Mike Feehan: Comic book artist extraordinaire

Mike Feehan has made a career as a comic book artist. 

The St. John’s native took his graphic design background and turned it into a full-time comic book artist. It’s not often you meet a comic book artist, and the title is worth repeating due to its rarity, its coolness, its glamour. 

Comic book artist. Comic book artist. Comic book artist. Now click your heels three times and you will meet one too. 

Before heading to College of the North Atlantic for graphic design, he designed album covers and posters for local bands while attending high school. When he headed to post secondary, his teachers told him illustration was his strong suit but he was unsure what kind of job that would create. 

“I always liked drawing and I always wanted to do something with that. I thought working as a comic book artist was only a world that a select few people could break into and you had to be living in New York City and work in the Marvel bullpen office. So I focused on graphic design because that seemed more realistic to me,” explained Mike. 

However, as years went on, he had more and more opportunities pop up and while he was working as a full-time graphic designer, he was inundated with freelance comic work. 

So he left graphic design work. 

Mike got first comic book gig with DC comics (!!)  and his graphic design job gave him six months leave to finish that project. However, when he returned to his position, it no longer existed. Though his hand was forced in some ways, he decided to fully pursue freelance comic work. 

“I had a full-time job as a graphic designer but after a while that passion to do more and do exciting projects and build my career in the way that I wanted is all I started thinking about. People asked me if I really wanted to leave a job I was comfortable with but it worked out,” he recalls. “Working with DC was very exciting and very cool. I’ve been a fan of DC for a long time. When these things happen to me it feels like the universe is delivering something to me.”

Mike works with a writer to illustrate their stories and helps lay out their vision after reading their script. One of the gigs he picked up was with writer Mark Russell who wrote a reboot of Snagglepuss and Huckleberry Hound who presented as playwrights in the 1950s during the McCarthy era. 

“It was this dramatic story about art and gay rights and that dark time in American history but told through the lens of these cartoon characters, it was wild. It was a really cool project to be a part of,” said the artist. 

Recently Mike did four and a half issues of the main Star Trek line and worked on a Star Trek spin off series as well. It was a new type of work for the artist because there were so many references to consider.

“There were ups and downs. I’ve been a fan of Star Trek my whole life so I am familiar with the property. So for some time I felt like I was drawing fan art, which was fun. Having access to every actor from every angle made it a bit easier to draw. There is a lot of technology, interior of ships, with a lot of lines and one panel can take hours because there is so much going on in the background.”

Though it was a challenge, Mike enjoyed getting deep into the details while he was drawing but Star Trek is a monthly comic and the deadlines were tight which lead to quick burn out. 

“It’s the nature of monthly comics, it’s a difficult task but going through the comic book store and seeing it out on the shelf knowing I made it, with my name on it, really helps and it was really cool,” he said. 

Mike also works with storyboards, mostly in advertising and he just completed a project for a show coming out on Apple TV plus. 

“It’s a whole new thing for me and it’s really exciting. It’s different from advertising, I work a lot more closely with the director but it’s cool to have that kind of steady work. I always wished to be part of a movie or show. It’s still bizarre, I am a guy from Newfoundland on the edge of the world who seems far removed from any of this stuff.”

In some ways Mike believed that he could become a comic book artist and he definitely laid out the groundwork. He showed up at comic book conventions year after year pushing his work. 

“There is some cliche motivational quote that I can put out there: if you believe it you can achieve it or something like that.”