Fred Hembeck biography

Fred Hembeck (born 30 January 1953; born Yaphank, New York, USA)

Fred Hembeck is an American comics artist, as well as a writer about comics. Since the 1970s, he has created countless of parodies on DC and Marvel superhero comics. His Marvel parodies were collected in 'Fantastic Four Roast' and 'Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe', his DC gags ran in the Daily Planet.

His characters are always drawn with curlicues at the elbows and knees. He often portrays himself as a character in his own work, in the role of "interviewer" of various comic book characters.

Fresh out of college, and failing to get work as a traditional comic book artist, Hembeck developed a unique artistic style based on the version of himself he used to write illustrated letters to his college friends. Hembeck used this character to conduct comedic "interviews" with Spider-Man and The Flash, which he sent to the leading fan publication of the day, The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom (later known as the Comics Buyer's Guide).

Much to his surprise, the submissions were published, and Hembeck's strip, called "Dateline: @!!?#", became a popular feature. The "best" of these strips were published in Hembeck: The Best of Dateline: @!!?#, put out by Eclipse Comics in 1979 and reprinted by FantaCo Enterprises in 1980.

From 1979 to 1981, Hembeck wrote and drew a one-tier, multi-panel comic strip that appeared in the Daily Planet page of DC comic books. (The Daily Planet featured news on current and upcoming DC comics and answers to reader questions.)

From 1980 to 1983, FantaCo produced a series of black-and-white magazine-format books featuring Hembeck's stories and strips. Hembeck also contributed humor pieces to other FantaCo titles, including Smilin' Ed, the Chronicles series, Gates of Eden, and Alien Encounters. Hembeck wrote and laid out the artwork for Fantastic Four Roast #1 (May 1982), a one-shot which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Fantastic Four series.

Hembeck was especially visible in the 1980s when his strips appeared regularly in Marvel Age, a Marvel Comics promotional magazine. Because Hembeck has a particular fascination with the minor Marvel Comics character Brother Voodoo, he regularly featured the character in the cartoons he drew each month in Marvel Age, generally depicting him as a lame character constantly trying (and failing) to get his own series. He introduced Brother Voodoo's sister and nephew: Sister Voodoo and Voodoo Chile.[8]

When Brother Voodoo finally got his own solo story in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #1, Hembeck drew it, in a serious art style very different from his normal cartooning look.

In his cartoon in the final issue of Marvel Age Hembeck claimed he had only begun mocking Brother Voodoo because he had the character confused with an "even lamer" Silver Age character, DC's Brother Power the Geek.

Among his most notable parodies are his classic cover redos and 'Petey, The Adventures of Peter Parker Before He Became Spiderman', that appeared in Marvel Tales. Throughout the years, he has created a variety of characters, such as, 'The Dog' (in Smilin' Ed in 1980), 'Mr. Mumbo Jumbo' (in Topps Comics Satan's Six in 1993), the autobiographical 'Little Freddy'. He has also drawn for the underground publications of FantaCo Enterprises.
Source: Lambiek; Wikipedia

See FRED HEMBECK ART.