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John Workman (born June 20, 1950) is an American editor, writer, artist, designer, colorist and letterer in the comic book industry. He is known for his frequent partnerships with writer/artist Walter Simonson and also for lettering the entire run of Grant Morrison/Rachel Pollack's Doom Patrol (DC Comics).
Born in Beckley, West Virginia, Workman spent the first eight years of his life in Glen Rogers, West Virginia and Darlington, Maryland. Inspired by the George Reeves Superman TV series, he began writing short stories and drawing pictures. Living in Aberdeen, Washington, he studied art and journalism at Grays Harbor College and Clark College, receiving an Associate in Arts degree from Grays Harbor in 1970.
He got his start in comics publishing on a national level in 1972 by writing and drawing two four-page comics features, "Sindy" and "The Fallen Angels", that appeared for three years in two California-based men's magazines published by Archie Comics alumnus Ed Goldstein. Using different pseudonyms (one being E. L. Bert), Workman also wrote short prose stories that appeared in the magazines alongside stories by Harlan Ellison and Robert Bloch. Two years later, in the pages of Mike Friedrich's Star*Reach, he wrote, penciled, inked and lettered stories for the seminal fantasy/science fiction comics anthology. Workman's work on Star*Reach attracted attention from DC Comics, and they offered him a production job in 1975.Rosenberg, Aaron. "Happy Birthday, John Workman, the King of Letterers," ComixMix (June 20, 2008). Retrieved July 22, 2008.
Workman was art director of Heavy Metal magazineArndt, Richard J. "A 2005 Interview with Steve Bissette About Bizarre Adventures!" Enjolrasworld.com: Marvel’s Black & White Horror Magazines Checklist. Accessed May 8, 2013. from 1977 to 1984. His comics art, writing, lettering, coloring and design work are evident throughout issues from that period.
For DC Comics, Workman lettered Doom Patrol from 1987 to 1995, the Legion of Super-Heroes from 1991 to 1993, Michael Moorcock's Multiverse in 1997–1998, and Aquaman in 1999–2000.
Workman handled lettering chores for Topps Comics' X-Files titles in the late 1990s, and Image Comics' Savage Dragon from 2003 to 2005. Since 2003, he has done a lot of lettering work for Archie Comics, especially for their Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man titles. He has created logos for many of their super-hero characters and has done interior lettering on both New Crusaders and The Fox.
He wrote and drew the 41-page "Adventures of Roma" which ran in consecutive issues of Dark Horse Presents in 1987. Workman's early science fiction and girlie-humor strips "Sindy" and "The Fallen Angels" were collected in a five-issue run by Forbidden Fruit, an imprint of Apple Comics. Wild Things, a three-issue series published by Metro Comics, was made up mostly of material created by Workman for such diverse publications as Star*Reach and Heavy Metal. In July 2013, a reformatted graphic novel version of "The Adventures of Roma" with new art and additional story material was published in both hardbound and softcover editions by CO2 Comics.
For the Fantagraphics imprint Eros Comix, Workman wrote and designed Betty Being Bad (1990), a 48-page booklet about pin-up model Betty Page. He also wrote and designed two hardcovers for Heavy Metal Books, Heavy Metal: 25 Years of Classic Covers and Innocent Images. A self-published booklet,"The Comic Book Crisis", which examined the business side of comic books was incorporated (with additional new material) into issue 199 of The Comics Journal, featuring commentary by Mike Friedrich, Steve Geppi, Kurt Busiek, Gary Groth and others.
Through his own Neonarcheos Publishing imprint, Workman has published limited editions of "Writing, Penciling, Inking, Lettering, Editing Martelaine," "The Third Man", "The Art of John Workman", and both black-and-white and color posters of pages of his artwork.
Because he does most of his lettering by hand, Workman's collaboration is sought by those artists who wish to have a more cohesive and integrated look to the final artwork. (A joke in the comic book community goes that "Comic books are the only place where having 'Workmanlike' craftsmanship is a plus.")
Workman later moved toward digital lettering. In addition to his "on-the-art boards work", Workman has been electronically hand-lettering by way of a WACOM tablet for such books as Torchwood, Mega Man, Thor, Turf, DC's "Before Watchmen" series Ozymandias, Superman: American Alien, and Batman.
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