Norm Breyfogle

Early life Norman Keith Breyfogle was born on February 27, 1960, in Iowa City, Iowa He had a brother Kevin and a sister Penny Duncan.

Breyfogle began taking private art lessons at the age of twelve, and won an award at a local art show. His family subsequently moved to Houghton, Michigan, and the local newspaper The Daily Mining Gazette profiled him in 1976 as "Norm Breyfogle: Near Master Cartoonist at 16". While in high school, he produced Tech-Team, a comic commissioned by local Michigan Technological University.

Breyfogle attended Northern Michigan University, studying painting and illustration while working as an illustrator for a local magazine and a graphics company. In 1980, he illustrated a book titled Bunyan: Lore's Loggin' Hero, published by Book Concern. He moved to California in 1982. He worked as a draftsman and later as a technical illustrator designing a Space Shuttle training manual for the United Space Boosters.

Career Early comics work In 1984, Breyfogle penciled a six–page story for DC Comics's New Talent Showcase. Mike Friedrich (President of Star Reach, a talent representative agency) saw Breyfogle's work hanging at the 1985 San Diego Comic-Con Art Show and began representing him. This was followed by several issues of First Comics's American Flagg, penciling a back-up story titled "Bob Violence" in 1985. During this time he drew for Tales of Terror, a horror anthology published by Eclipse Comics. Following that, Breyfogle wrote, illustrated, and lettered a Captain America story in Marvel Fanfare #29 (Nov. 1986). He then drew Whisper for First Comics in 1986–1987, his first monthly book, before landing on Detective Comics starring Batman published by DC Comics. and the Ratcatcher in their third. During this era, Breyfogle's output was prolific, illustrating an average of 44 pages per month. He drew the Batman for six years (1987–1993), penciling Detective Comics from 1987 to 1990, then moving to Batman to introduce the character Tim Drake as the new Robin from 1990 to 1992, and finally starting a new Batman series for DC titled Batman: Shadow of the Bat from 1992 to 1993 which saw the Grant/Breyfogle team create three new characters, Jeremiah Arkham, Victor Zsasz, and Amygdala. During his six-year run on the Batman character, he drew a few one-shots, two of them being Batman: Holy Terror, the first DC comic book to feature the Elseworlds logo, and Batman: Birth of the Demon, which he hand painted. He provided pencils to a 10-page short story in Superman 80-Page Giant #1 (Feb. 1999).

Later work In 2000, Breyfogle drew the Elseworlds three-issue mini-series Flashpoint. In 2001, DC offered him the job of penciling The Spectre monthly, which he drew for one year.

He spent 2003 penciling and inking the title Black Tide, published by Angel Gate Press.

In February 2005 he accepted an offer to pencil and ink the interiors and covers of the new ongoing monthly title Of Bitter Souls from studio Relative Comics, originally published by Speakeasy Comics.

In 2008, Breyfogle began drawing Archie's New Look, for Archie's Double Digest, published by Archie Publications. Breyfogle drew two titles for Archie Comics: Archie Loves Betty and Archie Loves Veronica.

In 2015, DC published Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1, a hardcover collection of Breyfogle's early Batman stories. A second volume was released in late 2018.

Retirement and death On December 18, 2014, Breyfogle suffered a stroke that cut off blood flow to part of his brain,

In July 2015 writer/novelist Glenn Hauman and writer/editor Bob Greenberger set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise $10,000 to defray the cost of Breyfogle's therapy, which involved producing a 280-page trade paperback reprinting issues #3–11 of Whisper, a 1986 First Comics series created by Steven Grant, which Breyfogle illustrated. The book also featured original contributions by participating creators, and was issued in hardcover to those donating at least $100.

Breyfogle died of heart failure on September 24, 2018, in Houghton, Michigan.