Ethan Daniel Van Sciver (born September 3rd, 1974) is an American comic book artist and illustrator born in Utah but raised and currently residing in Joisey. He had his start as a comic book artist when he was 19 years old and has worked for several publishers, but by far his most famous work hails from the time when he worked for DC Comics (1998-2018).
During his time at DC he illustrated titles featuring The Flash, Batman, and Justice League. Yet his most recognized work has revolved around the Green Lantern mythos, with the art in Green Lantern: Rebirth widely considered his masterpiece. For Green Lantern he helped co-create the different color varieties of the lantern rings (other than the green and yellow varieties of course). He also co-created the Green Lantern Jessica Cruz (with Geoff Johns) and the X-Men mutant Dust (with Grant Morrison).
Ethan Van Sciver is also more controversially known for his avuncular YouTube channel
where he dishes out advice and anecdotes on comic book illustration, comments on comic book culture, and more famously his humorous and sarcastic reviews on anything Star Wars (spoiler: he tends to hate anything that Disney does with the franchise).
Also a pretty relevant figure within the ComicsGate controversy, on the side of those who stand against comics' perceived excessive political correctness, left-wing bias and "forced" diversity.
The practitioner of a meticulously detailed drawing style that has earned him awards and recognition, Van Sciver is also creator of Cyberfrog, with which to date he successfully crowd-funds an ongoing series of comic books.
Comic book series where Ethan Van Sciver has worked include:
- Cyberfrog
- Green Lantern
- The Flash
- Batman
- 52
- Justice League of America
- Superman/Batman
- X-Men
- Wolverine
- Jawbreakers: Lost Souls
Tropes associated with Ethan Van Sciver:
- Art Shift: You may appreciate the difference between his first Impulse and Cyberfrog comic book issues and his latter Green Lantern days; how he evolved from a rather stylized 90's cartoony style to a much more realistic and detailed one.
- Artifact Title: His youtube channel is called Comic Artist Pro Secrets. It used to make sense during its first six months of existence, when Ethan Van Sciver would actually make videos where he would share information on how does the comic industry work and on how to draw comics. But nowadays that makes about 5% of the channel's content, dedicating a much larger share of content to live-streaming about Star Wars related stuff and other pop culture news.
- Berserk Button: Mention Van Sciver on certain comic book or Star Wars circles and you may get nasty stares at best. Alternately, mention Disney, Marvel or DC Comics among Van Sciver's fans and you'll get pretty much the same result.
- Catchphrase:
- "Just a humble ink and super hero merchant"
- "World's most charming, elegant, eloquent and humble man"
- Creator Backlash: He now considers his early Cyberfrog comics as rather sophomoric.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His earlier videos were much shorter and were more about showing drawing techniques, career anecdotes and tidbits about the comic book industry. Compare this to his recent well-over-an-hour-long livestreams, chats and interviews with other comic creators, lamenting the current state of comic books, Star Wars, and anything pop culture.
- Follow the Leader: Cyberfrog came about the time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really exploded into the comic book/movie/tv cartoon scene while also including 'creepy crawlies' as protagonists.
- Gorn: He does love to draw gory scenes.
- Legacy Character: Created the design and look for Jessica Cruz.
- Money, Dear Boy: Cyberfrog originally stopped coming out at the end of The '90s, when the author found steady work from DC Comics.
- Promoted Fanboy: A comic book lover since his childhood. He's still known to actively seek old comics to add to his collection.
- Rule 34: He once livestreamed a video where he drew Rose Tico in a slave Princess Leia metal bikini.
- Running Gag:
- Claims to be a devoted fan of Star Wars character Rose Tico, buying related merchandise and sarcastically gushing about her.
- A constant crave for pies.
- Schedule Slip: In 2018 he announced that he would crowd-fund his next Cyberfrog story. The story was supposed to appear by the end of that same year, but he then postponed it till mid 2019. He also had a reputation of turning in his work late at DC and that was one of the main reasons his contract was not renewed.
