About Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is a The New York Times bestselling cartoonist.
In 2023, she was tapped by Neil Gaiman and the Terry Pratchett estate to adapt their international bestselling Good Omens book into a graphic novel. It was financed by a $3.1 million campaign, the highest and most successful comic crowdfund in Kickstarter history. The book will see publication in 2024.
She did the adaptation and art for Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry from Dark Horse Comics, winner of the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation, the Locus Award for Best Illustrated or Art Book, and nominated for the Reuben, the Ringo, and The Excelsior. It was listed among the Washington Post 10 Best Graphic Novels of the Year.
Other works Colleen include the art and adaptation for Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel, the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium, and a 2020 nomination for Best Penciler/Inker, an Honorable Mention at The Rondo Hattan Classic Horror Awards, a Tripwire Award nomination, and the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel nomination.
She did art for Stan Lee’s autobiography Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Stan Lee, the graphic novel adaptation of the Neil Gaiman story Troll Bridge for Dark Horse which also became a New York Times bestseller, The Clock written by Matt Hawkins for Image Comics/Top Cow Alan Moore’s Big Nemo for Electricomics, art and stories for The Vampire Diaries comics series from DC Comics, based on the hit television show, as well as cover art for S.H.I.E.L.D at Marvel, based on the hit television show Marvel: Agents of Shield. She also did art for Wonder Woman 750, the first issue of Wonder Woman to top the comic industry sales charts in the book’s history. She also did tour poster and design work for pop idol Shaun Cassidy.
Her published works number in the hundreds with clients such as The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Entertainment, DC Comics, Image Comics, Lucasfilm, Dark Horse Comics, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin, Sony, and Scholastic. Her credits include Amazing Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Sandman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, The Legion of Superheroes, The Teen Titans, Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Anne Rice’s The Master of Rampling Gate, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, A Distant Soil, The Silver Surfer, Lucifer, and many others.
She’s also written and drawn stories for recent installments of Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman Black and Gold, Sensational Wonder Woman, and Nubia: Coronation Special.
She also provided illustrations for DC Women of Action from Chronicle Books, and is working on the completion of the final chapters of her epic space opera A Distant Soil from Image Comics.
Colleen illustrated Gone to Amerikay, which received reviews and profiles from The Wall Street Journal, Boing Boing, and Irish Echo. The editors of Irish Echo asked Colleen to do a Gone to Amerikay-themed cover for their 2012 St Patrick’s Day issue, which was then presented to President Obama by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Northern Ireland.
“Ghost story or detective fiction? History or mythology? Drawing on the freewheeling spirit of Irish and Irish-American popular culture, Gone To Amerikay is all of these. A tale that takes place simultaneously in 1870, 1960 and 2010, it recognizes that though enormous changes have taken place over time in the relationship between the New World and the Old Country, some things, like love, justice and respect, are timeless and imperative. With thrilling illustrations, rich with the color and mood of these passions, you will find yourself unable to avoid lingering at length on them before picking up the story again.”
— Philip Chevron
The Pogues
Mangaman, written by Barry Lyga, was chosen as one of the Best Graphic Novels for Teens 2012, by the Young Adult Library Services Association. It also received second place at The New York Book Show and The New England Book Builders of Boston, as well as chosen a top five graphic novel for teens.
A Distant Soil, Colleen’s epic science fiction/fantasy tale from Image Comics, is a complex space opera, among the first of its kind in the USA, and is ongoing as a webcomic and graphic novel series.
She won a grant from the Delphi Institute, a branch of the US Information Agency, to study American popular culture, and was chosen to represent the United States at the Japan/America manga/comics seminar in Tokyo, Japan along with Eisner award-winning cartoonist Jeff Smith, Pulitzer Prize and Oscar award-winning creator Jules Ffeiffer, Denys Cowan, and Nicole Hollander. She also lectured at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2005. , and was Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian. She has exhibited her work at shows and galleries in Milan, Vienna, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
She appears in the film Ringers, a documentary about the Lord of the Rings fan phenomenon, and has done officially licensed card illustrations, as well as art for Mallorn, the literary journal of the Tolkien Society and The Silver Leaves Journal.
Colleen has also been profiled in the films Sex, Lies and Superheroes by Constantine Valhouli, and Mainstream Raw: Scenes From the Small Press by Rich Henn. Henn followed up with a solo film of Colleen and her work called Scenes From The Small Press: Colleen Doran. She also appeared in The Cartoonist, a documentary about Bone creator Jeff Smith, which has aired on PBS.
As a core member of the comic book industry’s self publishing movement, she and other creators changed the face of the industry by bypassing the publishing and distribution system to create and publish their works in new ways.
She is a member of the Society of Illustrators, the National Cartoonists Society, and the Horror Writers Association.
Recent museum and gallery exhibits include shows at the Society of Illustrators, the San Diego Comic Con Museum, The Cartoon Art Museum, and the Palazzo Merulana.
Colleen Doran is represented by Merilee Heifetz of Writer’s House.
Original art sales representative:
Spencer Beck
The Artists Choice
102 East Avenue, 2nd Floor North
East Norwalk, CT 06851
E-Mail: spencerbck@aol.com
For a list of credits, awards and exhibits, go HERE. For Press info and author photo go to the PRESS page.
Free portrait photo use for media purposes. Please contact site owner for high res copy.
This page was updated 2-23-24