Mike Harris (comics)


Michael Jay Harris is an American comic book artist who was active in the industry from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
Harris was able to use his personal interests in weapons and martial arts to establish himself as an illustrator for characters like The Punisher and G.I. Joe, and titles like Cops: The Job, and No Escape.

Biography

Harris attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School where he studied under Frank McCourt and School of Visual Arts, where he studied under Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Marshall Arisman, and Gil Stone; Harris's influences included J. C. Leyendecker, Heinrich Kley, and Neal Adams.
Breaking into the industry in 1985, Harris worked as a fill-in artist on several Marvel Comics titles, such as Web of Spider-Man, The 'Nam, Nomad, and Nova: Deathstorm. Harris co-created the Spider-Man enemies Chance and Foreigner, both in Web of Spider-Man #15. Later, Harris contributed to Punisher War Zone, and Punisher War Journal, and illustrated the Marvel limited series Cops: The Job, No Escape, and Dragon Strike.
During the 1980s, before becoming a Marvel Comics regular, Harris also freelanced for DC Comics, Comico, Deluxe Comics, Eclipse Comics, Fantagraphics, First Comics, and Harris Publications. In the mid-1990s, Harris worked for Tekno Comix/Big Entertainment on such titles as Lost Universe and Lady Justice.
During this period Harris also did some G.I. Joe mini-comics, which were packaged with the toys; and illustrated a Magnus, Robot Fighter trading card for Valiant Comics.
Leaving comic books in 1997, Harris moved on to the computer game and animation industries. While working at Interplay, his artwork for Max 2 was included in the Society of Illustrators 40th Annual Exhibition. Harris has had no significant comic book credits since 1999, but contributes Editorial Cartoons to the American Thinker online magazine on a regular basis.

Military service

Harris enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1986 as a 19D Cavalry Scout. He was selected for Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as an armored cavalry officer in 1988, and is proficient with a variety of small arms, armor weapons and demolitions. He is also a martial arts student, having studied judo, aikido, Taekwondo, and T'ang Soo Do. He has served in a variety of positions with the Army Reserve and National Guard, and was assessed to the Active Guard Reserve program in 2004. Harris has served combat tours in Iraq and continued to produce artwork for the Army informally while working in operational assignments. He retired from the Army in 2016, at the rank of lieutenant colonel, with 30 years of active and reserve service. His awards include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.