Bob McLeodO By J.F. Pirro
n his living room wall in Emmaus, Bob McLeod has painted white, puffy clouds set against a blue sky. His wife Lucy continues to wonder why Superman hasn’t appeared from behind those clouds. “Not yet,” he jests.
Like Superman, a character that helped cinch his career, McLeod (pronounced Mac-Loud) is caught between two worlds: He’s a highly successful comic book illustrator by day, but a heroic pie-in-the sky dreamer, too. He’d like to transition to writing and illustrating children’s books, expand his art portfolio and even open an independent art school in Emmaus, where he maintains a home-studio.
18 Early Fall 2011
With the children’s book market depressed, he admits he’s spoiled in the comic book world, and stalled in the children’s book world. “I have to build up enough energy for the harder route,” he says. “It’s a mid-life crisis. I just need to do something different. I want to do my art, not continue fi nishing others’.”
With his fi rst book SuperHero ABC [2006]– which is still in print–McLeod created 30 superheroes. A sequel, a 123 version, and a book about a school for aliens that contrasts the fi rst day of school for an earthling boy with that of an alien boy, are among three McLeod books awaiting a publisher.
The new work is balanced against consistent job offers from the likes of Marvel, which offered McLeod a
recent mini-series, the
industry standard. He spent 2010 working on New Mutants Forever, a continuation of his four earlier New Mutants characters: Sunspot, Cannonball, Mirage and Wolfsbane.
“I’ve been buried in comics again,” he admits. “I’m not even that big a fan of fantasy. I like humor, but there’s always been a demand for action and superheroes.”
The work for Marvel, DC Comics and others keeps him popular, as do comic book conventions however,
“After 35 years, I’m
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