Biography

Denys Cowan is an African American comic book artist and television producer. He gained prominence as the primary artist on The Question, an acclaimed comic book series published by DC Comics for 36 issues from 1987 on, written by Dennis O’Neil.

Denys Cowan’s noteworthy comics credits include the Batman story arc Blind Justice with writer Sam Hamm, which introduced the character Henri Ducard (later revised as a character for the movie Batman Begins). Cowan was also the penciller on the latter half of the 1990 Deathlok miniseries, published by Marvel Comics, which was written by Dwayne McDuffie and Gregory Wright as well as on the subsequent regular title of the same name.

Cowan was one of the founders of Milestone Media, and later worked as a producer on the animated series Static Shock, based on the Milestone character. More recently, he has been a producer of the television series, The Boondocks and executive producer of the planned animated Black Panther series. Cowan is currently Senior Vice President of Animation for Black Entertainment Television (BET).

Since his arrival to BET Networks in January 2006, Denys Cowan has been responsible for developing animated series for the network, animated product for the home video market, as well as online and wireless animation. At the present time, he’s working on seven series, including “Hannibal the Conqueror,” and spearheading partnerships with Film Roman, an IDT Entertainment Company, and Milestone Media. Cowan is also managing direct-to-DVD animation movies and planning for animated theatrical releases.

A 15-year veteran of the entertainment industry, Cowan most recently served as Producer and Supervising Director for Sony Television Animation on the “Boondocks” series for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block and was the chief creative force behind the “Static Shock” animated series from Warner Brothers Animation that earned him consecutive Emmy Award nominations from 2001-2003. Additionally, he was a Character Design/Storyboard Artist for the Untitled Africa Project (Don Bluth, Director) at Fox Family Films, Director of “Switchcraft” (“Sabrina” DTV feature) at DIC Entertainment and a Storyboard Artist for The Electric Piper, Movie of the Week at Nickelodeon.

Cowan’s extensive background in the world of Animation also includes work with DreamWorks SKG where he was a top Development executive, Motown Animation & Filmworks – Polygram International where he was Senior Vice President of Development, Milestone Media – Time Warner where he served as Senior Vice President/Co-Founder of their comic book publishing company, and Studio X, a comic design firm where he was a Proprietor and Creative Director of illustration.

In his spare time, Cowan serves as an Instructor for The Art Carnival (Art School for the Museum of Modern Art) and is a motivational speaker for many venues, including various high schools & universities across the country. In 1996, was honored with proclamation by The City of Los Angeles and The City of East Orange, NJ for a teen literacy/art program, in 1994 he won a Parents Choice Award and he was nominated twice for the Will Eisner Award under the category of best artist in 1989 & 1990.