Tony Harris
Two-time Eisner Award-winning artist known for Starman, Ex Machina, and Iron Man, whose bold, expressive figures defined modern superhero comics.
📍 Macon, GA
Tony Harris draws heroes with the weight of real people. In an industry full of impossibly sculpted figures, his characters feel like they could walk off the page — sweaty, scarred, tired, and unmistakably human. That grounding is exactly why he was the perfect artist for two of the most ambitious superhero comics of his era: Starman and Ex Machina.
The Starman Years
Harris first made his name on Starman (1994-2001), the James Robinson-written series about Jack Knight, the reluctant hero who inherits the cosmic rod and the legacy of the Starman mantle. Harris’ design for Jack — a comics collector in a leather jacket who’d rather run a shop than save the world — became an instant icon, and the series is still regarded as one of the great superhero runs of the 1990s. It won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 1997, and Harris’ work earned him a reputation for figures with real mass and emotional gravity.
Superhero Politics With Ex Machina
In 2004 he teamed with Brian K. Vaughan on Ex Machina, a Wildstorm series that asked what happens when the world’s first true superhero decides the best way to save people is to run for mayor. Harris’ grounded, photorealistic style made Mitchell Hundred’s journey from masked hero to New York City mayor feel startlingly plausible — and earned the series the Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2005. His other credits include Iron Man, Star Wars, Green Lantern, and The Ray, and his work has been nominated for nineteen Eisner Awards in total.
A Studio in the South
Harris runs Jolly Roger Studio out of Macon, Georgia, and is also a commercial illustrator, painter, sculptor, and prop builder whose clients span Disney, Lucasfilm, Hasbro, and beyond. He keeps fans updated on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky, with original art and news on his Patreon and site tonyharrisarts.com. Experience his signature work in Ex Machina: The Complete Series Omnibus from DC, and see why the man behind the Great Machine remains one of the most distinctive voices in American comics. Fans of Y: The Last Man and Vaughan’s other creator-owned work should start here.
