John Workman - Career

Career

Working in and around the Aberdeen area from 1967 to 1975, Workman created local and regional advertising, always attempting to do the ad work in comics form whenever he was allowed to do so. He also did comics fanzine work, writing and drawing for several different publications, including fanzines overseen by Rick Spanier (Assorted Superlatives) and by Mark Wheatley. In 1968, he met gag cartoonist Carl Stamwitz who had worked for Marvel Comics in their humor magazines. He was further encouraged when he met and had numerous conversations with the legendary writer-artist Basil Wolverton in 1969.

He got his start in comics publishing on a national level in 1972 by writing and drawing two four-page comics features, "Sindy" and "The Fallen Angels," that appeared for three years in two California-based men's magazines published by Archie Comics alumnus Ed Goldstein. Using different pseudonyms (one being E. L. Bert), Workman also wrote short prose stories that appeared in the magazines alongside stories by Harlan Ellison and Robert Bloch. Two years later, in the pages of Mike Friedrich's Star*Reach, he wrote, penciled, inked and lettered stories for the seminal fantasy/science fiction comics anthology. Workman's work on Star*Reach attracted attention from DC Comics, and they offered him a production job in 1975.

Workman was art director of Heavy Metal magazine from 1977 to 1984. His comics art, writing, lettering, coloring and design work are evident throughout issues from that period.