Promoted Fanboy / Comic Books

• Nicolas Cage is a huge Ghost Rider fan, who's always wanted to portray the character (he even has him tattooed on his arm). He got his wish, even though that meant he had to cover the tattoo to portray the character.
  • Squicktacularly, he's also a huge Elvis Presley fan who ended up marrying the daughter of the King. He also got to impersonate Elvis himself in Wild at Heart, and jumped off a plane dressed up as Elvis in Honeymoon in Vegas.
• Kevin Smith is probably the best known promoted fanboy on the planet. The sheer amount of knowledge he has about comics (and in turn how many he's written) is evidence enough.
• Ian "Potto" Flynn, writer for the Archie Sonic comic series from issue 160 until its very end, and current writer of Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW), was once a fanboy with his own fan comic. Other notables from the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom who went into doing stuff for the line are J. Axer and Dawn Best. The future Freedom Fighters from Sonic Universe #25-28 might look awfully familiar to anyone who read that fancomic.
  • Evan Stanley, who created the fan webcomic Ghosts of the Future, was eventually hired as part of the art team for Archie and IDW due to her highly-detailed art style in her fan comic. She was presented this opportunity by simply being a Fandom VIP and entering a fan contest in 2010 (surprisingly, she was only 17-18 and didn't even win). To reflect this, she has called herself a "professional Sonic Fan" and her Tumblr blog was named Professional Sonic Fan from 2012 to 2016. In 2020, she was further promoted to head writer for the Sonic comics, beginning with the IDW series' 33rd issue, and will be alternating with Ian Flynn from hereon.
• Mark Gruenwald. He was a lifetime Justice League fanboy who spent his whole career at Marvel. Though he didn't create the Justice League analogue Squadron Supreme, he did write their highly-acclaimed limited series.
• Jim Shooter started writing Legion of Super-Heroes when he was 13. He's been in the industry ever since, including becoming Marvel's editor-in-chief.
• Don Rosa. Like so many people of his age he was a big fan of "The Good Duck Artist". While he didn't get any education in art or narration, he wrote and painted Donald Duck series for various fanzines, as well as several LTE:s. He even corresponded to Carl Barks himself from time to time. After a new publishing company got the license to make Donald Duck comics, Don Rosa applied for the job as an artist by sending in a mail. He wrote that he was born to make new Donald Duck stories in the spirit of the old Carl Barks comics. He got the job, added some massive Continuity Porn to the series (against Barks' wishes) and dedicated all his stories to Carl Barks.
• E. Nelson Bridwell of pre-Crisis Superman comics got the job of his dreams and loved every minute of it.
• Mark Waid. This is his studio.
  • Gruenwald, Bridwell and Shooter are some of Waid's major influences.
• Geoff Johns first suggested to DC that Superboy should be a clone of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor in a fan letter as a kid◊. Now he's basically DC's #1 writer and the man behind some of their most successful books and events as well as the company's Chief Creative Officer. And in his breakthrough first arc for his Teen Titans run, he did indeed reveal that — contrary to what we all believed all these years — Superboy is in fact cloned from Superman and Lex Luthor.
• Tristan Huw Jones was a huge fan of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics as a kid in the 1980s; when Mirage relaunched the series in the 2000s, he became one of the main writers (and frequently hailed as one of the best of that crop).
• Dave Gibbons was a fan of Dan Dare as a child. When Dan Dare was revived by 2000 AD, he was one of the artists who got to draw it, much to his delight.
• And of course, the fathers of the superhero genre, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were reportedly huge, stereotypical nerds in love with science fiction, and with their creation, they ushered in that subgenre of sci-fi/fantasy.
• Joss Whedon was a fan of Runaways long before he got to write his own arc, and was rather vocally upset at the idea of it ending at 18 issues: the letter he sent was included in the first TPB.
  "Last issue? What do you mean, LAST ISSUE? What the hell does that mean? Did you type it wrong? Were you thinking of something else, like maybe the Sub-mariner or the Smurfs? How can there be a last issue when the story is obviously going to continue for years? You're some kind of wrong person. Have it looked into."
  • Nick Lowe, who served as an editor for most of the series' run, was a huge fan of Brian K. Vaughan. He's also a huge fan of Neil Gaiman and Orson Scott Card, and played a role in luring both of them to write for Marvel.
• Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance and The Umbrella Academy) interned at DC before he was in a band, and used to see Grant Morrison come into the offices on occasion (and marveled at how he dressed like King Mob). Several years later, Morrison is name-dropping "The Black Parade" in his superhero-history-cum-memoir Supergods, and playing the villain in the band's music videos.
• Matt Frank, an artist who was known for his popular Godzilla Neo fanart, is now doing writing and artwork for offical Godzilla comics.
• The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe didn't cover everything. Enter the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a completely unofficial website that tried to chronicle every single thing that the official books either didn't cover at all, or didn't cover to a full extent. The senior staff has since been hired by Marvel Comics to write the newest versions of the OHOTMU.
• As a child, Steve Blum read comic books at a store his uncle owned. These days, he does voice work for a great number of Marvel Comics characters, most famous of which being Wolverine.
• Josh Keaton grew up reading Spider-Man comics before being cast in The Spectacular Spider-Man. He's described himself as a big comics fan in general too (with Spider-Man in particular).
  • Andrew Garfield is a lifelong Spider-Man fan and credits the character with being his inspiration. His co-star in The Amazing Spider-Man, Rhys Ifans, also describes himself as an "Obsessive fan".
  • Paul Giamatti was a comic book fan as a child, and claims getting to play the Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a dream come true for him. In fact, he'd actually talked about how much he wanted to play the Rhino during an interview with Conan O'Brien way back in 2011.
• Unlike the previous actors who played the role, Brandon Routh is a huge fan of Superman. He even dressed as Superman for Halloween a year before and had Superman bed sheets as a child.
• Several people involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe qualify, but Samuel L. Jackson stands out for the way he got the part of Nick Fury. Marvel approached him to ask for his likeness rights for the Ultimate Marvel reimagining of Fury, and Jackson said yes - on the condition that he got first chance to play Fury in a movie.
  • Anthony Mackie is such a huge fan of the Falcon that he was actually disappointed when he found out his costume wasn't going to be the character's classic red spandex.
  • Despite his departure from the directorial role but still given a story, screenplay and executive producer credit for the film adaptation, Edgar Wright is a fan of Ant-Man, as he read comics about him during childhood, plus he owns a copy of Tales of Astonish #27 (Hank Pym's first appearance) and Marvel Premiere #47 (Scott Lang's first appearance). Also his replacement Peyton Reed is a Marvel fan too since he was considered to direct Fantastic Four before Tim Story signed on and Guardians of the Galaxy before James Gunn, who himself is also a comic book fan, signed on.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): Both Andy Price and Katie Cook had plenty of G4 fanart on their DeviantArt pages before the series was announced, and Katie has said she was a fan of the original G1 series. This leads to such things as Derpy being featured prominently and being fond of muffins, “flank” being used as a synonym for “butt,” etc.
  • Amy Mebberson, Heather Nuhfer, and Heather Breckel were also all big fans before working on the comic. Pretty much everyone involved is a brony/pegasister!
  • Special mention goes to pencils who had been quite well-known as a fan comic artist before he was actually hired by IDW to do official pony comics.
• Mark Hamill was a comics and sci-fi fan before becoming a voice actor for characters like The Joker.
• Japanese voice actress Megumi Hayashibara is a big fan of Peanuts and she got the chance of voicing Marcie in the dub of some animated specials.
• Annette O'Toole loved reading Superman comics. Eventually, she landed a role in Superman III, as one of her favorite characters - Lana Lang. Some time after that, she played Martha Kent in Smallville. Reportedly, she knew even more about Superman than the writers did. (They didn't even know that Annette O'Toole had a major part in an older Superman adaptation until she told them.)
• Similarly, Amy Adams was a big Superman fan as well, and fought hard to play Lois Lane. After several near misses and a part as a Monster of the Week on Smallville, her hard work paid off and she was given the part in Man of Steel. She even at one point said that her dogged determination was a very Lois Lane way of going about it.
• Sergio Aragonés was an avid reader of MAD Magazine while he was still a student in Mexico. Not only did Sergio later became published in MAD after moving to USA, he is one of the most prolific contributors to the magazine, having been published non-stop for over 50 years and counting!
• Stephen De Stefano was originally just a mega-fan from Queens who would send lots of long letters and drawings to DC Comics. All the mail attracted the eye of Bob "The Answer Man" Rozakis and the two struck up a friendship. Before long, Stephen was a summer intern at DC and some of his characters started showing up in comics. A few years later, he and Bob co-created 'Mazing Man. Since then, he's done comics and TV storyboards for several companies.
• Comic book writer Ed Brubaker loved reading Captain America as a kid. His favorite character was Cap's Kid Sidekick Bucky. In 2005, he was brought over to Marvel in order to take over writing for Captain America. The first thing he did? Bring back Bucky as the Winter Soldier.
• Voice actress Kari Wahlgren has stated that she's a fan of Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey and writer Gail Simone. She'd voice Black Canary, one of the heroines of Birds of Prey, in the DC Nation Green Arrow shorts and voiced Wonder Woman in LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League.
• Evan "Doc" Shaner has been a Shazam! fanboy for years, and frequently puts Captain Marvel fan art up on his website. He was selected to do the Shazam artwork for Convergence, drawing what's intended to be the final appearance of the original Fawcett Comics version of Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family.
• In 2011 Sophie Campbell made some modern redesign Jem fanart and said she would love to make a comic if Hasbro asked her. Come 2015 and she's one of the main artists for the IDW Jem and the Holograms (IDW) comics, along with being the person who redesigned the characters.
• Actor Phil Morris is a comic book fan and was already familiar with Vandal Savage's origin before voicing him in Justice League.
• Some Marvel comics from the 1970s and early 1980s have fan letters written by the likes of Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicienza, who would later become acclaimed comic writers themselves.
• Sterling Gates was a comic fan from a very young age, and a huge Supergirl fan since he read Crisis on Infinite Earths. In 2008 he got to write her solo book, penning a critically acclaimed and comercially successful run. Since then he has written a good number of comics, often featuring Supergirl, and even one episode of her show.
• Andy Mientus ^note who also shows up again on this page in the theatre section, actor, singer, writer, theatre nerd, and professed witch, got to write a series of The Backstagers. The first installment is entitled The Backstagers and the Ghost Light. ^note A ghost light is the light left on in a theatre after everyone has left. Mientus has a tattoo of one such light.
• Marko Čermák, the artist working on the Czech comics Rychlé šípy since its revival in late 1960s, used to read it as a child in the 40s, and counts himself among those whose life and values the comics profoundly influenced.
• Roy Thomas grew up with the superheroes of the 40s and gave up a scholarship just to write for Marvel. He succeeded Stan Lee on several titles, and eventually as editor as well, did Call Backs to stories others had already forgotten, and brought various Golden Age characters into the modern canon. Unsurprisingly, he was the guy behind The Invaders.
• Keith David grew up reading Black Panther in his youth as a kid along with Silver Surfer. He would later go on to voice Black Panther himself.
• Anybody who'd been reading Kieron Gillen's Tumblr for a while would have anticipated how overjoyed he was to be hired to write Warhammer 40,000 comics.
• Phil Jimenez became a fan of Wonder Woman because of the Lynda Carter 70s TV series and the George Perez Post-Crisis reboot in the 80s. In 2000, he took over the Wonder Woman title and made heavy use of Continuity Porn dating back to Perez's time on the book as well making several Mythology Gag in tribute the 70s show.
• The German comic maker Flix has been a big fan of Spirou & Fantasio since his youth. He became this when he was asked to make an official Spirou and Fantasio issue. And it really goes to show: Spirou in Berlin not only takes place in Flix's hometown of Berlin shortly before the German Reunification, but it has got all the elements of a very well-made Fan Fiction from meticulous characterization of all canonical characters to the return of a recurring villain.
  • This also went the other way around: Marvin Clifford, another German comic writer and artist, has been sharing a studio with Flix for a while and worshipping him to the point of drawing him as a ten-foot-tall giant in his own comics. When Flix asked Marv to color Spirou in Berlin, he accepted, even though that meant not having time for anything else. The two make a podcast now, by the way.
• Speaking of Spirou & Fantasio, Jean-Claude Fournier was a fan of André Franquin's rendition of the series since his childhood. Franquin had taken the series over in 1946 and given it a makeover shortly afterwards, and around 1969, he didn't want to continue it anymore. Young Fournier had already met Franquin and landed a job at Dupuis, and when asked if he'd take over Spirou & Fantasio from his big idol Franquin, he gladly accepted, regardless of how big the footsteps were that he had to step into.
• Voice actor Richard Epcar stated he was a fan of Batman growing up and stated he was happy to be cast as the Joker in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the Injustice series, Infinite Crisis, and Mortal Kombat 11. The Batman Unlimited films also see him as Commissioner Gordon.
• Ed Brisson grew up a huge fan of the Predator ever since he saw the first movie, and was delighted that Marvel assigned him to write their first limited series based on the franchise.
• Writer Josh Frank is a longtime fan of the Marx Brothers, having grown up watching their movies, and even dressed as Harpo for Halloween in 1987 at the age of 12. He proudly considers Giraffes On Horseback Salad (an adaptation of Salvador Dalí's rejected film proposal) the first new Marx Brothers movie in seventy years.
• Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time was written and illustrated by Gabriela Epstein, who was a fan of the animated series as a child, with the book's foreword even mentioning how she got her parents to go to a fast food restaurant for a week straight just so she could get all the toys in the Danny Phantom set.

---