Michael Dooley

Michael Dooley – designer, author, editor, professor, photographer – is one of this year’s judges for San Diego Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards. He’s been attending SDCC since 1975, following his move from hometown New York to L.A.

Michael currently teaches Design History of Comics and Animation at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design. His class’s guest speaker events are free and open to the public, and have included Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Floyd Norman, Willie Ito, Tony Benedict, Mindy Johnson, Scott Shaw, Steven T. Seagle, and Sergio Aragones.

Michael has been writing comics features, essays, and reviews for more than 30 years. He wrote for The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes in the 1980s. In 1990 he was hired by Print, the graphic design magazine, as a Contributing Editor. His Print interviews cover a diverse array of comics-world notables such as Trina Robbins, Peter Kuper, Keith Knight, Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, Craig Yoe, Ted Rall, Mimi Pond, Paul Krassner, and Denis Kitchen. His articles include “Wonder Women of the Eisner Awards,” “Ray Bradbury: 1950s Comics Illustrated Man,” and “Steve Ditko’s Midcentury Comics Art: Stranger Than Doctor Strange.”

Michael created and directed programs and hosted events at the Hammer Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art’s historic, controversial “Masters of American Comics” exhibition of 2005-2006. MoAC programming guests included Trina Robbins, the Hernandez Brothers, and Lalo Alcaraz. He also lectures at a variety of schools, conferences, and other venues around Los Angeles.

Michael’s books include “The Education of a Comics Artist,” with articles by, and interviews with, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Marjane Satrapi, Jessica Abel, Jim Steranko, Will Eisner, Joe Kubert… more than 60 comics experts in all.

Michael’s participated at the San Diego Comic Fest since it began in 2012, as both a journalist and a guest speaker. and has appeared on SDCF panels with Trina, Mary Fleener, Michael Gross, Bill Schelly, and Ron Turner, among others.