Tom Lyle

Thomas Stanford Lyle (November 2, 1953 – November 19, 2019)[1][2] was an American comics artist, best known for his work on Starman and Robin for DC Comics, and Spider-Man for Marvel Comics.

Career

Tom Lyle's comics career began in the mid-1980s penciling titles such Airboy, Strike!, and Airwolf for Eclipse Comics. From 1988 to 1990, he penciled DC Comics' Starman series with writer Roger Stern,[3][4] introducing the second Blockbuster in Starman #9 (April 1989).[5]

Lyle worked on the first solo Robin limited series with writer Chuck Dixon. The series was reprinted a number of times, and led to two sequel miniseries – Robin II: Joker's Wild and Robin III: Cry of the Huntress – by the same creative team.[6] Dixon and Lyle also co-created the Electrocutioner in Detective Comics #644 (May 1992)[7] and Stephanie Brown in Detective Comics #647 (August 1992).[8]

Meanwhile, in 1991 he worked on The Comet for DC's Impact Comics imprint, which he pencilled and plotted, with writer Mark Waid contributing the scripts.[4]

In 1993, Lyle started working for Marvel Comics, as penciler of Spider-Man. He was one of the artists on the "Maximum Carnage"[9] and "Clone Saga"[10] storylines which ran through the Spider-Man titles, during which time he designed the original blue hoodie-and-red spandex costume worn by the Scarlet Spider, a clone of Spider-Man.[11] He also co-created the character Annex in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27 with writer Jack C. Harris.[12] Lyle penciled the three-issue miniseries Venom: Funeral Pyre, which co-starred the Punisher and introduced the villain Pyre.

Lyle's other work for Marvel included Punisher vol. 3 with writer John Ostrander from 1995 to 1997, a Warlock mini-series which he wrote himself in 1998,[4] and issues of Mutant X in 2000 and 2001.

He drew several issues of Star Wars for Dark Horse Comics in 2000.[4]

He was the artist on the 2004 series Chickasaw Adventures for the Chickasaw Nation.[13]

Between 2005 and his death in 2019, he taught sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design.[14]

  • Tom Lyle at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
  • Tom Lyle at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

References

  1. John Jackson Miller. Comics Industry Birthdays Comics Buyer's Guide, June 10, 2005^
  2. George Marston. Tom Lyle Dies at Age 66 Newsarama, November 19, 2019^
  3. Matthew K. Manning. DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle Dorling Kindersley, 2010^
  4. {{gcdb|type=credit|search= Tom+Lyle|title= Tom Lyle}}^
  5. Matthew K. Manning. Batman: A Visual History Dorling Kindersley, 2014^
  6. Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 248^
  7. Manning "1990s" in Dougall, p. 195^
  8. Manning "1990s" in Dougall, p. 196^
  9. Matthew K. Manning. Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History Dorling Kindersley, 2008^
  10. Manning "1990s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 274: "Continuing the epic 'Clone Saga', the team of artists Tom Lyle, Robert Brown, Roy Burdine, and Mark Bagley revealed the supposed final fate of the genius Jackal."^
  11. Lewis, Devin (Editor). "Scarlet Letters", Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1 (2017). Marvel Comics. p. 22^
  12. Alan Cowsill. Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging Dorling Kindersley, 2012^
  13. Chickasaw Adventures ChickasawAdventures.com^
  14. Tom Lyle Savannah College of Art and Design^