Mary Jane Watson.The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 at the Grand Comics Database Recalling years later his reaction to being assigned the wedding issue, Ryan admitted, "I was terrified! Excited, but knowing the historic and financial significance of this story for Marvel Comics, I couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Considering that I had only been in the business a minute and a half I should never have been given that assignment. Jim Shooter really took a chance with me. He asked. I accepted. He handed me the plot. I hope I didn’t disappoint him."
Ryan penciled the first six issues of Quasar in 1989–90,DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 242 and also worked on a significant run of The Avengers. Recalling Ryan's work on the latter title, writer Jason Versaggi said that Ryan's "draft work seemed to seamlessly transition from the end of John Buscema's stints on those books in the '90s."
Other Marvel highlights included pencils for Avengers West Coast (shortly after inking John Byrne's art on several issues of that title) and Ravage 2099, a character he co-created with Stan Lee.Manning, Matthew K. "1990s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 261: "Stan Lee returned to his rightful place behind the typewriter with this new series penciled by Paul Ryan." He penciled art for Byrne's scripts on Iron Man for about a year beginning in 1991, including an arc called "The Dragon Seed Saga" which featured the Mandarin. In 1992, concurrent with comic book projects, Ryan took over the penciling on The Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip written by Stan Lee, inked by Joe Sinnott, and distributed by King Features. He drew that feature for just over three years, for what might have been his largest audience of readers.
Of all his work for Marvel, Paul Ryan is most strongly associated with the Fantastic Four for his long run on their flagship title. Ryan said that when he was first offered the art assignment he actually declined, because he was reluctant to give up the Avengers to clear time in his schedule. He continued to think about the opportunity over a weekend, and finally concluded that he couldn't turn down the job of drawing his favorite Marvel title. Partnering with writer Tom DeFalco, and sometimes receiving a co-plotting credit, his first issue was #356 (Sept. 1991) and his last #414 (July 1996). He trailed only Jack Kirby and John Byrne in total number of Fantastic Four issues drawn. His run on Fantastic Four was ended abruptly by the Heroes Reborn event. Ryan recalled that he learned of his losing the F.F. and Jim Lee's taking over the title through the internet, and said, "This whole situation left a bad feeling with me toward Marvel. I was cast adrift after 11 years of loyal exclusivity."
At DC Comics and after Shortly after Paul Ryan left Marvel, he moved over to DC Comics where he became the artist on Superman: The Man of Tomorrow and The Flash. That same year, he was one of the many creators who contributed to the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character married Lois Lane.Superman: The Wedding Album #1 (Dec. 1996) at the Grand Comics Database Ryan drew part of the Superman Red/Superman Blue one-shot which launched the storyline of the same name which ran through the various Superman titles.Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 283: "The special written by Dan Jurgens, Stuart Immonen, Karl Kesel, and Louise Simonson, with pencils by Stuart Immonen, Ron Frenz, Tom Grummett, Paul Ryan, and Jon Bogdanove." He penciled a Superman Annual and various Batman titles, as well as several fill-in assignments on other Superman titles. With writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, Ryan introduced the Jakeem Thunder character in The Flash vol. 2 #134 (Feb. 1998).Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 285: Jakeem Thunder debuted in The Flash (second series) #134 in February , by writers Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and penciller Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan and writer David Michelinie are the only comic book creators to have contributed to the wedding issues of both Spider-Man (Peter Parker) marrying Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 and Superman (Clark Kent) marrying Lois Lane in Superman: The Wedding Album.
"One of the greatest thrills I experienced working in comics was to be allowed to draw Superman," Ryan said about his time at DC. "To me, he was the first, best hero."
He was a contributing artist on the NASCAR/Superman custom comic and on Celebrating the Century, a stamp collecting book which DC produced for the United States Postal Service.
Ryan briefly returned to Marvel in 1999, teaming again with writer Tom DeFalco, this time on the Fantastic Five. The turn of the Millennium found Ryan working with Wildstorm, penciling one of the Left Behind graphic novels, and working with Crossgen as a fill-in artist on such titles as Ruse and Crux. Crossgen's recruitment of Ryan and other notable talent led DC Comics to consider that upstart publisher a significant threat in the comic book market.
Ryan's involvement with The Phantom began when a fan bidding on one of Ryan's eBay auctions in 2001 contacted him, and asked if he had ever considered working for a comics company outside the U.S. This fan had been an intern at Egmont Publishing, which produces The Phantom (Fantomen) comic in Sweden. Ryan told him he was interested, and was given the appropriate contact information. Soon, the publisher had samples from Ryan, and he quickly signed him on to Team Fantomen. Ryan became a regular contributor of covers and finished interior art to Fantomen for the next five years, a job which would position him well for his next major assignment.
The Phantom comic strip The Phantom comic strip began as a weekday newspaper strip on February 17, 1936, with a color Sunday strip added in May 1939. It was originally written by creator Lee Falk, and when Falk died in 1999, Tony DePaul took over the writing duties. Paul Ryan was one of the several artists who have illustrated the character's comic strip adventures over the decades.
In 2005 then-current artist George Olesen announced his retirement. Jay Kennedy, editor-in-chief at King Features Syndicate, chose Ryan to assume the artist's role on the daily strips, beginning with those published in January of that year (Ryan had been the artist on King's Amazing Spider-Man strip a decade earlier). Then in October 2006 Graham Nolan, artist on The Phantom Sunday Strip, announced his intended departure from the series. Once again Kennedy called upon Ryan, who agreed to add the Sunday strip to his duties for King Features. His first Sunday appeared in newspapers on April 1, 2007. Ryan later wished to cut his workload and on July 31, 2011, Eduardo Barreto took over as artist for the Sunday strip. Following Barreto's sudden death in late 2011, Ryan returned to the Sunday feature briefly until a replacement, Terry Beatty, was found.