Portrait by Kathryn Delaney
Bernie Mireault was born in 1961. He began making comic book narratives at the age of 18 and remains fascinated with the process to this day. His most direct influences are; The Hernandez brothers, Herge, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Richard Corben and Vaughn Bode.
His first Graphic novel, Mackenzie Queen, was published in 5 parts by a small Montreal publisher, Matrix Graphic Series. It was directly inspired by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange. It was later collected and reprinted by Caliber Press. He plans to touch it up and re-issue it sometime.
Around that time, he also created The Jam. Inspired by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s Daredevil books, Mireault has created over 16 issues to date (including the two issues of Madman Jam, in collaboration with Mike Allred) and was published in turn by Matrix Graphics Series, Slave Labor Graphics, Comico the Comic Company, Dark Horse comics and Caliber Comics. The Jam represents Mireault’s largest single ongoing continuity and he’s currently at work on a new Jam graphic novel.
Over the last few years he has created other characters, aimed at a more general audience. Dr. Robot came to be as the result of his introduction to Japanese animation and videogames. It was published as a one-shot issue by Dark Horse comics in 2000. Other new characters include Bug Eyed Monster, though hardly anything from that has seen print yet. The work continues.
While he prefers to write and draw his own personal projects, he has worked collaboratively with others many times and enjoys it. He worked on Matt Wagner’s Grendel (issues 13-15) and went on to help with the inking and coloring on that book for almost a decade. He had the opportunity to pencil a Neil Gaiman story featuring The Riddler for DC’s Secret Origins Summer Special #1, inked by Matt Wagner and colored by Joe Matt!. He provided some of the art for Oni Press’ Blair Witch Chronicles limited series (written by Jen Van Meter) and has done a great deal of coloring on a wide variety of projects. He also practices animation and using Flash, has made several short films. He loves computers and the way they can facilitate productivity.
He lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with his partner and two teenaged boys who never listen.