Early life[edit]
Mary Wilshire graduated from the Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting.[1]
Career[edit]
Mary Wilshire began her career in the comics industry drawing underground comix.[2] Her earliest credited work was "Those Beautiful Babes in their Bain de Soleil", a four-page story in Wet Satin #2 (April 1978) published by Last Gasp.[3] In 1980, she was hired by editor Larry Hama to work on Crazy Magazine for Marvel Comics. She became the artist of the Red Sonja series in 1983[4] and drew the comics adaptation of the character's 1985 film.[3] Wilshire and writer Louise Simonson co-created Alistair Smythe, an enemy of Spider-Man, in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #19 (1985).[5] After a brief stint as the artist of the New Mutants, Wilshire collaborated with Tom DeFalco on the Firestar limited series.[3] She then drew a Power Girl story for Secret Origins vol. 2 #11 (Feb. 1987).[6]
Wilshire drew "The Amazing Travel Bureau" feature in National Geographic World for several years.[2] In 2006, she illustrated the Fat Free: The Amazing All-True Adventures of Supersize Woman! graphic novel published by Penguin/Tarcher.[7] Publishers Weekly noted in their review of the book, "Wilshire's limpid-eyed charcoal sketches are sensitive and touching, and give a sophisticated sense of person and place. If anything saves the day, it's Wilshire's gorgeous art, not the message."[8]