Career

Steve Oliff first got into comic books when he began attending conventions and speaking with professionals. He was given his first professional job as a colourist by Byron Preiss, who had him colour a Shadowjack story. Impressed with his work, Preiss continued to give Oliff work. Soon after Preiss got him work as the colourist for Howard Chaykin's The Stars My Destination. Chaykin was also impressed with Oliff, and in 1978 was responsible for getting Oliff his first job with Marvel, colouring Bill Sienkiewicz's first Moon Knight story. This marked Oliff's real break into comics, as he got steady work from this point on colouring for many titles and major artists. In the early 1980s he became a noted proponent of early computer colouring techniques, forming the colouring company Olyoptics which pioneered colour separation techniques, as well as being the first to combine the colour blend artist and separator. In 1987 he was selected as the colourist for Marvel's English translation of Akira, when he was able to convince the editorial staff to allow him to utilize computer colouring, motivating widespread adoption of that technique the following year. In 1994 he acted as letterer for the Youngblood Strikefile. This was followed in 1996 by his first and so far only foray into writing comics, when he created the first issue of his ongoing series Armature, which he also drew, inked and coloured. This was followed by the second issue, Armature: Darkpark and Lightworld. The third issue is forthcoming. Armature is also published as an ongoing comic strip by his local newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer, beginning in 2003. In 2005 he co-wrote a historical book, The Early Days of Point Arena: A Pictorial History of the City and Township, which was published by Olyoptics.   

Personal Life

Steve Oliff lives in Point Arena, California, where he once acted as Mayor. He is an avid local historian. He won the Eisner Award for Best Colourist in 1992, 1993 and 1994. He won the Harvey Award for Best Colourist in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1995.