Seeing a comic creator with an exclusive contract these days is like a stamp of approval or a pedigree — it means that not only did the publisher want them for a project, but that they want them exclusively for a number of years. And the newest creator to secure an exclusive agreement is iFanboy favorite Chris Burnham.
Artist Chris Burnham jumped to critics' attention with the 2010 Image one-shot Officer Downe, but those were far from his debut in the industry. Although he might seem like a relative newcomer to comics, Burnham has been popping up on comic shelves as far back as 2003 when he did work on several titles for Moonstone. In 2008 he self-published his own one-shot I Have 24 Hours To Live, and did a one-shot with Joe Casey called Nixon's Pals that became his first major-label comics work.
Casey seemed to know of the raw talent inside of Burnham, and wrote Officer Downe specifically to bring out the best in the young artist.
"
Well, I'm just providing raw material for Chris Burnham to go to town on," Casey stated in an interview at Newsarama.com. "People who follow my work already know I can be a twisted motherfucker. Luckily, Burnham can match me twist for twist."
Casey went on to say that although he was aware of what Burnham could do, seeing the finished pages made him even more sure.
"When we first talked about doing [Officer Downe] a few short months ago, he alluded to taking a step forward in his art," Casey said. "As usual, I didn't take him seriously. Then the first few pages came in and my jaw hit the floor. And then they just… kept… coming. Seriously, he's broken through a major wall on this. The industry at large will shudder at his greatness."
And shudder they did.
Burnham's work here and on BOOM! Studios Amory Wars led them to draft Burnham to assist artist Cameron Stewart in the final installment of Bruce Wayne's return in Batman & Robin #16. After his expert showing there, DC quickly offfered the artist an exclusive and his first full issue in last month's Batman Inc. #4. Burnham is set to return to that series in issues #6 and #7, but after that who knows where he might end up next… but if DC's Batman office is smart, they'll keep him in Gotham City!
If you're reading this then you've probably seen his recent DC work, so here's a sampling of some of his rarer work from his work previous to Batman:
Illustration for the House Theatre of Chicago's Season 4 Ticket Package
Page from The Black Hat And Golem
Page from Marvel Mystery Comics
A page from Officer Downe
You can see more of Burnham's work on his website, and you can also follow him on Twitter.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
Awesome, can’t wait to see what he brings to the rest of the DCU
Yesss!
Loved his recent Batman Inc work. He was chaneling multiple artists and making it his own, and it worked! Hope to see more of him!
I approve of this, and I’m excited to see which book he works on first.
Someday I would like to see him working on one of the main Avenger books or maybe the Hulk.
Awesome. Can’t wait to see what he brings to the table. The last issue of Batman, Inc. was fantastic.
Awesome. He’s becoming a swift favourite of mine. I hope he can do some stuff on a non-bats book soon.
Sweet. I like his work with Joe Casey and he has been great working with Morrison on Batman.
This is excellent news.
As far as that last page goes, Officer Downe indeed. Sheesh.
I am 1000% on board with him taking over Batman Inc.
I would love to see him take over Batman INC too. But then again Cameron Stewart got announced to do issue #9 so maybe something else…Morrison is using too many good artists to pick just one!
Burnham and G-Mo on Wonder Woman. Let’s rock the boat a little bit DC!
Great find by DC, let’s hope they put him on something good (perhaps Swamp Thing).
That’s great. Everything I’ve seen him do is fantastic and he’s a perfect fit for Batman. Very happy for him!
I met a guy on the bus here in Seattle the other day who claimed to be Chris Burnham’s brother. He spotted me reading a Superman/Batman issue and showed me a few of his own sketches. If that was truly his brother, and not some random stalker, I think artistic talent may run in the family.
Just read Batman, Inc. #4 and loved the art, not all the faces, but they all had great expressions. Congrats to DC and Chris Burnham.
I’ve been trying to work with Chris for years, but Casey beat me to it and now DC was smart enough to nab him. I urge you to check out his Image work, and wish Chris the best of luck at DC.
@PhantomPhrenemy That was totally my actual real life brother, Steve! He’s a rapper named Apostropheus in Seattle and is pretty goldarned awesome, if a proud older brother can say so hisself. He’s got a couple spiffy ditties up at http://www.myspace.com/apostropheus
And thanks everyone!!!