Paul Smith (born September 4, 1953) is an American comic book artist, known for his work on The Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, American Flagg!, Nexus, GrimJack and his creator-owned book, Leave It to Chance.
During his 1983 run on The Uncanny X-Men, Smith's work on issue 173 of that series would prove influential in two ways: It featured the debut of the punk look for the X-Men leader Storm, and Smith's cover of that issue would influence both a latter comic book cover and a best-selling poster and retailer standee by artist Arthur Adams.
Early life
Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but only lived there three days. His father was a U.S. Naval aviator, and the family moved several times during his childhood. As a young comics fan, Smith particularly admired the work of Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man and Neal Adams on Batman.
Career
Smith had no formal art training aside from some courses in airbrushing. He began his career as an animation artist on Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings. In the early 1980s, he filled in on a variety of Marvel Comics titles, including Marvel Fanfare #4, cover dated September 1982, doing the final chapter of an X-Men story. Both issues of the series were 48 pages long and featured wraparound covers drawn by Smith. He was scheduled to pencil a Spider-Man graphic novel, a collaboration with Bob Layton, once his run on Doctor Strange concluded,