Joseph Quesada (; born January 12, 1962) is an American comic book artist, writer, editor, and television producer. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom. He also worked on numerous books for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, such as Batman: Sword of Azrael and X-Factor, before forming his own company, Event Comics, where he published his creator-owned character, Ash.
In 1998 he became an editor of Marvel Comics' Marvel Knights line, before becoming editor-in-chief of the company in 2000. He was named chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment in 2010 and left his editor-in-chief role in January 2011, being replaced by Axel Alonso. His position was re-titled as executive vice president and creative director in October 2019. He left the company in 2022.
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Early life
Quesada was born in New York City to Cuban-born parents, and grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, 15 blocks from Shea Stadium, which his father helped build as part of the construction crew. The first comic book he became an ardent fan of was The Amazing Spider-Man, which he began reading around issue #98, the last issue of a historic anti-drug storyline, which garnered his father's approval. As the character resonated with him (in part because both grew up in Queens), Spider-Man remains a character he particularly enjoys drawing.
Quesada majored in illustration at the School of Visual Arts, from which he graduated with a BFA in 1984. Though he had drifted away from comics, having come to think of them as a child's medium, his interest in them was renewed at age 25 when a friend who learned of his interest in art showed him Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
Career
Writer and artist
Quesada's comics career began in 1990 when he was hired by DC Comics on the basis of his 12-page portfolio, which was composed of three three-page sequences, plus a cover for each. These included a Superman story intended to show reviewers from DC Comics that he could handle their characters; an X-Men sequence to display both his ability to depict the characters of Marvel Comics and his ability to handle groups of characters; and a vignette of two people having coffee, which Quesada included to show his ability to illustrate non-superhero stories.
Among Quesada's earliest widely distributed work was for Valiant Comics, specifically penciled interiors and covers for Ninjak, Solar, Man of the Atom and others. His art was heavily influenced by Alex Toth, Mike Mignola, and Alphonse Mucha. At DC Comics, he and writer Jack C. Harris co-created an updated version of the Golden Age character The Ray. Quesada co-created the character Azrael with writer Dennis O'Neil for the 1992 Batman: Sword of Azrael miniseries.
Later, Quesada and his inking partner Jimmy Palmiotti, formed a publishing company, Event Comics, and co-created Ash, a firefighter with superpowers. Quesada cites his editorial experience with Event, and the creators he formed relationships with during that period as that which best prepared him for the later role of Marvel's editor-in-chief.
Marvel Comics
In 1998, Marvel Comics, which had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, asked Quesada to work for Marvel in a more exclusive capacity, and contracted him and his partners to produce a line of Marvel books dubbed Marvel Knights. As editor of Marvel Knights, Quesada worked on a number of low-profile characters such as Daredevil, Punisher, The Inhumans, and Black Panther, encouraging experimentation and using his contacts in the independent comics world to bring in creators such as David W. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, and Steve Dillon. Quesada also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith.
Two and a half years after starting Marvel Knights, Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000, following Bob Harras's departure from the company. At the same time, Bill Jemas succeeded to the presidency of the company. The relationship culminated in the establishment of the Ultimate line of Marvel titles, which were aimed at new readers and took place outside of the restrictive continuity of the Marvel Universe.
In the mid-2000s, Quesada imposed a moratorium on the practice of creatively bringing back characters thought to be dead, known as "dead is dead." In a January 2008 interview in which he was questioned about numerous characters that had since been resurrected, Quesada clarified that the policy was for writers to exercise forethought and caution before killing off characters or resurrecting them, so that such plots were not produced too frequently or without gravitas, and not that it be entirely prohibited.
Joe Quesada's predecessor as Marvel editor-in-chief, Bob Harras, canceled and restarted all of Marvel's titles that were not either X-Men-related or at fewer than 100 issues already. This was an effort to shore up sagging sales with a new #1 issue for each of Marvel's popular titles, issued at a time shortly after the 1990s bust of the comic book collecting market, and when Marvel was in the throes of bankruptcy. Quesada reversed this policy first by showing the "old", combined issue numbers beside the "new" numbers on covers (the difference between the two issue numbers shown on the cover would always be the number of issues that the series had before Harras restarted it), and then definitively restoring the "old" numbers for Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers when they each passed the 500 mark.
Quesada was involved in the creation of three successful Marvel imprints:
Post-Marvel career
After leaving Marvel, Quesada was recruited to Amazon Studios in a first-look deal to develop film and television productions from comic book properties.
In July 2024, he was announced as the head of a new comic book company called Amazing Comics. A joint venture between Mad Cave Studios and Belgian publisher Dupuis, their first series will be Disciple, a reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Quesada co-writing and drawing.
Techniques and materials
When illustrating, Quesada begins with the story of sketches much smaller than the actual size at which he will render the final drawing. He employs a Cintiq drawing tablet when he desires to do a "tighter" digital layout of an illustration. When sketching figures, he will sometimes use photographic reference, and incorporate the photos directly into his sketches during the process of finalizing a layout. Once he makes a final decision on a layout, he will then print it out at full size, and use a light box to pencil it, sometimes altering elements in the design such as lighting or other details.
Media appearances
In Kevin Smith's 1995 film Mallrats Quesada is credited as an artist for the opening sequence featuring fictional comic books covers. He also appears in the closing scene of Smith's Chasing Amy, alongside frequent collaborator and inker Jimmy Palmiotti, signing comic books at a convention. He later appeared as a pizza delivery man in Smith's 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Quesada was one of a number of comics creators that appeared in Once Upon A Time The Super Heroes, a 2002 documentary about the creation and evolution of comic book superheroes.
Quesada voices Joe, the owner of the "Q's Cup O' Joe" coffee shop, in the 2017 Spider-Man animated series. The character is modeled after Quesada.
Awards
1993: Diamond Gem Award for Best Cover, for X-O Manowar #0
Personal life
Quesada lives with his wife, Nanci and their daughter, Carlie, in a loft in the Flatiron District.
Quesada is a fan of the New York Mets.
