J.H. Williams III – September 2013

 

jh_williams_01alt_576J.H. Williams III grew up in the Bay Area of California where his obsession with comics began. His love for Micronauts toys prompted him to check out the comic by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden. An addict was born, first he was drawn in by the stories and then the art of the books he was picking up. He started noticing names attached to these books and realized people actually did this for a living.  Then, at the ripe old age of 8 he decided comics would be his life..err..career.

Drawing every day and getting critiques at conventions from working professionals he honed his craft, and eventually, with a helpful nudge from Howard Chaykin, started getting work.

Williams has been a professional comic book creator since 1991.  The bulk of his career has been with DC Comics.  Among some of his earliest work includes a mini-series, Deathwish for the Milestone imprint, Batman, Starman, the Elseworlds graphic novel Justice Riders, to name a few. Also part of his early career was a very personal project, Chase, which he co-created and co-wrote in addition to his art chores.

This was followed by The Son Of Superman graphic novel with writer Howard Chaykin. But ultimately, it was Chase that brought a career defining offer he couldn’t refuse –  Promethea with Alan Moore.  Promethea earned numerous nominations and awards for all involved including an Eisner win for Williams and company for Best Single Issue in 2001 and a Best Artist win at the 2006 Harveys.

Other notable works are Desolation Jones with Warren Ellis, Batman: Snow that he co-wrote with his writing partner on Chase, D. Curtis Johnson, as well as Seven Soldiers Of Victory and Batman: The Black Glove with Grant Morrison.

More recently Williams teamed with the immensely talented Greg Rucka on Batwoman: Elegy.  Highlighting the success of the series were multiple nominations and awards, most notably a GLAAD award win in 2010 for Outstanding Comic Book and Eisner wins for Williams in both the Best Cover Artist and Best Penciler/Inker categories.  Over the pond, Williams garnered 3 Eagle Award wins for his work. .

Currently Williams is the co-writer and artist on the Batwoman ongoing series with his writing partner Haden Blackman.  He took on the challenge of continuing the story out of devotion to this compelling character and it’s fans. His work on the series has garnered additional awards, such as The Inkwell, The National Cartoonist Society Award (The Rueben), another GLAAD award, along with various other nominations to date.

As an artist of broad conceptual thinking and the ability to use several mediums, over time, Williams has been able to craft unique images using a variety of techniques and methods stemming from influences of comics to fine arts.

Williams will also be working with the illustrious Neil Gaiman as the artist for the upcoming Sandman: Zero project due out sometime in 2013.

But no longer settling for doing well crafted comics work, Williams is now working on projects outside of the industry, such as designing a limited edition suit lining for Artful Gentlemen out of San Francisco, and all of the packaging and cover art for rock band The Sword on their Apocryphon album. He also will be doing the next album cover design for legendary music icon, Blondie.

Williams lives is Central California with his adoring wife, a houseful of cats and an ever expanding comic book collection.

He can be found online here. He is also on Twitter and Facebook.