Mike Allred

Early life

Allred was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon his parents' divorce, he was raised with his father in Oregon, while his brothers and mother moved to Utah. He considers himself to be a "Mormon", though a liberal-minded one, and has stated that he still identifies with the beliefs, and considers The Book of Mormon to be a phenomenal and fascinating account.

Career

Mike Allred began his career as a radio host on KYES AM 950 (KY95) in Roseburg, Oregon. He later became a television reporter in Europe, and started drawing comics in 1989 with the 104-page graphic novel Dead Air (Slave Labor Graphics). The story loosely followed his stint in radio as a sidebar to the true focus of the novel, the effects of post-nuclear war over a small Oregon town. He followed this up with his similarly titled works Graphique Musique (1990) and Grafik Muzik (Caliber Comics 1990-1991), in which he set out the style that he was to become known for with his most famous character, Madman.

Madman first appeared as Frank Einstein in Creatures of the Id and Grafik Muzik published in 1990, but it wasn't until March 1992 that the first Madman miniseries debuted from Tundra Publishing in March 1992. The series gained further recognition with its move to Dark Horse Comics in April 1994, where it was relaunched as Madman Comics and went on to be nominated for several Harvey Awards. Madman Comics ran for 20 issues and ended in 2000. From 2007–2009, Image Comics published Madman: Atomic Comics for 17 issues.

Allred drew part of the 1993 "Worlds' End" story arc in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.

Allred appeared as himself in the 1997 feature film Chasing Amy as part of the opening scene at a comic book convention, signing copies of his comic Madman. He also provides the artwork for the fictional comic book Bluntman and Chronic.

Allred himself gained further mainstream attention with the science-fiction/rock-and-roll comic Red Rocket 7 (Dark Horse, 1997) and his art for writer Peter Milligan's series X-Force, which he began drawing in July 2001, and subsequently became X-Statix. In 2000, AAA Pop published Allred's The Atomics, featuring a group of beatniks with superpowers. Issue #116 of X-Force, the first collaboration between Allred and Milligan, was the first Marvel comic book to not have the Comics Code Authority stamp of approval since 1971.

In 2004 and 2005, Allred wrote and drew The Golden Plates, an adaptation of The Book of Mormon. Allred is a Latter-Day Saint, and did much of the work on this project in collaboration with his wife Laura Allred.

Allred worked again with Neil Gaiman in 2009 on the Metamorpho feature in Wednesday Comics. The Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special! was published in April 2011. Allred and writer Matt Fraction crafted a Fantastic Four spinoff series, FF, in 2013. The following year, Allred and writer Dan Slott launched a new Silver Surfer series at Marvel. His comic book series iZOMBIE, which ran from 2010 to 2012, was adapted into a 2015 television series of the same name.

Allred's retro-styled artwork is a frequent nominee for comics awards such as the Harveys, the Eisners, and the Eagles. He received a 2011 AML Award in the category of "Special Award in Graphical Narrative" for a lifetime of comic art. His wife, Laura, frequently works as his colorist.

Awards

Mike Allred received an Inkpot Award in 2009.

As artist

As writer

As musician