Steve Leialoha

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 Mike Friedrich from the song by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Paul Kantner, in issue #3 (Sept. 1975).[4] 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 Firestar limited 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

Awards

• 1986: Won Inkpot Award[12]
• 2003: Won Eisner Award for "Best New Series" and "Best Serialized Story" for Fables #1–5: "Legends in Exile" with Bill Willingham and Lan Medina.[13]
• 2005: Won Eisner Award for "Best Serialized Story", for Fables #19–27: "March of the Wooden Soldiers" with Willingham and Mark Buckingham.[14]
• 2006: Won Eisner Award for "Best Serialized Story", for Fables #36–38, 40–41: "Return to the Homelands" with Willingham and Buckingham.[15]
• 2007: Won Eisner Award for "Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team", for Fables with Buckingham.[16]

External links

• Steve Leialoha at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
• Steve Leialoha at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators