Mark Stephen Evanier was born on March 2, 1952, and has built one of the more versatile careers in American popular culture, moving fluidly between comic books, television animation, and industry scholarship. He broke into the field in the early 1970s and over more than five decades has accumulated credits as a writer — and occasionally in other production roles — on more than 500 issues spanning titles as varied as New Gods, Blackhawk, The DNAgents, Crossfire, and Bugs Bunny.
Welcome Back, Kotter #4 (1977)
His most enduring comics association is with Sergio Aragonés on Groo the Wanderer, where Evanier has shaped the book's wordplay and scripting since its early days, making the bumbling swordsman one of the longest-running independent humor comics in the medium. On the animation side, he was a central writer on Garfield and Friends, the long-running Saturday-morning series.
The Flintstones #1 (1977)
Evanier is equally respected as a comics historian. His biography Kirby: King of Comics, a study of Jack Kirby, earned awards and stands as a definitive account of that artist's life and influence. He has sustained that scholarly voice through his long-running column and blog, News from ME, which remains a reliable source of industry history and commentary. Across all these roles, his work reflects a genuine affection for the medium and a commitment to preserving its institutional memory.
