Steve Oliff (born February 20, 1954)
Biography
Oliff broke into professional comics by attending comic book conventions and meeting people. At one convention he met publisher
Byron Preiss. Preiss gave Oliff his first major coloring job (on a
Shadowjack story in
The Illustrated Roger Zelazny). More work with Preiss's publications followed, including a job on a
Howard Chaykin graphic novel, which in turn led to Oliff getting his first Marvel Comics' job, coloring
Bill Sienkiewicz's first
Moon Knight story in
Rampaging Hulk magazine.
[Vasseur, Richard. "Steve Oliff: Colorist of Gumby," Jazma Online (Sept. 22, 2007). Accessed Feb. 1, 2009.] From there Oliff went on to color hundreds of titles in a variety of coloring formats.
Olyoptics and Akira
His company, Olyoptics, was one of the first to use computers to do color separation. Although other companies at the time were experimenting with computers, Oliff and his crew were the first to blend the color guide artist with the separator
[Khoury, George. Image Comics: The Road To Independence (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2007).]
In 1987, the Japanese manga Akira was in preparation to be translated and published by Marvel Comics's Epic Comics line. Oliff was chosen as the colorist, and he convinced Marvel that it was time to try computer color.[Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics (Laurence King Publishing, 2004).] After the publication of Akira in 1988, computer coloring became increasingly prevalent in the comics industry.
Writing
In addition to coloring thousands of comic pages for all sorts of companies, Oliff has written two comic books,
Armature and
Armature: Darkpark and Lightworld, and is currently writing the third in his series. The
Armature character first appeared in ads in
Spawn and
Youngblood comics, and in a back-up story in issue 14 of
The Maxx. From 2003 to the present,
Armature has been a weekly comic strip in Oliff's local newspaper, the
Independent Coast Observer.
In 2005, Oliff collaborated with Cheri Carlstedt on a history of his hometown, Point Arena, California. The Early Days of Point Arena: A Pictorial History of the City and Township was published by Olyoptics. He also edits the Mendocino County Historical Society newsletter.
Awards
Oliff won the "Best Colorist"
Eisner Award in 1992,
[ 1992 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] 1993
[ 1993 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] and 1994
[ 1994 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] and the "Best Colorist"
Harvey Award in 1990,
[ 1990 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] 1991,
[ 1991 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] 1992,
[ 1992 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] 1994
[ 1994 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac] and 1995.
[ 1995 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners, Comic Book Awards Almanac]
He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1991.[ Inkpot Award]
Notes
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