The comic book industry is practically overflowing with talented writers, artists, inkers, colorists and more. One such creator has, at one point or another, dabbled in several fields of comic book production. This is none other than comic book writer-artist-inker Robert “Bob” Wiacek.
Born on January 7, 1953, Wiacek began pursuing his career in the arts by attending the School of Visual Arts in New York City. During the mid-1970s, Wiacek became a member of the “Crusty Bunkers” inking collective. This group of inkers were clustered around Neal Adams’ and Dick Giordano’s New York City-based art and design agency Continuity Studios. From there, he went on to ink backgrounds over Curt Swan’s pencils on DC Comics’ Superman title. Later on, Wiacek became a regular inker for DC, along with also enjoying a long association with Marvel Comics.
While at Marvel, he inked Mike Grell on The Legion of Super Heroes #220 and Al Milgrom on Marvel Presents #7. Over the years, Wiacek has inked every major title for Marvel, including The X-Men, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, She-Hulk, Man-Thing, Silver Surfer, and Fantastic Four just to name a few. For DC, he worked on such titles as Batman, Green Lantern, Brave and the Bold, The Ray, Batman Family, Justice Society, Shazam, and Challengers of the Unknown. He also did work for Dark Horse, Image, Relium Media, Archie, and Valiant, assisting on Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot, and Solar.
Other noteworthy noteworthy issues for Wiacek includes inking on Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, Star Wars, Iron Man, Iron-Man 2020, All New Wolverine, a JLA General Mills comic, Badger #1 and Stars End #2. In addition to his long comic career, Wiacek also starred in a commercial with rap group G-Unit in 2003, and has a small part in the independent film Manos: The Rise of Torgo, for which he did the poster.
Throughout his enduring career, Wiacek has worked with such comic greats as Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, John and Sal Buscema, Walter Simonson, Frank Miller, Barry Windsor-Smith, George Pérez, Jerry Ordway, Paul Smith, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Don Heck, Ron Garney, June Brigman, Colleen Doran, Carmine Infantino, John Romita Jr., Bob Budiansky, Kevin Nowlan, Don Perlin, plus many others.
Despite his already long list of accomplishments, Wiacek shows no signs of slowing down. Who knows what comic luminaries the writer-artist-inker will team with next? Perhaps those in attendance of the Baltimore Comic-Con will find out as Wiacek prepares to make his first-time appearance at the 2018 show. You can read more about additional guests of BCC here on Scoop.
