Welcome to another edition of Whatever Happened To?....where I ask where certain comic creators of yesteryear went and why they're no longer around.
Today's main focus is artist Pat Broderick.
Pat Broderick's famous for his highly clean and detailed art, first working at DC Comics in the early 70's on various odd titles, and then Atlas Comics in 1975. After Atlas folded, he went to Marvel Comics, where he made a name for himself drawing Captain Marvel for a run, then the Micronauts.
He bounced back and forth between the two, before finally Marvel for DC for good, claiming then Editor-in-chief of Marvel, Jim Shooter, didn't like his art and told him he wouldn't be getting a raise anytime soon.
It was back at DC that Broderick really made a name for himself, creating the Creature Commandos with writer J.M. DeMatteis, working on various DC titles, like Batman: Year 3, The Fury of Firestorm, Captain Atom and Swamp Thing for a year.
After that he went own to relaunch Green Lantern Volume 3 with writer Gerald Jones( I've gotta' do one on him too) in 1990. That's where I believe I first saw his work and over the years learned to appreciate it.
He stayed on the title for a couple years before problems with his editors at DC caused him to leave and go back to Marvel since Jim Shooter wasn't there anymore. From there he worked on titles like Alpha Flight and Doom 2099.
After a couple years of that, he decided to work in advertising in 1995, and stayed in that field until returning to comics in 2003, when he tried to start his own comic company, Future Comics. Unfortunately for Mr. Broderick it wasn't meant to be and Future Comics folded after a only a year.
Since then he's done sporadic work for the big two here and there on carious covers and interiors, but never a steady gig like back in the day.
And it's a damn shame too, because he can still draw like only he can, ready to show off the art that made him a household name in the comics community, if only for a little while.
Here's some sample of his past work to jog your memory in case you still don't remember him:
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2 comments:
oops, looks like you made a mistake with that Micronauts issue that one is from the Mike Golden era. after he left the series Howard Chaykin took over but didn't last very long Bill Mantlo didn't feel like his heart was in it and i think he was right based on the quality of the art. Broderick came on board with the series somewhere in the early 20s (book issues not year)he was on the title for quite a while apparently Mantlo and Broderick worked pretty well together http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1267017
on the DC end it might interest you to know that Broderick also worked on the early 90s Ragman mini-series http://thesuitofsouls.blogspot.com/search?q=pat+broderick
by the way that Firestorm sketch above the first issue cover is awesome i love that pose.
I know he dew Ragman but yeah, grabbed the wrong Micronauts=era cover. My b. Good catch though.
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