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Mark Bodé

Mark Bodē ((/boʊˈdiː/) born February 18, 1963) is an American cartoonist. The son of underground comics legend Vaughn Bodē, Mark shares the Bodē family style and perpetuates many of his late father's creations as well as his own works . He is best known for his work on Cobalt-60, Miami Mice, and The Lizard of Oz. Bodē has also worked for Heavy Metal magazine and on The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Bodē is also a tattoo and graffiti artist, spending many years working around Northampton, Massachusetts, although he now lives in California.[1]

Early life

Mark Bodē was born February 18, 1963, in Utica, New York, the son of the cartoonist Vaughn Bodē and Barbara Falcon. He began drawing at age three, and was encouraged to draw throughout his childhood.[1]

He'd put a marker in my hand, and say, 'Color this area,' and make sure I didn't go crazy going outside the lines. We'd always race up this hill by our house, knock on a manhole cover and yell for Cheech. I asked him why he never came out, and he'd say, 'Well, he's chasing women and doing tricks.' He was brainwashing me into seeing his world, so the characters I started coming up with were heavily influenced by him. Right before he died he told me: 'We'll always be Bodē and son. Share my style, but don't get too close.' I couldn't wait to work with him.[1]

When Bodē was 12 years old and visiting his divorced father Vaughn in San Francisco, he discovered the dead body of his father after the latter had died as the result of autoerotic asphyxiation.[2]

Bodē attended art school in Oakland, California. He also studied animation at San Francisco State University. In 1982, he attended the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City as a fine arts major.[citation needed]

While attending SVA, Bodē met Marvel Comics editor Archie Goodwin, who was starting up a new magazine called Epic Illustrated. Bodē became a contributor from 1983 to 1986.[3]

Career

Comics

Bodē has completed and expanded upon many of his father's works.[2] As a 15-year-old he colored the unfinished work Zooks, the First Lizard in Orbit for Heavy Metal.[2][4] In 1984 he expanded and illustrated Cobalt 60, originally created as a short story by his father in 1968. Written by Larry Todd[5] and fully painted by Mark Bodē, the story was serialized in Epic Illustrated, and later collected by The Donning Company/Starblaze Graphics and re-published as a four-issue limited series by Tundra Publishing.[6]

Bodē was the creator of black-and-white comic Miami Mice, published by Rip Off Press in 1986. Bodē and Todd collaborated again on Rip Off Press' 1987 comic Gyro Force.

From 1988 to 1995 Bodē wrote and drew comics with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman. The two collaborated on several issues for Mirage Studios, including issues #18 & #32. Bodē was also the solo creator on the special edition Times Pipeline of TMNT. The Cobalt 60 saga was completed and was published as four graphic novels with Eastman's company Tundra Publishing.

In 2004, Fantagraphics published Bodē's The Lizard of Oz, a send-up of The Wizard of Oz, starring his father's iconic creation, Cheech Wizard.[1]

Bodē's anthology work includes Subway Art, Spray Can Art, Mugs and Mascots, Burning New York, Broken Windows, Dondi White, Aerosol Kingdom, Picturing the Modern Amazon (by New Museum books), Jack Kirby's Heroes and Villains, 15 Years of Heavy Metal, 20 Years of Heavy Metal, and Comic Book Superstars.

Tattooing and spray can art

Bodē took up the art of tattooing in 1994. He trained under the guidance of tattoo artists Al Valenta, from western Massachusetts, and Myke Maldonado, from New York.[citation needed]

Bodē also took up spray can art, and has done many mural tributes to his father's characters over the years.[2] In his career as a spraycan artist, he has done mural work globally in London, Spain, Italy, and Germany as well as locally in his hometown of San Francisco.[7]

Personal life

Bodē lives in Daly City, California, with his wife, Molly; they have a daughter named Zara.[2]

Publications

Comics

Mark Bodē has contributed cover illustrations and interior artwork to numerous magazines, including Penthouse, Hustler and Gauntlet. He also designed the covers for some of those magazines. In addition to this the following comics have been published:

Comic books

Contributions to anthologies and comic magazines

Other

Exhibits

References

  1. ^ a b c d Frucci, Angela (May 31, 2004). "Following a Wiz to a Far-Out Oz; A Son Completes the Legacy Of an Underground Cartoonist". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 13, 2024. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harmanci, Reyhan (July 1, 2010). "In Finishing Comics, a Son Completes a Legacy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 5, 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
  3. ^ "GCD :: Story Search Results". www.comics.org. Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
  4. ^ "Artist Bio - Mark Bodē". Fantagraphics. Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  5. ^ Todd was Vaughn Bodē's friend and collaborator in the 1960s on projects for Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella magazines.
  6. ^ Bodē, Vaughn; Todd, Larry; Bodē, Mark (1992). Cobalt 60. Northampton, MA: Tundra Pub. ISBN 1-879450-35-6.
  7. ^ Pompetti, Vincent (January 25, 2011). "Mark Bodē interview". Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2023.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Bodé.