Mike Allred

Michael Dalton "Mike" Allred is an American comic book artist and writer most famous for his independent comics creation, Madman. His style is often compared to pop art, as well as commercial and comic art of the 1950s and 1960s.

Allred sketching at Lucca 2010

Mike Allred began his career as a radio host on KYES AM 950 (KY95) in Roseburg, Oregon. He later became a television reporter in Europe, and started drawing comics in 1989 with the 104-page graphic novel Dead Air (Slave Labor Graphics). The story loosely followed his stint in radio as a sidebar to the true focus of the novel, the effects of post-nuclear war over a small Oregon town. He followed this up with his similarly titled works Graphique Musique (1990) and Grafik Muzik (Caliber Comics 1990-1991), in which he set out the style that he was to become known for with his most famous character, Madman.

The first Madman miniseries debuted from Tundra Publishing in March 1992, and gained further recognition with its move to Dark Horse Comics in April 1994. Relaunched as Madman Comics, it went on to be nominated for several Harvey Awards.

Allred drew part of the 1993 "Worlds' End" story arc in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.

Allred appeared as himself in the 1997 feature film Chasing Amy as part of the opening scene at a comic book convention, signing copies of his comic Madman. He also provides the artwork for the fictional comic book Bluntman and Chronic.

Allred himself gained further mainstream attention with the science-fiction/rock-and-roll comic Red Rocket 7 and his art for writer Peter Milligan's series X-Force, which he began drawing in July 2001, and subsequently became X-Statix.

Following this, he wrote and drew The Golden Plates, an adaptation of The Book of Mormon. Allred is a Latter-Day Saint, and did much of the work on this project in collaboration with his wife Laura Allred. Allred collaborated again with Neil Gaiman in 2009 on the Metamorpho feature in Wednesday Comics. The Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special! was published in April 2011. Allred and writer Matt Fraction collaborated on a Fantastic Four spinoff series, FF, in 2013. The following year, Allred and writer Dan Slott launched a new Silver Surfer series at Marvel. His comic book series iZOMBIE, which ran from 2010 to 2012, was adapted into a 2015 television series of the same name.

Allred's retro-styled artwork is a frequent nominee for comics awards such as the Harveys, the Eisners, and the Eagles. He received a 2011 AML Award in the category of "Special Award in Graphical Narrative" for a lifetime of comic art. His wife, Laura, frequently works as his colorist.

As artist

• Mallrats (1995) (Title logo)
• Chasing Amy (1997) (Bluntman and Chronic artwork)
• The Faculty (1998) (Logo for The Hornets football team)
• Ingredients the Band - Bears Driving Trains (2006) (album cover)
• Skyscape - Zetacarnosa (2009) (album cover)
• iZombie (TV series) (2014) (Title sequence intro)

As writer

• Astroesque (1996)
• G-Men from Hell (2000)

As musician

• The Gear - Son of Red Rocket Seven (1998)
• The Gear - Left Of Center Of The Universe (2009)