'New Hire' (Naughty Bits #21).
Mark Campos was an American comic creator, and a prominent figure of the Seattle alternative comics community.
Early life and career
He was born in 1962 in Reno, Nevada, into a family of Mexican heritage. He first made his mark during the upcoming Seattle zine culture in the second half of the 1980s. These clever and funny self-published minicomix are considered among the best offerings of this movement. He also contributed work to 'Gay Comix' (Bob Ross, 1988), 'Hyena' (Tundra, 1992), 'Itchy Planet' (Fantagraphics, 1988), Roberta Gregory's 'Naughty Bits' (Fantagraphics, 1996) and other alternative publications, while he worked in a copy shop during daytime. His work also appeared in several Seattle newspapers and Cartoon Loonacy, the small press publication of the Amateur Press Association. His reviews have appeared in The Comics Journal, Comics F/X, Poopsheet, and Zine World.
Places That Are Gone
Mu Press' AEON label published his two-issue solo comic 'Places That Are Gone', in 1994. The comic deals with a Seattle cartoonist who gets depressed as he contemplates the changing city that he loves. His favorite music club will soon be gone forever, replaced by a big corporate chain store. Self-published indie titles by Campos have included 'El Mago Szazbo!', 'Exapno Mapcase' (1998) and 'E. Soames'. In the mainstream comic book market, Campos' art appeared in issues of 'The Darkstars' (DC, 1993-1994), 'Blood Pack' (DC, 1995) and 'Journey into Mystery' (Marvel, 1997).
Finecomix
Campos was a member of Finecomix, a Seattle-based collective of cartoonists who collaborate to help push comics as an artform. He wrote all the stories in their anthology 'Moxie, My Sweet' (2005), while the artwork was provided by David Lasky, Tatiana Gill, Stefan Gruber, Sarah Galvin, Elijah Brubaker, Kaz Strezepek, Scott Faulkner and Dalton Webb. The stories explored life, language, and literature, and showed influences of Walt Kelly, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Philip K. Dick. He was also a member of "Friends of the Nib", a modern cartoonist salon initiated by Jim Woodring and Bob Rini.
Casino Son
Later in his career, Campos contributed to anthologies like Danny Hellman's 'Typhon' (2008) and James Burns' 'Real Magicalism' (2008). In October 2017 Mark Campos launched a crowdfunding campaign for a new comic book called 'Casino Son', which focused on reconciling his Mexican family heritage with American life and culture in general, and Reno's casino culture in particular. The mini-comic was printed and up for sale at the Latino Comix Expo in Long Beach, California, in November 2017. Sadly enough, the artist unexpectedly took his own life in January 2018, after suffering from depression. He was 55 years old.
'Casino Son'.