Mike Hawthorne

Hawthorne is the creator of the comic book series Hysteria as well as the author and artist of Happiness Will Follow. He has worked for both Marvel and DC comics in popular books such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Deadpool, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more. He has also worked on other books, including The Un-men, Fear Agent, Umbra, G.I. JOE: Origins, Whiskey Dickel, Three Days in Europe, one story arc of Queen & Country, and Conan: Road of Kings. Hawthorne illustrated 5 of the 10 most sold comics of 2023, including the top four spaces and the eighth space.

Hawthorne has self-published multiple books through Kickstarter, like his art books All City, Little/RED, and Warm Ups, and instructional and educational manuals, The Drawing Cheat Codes and Anatomy Guide. He is also a professor at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.

Hawthorne's style of artwork combines the unique and creative comic book form with the accuracy and attention to detail of realism. He has a background in anatomy and figure drawing, and anatomic correctness is always present in his art. He is also praised for his particular style of drawing cityscapes and clouds.

Hawthorne has a gift for cinematic storytelling in comics, valuing the ability to tell a story without any dialogue. His talent to portray a combination of emotions in one illustration shows his masterful use of visual storytelling. He says to picture yourself as the cameraperson, and utilizes other cinematography framing techniques like long shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme close-up, worm's eye view and bird's eye view. He describes it as the combination of "the characters acting, the way you shoot the character, the way you draw the character into the panel, and how the panel plays into that" and how you can incorporate all of those pieces to create a uniform and cohesive story with very little or no dialogue at all. That way, the dialogue adds to the story rather than carrying it.

Hawthorne lives in York, Pennsylvania and is a 1993 graduate of William Penn Senior High School. It was there that he met his wife Despina, with whom he has three children. Hawthorne earned a scholarship for a summer program by the Governor's School for the Arts, and graduated in 1998 from Tyler School of Art at Temple University.^[1]

• Three Days In Europe (with Antony Johnston, 4-issue mini-series, Oni Press, 2002–2003, tpb, 152 pages, 2003, ISBN 1-929998-72-4)
• G.I. JOE: Origins Vol. 1 (with Larry Hama, 4-issue mini-series, IDW Publishing, tpb, 128 pages, 2009, ISBN 1-60010-497-5)
• Queen & Country: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 2 (with Greg Rucka, Oni Press, tpb, 376 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-932664-89-0)
• Conan Volume 11: Road of Kings (with Roy Thomas, 12-issue mini-series, Dark Horse, tpb, 152 pages, 2011, ISBN 1-59582-824-9)
• The Superior Spider-Man: Full Otto (with Christos Gage, 5-issue series, Marvel, tpb, 136 pages, 2019, ISBN 1-30291-480-4)
• The Superior Spider-Man: Otto-Matic (with Gage, 5-issue series, Marvel, tpb, 136 pages, 2019, ISBN 1-30291-481-2)

• Arrant, Chris (November 8, 2006). "Unearthing Un-Men: Mike Hawthorne on His Vertigo Series". Newsarama. Archived from the original on February 13, 2007.
• Arrant, Chris (January 5, 2011). "Artist Mike Hawthorne Hits The Road With Conan". Newsarama. Archived from the original on January 8, 2011.
• Arrant, Chris (January 31, 2012). "Conan Artist Debuts New Graphic Novel... in French!". Newsarama. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.
• Lorah, Michael C. (September 14, 2007). "Talking About The Un-Men With Mike Hawthorne". Newsarama. Archived from the original on September 11, 2010.
• Tramountanas, George A. (November 8, 2006). "Getting Freaky with Vertigo's Un-Men". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved December 30, 2015.

• Hawthorne's blog
• The Mike Hawthorne Sketchbook
• Mike Hawthorne On Putting It All Online, Newsarama, October 5, 2007
• Mike Hawthorne's webcomic, "Raising Crazy" Oct.23, 2011