Steve Leialoha (born January 27, 1952)[1] is an American comics artist whose work first came to prominence in the 1970s.He has worked primarily as an inker, though occasionally as a penciller, for several publishers, including Marvel Comics and later DC Comics.
Early life
Leialoha was born in San Francisco, California, the son of a Native Hawaiian father.He began reading comics as a child, explaining, "My dad would always give me comics. I mean, he would like to read all sorts of stuff, and he would pass everything along to me. Harvey comics and that kind of thing, when I was six or seven. As I got older, the Marvel Age, which I think of starting like in 1962, I was ten, which is certainly a good age for reading that stuff."[2]
Career
Leialoha's career began in 1975 with the early independent comic book Star*Reach,[3]
drawing the five-page story "Wooden Ships on the Water", adapted by writer
He continued to contribute to Star*Reach and the same publisher's Quack for four years.
Leialoha freelanced as a regular contributor to Marvel from 1976 to 1988,[3] working on such series as Warlock, Star Wars,[5]Spider-Woman, the Spider-Man title Marvel Team-Up, the Firestarlimited series, New Mutants and Howard the Duck.[4] He and writer J. M. DeMatteis co-created "Greenberg the Vampire" in Bizarre Adventures #29 (Dec. 1981).[6]
Leialoha was one of the artists on Batman #400 (Oct. 1986)[7] and in the 1990s, he began working at DC Comics on Batman and other characters; at Harris Comics on Vampirella; and at Claypool Comics on Soulsearchers and Company.He inked part of the "World's End" story arc in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.[8][9] The following decade, he became the regular inker on most of the issues of the DC/Vertigo series Fables, penciled by Mark Buckingham, for which they won the Eisner Award for "Best Penciller/Inker Team" in 2007.[10]
Personal life
Leialoha graduated from Oceana High School in 1969.
Leialoha lives in San Francisco. He was partnered with comics artist Trina Robbins until her death in 2024.[2]
Writer Larry Hama named the G.I. Joe character Edward Leialoha (Torpedo) after Leialoha.[11]
Bibliography
Claypool Comics
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark #100 (2001)
Soulsearchers and Company #4–5, 7–8, 10–13, 15–22, 25–26, 28–46, 48–50 (1993–2001)
4.{{gcdb|type=credit|search= Steve+Leialoha|title= Steve Leialoha}}^
5.Peter Sanderson. Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History Dorling Kindersley, 2008^
6.DeFalco, Tom "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 202: "Writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Steve Leialoha explored a new take on the vampire myth with Greenberg."^
7.John Trumbull. A New Beginning...And a Probable End Batman #300 and #400 Back Issue!, TwoMorrows Publishing, December 2013^
8.Hy Bender. The Sandman Companion DC Comics, 1999^
