Brett Breeding
Brett Breeding (June 13, 1961) is an American comic book artist who was active in the industry in the 1980s and 1990s, primarily as an inker. He is most well known for his work on the DC Comics character Superman. A freelancer, Breeding worked for both DC and Marvel Comics during his career, penciling covers and stories in various comics, but mostly focusing on "finish inking" over breakdown layouts. Breeding has worked extensively with pencilers Ron Frenz and Dan Jurgens, and is a co-creator of the Doomsday character, as well as Shadowdragon, Saviour, and Blaze and Satanus. Biography Early career Breeding got his first professional comics work three months after graduating high school in 1979 as Bob Layton's background assistant. He started out inking backgrounds on the popular David Michelinie/Layton first run of Iron Man, and also worked on the 1981 intercompany crossover book Superman and Spider-Man. Breeding began his career at DC Comics in 1980 on Weird War Tales, moving on to The Superman Family and Green Arrow backup stories, and eventually working with Don Heck and George Pérez on Justice League of America. Marvel Comics Breeding moved to Marvel in late 1980 where he worked regularly through 1987. His first stint as a regular inker at Marvel was on The Avengers, in 1982–1983. Breeding inked Bob Hall on the four-issue limited series West Coast Avengers, published in 1984. Also in 1984, he teamed for the first time with Ron Frenz on The Amazing Spider-Man issue #252, the first appearance of Spider-Man's black suit. In 1985–1986, he started regularly working on the Spider-Man titles, beginning with The Spectacular Spider-Man storyline "The Death of Jean DeWolff;" and then moving to The Amazing Spider-Man with Ron Frenz, and began regularly providing finishing inks. In 1987–1988 he and Frenz moved as a team onto Thor. In the late 1980s, he inked most issues of Thundercats, published by the Marvel imprint Star Comics. Superman In 1986, starting with the Superman Annual #1, Breeding began his long association with Superman, providing finish inks over Ron Frenz's layouts and then re-teaming with Frenz in 1987 for Superman Annual #2. In 1988, he was hired by Superman editor Mike Carlin to provide finishing pencils over George Pérez's rough layouts and finished inks on Action Comics. While waiting for Pérez to begin work on Action Comics, Breeding started his first regular Superman work on Superman #26 with penciller Kerry Gammill, moving to Action Comics with Pérez on issue #643. Working regularly on the Superman titles for over a decade, Breeding at one time or another worked on all the titles in the line, starting with Superman, then Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics; and he was one of the inkers on the first issue of the long-running Superman title Superman: The Man of Steel. In 1991, Breeding moved to finish inking Superman until 1993. During that time, Breeding was the primary finish inker (over Dan Jurgens' breakdowns) on the seminal 1992 Superman story-lines "The Death of Superman"