Essential Sequential is proud to announce the addition of Mark Irwin to the group. His artwork from his extensive career in comics will be uploaded shortly.More about Mark Irwin:
Born in San Diego, California in 1969, Mark Irwin was raised initially in Ocean Beach before moving to his parents' home town of Syracuse, New York. Through often sickly formative years (allergies and asthma the main culprits), Irwin became a voracious reader and artist, often crafting his own adventures via comic books. After five years in Syracuse, the Irwins moved back to San Diego to start a new life. This new life included many odd jobs for Mark, including shoe shine boy, house painter, and perfume salesman. Drifting through various jobs and even trying the local amateur surfing tour, things turned around for Mark upon meeting Amber Sorges, who encouraged him to go to art school and pursue his dream of becoming a comic book artist.
Enrolled at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey, Irwin began getting professional comic work in his second year at the school. Upon graduation in 1995, he was employed briefly as the art director for Heavy Metal Magazine before returning to San Diego and embarking on a long and successful comics career, starting at WildStorm Productions. In addition to contributing art to many of WildStorm's titles, Mark also worked as a creative director for WildStorm's consumer products department. This brought him into contact with artists all over the world as he engaged them for various projects, from trading card games to graphic novels to apparel. He learned to edit and write at this time, as he was often tasked with coming up with the creative content for these same projects, a 'trial-by-fire'. When DC Comics took over operations at WildStorm, these experiences allowed Mark to move on to The Upper Deck Company, where he helped implement their Entertainment division, creating trading card games and the various operations that supported those games. Some of the companies he worked with at this time were Marvel and DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Blizzard, Disney, Konami, and Bandai. After ten years at Upper Deck, Irwin moved on to do consulting work for various entities in the video game and movie field, putting artists together with assignments, as well as editing those same projects. He continues to work as an inking freelancer for many comic publishers; his work can be seen in 'Spider-Man', 'X-Men', 'Batman', 'The Avengers', 'Green Lantern', and many more.
'Jack Secret' came from a few fevered nights of writing in 2004, visions of Jonny Quest and Harry Potter running through Irwin's head. After rushing through the first few chapters, he sent what he had on a whim to Dan Panosian, an old friend from his comics days, and a fairly famous illustrator in that field. Trusting Panosian to be honest with him and let him know if he could write or not, he was surprised when the artist called him a few days later and asked if he could illustrate 'Jack Secret', feeling that Irwin had an amazing story on his hands. They've been laboring continuously on the story and art since, exchanging ideas and inspiring each other to further heights.
Mark, Amber and their two daughters, Arianna and Shea, reside in Solana Beach, California with their two cats and a goldfish. Besides art (Amber is also a gifted artist) and their kids, the Irwins spend lots of time at the beach, where Mark continues to surf almost every day.