Drew Hayes

Drew Hayes
Drew Hayes wearing his infamous "Ebola Zaire" T-Shirt
Born	Lawrence Andrew Hayes July 20, 1969 Bellingham, Washington, U.S.
Died	March 21, 2007(2007-03-21) (aged 37) Bellingham, Washington, U.S.
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, penciller, inker
Notable works	Poison Elves

Lawrence Andrew "Drew" Hayes (July 20, 1969 – March 21, 2007) was a writer and graphic artist who is best known as the creator of the long-running independent comic book series Poison Elves .

Hayes began self-publishing I, Lusiphur under the Mulehide Graphics imprint in 1991. He changed the series title to Poison Elves with #8, and continued through #20. During this period, he was a prominent example of creators distributing their black and white comics to the direct market. In 1995 he signed a "lifetime contract" assigning the rights to the series to Sirius Entertainment, where he produced another 79 issues and a color special, the last of which was published in September 2004. His work has been collected in ten Poison Elves paperbacks. He engaged in an ongoing mock "feud" with fellow comics creator Brian Bendis in the letters pages of their books.

Hayes suffered from health problems which hampered his ability to create comics. He was overweight, had suffered cardiac damage from sleep apnea, and had been hospitalized more than once. After undergoing treatment in the hospital and losing weight, he planned to resume creating new issues of Poison Elves, but died at the age of 37, of a heart attack while suffering from pneumonia.

Sirius Entertainment, 2009, 384 pages, .
Collects all 100 of the Starting Notes from Poison Elves (annotated and illustrated to provide context), as well as extended excerpts from Drew's Deathreats letter columns.