Eric Shanower

Eric James Shanower, born October 23, 1963, is an American cartoonist who has built a substantial body of work across four decades, with his name most closely associated with two distinct but equally ambitious projects: a series of Oz adaptations and the sprawling graphic retelling of the Trojan War, *Age of Bronze*.

Shanower's entry into comics came in the mid-1980s, and his early credits reflect a willingness to work across multiple roles — as writer, artist, inker, colorist, and letterer — giving him an unusually thorough command of the medium. His faithful adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, including *The Marvelous Land of Oz*, *Ozma of Oz*, and *The Emerald City of Oz*, demonstrated both his draftsmanship and his respect for source material. He also contributed to titles such as *Nexus* and *Star Wars: The Last Command* during this period.

His most personally driven achievement, however, is *Age of Bronze*, an ongoing comic that reconstructs the entire myth cycle surrounding the fall of Troy with meticulous historical and literary research underpinning every page. The series has earned him significant recognition within the field, including Eisner Awards. With credits spanning 156 issues between 1984 and 2024, Shanower's career stands as a model of craft, patience, and genuine scholarly devotion to storytelling.