Michael Zulli

Michael Zulli is an American artist known for his work as an animal and wildlife illustrator and as a comic book illustrator.

Career

Michael Zulli's comic book career began in October 1986 with the comic book The Puma Blues, on which he collaborated with writer Stephen Murphy. The monthly title was published by Dave Sim's Aardvark One International and later by Mirage Studios. Zulli's illustrations of the characters, wildlife and natural landscapes in the polluted post-industrial environment of the story's not-too-distant future. The ecological warnings of the series put forward an argument for natural conservation and against the abuse and pollution of the natural environment. The series went on for 23 issues and a mini-comic half issue, ending in 1989. Zulli illustrated stories for the Mirage Studios characters the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

He drew a never-published issue of DC Comics' Swamp Thing in which the title character meets Jesus Christ. In the 1990s another unfinished and unpublished story, Sweeney Todd, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Zulli for Stephen R. Bissette's publication Taboo was stopped when the anthology itself was discontinued. By this time, Zulli had received the attention of many writers, editors and artists in the comics industry. In 1990 he guest pencilled issue #13 of DC Comics' nascent Vertigo series The Sandman written by Gaiman. This story introduced the Hob Gadling character. Zulli would illustrate seven Sandman issues including the final Sandman story arc "The Wake". Zulli and Gaiman collaborated on a comics adaptation of Alice Cooper's The Last Temptation in 1994. After The Sandman series ended, he had a gallery show called "Visions of the Wake" in New York City. He also began illustrating for several newer Vertigo imprint titles including Winter's Edge, Witchcraft: La Terreur and Sandman Presents: Love Street. He was one of the artists on the Shade limited series which spun off from the Starman series.