American cartoonist and illustrator (born 1979)
Ronald Wimberly (born April 28, 1979) is an American cartoonist. He has published several graphic novels, as well as shorter works for The New Yorker, DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Dark Horse Comics. Wimberly was the 2016 Columbus Museum of Art comics resident, and was a two-time resident cartoonist at Angoulême's Maison des Auteurs. He is the recipient of the 2008 Glyph Comics Award, and has been nominated for two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.
Early life and education
Ronald Wimberly was born on April 28, 1979, and raised in and around Washington, D.C.[1] He studied illustration in Brooklyn at Pratt Institute from 1997 to 2001, and now lives and works in New York City.
Career
Wimberly's first professional published work was Gratuitous Ninja: Tangerine which was published in the 2004 Dark Horse Comics anthology Strip Search.[2] Wimberly quickly established a reputation as a cartoonist and storyteller with a particular interest in physical action and human anatomy, and in stories exploring narrative subjectivity.[citation needed] By 2007, he had worked for various companies as an artist and designer on a number of titles, including Swamp Thing, Lucifer, Metal Hurlant, Deadman and Dark Horse Presents.[3]
In 2007, Wimberly illustrated his first book-length project, Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, a collaborative graphic memoir written by the hip hop artist Percy Carey (better known as MF Grimm), and released by DC/Vertigo. Sentences was nominated for two 2008 Eisner Awards,[4] and received two 2008 Glyph Awards (for Best Story and Best Cover).[5]
In 2012, Wimberly created, wrote and illustrated his first solo graphic novel, Prince of Cats, a modern urban remix of Romeo and Juliet. It was released by DC/Vertigo to wide acclaim, and later come out in a hardcover edition from Image Comics.[6]
Following a stint on Marvel's She-Hulk, Wimberly wrote and illustrated a comic for The Nib entitled "Lighten Up," in which he analyzed the approach to race, skin color, and continuity by the Marvel Comics editorial team, as well as the comics industry in general. The strip was widely read and discussed, and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Digital Comic.[7]
In 2016, Image Comics announced an ongoing partnership with Wimberly that included the new edition of Prince of Cats, 2017's Black History In Its Own Words, and several other forthcoming projects.
In 2018 Prince of Cats was optioned for cinematic adaptation by Legendary Entertainment, and is now in development by screenwriter Selwyn Hinds with actor Lakeith Stanfield attached to star.[8][9] Wimberly has also created LAAB, an ongoing newspaper-format art magazine, a "pop-culture dialectic".
Wimberly's forthcoming books include Slave Punk and Sunset Park for Image Comics,[6] and the ongoing project LAAB Magazine for Beehive Books.
