Mark D. “M.D.” Bright (also nicknamed “Doc”), a longtime Marvel and DC comic book artist who co-created Quantum and Woody for Valiant Comics in the 1990s, has passed away at the age of 68.
After graduating from Pratt Institute with an MFA in 1978, Bright worked as a teacher and consultant for a few years (while getting occasional comic book assignments for DC and Marvel, including drawing the last three issues of Thor before Walter Simonson took over the book in 1983) before finally fully breaking in at Marvel with the Falcon miniseries written by Christopher Priest (then known as Jim Owsley), which Bright took over after the series’ original artist, Paul Smith, left after one issue to take over Uncanny X-Men.
After some more fill-ins in 1984, this ultimately led to Bright becoming the regular artist on Priest’s run on Power Man and Iron Fist, drawing the final ten issues of that series, which ended in 1986 (Jerry Arceno inked Bright on the series).
While drawing Power Man and Iron Fist, Bright was also hired in 1985 to take over as the artist on Iron Man with the historic 200th issue. Initially working with writer Denny O’Neil, Bright stayed on the book when O’Neil left, and the writing team of David Michelinie and Bob Layton, who had written Iron Man before O’Neil, returned. Michelinie and Layton’s big return also involved the iconic storyline, Armor Wars, which Bright drew (inked by Layton. Ian Akin and Brian Garvey were Bright’s inkers before Layton and Michelinie returned to the book).
During his time on Iron Man, he reunited with Priest for the historic Spider-Man vs. Wolverine one-shot…
Towards the end of his Iron Man run, he became the artist on the lead feature in Solo Avengers (inked by Joe Rubinstein)….
In 1988, with both Denny O’Neil and Priest both at DC now, Bright moved over to DC, as well, drawing an issue of Batman for O’Neil, and then taking over the Green Lantern feature with Priest in Action Comics Weekly (O’Neil was their editor), with Bright co-plotting the series with Priest…
Bright had drawn a few issues of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero in 1984, but in 1989, with Action Comics Weekly over (and his next Green Lantern assignment not yet ready), Bright drew a number of issues of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, including the 100th issue of the series. He also did some Captain America backup series. Finally, at the end of 1989, Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn, a reboot of the Green Lantern mythos by Priest and Bright, launched.
Priest was replaced as the plotter of the book by Keith Giffen after a single issue, and Gerard Jones scripted the series (Giffen would do plot and breakdowns, then Bright would pencil Giffen’s breakdowns and Jones would script the final pages). It was a hit series, nevertheless, and Bright did the follow-up miniseries, Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II, and then eventually joined the Green Lantern ongoing series that Jones had launched out of Emerald Dawn in 1990 (initially drawn by Pat Broderick). Romeo Tanghal inked Bright on these Green Lantern issues.
Bright continued to draw G.I. Joe issues in 1990, and when a G.I. Joe trading card series was released, Bright did most of the trading card artwork. He would do the same with the Green Lantern entries in DC’s trading card releases of the early 1990s.
In 1993, after launching a Valor series at DC, Bright was then one of the early artists working at Milestone Media, launching the series Icon with writer Dwayne McDuffie (Mike Gustovich inked Bright on the series)…
After his run on Icon ended, he reunited with Priest to create the brilliant Quantum and Woody at Valiant Comics…
Bright was inked by Greg Adams on this excellent series.
Bright then did some fill-in issues on some comics, including Priest’s Black Panther run, as well as the miniseries, A. Bizarro, with Steve Gerber. Bright’s last major work for DC and Marvel was drawing the Marville series in the early 2000s. He then went to work as a storyboard artist for TV and movies for many years. He never forgot his love for comics, though, and returned for a number of comic book projects here and there over the years, including his own creator-owned comic, Level Path.
CBR offers our condolences to Bright’s family and friends
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