Leonard Kirk is the current definition of the journeyman comic book artist.  He cut his artistic teeth on black and white indie book Dinosaurs for Hire from Malibu in the 90′s and then spent seventeen years in the industry working for both DC and Marvel where  he has paid his dues drawing the major iconic characters from both companies.  NOW he draws  the venerable x-book NEW MUTANTS!

To add to his recent achievements he is up for a Hugo Award for  the third volume of the Captain Britain series, Vampire State in the category of “Best Graphic Story”. Vampire State collects the final story arc of the Captain Britain and MI:13 series as well as additional material from the annual.  If you are not familiar with the book you should read issues #10 and 11 at the Marvel site here.

Leonard is the consummate artists’ artist which is why we approached him to teach at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop. Check out this recommendation by TCW instructor Ty Templeton.

“I’ve been a friend of Leonard Kirk’s for more than a decade now, and I’ve been a fan even longer.  He is, hands down, one of the best draftsmen in comics, whose figures, backgrounds, stories, environments and emotions just SPRING to life from the page.  I can imagine the students will learn tons just by being in a room with Leonard, or heck, just by reading his published work.  There’s a reason why Len has consistently worked on such important characters as the X-Men, Agents of Atlas, Batman, JSA, and all the A-List Super-Duper comic projects that he’s done in that time.
It’s cause he’s just that good.
I have a strong feeling I’ll drop by and check out the class myself, as there is VERY much that Leonard could teach me.”
Ty the Guy

If this doesn’t convince you to sign up for Leonard’s course Paper Acting: Expressive Anatomy and Its Uses in Graphic Storytelling then scroll down the page for a view of some of his amazing covers and interior pages.  The man is a master of the human figure and its storytelling potential!

For more info on the course or to sign up go directly here. This class is filling up FAST.