Barbara Marker, Artist
Born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps of Germany and raised in upstate New York after moving to the United States at age three, Barbara has pursued a lifelong passion for art through extensive study and professional practice. Her education includes training at the Chautauqua Art Colony, Elmira College, St. Ambrose University, San Diego City College, and the San Diego Academy of Fine Art, with continued growth as a self-driven artist. Working across oil, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink, and Prismacolor, she is known for realistic fantasy and highly detailed, emotionally expressive animal art. Her career began in comic books as a cover artist for major publishers including Pacific, Blackthorne, Eclipse, Dark Horse, and DC, with work distributed internationally, and has expanded to book covers, children’s media, Upper Deck sketch card projects, and recent comic covers. Alongside commissioned and personal fine art projects collected worldwide, Barbara has maintained a strong presence in major conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con since 2000, exhibited widely in galleries and libraries, and continues to participate in prominent shows, including WonderCon in 2026.
Check out some of my Animal Art
I was hired to color the 3 new Nervous Rex covers to go on 3 new publications of Nervous Rex Comic Books that were published and distributed in 2024. They were all done by utilizing hands-on traditional art not digital art. I had colored all the Nervous Rex Covers in the 80’s. These 3 comics and covers are brand new. The writer and Artist, William Van Horn, of Nervous Rex liked my coloring so much that he requested that I be his exclusive Colorist in the 80’s so when they came out with the new Nervous Rex Comics and Covers they again wanted me to be the colorist for the new covers. They are part of my repertoire of professional, published art. These 3 new Nervous Rex Covers have kept the look of all the Covers I had colored for William Van Horn in the 80’s.
