Frank Quitely


Real Name and aliases:

Website:

Country:

United Kingdom

Character:

Award:

  • National Comics Award, 2002,
  • Eisner Award, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009,
  • Harvey Award, 2007, 2008, 2009

Added by: Eleonor.A. Last edit by: krympling.

Biography

Vincent Patrick Deighan (born 1968), better known by the pen name Frank Quitely, is a Scottish comic book artist. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with Grant Morrison on titles such as New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin, as well as his work with Mark Millar on The Authority and Jupiter's Legacy. Deighan was raised in Rutherglen, although attended St. Bride's High School in East Kilbride (as his father worked there as a PE teacher). He studied at the Glasgow School of Art but did not complete his course in fine art, drawing and painting. Deighan worked up the Scottish underground comics title Electric Soup in 1990, writing and drawing The Greens, a parody of The Broons strip published by D. C. Thomson. It was in working on this book that he adopted the pseudonym of Frank Quitely (a spoonerism of "quite frankly"), as he did not want his family to know it was his work, worried that they may have found it upsetting. Initially Electric Soup was only distributed locally in Glasgow, then it was picked up by John Brown Publishing for widespread national UK distribution. This brought Quitely's work to the attention of Judge Dredd Megazine editor David Bishop. He was given work on Shimura, written by Robbie Morrison, and Missionary Man, by Gordon Rennie, quickly rising to prominence. He drew various stories in Paradox Press' series of The Big Book Of graphic novels, as well as work in Dark Horse Presents for Dark Horse Comics. His first major work in American comics was Flex Mentallo in 1996, a Doom Patrol spin-off written by fellow Glaswegian Grant Morrison for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Initially he worked on strips for anthology titles such as Weird War Tales, and drew three issues of Jamie Delano's 2020 Visions, as well as various covers for DC. He later drew his first full length graphic novel, Batman: The Scottish Connection, with writer Alan Grant in which The Greens make a cameo appearance. Quitely and Grant worked on a one-shot titled Lobo: The Hand-to-Hand Job later retitled as It's a Man's World. Although Quitely did all the pencils, the story was not released. 2000 saw Quitely and Morrison collaborate again, on JLA: Earth 2. The graphic novel was met with positive critical response, and later that year Quitely took over from Bryan Hitch as artist on The Authority, with Mark Millar as writer. New X-Men promo art by Quitely, displaying his ornate line work and expressive faces Quitely left The Authority to draw New X-Men. Quitely illustrated a Destiny story for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Endless Nights hardcover graphic novel in 2003. After leaving New X-Men, Quitely drew the mini-series We3 in 2004, again in collaboration with Morrison. He shared the 2005 Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team Eisner Award in a tie with artist John Cassaday for his work on the book. That same year, he and Morrison were nominated for Best Limited Series for that book, and Quitely additionally was nominated for the Best Cover Artist Eisner for both We3 and Bite Club. He wrote and drew new instalments of The Greens for the Scottish underground comic Northern Lightz, and in 2005 Morrison and Quitely designed a series of tarot cards for Intensive Care, an album by popstar Robbie Williams. In December 2004, Quitely signed to a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics, where he illustrated All-Star Superman. The twelve issue series, yet another collaboration with Morrison, began publication in November 2005. Quitely and Morrison's work on the series won them the Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2006, with Quitely collecting another nomination for Best Penciller/Inker. The series won Best Continuing Series in 2007 and 2009. In 2008 Quitely illustrated the cover for the debut issue of Scottish underground comic Wasted. In early 2009, Frank Quitely collaborated with the Scottish rock band The Phantom Band in designing artwork for a limited edition 7" single for their song "The Howling", which plays on Quitely's interest in occultism and esoterica. This was released as a limited run collector's pressing by Glasgow's Chemikal Underground Records. That same year, Quitely again teamed with Morrison, illustrated the first three issues of Batman and Robin title, which debuted in June 2009 after the "Battle for the Cowl" storyline. He provided covers through issue No. 16. Quitely was one of the artists of Batman No. 700 (Aug. 2010). On 9 April 2011, Quitely was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the "Fastest Production of a Comic Book" and "Most Contributors to a Comic Book". With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar began work at 9 AM scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with Quitely and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons, John Romita Jr., Jock, Adi Granov, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Olivier Coipel, Duncan Fegredo, Simon Furman, David Lafuente, John McCrea, Sean Phillips and Liam Sharp, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on 23 November 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation. That same month, he mentioned during a panel at WonderCon that although he had split his time equally between illustrating covers and interiors, he had recently been devoting more of his time to covers, due to back problems, and the difficulty that presented in meeting his deadlines. In 2012, Quitely was one of several artists to illustrate a variant cover for Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead No. 100, which was released on 11 July at the San Diego Comic-Con. Quitely was the artist on Jupiter's Legacy, a ten-issue, creator-owned miniseries published by Image Comics that premiered in September 2012. It is written by Mark Millar, who described the project as "his Star Wars", and a cross between The Lord of the Rings and a large-scale superhero crossover, albeit one that did not require the in-depth knowledge normally required of such stories, as it features entirely new characters. On July 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given a series order for a television adaptation of Jupiter's Legacy. Quitely drew the fourth issue of Grant Morrison's The Multiversity limited series which was published in November 2014. In March 2017, an exhibition of his work was displayed at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. A few months later, Quitely received an honorary degree as a Doctor of Letters from the University of Glasgow in recognition of his achievements.

Artistic production

Comic Title Role Publisher Year Language
Missionary man Author Titan 2003 English
JLA : the deluxe edition. Volume 4 Author Titan 2011 English
Flex Mentallo : man of muscle mystery (Deluxe edition) Author Dc Comics 2012 English
All-star Superman. Vol. 2 Author Titan 2009 English
JLA Earth 2,, the deluxe edition Author Dc Comics 2013 English
The Authority. Volume 2 2 Author Dc Comics 2014 English
New X-Men. Bk. 1 Author Marvel 2011 English
Vertigo visions Author Dc Comics 2013 English
Absolute Batman & Robin : Batman reborn Author Dc Comics 2012 English
The Authority Volume 2 Author Dc Comics 2013 English
New X-Men. E is for extinction (Special edition) Author Hachette 2012 English
Jupiter's Circle #4 Colorist Image Comics 2015 English
New X-Men. Imperial Author Hachette 2013 English
Jupiter's legacy. Volume 1 Author Image Comics 2014 English
Scottish connection Author Titan 1998 English
We3 Author Titan 2005 English
New X-Men omnibus 2 Author Marvel 2012 English
Batman & Robin by Grant Morrison omnibus Author Dc Comics 2017 English
All-star Superman 2 Author Dc Comics 2007 English
JLA : earth 2 2 Author Dc Comics 2012 English
Batman reborn (Deluxe edition) Author Titan 2010 English
The Multiversity : the deluxe edition Author DC Comics 2015 English
JLA : Earth 2 Author Titan 2001 English
JLA Earth 2 3 Author Dc Comics 2013 English
MI 3 Illustrator Cover Artist Darkwood 2014 Serbian
Batman reborn 2 Author Titan 2011 English
New X-Men omnibus 3 Author Marvel Worldwide 2016 English
All star Superman Author Titan 2007 English
All-star Superman 3 Author Titan 2007 English
WE3 2 (Deluxe edition) Author Dc Comics 2011 English
Rising son! Author Rebellion 2004 English
Milk Wars Part 2 Cover Artist Dc Comics 0 English
Flinch. Book one Author Dc Comics 2015 English
Missionary Man. Bad moon rising Author Rebellion 2011 English
Flex Mentallo : man of muscle mystery 2 Author Dc Comics 2014 English
Absolute all star Superman Author Titan 2010 English
The authority: Earth inferno and other stories Author Titan 2002 English
New X-Men Author Marvel Publishing 2008 English
Graphic Ink : the DC Comics Art of Frank Quitely Author Dc Comics 2014 English
Drawings + sketches Author BHP Comics 2018 English
All-star Superman 4 Author Titan 2011 English
We3 3 Author Dc Comics 2013 English
New X-Men omnibus Author Diamond 2006 English
Absolute Transmetropolitan. Volume 2 Author Dc Comics 2016 English
All-star Superman. Vol. 2 2 Author Titan 2009 English
New X-Men (Vol. 1) Author Panini Comics 2022 Italian
I Classici del Fumetto di Repubblica #12 X-Men Illustrator Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso 2003 Italian
The Invisibles: Il Regno Invisibile Illustrator Magic Press - Vertigo 2001 Italian
Notti Eterne Illustrator Magic Press - Vertigo 2004 Italian
Multiversity #4 (ITA) Illustrator Lion Comics (Rw Edizioni) 2015 Italian
Jupiter's Legacy Illustrator Panini Comics 2016 English
Jupiter's Legacy volume 2 Illustrator Panini Comics 2018 English
The Authority # 2 Illustrator Panini Comics 2011 French
Earth Inferno And Other Stories: 17-20, The Authority Annual 2000, Wildstorm Summer Special Illustrator Cover Artist Wildstorm Productions 0 English
The Authority Author Titan 2001 English
Under New Management: 9-16 Illustrator Cover Artist Wildstorm Productions 0 English
Jupiter's Legacy Book Two: 1-5 Illustrator Image 0 English
Lutte de pouvoirs Illustrator Panini Comics 2016 French
Soulèvement Illustrator Panini Comics 2018 French
Jupiter's Legacy #2 Illustrator Image Comics 2013 English
Jupiter's legacy 1 Author Image Comics 2015 English
Batman vs. Robin: 7-12 Cover Artist Dc Comics 0 English
The CBLDF Presents: Liberty Cover Artist Illustrator Image Comics, Inc. 2014 English
JLA: Erde 2 Illustrator Eaglemoss France 0 German
Scottish Connection #3 Illustrator Semic 0 French
Strange Adventures #1 Illustrator Vertigo 1999 English
Kingdom Illustrator Inker Dino Verlag 0 German
Plus Rapide... #1 Illustrator Panini Comics 2006 French
"...Faster..." #1 Illustrator Dc Comics 2006 English
Transmetropolitan: Gouge Away Illustrator Dc Comics 0 English
Flinch: #1-8 Illustrator Vertigo 0 English
Intergalactic Lawman #1 Cover Artist Dc Comics 2019 English
Superman / Batman hors série # 1 Illustrator Panini Comics 2007 French
DC/Young Animal: Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special 1, Mother Panic/Batman Special 1, Shade, the Changing Girl/Wonder Woman Special 1, Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye/Swamp Thing Special 1, Doom Patrol/JLA Special 1 Cover Artist Dc Comics 0 English
Batman and Robin: The Circus of Strange: 2A Illustrator Cover Artist Dc Comics 2009 English
DC Universe: Legacies: 1-10 Illustrator Dc Comics 0 English