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Frank Cho
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is an American comic strip creator, writer and illustrator. The second of three children, Cho was born in Seoul, Korea in 1971, but moved to the United States at the age of six and grew up in Beltsville, Maryland. He attended Prince George's Community College, before transferring to the University of Maryland School of Nursing, ultimately graduating with a B.S. in Nursing in 1996.
Cho received no formal training as an artist. He got his start writing and drawing a cartoon strip called University2 for The Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduation, Cho adapted elements of this work for use in a professionally syndicated strip, Liberty Meadows. He grew tired of newspaper censorship, and ultimately converted Liberty Meadows to a monthly publication.
Cho has also drawn a wide variety of other professional material, including a new version of Shanna the She-Devil in 2005 for Marvel Comics. His Shanna series was originally meant to feature "mature" artwork including nude drawings of the heroine, but Marvel later decided to have Cho censor his already completed pages for the first five issues, and the 7-issue series did not feature nudity. However, Marvel plans to release in 2007 a hardcover collection, which will contain the uncensored artwork.
Frank Cho has recently drawn two issues of "The New Avengers" for Marvel comics. These issues include trademark Cho-isms; the character of Wolverine is depicted wearing a t-shirt that bears the logo "Beltsville", and many Liberty Meadows characters make cameo appearances.
His artistic style is generally detailed and realistic, but he frequently makes use of absurd or anachronistic elements in his work, such as dinosaurs, pin-up girls, and Pogo-style anthropomorphic animals. He also enjoys breaking the fourth wall, frequently inserting himself into his work in the guise of a talking chimpanzee, and on several occasions he has drawn strips that feature his characters interacting with other popular syndicated features (for example, a character stuck in a pipe being ejected into a nearby panel apparently taken from Blondie). The Liberty Meadows denizens have found also themselves sharing their strip with Calvin & Hobbes, Li'l Abner, Hagar the Horrible, Dilbert, and Cathy, among others.
As of 2007, Cho lives in Columbia, Maryland with his wife Cari and two children. He is currently the permanent artist on Marvel Comics' flagship Mighty Avengers, sharing a "by" credit with Brian Bendis, rather than simply a pencils/inks credit.
Frank Cho has won many awards, including: the prestigious National Cartoonist Society’s Awards for Best Comic Book and Book Illustration, the Eagle Award, the Charles M. Schulz Award for Excellence in Cartooning, Scripps-Howard Award for Best College Cartoonist, College Media Association for Cartooning, and Germany’s highest award, Max & Moritz Medal, for Best International Comic Strip. He was also nominated for the coveted Harvey and Eisner Awards.