| Hermann Mejia |
|
| Born |
1973
Caracas, Venezuela |
| Nationality |
Venezuelan-American |
| Area(s) |
artist |
Hermann Mejia (b. 1973) is a Venezuelan-born illustrator and painter living in New York City. His caricature-driven work frequently appears in MAD Magazine.1
Life and work
Hermann Mejia started drawing very young, studying comics, including MAD Magazine, that had made their way to Venezuela from America, although he spoke no English at the time. He cites artists Sergio Aragonés (author of the wordless Groo the Wanderer strip) and Mort Drucker as favorites. He started collecting comics at age 13, and received his first artists' commission at 15, painting promotional graffiti for musical acts in Caracas. He studied at the Caracas Design Institute (Instituto de Diseño de Caracas), and from there went into commercial art, including the design of a series of Venezuelan postage stamps commemorating the Pope.1
For coming in first in a cartooning contest, Mejia received a trip to New York City, where he met commercial artist George Pratt, who had been one of the judges of the contest. Pratt took Mejia to the offices of DC Comics, and Mejia received work almost instantly. Through DC, Mejia met Charlie Kochman, the editor of Mad (which was by then a publication of DC Comics), and received an assignment for the April 1997 issue. Mejia continued working for the New-York-based Mad while continuing to live in Venezuela for the next two years. In 1999, due to the unstable political situation and crime rate in his native country, Mejia moved to the United States.1
Selected works
- The Books of Magic Annual #1, cover only (1997, DC Comics)
- The Books of Faerie #1-3, covers only (Mar-May 1997, DC Comics)
- The Books of Magic #58, "Auberon Finds a Friend" (March 1998, DC Comics)
- The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale #1-3, covers only (Aug-Oct 1998, DC Comics)
- The Books of Faerie: Molly's Story #1-3 (Sept-Nov 1999, DC Comics)2
- JLA: Riddle of the Beast (Nov 2001, DC Comics)
Notes and references
- ^ a b c Evanier, Mark (2002). Mad Art: A Visual Celebration of the Art of MAD Magazine and the Idiots who Create It. Watson-Guptill, 257-260. ISBN 0-8230-3080-6.
- ^ Irvine, Alex (2008), "The Books of Faerie", in Dougall, Alastair, The Vertigo Encyclopedia, New York: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 36-37, ISBN 0-7566-4122-5, OCLC 213309015
External links
