Steve Leialoha (born January 27, 1952) is an American comics artist whose work first came to prominence in the 1970s. He has worked primarily as an inker, though occasionally as a penciller, for several publishers, including Marvel Comics and later DC Comics.

Early life

Steve Leialoha was born in San Francisco, California, the son of a Native Hawaiian father. He began reading comics as a child, explaining, "My dad would always give me comics. I mean, he would like to read all sorts of stuff, and he would pass everything along to me. Harvey comics and that kind of thing, when I was six or seven. As I got older, the Marvel Age, which I think of starting like in 1962, I was ten, which is certainly a good age for reading that stuff."

Career

Steve Leialoha's career began in 1975 with the early independent comic book Star*Reach, drawing the five-page story "Wooden Ships on the Water", adapted by writer Mike Friedrich from the song by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Paul Kantner, in issue #3 (Sept. 1975). He continued to contribute to Star*Reach and the same publisher's Quack for four years. Leialoha freelanced as a regular contributor to Marvel from 1976 to 1988, working on such series as Warlock, Star Wars, Spider-Woman, the Spider-Man title Marvel Team-Up, the Firestar limited series, New Mutants and Howard the Duck. He and writer J. M. DeMatteis co-created "Greenberg the Vampire" in Bizarre Adventures #29 (Dec. 1981). Leialoha was one of the artists on Batman #400 (Oct. 1986) and in the 1990s, he began working at DC Comics on Batman and other characters; at Harris Comics on Vampirella; and at Claypool Comics on Soulsearchers and Company. He inked part of the World's End story arc in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series. The following decade, he became the regular inker on most of the issues of the DC/Vertigo series Fables, penciled by Mark Buckingham, for which they won the Eisner Award for "Best Penciller/Inker Team" in 2007.

Personal life and tributes

Graduated in 1969, Oceana High School, Pacifica, CA. Leialoha lives in San Francisco. He was partnered with comics artist Trina Robbins until her death in 2024. Writer Larry Hama named the G.I. Joe character Edward Leialoha (code name Torpedo) after Steve Leialoha.

Claypool Comics

Comico

Dark Horse Comics

DC Comics

Paradox Press

Vertigo

Marvel Comics

Awards