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Paul is a Chicago-born multimedia artist whose eclectic career includes stints as a storyboard artist, cinematographer, ad-agency illustrator, kinetic sculptor, mural painter, production designer, radio DJ, model maker, silkscreener, and even wax-figure restorer for a Ripley’s Museum.
He was lead background artist on the animated series Stripperella, produced and hosted the award-winning cable TV variety show The Friday Club, and is the world’s foremost authority on 19th-century robots. His Victorian robots web site has garnered international acclaim.
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Paul began his comic book career as a production artist at First Comics, retouching Lone Wolf and Cub art. This photo accompanied an article on Paul for Comics Interview #52, an inside look at the first ever manga adaptation for American audiences.
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In 1988, noticing the absence of women in comics -- as lead characters, readers, and industry professionals -- Paul and wife-to-be Anina Bennett began developing comics' first female action hero. Together they hatched the science-fiction series Heartbreakers, which has since proven its appeal to both male and female readers. Long before cloning made mainstream headlines, Heartbreakers explored the social fallout of genetic engineering. The title's latest incarnation is as a series of self-contained Heartbreakers Superdigest volumes in paperback format, with color feature stories, guest artists, and activity pages. |
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| In 1998 Paul co-created Chronos, a monthly title from DC Comics, with writer John Francis Moore. Paul pencilled eleven issues of the series, which was the last launched by the now departed, much-missed Archie Goodwin. In his feistier moments, Paul claims that Chronos retains bragging rights to the most extensively realized background art in an American monthly comic. |
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The wave of comic-book artists with naturalistic styles during the 1970s -- especially Nick Cardy, Russ Heath, and Gray Morrow -- had a big impact on Paul’s drawing style. But overall, Paul says his illustrator mom influenced his work the most.
Paul prefers to use his own brand of naturalism in service to each story's needs, without calling undue attention to his drawing. This non-flashy approach may keep him from being an industry celeb, but he seems undaunted. "If you’re never a star, you’re never a has-been," he jokes. His first freelance gig was inking Tom Sutton on Grimjack, susequent work includes contributions to Aliens, The Terminator, The Punisher, Justice League, Ghost, DHP, Barb Wire, Andrew Vachss' Hard Looks, and many entries in DC’s The Big Book of... series.
Below: Chicago, 1893. Obsessively depicted in the unpublished graphic novel Boilerplate.
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 Paul in his Portland, Oregon studio while working on Chronos and the first Heartbreakers Superdigest volume. |
FUN FACT:
Paul Vincent Guinan’s dad, also an artist, named him after painters Gauguin and Van Gogh.
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An architecture and history buff, Paul prides himself on being one of the few illustrators in comics who does research and renders fully realized backgrounds. He feels that environments are just as important as characters in visual storytelling: "For me, the way somebody decorates their living space says as much about their personality as any actions or dialogue could say." As if to drive home his point, Paul crammed Chronos full of detailed depictions of apartments, museums, warehouses, and the obligatory prehistoric swamp. He drew authentic renditions of Renaissance Italy, the Old West, and a mysterious city called Chronopolis. He then upped his own ante on the graphic novel Boilerplate, obssessing on time as well as place. He aimed to produce the most historically accurate depiction of late-nineteenth-century settings ever seen in comics. He considers this unpublished work to be among his best in comics.
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