Chip Zdarsky

Chip Zdarsky
Chip Zdarsky - Lucca Comics & Games 2015
Born Steven Murray
(1975-12-21) December 21, 1975
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Area(s) Artist
Notable works
 Sex Criminals, Prison Funnies, Monster Cops, Extremely Bad Advice, Howard the Duck, Jughead

Steve Murray (born December 21, 1975),[1] known by the pen-name Chip Zdarsky, is a Canadian comic book artist, journalist, illustrator and designer He has also used the pseudonym Todd Diamond. He worked for National Post for over a decade, until 2014, as an illustrator and humorist (as Steve Murray) and wrote and illustrated a column called Extremely Bad Advice for the paper as well as The Ampersand, the newspaper's pop culture section's online edition.

He uses the Zdarsky pseudonym for comics-related work, using it to create Prison Funnies and Monster Cops and as artist and co-creator of Sex Criminals with writer Matt Fraction.[1] He wrote Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics and Jughead for Archie Comics.

Early life

Steve Murray was born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Barrie, Ontario.[1]

Career

Murray has illustrated for such clients as The Globe and Mail, New York magazine, CBC and Canadian Business.

In 2000, Murray created Chip Zdarsky as a pseudonym and alter ego for his persona as a comic book writer and illustrator, developing his own independent projects, such as Prison Funnies[2] and Monster Cops (which can be read online or in print) as well as collaborating on a variety of projects, including Dark Horse Comics titles Fierce and Rumble Royale. About his alter ego, Murray said "I wanted to have a sad-sack cartoonist persona that lives in his mom's basement, paints figurines for money, has restraining orders against him. And that became a character." He describes the character as "an idiot who doesn't know what I'm doing. I've had no success in my life. No matter what, I'm going to mess things up." Murray initially attempted to keep the identities separate and secret.[1]

From 2008 to 2014, Murray penned and illustrated a weekly advice column for the National Post called "Extremely Bad Advice".[3] He also wrote another column in that paper, Tear Jerk, in which he reviewed films to see if they could actually make him "weep like a baby."

Along with Kagan McLeod, Ben Shannon, and Cameron Stewart, he is a co-founder of the studio The Royal Academy of Illustration and Design, which produced Rumble Royale.

In 2010, he also launched a mock campaign for Mayor of Toronto. He was not a real registered candidate, launching his satirical "campaign" through social networking platforms after the deadline had passed to register as a candidate in the real campaign.[4]

Chip Zdarsky and Matt Fraction

In June 2013, Image Comics announced that Chip Zdarsky had teamed up with Invincible Iron Man and Hawkeye writer, Matt Fraction, on a new creator-owned series titled Sex Criminals. The first issue was released on September 23, 2013. Sex Criminals was declared number 1 on Time Magazine's list of Top Ten Comics and Graphic Novels of 2013.[5]

In 2014, Murray won a Will Eisner Award for Best New Series for Sex Criminals.[6]

Zdarsky wrote the first series arc of the relaunched Jughead comic for the 2015 New Riverdale relaunch.

On February 15, 2017, it was announced that Zdarsky will be writing a brand new "back-to-basics" Spider-Man series Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man that will run alongside the current volume of The Amazing Spider-Man written by Dan Slott starting June 2017.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "A dream invite from Marvel to resurrect Howard the Duck".
  2. ↑ "Chip Zdarsky's Prison Funnies! @ PopImage". Pop Image. Archived from the original on 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  3. ↑ "EXTREMELY BAD ADVICE". National Post. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Steve Murray Hates Toronto, and Wants to Be Your Mayor". Torontoist, October 1, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Time Magazine's Top Ten Comics and Graphic Novels of 2013". Time Magazine, December 2013
  6. ↑ "Steve Murray insufferable and 'very proud' after picking up prestigious Will Eisner award". July 28, 2014. Archived from the original on November 30, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Spider-Man Goes Spectacular". News - Marvel.com.
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