Paris Cullins

Paris Cullins (born 1960) is an American comics artist best known for his work on DC Comics' Blue Devil and Blue Beetle, and Hyperkind from the Marvel Comics imprint Razorline.

Early life Paris Cullins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania He credits his mother, who "had a great appreciation for art and for comic books," for exposing him to comics as a child. His father was a touring jazz musician and also an artist who specialized in landscapes.

Cullins' first known credited comics work was as penciler-inker of the six-page story "Mystic Murder", by writer Steve Skeates, in the DC Comics supernatural anthology Secrets of Haunted House #42 (Nov. 1981). He drew four "I ... Vampire" stories in the House of Mystery series and pencilled stories in such similar DC titles as Ghosts, The Unexpected, and Weird War Tales through the early 1980s, and made his superhero debut penciling an eight-page "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" backup feature in Green Lantern #154 (July 1982). As well, artist Ernie Colón, whom Cullins met at DC and who drew Richie Rich and other children's titles for Harvey Comics, "offered me a job doing some extra work for Harvey Comics. For several months I drew Richie Rich and Hot Stuff.

The character Blue Devil came about, Cullins said, through "a little story in House of Mystery that was supposed to be, and here's the truth for that, it was originally designed a short story for Steve Ditko and it was supposed to be like a superhero story, but a monster superhero story, but a short one. He said, 'No.' He didn't want to do it and then they asked me."

Blue Devil ran 31 issues, through cover–date December 1986, with Cullins penciling the first six and Blue Devil Annual #1 (1985), and covers through the end of the run. Cullins additionally drew dozens of DC covers and occasional stories through the decade, and numerous character pages for Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe. Cullins and writer Len Wein produced a Ted Kord Blue Beetle series for DC, which had acquired the character from the defunct Charlton Comics. Cullins penciled issues #1–9, 11–14, and 17–18 (collectively, June 1986–Nov. 1987).

Cullins began working for Marvel Comics by penciling three six–page High Evolutionary backup stories, one each in the 1988 X-Factor Annual #3, The Punisher Annual #1, and Silver Surfer Annual #1. He was still freelancing primarily for DC, collaborating there with writer J. M. DeMatteis on a six-issue miniseries revival (Feb.–July 1988) of Jack Kirby's The Forever People, penciling the stories and covers. Cullins said, "I had been given a choice between doing a run of Batman, or one of my life long dreams I being a Jack Kirby enthusiast, The Forever People. You can guess which one I took. That book changed my professional career as well." He also drew the cover of a 48-page one-shot, Hyperkind: Unleashed (cover-dated Sept. 1994, dated Aug. 1994 in indicia).

He was largely absent from comics from 1996, when he did pencil breakdowns for DC's Life, the Universe and Everything #1, to 2001, when he penciled the cover of DC/OnStar's Onstar Batman Special Edition #1. Cullins contributed a one-page Blazin' Glory pinup to Atomeka Press' A1 Sketchbook (Nov. 2004), his last known comics work as of 2007.

In May 2011, DC Comics announced he would be the artist, paired with writer William Messner-Loebs, on Wonder Woman - The '90s, a one-shot in DC's nostalgic DC Retroactive series. However, the book would be drawn by Lee Moder and Dan Green rather than Cullins.