Mike Manley

Mike Manley began drawing The Phantom daily comic strip with the release of May 30, 2016 following the death of Paul Ryan. He also currently draws Judge Parker.

Manley was born in Detroit and has been a working comic book professional since the age of 23. His powerful and expressive drawings, dynamic inks and strong story telling skills have made him an in-demand artist for some of comic’s top titles for all of the major publishers.

In 1984, Manley moved to Philadelphia and started working for Marvel and DC comics. He finally landed at Marvel with the popular Transformers comic and quickly moved on to other established characters such as Conan and Spider-Man. In 1990, Manley co-created and drew the character Darkhawk for Marvel.

Manley moved back to DC Comics in 1993 and became the regular artist on their most popular character, Batman, starting with the 500th issue which sold 2 million copies. Mike drew the book at the height of the character’s popularity. While at DC, Manley added Superman and Shazam to his roster of work. In 1995, he formed Action Planet Inc. to publish his own comics and ideas.

In 1996, Manley broke into the animation field and joined the staff at Warner Bros., doing storyboards and background designs from his home in Philadelphia on the highly successful Kids WB Superman, Batman and the new smash hit, Batman Beyond animated TV shows. He has also worked on Samurai Jack, Fairly Odd Parents, Batman Brave and Bold, Secret Saturdays, Venture Brothers, Kim Possible, and Clerks.

In 2001, Manley started his twice Eisner Award-nominated Draw! Magazine and teaches storyboarding, drawing and cartooning classes at The University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he is currently finishing his MFA in Painting.