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Melvin Ylagan’s journey from amateur artist to pro began at the age of 22 after meeting Joe
Quesada at Chameleon Comics while promoting Event Comics. Melvin was soon hired to draw
some backgrounds for Ash. Melvin then pursued his art education at the School of Visual Arts
under a partial scholarship (thanks to Joe’s letter of recommendation). After graduating; Melvin
landed small illustration jobs including textile designs, archival restorations, independent comic
shorts, RPG game illustrations. He became an assistant to Robert l. Benney (Master Illustrator,
war correspondent artist, and good friend of Norman Rockwell and J.C Lyendecker). Most
important of all, Melvin launched his creator-owned comic entitled Gothis.
Frustrated by the art field in general; Melvin tried out his skills in advertising by approaching
Neal Adams and was soon hired as a commercial artist for Adam’s Continuity Studios. There, he
learned the craft of advertising, which still influences his art today.
Several years after working with Neal, Melvin was hired as a full-time artist by Mary Nitollo
(president of The Studio). Five years after working for The Studio, Melvin decided to go back to
Neal Adams because of the freedom to do both advertising and comics. Since then, Melvin
has done several covers for the Comic Artist’s Guild including their fifth anthology (CAG #5), and
several covers due out this year. Melvin is currently working in the ad field while working on the
last issue of Gothis, and recently released a new 64-page graphic novel featuring his
other characters Jaz N Hip with his co-publisher Ray Felix (creator of O.D).
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