Table of Contents

Early life
Career
Awards and nominations
Awards
Nominations
Bibliography
Archie Comics
Comixology Originals
DC Comics
Image Comics
Marvel Comics
Other publishers
References
External links

Chip Zdarsky

Image
CaptionZdarsky at Lucca Comics & Games 2015
Birth NameSteven Murray
Birth Date1975-12-21
Birth PlaceEdmonton, Alberta, Canada
Arty
Notable WorksSex Criminals
Batman
Spider-Man: Life Story
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Daredevil
Howard the Duck
Jughead

Steven Murray (born December 21, 1975), known by the pen-name Chip Zdarsky (zəˈdɑrski), is a Canadian comic book artist and writer, journalist, illustrator, and designer. Murray worked for National Post for over a decade, until 2014, as an illustrator and humorist, writing and illustrating the "Extremely Bad Advice" column as well as The Ampersand, the online edition of the newspaper's pop culture section.

He uses the Zdarsky pseudonym for comics-related work, including Prison Funnies, Monster Cops, and as artist and co-creator of Sex Criminals with writer Matt Fraction. He has written comics such as Howard the Duck, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man: Life Story, and Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow for Marvel Comics, Batman for DC Comics, and Jughead for Archie Comics.

He has also used the pseudonym Todd Diamond.

Early life

Steve Murray was born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Barrie, Ontario.

Career

Murray has illustrated for such clients as The Globe and Mail, New York magazine, CBC and Canadian Business.

In 2000, Murray created Chip Zdarsky as a pseudonym and alter ego for his persona as a comic book writer and illustrator, developing his own independent projects, such as Prison Funnies and Monster Cops (which can be read online or in print) as well as collaborating on a variety of projects, including Dark Horse Comics titles Fierce and Rumble Royale. About his alter ego, Murray said "I wanted to have a sad-sack cartoonist persona that lives in his mom's basement, paints figurines for money, has restraining orders against him. And that became a character." He describes the character as "an idiot who doesn't know what I'm doing. I've had no success in my life. No matter what, I'm going to mess things up." Murray initially attempted to keep the identities separate and secret.

From 2008 to 2014, Murray penned and illustrated a weekly advice column for the National Post called "Extremely Bad Advice". He also wrote another column in that paper, Tear Jerk, in which he reviewed films to see if they could actually make him "weep like a baby".

Along with Kagan McLeod, Ben Shannon, and Cameron Stewart, he is a co-founder of the studio The Royal Academy of Illustration and Design, which produced Rumble Royale.

In 2010, he also launched a mock campaign for mayor of Toronto. He was not an officially registered candidate, launching his satirical "campaign" through social networking platforms after the deadline had passed to register as a candidate in the real campaign.

Chip Zdarsky (with Flash-costume) and Matt Fraction

In June 2013, Image Comics announced that Chip Zdarsky had teamed up with Invincible Iron Man and Hawkeye writer, Matt Fraction, on a new creator-owned series titled Sex Criminals. The first issue was released on September 23, 2013. Sex Criminals was declared number 1 on Time magazine's list of "Top 10 Comics and Graphic Novels" of 2013.

In 2014, Murray won a Will Eisner Award for Best New Series for Sex Criminals.

Zdarsky wrote the first series arc of the relaunched Jughead comic for the 2015 New Riverdale relaunch.

On February 15, 2017, it was announced that beginning that June, Zdarsky would be writing a brand new "back-to-basics" Spider-Man series Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man that would run alongside writer Dan Slott's run on The Amazing Spider-Man. Zdarsky later wrote the two Spider-Man miniseries Spider-Man: Life Story and Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow.

In November 2018, it was announced that Zdarsky would serve as the writer on Daredevil, with Marco Checchetto serving as artist. The series began publication in February 2019 and lasted until November 2021 with issue 36. This lead into the event Devil's Reign, also by Zdarsky and Checchetto. A new Daredevil #1 launched in July 2022, with Zdarsky and Checchetto returning from the previous volume. The series explored the fallout of Devil's Reign and the effect it had on both Matt and Elektra, as both were operating as Daredevil. August 2023 marked the end of his Daredevil.

In 2020, DC Comics announced that Zdarsky would be among the creators of a revived Batman: Black and White anthology series which debuted on December 8, 2020.

In 2021, it was announced that Zdarsky had signed a deal with Substack to develop exclusive comics for the service, such as Public Domain and volume two of Kaptara with Kagan McLeod.

In February 2022, it was announced that Zdarsky would serve as the new writer for the mainline Batman book, starting with issue 125 on July 5, with Jorge Jiménez serving as the artist. He concluded his run on February 5th, 2025 with the release of Batman #157 with Jiménez and Tony S. Daniel providing the art.

In March 2022, it was announced that Public Domain would be heading to print via Image Comics in June 2022.

In July 2024, Zdarsky announced that he would be releasing a monthly physical newsletter in comic shops called Zdarsky Comic News. The newsletter included content such as interviews, news on upcoming comic releases, games, humorous columns, and promos of his upcoming work. In the first month, Zdarsky released 50,000 copies of the newsletter to comic ships distributed through Diamond Comic Distributors.

In February 2025, it was announced that Zdarsky would be writing a new volume of Captain America for Marvel. The opening arc of the series follows Steve shortly after he is freed from the ice and tells the untold first encounter between him and Doctor Doom. Valerio Schiti serves as the main artist for the book. The first issue debuted in July 2025.

Awards and nominations

Awards


Nominations


Bibliography

Archie Comics


Comixology Originals


DC Comics


Image Comics


Marvel Comics


Other publishers


References


External links


Category:1975 births
Category:Artists from Edmonton
Category:GLAAD Media Awards winners
Category:Canadian comics writers
Category:Canadian editorial cartoonists
Category:Canadian satirical comics writers
Category:Canadian satirical comics artists
Category:Marvel Comics writers
Category:DC Comics people
Category:Living people
Category:National Post people
Category:Image Comics writers