Bettina Marie Kurkoski[2] is an artist who did the story and cover artwork for The Rise of Scourge of the Warriors series of graphic novels.[1]
Biography[]
- She was born on March 26, 1973, near Montague, Massachusetts. She currently resides in the United States,[1] and was educated at Plymouth North High School where she achieved a degree in General Studies and went on to The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she earned a BFA in Illustration.[3] After she graduated, she began searching for art-related jobs, but shortly after, tragedy struck, and she was hospitalized and underwent surgery.[4]
- When she recovered, she started all over again. Using the internet, she launched her own web page to showcase her work. After her friends told her about TOKYOPOP's Rising Stars of Manga 2 competition,[4] she entered the competition in 2003, placing as a runner-up. She also worked on the OEL manga, My Cat Loki, her first professionally published series, she illustrated the exclusive cover for Star Trek the Manga: Shinsei Shinei, and the cover and some of the story art for Star Trek the Manga: Kakan ni Shinkou, all published by TOKYOPOP.[1]
Quotes[]
"That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"
"Well, I've pretty much been drawing since I can remember! Througout elementary school, I'd entertain myself drawing thousand of pictures of Garfield. By the time I hit seventh grade, I was bitten by the comic book bug and had a healthy dosage of anime: "Robotech", "Starblazers", "Voltron", "Force Five", "Tranzer Z" and other cartoons such as "Thundercats", "He-Man", "G.I. Joe", "Silverhawks", "Galaxy Rangers". I then began creating my own characters and comics with a very eighties flare to their styles! By my Junior year in high school I discovered fantasy illustration through the likes of Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta. Then went off to college, majored and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from UMass-Dartmouth. After college, I took up some regular Joe jobs to pay back college loans and rekindled my love for anime, which I had all but forgotten during high school and college and have been thoroughly addicted to anime since 1996! Through this addiction my style evolved with a very anime look to it. Even though I did go to college, I'm pretty much eighty percent self-taught! There are a lot of things I learned on my own during high school, college and even after college! This doesn't mean you don't have to go to get a good art education. I highly recommend going, if not, for the fun alone and you'll be more inspired to work with like-minded people all around you!"[3]
Works[]
Although she has illustrated the artwork featured in The Rise of Scourge, she has also illustrated for many other 'mangas'. These include mangas 1, 2 and 3 of the Seekers universe, also by Erin Hunter, as well as some other works, which are as follows:
- Rising Stars of Manga vol. 2 (2003)[5]
- My Cat Loki vol. 1 (2006)[5]
- Star Trek: TOS manga vol. 1 (2007)[5]
- My Cat Loki vol. 2 (2007)[5]
- Star Trek: TOS manga vol. 2 (2008)[5]
- Princess Ai: Encounters vol. 1 (2008)[5]
- Star Trek: TNG manga vol. 1 (2009)[5]
- FIRST DATE: A Romeo X Julien Story (2014-2021, self-published with Mary Dumas)[5]
- Toklo's Story[5]
- Kallik's Adventure[5]
- Lusa's Tale[5]
External links[]
- Bettina's Personal Website
- Bettina on DeviantArt
- An Interview with Bettina on Warrior's Wish
- bettina@dreamworldstudio.net
- bettinakurkoski@gmail.com
Who are the graphic novel artists of Warriors? on Warriors official website (backup link)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Revealed on animecons.com (backup link)
- ↑ Revealed on instagram.com (backup link)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Revealed on Bettina's Personal Website
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Revealed on animenewsnetwork.com (backup link)
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Revealed on Bettina's Personal Website