Shawn Martinbrough is an Eisner Award-nominated artist whose comic book projects have include Batman: Detective Comics, DMZ, Luke Cage Noir, The Black Panther: Man Without Fear and Hellboy. He is the author of How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling, published by Penguin Random House. Characters co-created by Shawn have been featured in film and television, including “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”, “Deadpool”, “Batman: Gotham Knights”, “Gotham”, “The Gifted”, and “Batwoman”.
Shawn co-created the graphic novel series Thief of Thieves with writer Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead, Invincible), and was the artist on Prométhée 13:13, a prequel to the best-selling French bande dessinées by Christophe Bec. Published by comiXology/Delcourt-Soleil, Prométhée 13:13 was a 2021 Eisner Award nominee for Best Digital Comic. He is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and is the writer of Red Hood for DC Comics. His two-part story revisits the Gotham City neighborhood of the Hill, which he co-created, and introduces new characters to the Batman Universe. He is currently writing and illustrating his first creator owned graphic novel for Megascope, and is the artist of Like Lava In My Veins by acclaimed best-selling author Derrick D. Barnes, forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House.
Shawn created storyboards and art for the critically acclaimed “Blood Brothers” documentary on Netflix. With animator Jason Scott Jones, he collaborated with director Marcus A. Clark and producer Jason Perez to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of the friendship between icons Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. He also worked with Oscar-winning screenwriter Executive Producer Geoffrey Fletcher and ABC News, creating storyboards and art for “Mike Tyson: The Knockout”. The four hour documentary features animated recreations of Tyson’s life and is available on ABC and Hulu.
The prestigious Society of Illustrators in New York City presented an exclusive gallery showing of Shawn’s work. His Storyteller exhibit featured original artwork from various projects published by DC Comics, Marvel, Skybound/Image, Dark Horse and others. Shawn’s work has been covered by Netflix, Vanity Fair, USA Today, BBC World America, The New York Times, The Associated Press, ABC News, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, BET, Publisher’s Weekly and SiriusXM.
Shawn has been a featured guest and panelist at comic conventions in San Diego, New York, Washington, D.C., the UK, Paris, Angoulême, São Paulo, Rome, Poland and Algiers. He has given lectures on his career at Walt Disney Animation, Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon, TEDx Mid Atlantic, the California African American Museum, the Society of Illustrators, the School of Visual Arts, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, the Savannah College of Art and Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, the Barrie School, the 100 Black Men of America Conferences and Book Expo of America. Inspired by Shawn’s TEDx Talk, which explored storytelling and themes of inclusion, the George Lucas Foundation consulted with Shawn to develop the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Summer Studio, co-hosted by the Boys and Girls Club in South Central Los Angeles. There, Shawn worked with a team of artists and educators to provide an intensive two week workshop culminating with each student creating their own mini comic book.
Shawn is an alum of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art/Performing Arts and The School of Visual Arts.
He currently draws and writes in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
