Mark Bagley is an American comic book artist born on August 7, 1957, to a military family in Frankfurt, West Germany. He attended Ringling College of Art and Design and worked as a technical illustrator for Lockheed before breaking into comics by winning the Marvel Try-Out Book penciling contest, finishing first among thousands of entrants.
At Marvel, Bagley co-created the New Warriors with writer Fabian Nicieza (1990), then moved to The Amazing Spider-Man (1991-1996), where his version of Venom became the character's most iconic look. With writer Kurt Busiek, he co-created the Thunderbolts (1997), whose twist first-issue reveal that the heroes were actually the Masters of Evil was one of Marvel's best-kept secrets. He also co-created the villain Carnage.
Bagley's most celebrated work is his 111-consecutive-issue run on Ultimate Spider-Man with Brian Michael Bendis, the longest collaboration by a Marvel creative team, surpassing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four run.
