Founding

Comic Book Artist began publication in 1998 as an offshoot of the magazine The Jack Kirby Collector, flagship periodical of Raleigh, North Carolina's TwoMorrows Publishing. With that periodical devoted to a single comics creator, associate editor Jon B. Cooke proposed a sister magazine devoted to other professionals who contributed to the American comics industry, particularly those who worked between the 1960s and 1980s. The first issue premiered with a Spring 1998 cover date. Most issues are each devoted to a single publisher's comics and the creators responsible within, by way of multiple interviews and oral histories to form overall impressions of a specific era.

The first five issues sported a "flip-side" magazine that revived the fondly remembered 1960s fanzine Alter Ego, founded by Dr. Jerry Bails and devoted to superhero comics. Former Marvel Comics writer and editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who in the '60s had succeeded Bails as editor and subsequently purchased the magazine's rights, returned as editor of this new version, dubbed Volume Two. In 1999, Alter Ego again became its own magazine, which has continued past 100 issues.

The first several issues of Comic Book Artist were collected into three trade paperback volumes that also include new material.

Move to Top Shelf

In 2002, after 25 issues, the magazine and editor-owner Cooke – who is also a book designer and layout artist – left TwoMorrows for a new publisher, Top Shelf Productions, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Comic Book Artist volume two debuted in July 2003 with a redesigned format, square binding, and a color section, "Comic Book Artist Classic", that continued the thematic focus of volume one. Top Shelf published six issues of Comic Book Artist volume two, but have not released a new issue since 2005.