Colleen Doran

Colleen Doran (July 24, 1963 - ) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for her fantasy series A Distant Soil.

Related Topics:
July 24 - 1963 - American - Comic book - Writer - Artist - A Distant Soil

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Doran broke into the comic book industry when still a teenager, in the 1980s. A Distant Soil was originally published by Wendy and Richard Pini's WaRP Graphics, publishers of Elfquest, but Doran subsequently left the company due to an acrimonious dispute with Richard Pini, whom she alleged was attempting to claim copyright on her work. The WaRP version of the story was never reprinted, despite its unusual all-pencil style, although Doran did reprint a short Distant Soil story that had appeared in a WaRP anthology.

Related Topics:
Teenager - 1980s - Wendy and Richard Pini - WaRP Graphics - Elfquest - Copyright - Anthology

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Colleen Doran has since illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines and dozens of stories and articles.

Related Topics:
Graphic novels - Books - Magazines

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At the age of five, she won an art contest sponsored by the Walt Disney Company. Doran created her comic book series A Distant Soil at the age of twelve. She landed her first professional assignment for an advertising agency at age fifteen. While still in college, she was a full-time professional artist who was able to add her professional work to her college art curriculum for credit. Overwhelmed with assignments, she left college early.

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After leaving WaRP, Colleen went on to completely rewrite and redraw the entire A Distant Soil series from scratch, self-pubilshing it for some years before moving on to Image Comics where it is now in multiple printings as a series of graphic novels. The first volume had four printings, and it is now in its third collected volume. It has sold, collectively, more than 500,000 copies. The story centers on a young girl who is born heir to an alien religious dynasty, and explores issues of politics, gender identity and tolerance. Its strong characterization and unique art style has inspired the Young American Library Association to profile the book in their quarterly journal, and it has been nominated for the Spectrum Award for Best Science Fiction in the Other category in 2001.

Related Topics:
Image Comics - Spectrum Award - 2001

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The character Thessaly in Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" is based on Colleen.

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She attended multiple World Science Fiction conventions, San Diego Comic Cons, The Singapore Writers Festival, and many "Lord of the Rings" conventions including Ringcon, ELF, and ORC. She is also featured in the films "Ringers" (a documentary about "Lord of the Rings" fans), "Scenes From the Small Press: Colleen Doran" by Rich Henn, and "Sex, Lies and Superheroes".

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