Sienkiewicz, Bill
Entry updated 23 December 2023. Tagged: Artist, Comics.
Working name of Boleslav Felix Robert Sienkiewicz (1958- ) US Comics artist. His early work was heavily influenced by Neal Adams, although his fine pen line was more fluid and expressive, and his brushwork freer. His work matured, becoming more painterly and stylish, as he graduated to Graphic Novels. BS appears now to have deserted narrative art for advertising, record-cover design and more upmarket illustration. He has won many awards, including the 1987 Jack Kirby Award for Best Artist and the 1986 Yellow Kid (Italy).
He attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, and began illustrating comic books in 1978 with a story in The Hulk magazine featuring Moon Knight, a character who gave the title to a comic-book series which BS drew 1980-1984, developing a dramatic narrative technique along with his energetic and increasingly sophisticated drawing. He drew and coloured an adaptation of the film Dune (1984) as Dune (Marvel Super Special #36, 1984), and contributed a number of exciting issues to Marvel Comics's New Mutants title 1984-1986. His first fully painted strip, which appeared in the last issue of Epic Illustrated (1986), was "Slow Down Sir"; he went on to develop this aspect of his work further with the graphic novel Elektra: Assassin (1986-1987; graph 1987), written by Frank Miller. His magnum opus is Stray Toasters (four parts 1988; graph 2001), a graphic novel inspired by the film-maker David Lynch and published by Marvel. His realistic artwork for Alan Moore's series Big Numbers (1990) promised another career landmark; but only the first two episodes saw print, Sienkiewicz having failed to complete his illustration of the third, and the story remains unfinished. A hiatus followed; in the new century, though, Sienkiewicz has participated in several further comics projects. These include memorable and effective artwork for Neil Gaiman's story "Going Inside" in The Sandman: Endless Nights (graph coll 2003), and inking the DC Comics limited-series fantasy Reign in Hell (2008-2009) written by Keith Giffen and pencilled by Thomas Derenick.
Sienkiewicz entered the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2019. [RT/DRL]
Boleslav Felix Robert Sienkiewicz
born Blakely, Pennsylvania: 3 May 1958
works
- Bill Sienkiewicz Sketchbook (Seattle, Washington: Fantagraphics, 1990) [coll: graph: hb/Bill Sienkiewicz]
- Stray Toasters (Anaheim, California: Graphitti Designs, 2001) [graph: first appeared in four instalments, 1988: hb/Bill Sienkiewicz]
links
- Bill Sienkiewicz
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Big Numbers #3 (posted online 2009)
- Picture Gallery
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