Olivier Coipel

Olivier Coipel
Coipel at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan, October 10, 2010.
Nationality	French
Area(s)	Artist
Notable works	Legion of Super-Heroes Thor

Olivier Coipel (French: [kwapɛl]) is a French comic book artist, known for his work on books such as House of M, Legion of Super-Heroes and Thor.

Coipel came to prominence and significant controversy as the artist of the American DC Comics book Legion of Super-Heroes during the tenure of writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning., beginning with the "Legion of the Damned" story arc. Despite complaints about his art style by long-time Legion of Super-Heroes fans - who felt his style was "too rough and unrefined", leading to more than one prominent critic to refer to him as "Ol' Scratchy" - Coipel continued to draw the series when it was relaunched under the new title The Legion.

Coipel signed an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics in January 2005. He was named in August 2005 as one of Marvel's "Young Guns," a group of artists that included Jim Cheung, David Finch, Trevor Hairsine, Adi Granov, and Steve McNiven, which according to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, exhibited the qualities that make "a future superstar penciller."

One of Coipel's first major works at Marvel was House of M, an eight issue New Avengers/X-Men crossover limited series with writer Brian Michael Bendis. Coipel was then announced as artist on a new Thor ongoing series that launched in July 2007 with writer J. Michael Straczynski. Coipel left the title in 2009 when it was announced Straczynski would be leaving. Coipel re-teamed with Bendis for the four-issue 2009 Marvel Comics event series Siege. In 2010, he provided art for a Magneto-focused backup story leading into the Young Avengers miniseries Avengers: the Children's Crusade, before returning to Thor in 2011, illustrating the first arc on Matt Fraction's The Mighty Thor.