Happy Birthday: John Workman

Born in Beckley, West Virginia in 1950, John Elbert Workman Jr. grew up in Aberdeen, Washington and studied at Grays Harbor College and Clark College, getting an Associate in Arts degree in 1970.

He worked in advertising briefly before creating the science-fiction comic series Sindy and the humor strip Fallen Angels in 1972. In 1974 his work on Star*Reach attracted attention from DC Comics, and they offered Workman a job in production.

From 1977 to 1984 he was art director Heavy Metal magazine, where he wrote, drew, edited, colored, designed, and lettered. Since then he has written and drawn for DC, Marvel, Archie, Playboy, and others, but he is best known as a letterer. He worked on many projects with Walt Simonson, including Thor and Orion, and also did the lettering for Jim Starlin’s Cosmic Odyssey series.

More recently Workman lettered The Question, Bullet Points, and 1985, all Tommy Lee Edwards books. He has also done the lettering on ComicMix’s own GrimJack and Jon Sable: Freelance.

Workman is well-known for his tight craftsmanship, his distinctive style, and the fact that he still does traditional lettering on art boards instead of using the computer and digital fonts.