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Artist Sanford Greene with one of more than twenty pieces in his exhibition, Shades of Greene at the Columbia Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
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Putting his artistic pen to paper, Sanford Greene helped Marvel Comics bring heroes like Black Panther, Luke Gage and Misty Day to life.<\/p>\n
Now after 15 years in the business of comic illustration, the South Carolina native is the subject of an exhibition of his work at the Columbia Museum of Art called Shades of Greene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greene has worked for some of the biggest names in the business, like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and now Image Comics. His most recent work with Marvel includes the series Power Man and the Iron Fist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greene, who grew up in the small town of Greeleyville, said his\u00a0artistic journey started with a passion for Saturday morning cartoons and comic books when he was a boy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese comics resembled a lot of characters that I saw on television, and I started putting two and two together and my little brain just started to explode, because these are the same characters I see on TV,” Greene, now an art professor at Benedict College, said. “That means I can actually buy these books and get more stories, more art.”<\/span><\/p>\n Greene says\u00a0after discovering his love for comic books, he started creating his own characters when he was 10. Creating his own characters is something he always wanted to do while working for Marvel.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI realized I\u2019m doing this work for these really cool characters, but I don\u2019t own any of these characters,\u201d Greene said. <\/span><\/p>\n Greene, along with his co-creators, David F. Walker and Chuck Brown, came up with Bitter Root, a comic book of their own published by Image Comics. Greene describes Bitter Root as set during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Monsters roam and a family with a legacy of hunting those monsters is at the center of the drama.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Columbia Museum of Art exhibit features more than 20 pieces of Green\u2019s artwork. He said his favorite is the five-spread drawing that showcases Bitter Root, his own comic book venture. The piece depicts the family, with their \u2018steampunk\u2019 weaponry, surrounded by monsters. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is the one I tend to revere the most because it\u2019s the beginning of this world,\u201d Greene said. <\/span><\/p>\n