Tom Mandrake

Tom Mandrake (born 1956) is an American comics artist known for his collaborations with writer John Ostrander on several series, including Grimjack (from First Comics) and Firestorm, The Spectre, and Martian Manhunter from DC Comics.

Early life Mandrake grew up as a fan of Marvel Comics of the 1960s, as well as painters of the Brandywine School, particularly Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle. Together with his friend L.B. Kellogg, he created a fanzine titled First Flight while in high school. Mandrake spent two years at Cleveland's Cooper School of Art, and the Film Freak in Batman #395 (May 1986). Mandrake was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986 after finishing his run on Batman. In 1992, Mandrake and writer John Ostrander launched The Spectre series at DC Comics. In issue #54 (June 1997), the creative team introduced the character Michael Holt as a new version of Mister Terrific. Following the end of The Spectre series, they moved onto a Martian Manhunter series. In 2001, he worked with writer Dan Mishkin on the short lived series Creeps and in 2006 on the children's book The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow. In 2007, a story-arc titled "Grotesk" reuniting Ostrander and Mandrake appeared in Batman issues #659-662. Mandrake drew the DC Retroactive: Batman - The '70s one-shot (Sept. 2011) and a revival of Marv Wolfman's Night Force series (May–Nov. 2012). He collaborated with J. Michael Straczynski on the Sidekick series in 2013–2014.

Awards Mandrake received the Don Thompson Award in 1992 and 1993.

Personal life Mandrake is married to fellow comic book artist Jan Duursema, whom he met while both were students at The Kubert School. Their wedding was held on the school's grounds. and Sian Mandrake, who is also a Kubert School-trained comics illustrator.