Mark Stephen Evanier (pronounced ev-uh-near; born March 2, 1952) is an American comic book and television writer.
He first worked as an assistant for Jack Kirby as well as writing for various Disney comic books. He later did comics for Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, Scooby-Doo, Tarzan, Korak, and Blackhawk. He is the co-creator of Groo the Wanderer (with Sergio Aragonés), The DNAgents (with Will Meugniot) and its spin-off Crossfire (with Dan Spiegle).
In television, he wrote for live-action shows such as Pink Lady and Jeff, The Krofft Superstar Hour (aka The Bay City Rollers Show), Pryor's Place, Bob (the fourth series to star Bob Newhart) and The Half-Hour Comedy Hour. His animation credentials include Scooby-Doo (in which he wrote the first episode featuring Scrappy-Doo, whom he developed), Plastic Man, Richie Rich (which he story edited), Dungeons and Dragons (which he developed), Thundarr the Barbarian, Mother Goose and Grimm, and Superman: The Animated Series, as well as both Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show.
He also wrote "Point of View", a column for Comic Buyer's Guide, and Kirby: King of Comics, a biography of Jack Kirby.
Writer[]
Garfield and Friends[]
Wrote or co-wrote (with Sharman DiVono) all episodes
The Garfield Show[]
Season 1[]
Season 2[]
- "Ticket to Riches"
- "Gravity of the Situation"
- "The Big Sneeze"
- "The Spy Who Fed Me"
- "Meet Max Mouse"
- "The Haunted House"
- "Which Witch"
- "Odie for Sale"
- "Farm Fresh Feline"
- "Planet of Poultry"
- "The Bluebird of Happiness"
- "Inside Eddie Gourmand"
- "Fido Food Feline"
- "Everything's Relative"
- "Cuter Than Cute"
- "Great Pizza Race"
- "Master Chef"
- "Guest from Beyond"
- "Land of Hold"
- "Penny Henny"
- "A Gripping Tale"
- "Wicked Wishes"
- "Jumbo Shrimpy"
- "Mind Over Mouse"
- "The Big Sleep"
- "Pampered Pussycat"
- "Unfair Weather" (Part 1 and Part 2)
Season 3[]
- "Kind to Kittens"
- "Little Angel"
- "Prehistoric Pup"
- "Land of Later"
- "The Caped Avenger Strikes Again!"
- "Long Lost Lyman" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4)
- "The Golden Lasagna Awards"
- "It's About Time"
- "The Control Freak"
- "Every Witch Way"
- "The Garfield-Only Show"
- "Doggone Jon"
- "The Mysterious Machine"
- "Fitness Crazed"
- "My Friend, Nermal"
- "Take a Ferret to Lunch"
- "Bride and Broom"
- "Two Times the Trouble"
Season 4[]
- "Lion Queen: Zoo Melody"
- "Lion Queen: Welcome to Africa"
- "Lion Queen: Life Outside"
- "Lion Queen: King of Cats"
- "Lion Queen: Open the Cages"
- "The Mean Machine: Too Smart Smartphones"
- "The Mean Machine: Men of Metal"
- "The Mean Machine: Robot Rampage"
- "The Mean Machine: Rocket to Sprocket"
- "The Mean Machine: The Robot Revolution"
- "Glitter Gulch: Go West, Young Cat"
- "Glitter Gulch: Blazing Lasagna"
- "Glitter Gulch: Showdown at Vito's"
- "Glitter Gulch: Life on the Stage"
- "Glitter Gulch: All That Glitters..."
- "Lasagna Tree: The Rat Pack"
- "Lasagna Tree: Tree's Company"
- "Lasagna Tree: Roaming About Rome"
- "Lasagna Tree: The Pasta Plant"
- "Lasagna Tree: The Big Broadcast"
- "For Mice"
- "Six-Can Solution"
- "Home Sweet Home"
- "Little Miss Mouse"
- "My Dog, the Cat"
- "World Without Me"
- "Fraidy Cat"
- "Very Very Long Night"
Season 5[]
- "Rodent Rebellion" (story)
KaBOOM! comic book[]
Voice director[]
- Garfield and Friends
- The Garfield Show
- Professor Garfield online shorts
Voiceover roles[]
Garfield and Friends[]
- Director ("Mistakes Will Happen")
Trivia[]
- Garfield and Friends is Evanier's favorite animation project.[1]
- One of Evanier's favorite movies is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; he was one of the commentators for its Criterion release.
- Among the cast members in the film that appeared in Garfield and Friends are Stan Freberg, Buddy Hackett, Marvin Kaplan, Don Knotts, Arnold Stang, Lennie Weinrib, Jesse White, and Jonathan Winters. Freberg and Kaplan also appeared in The Garfield Show.
- Evanier is a big fan of the parody rock music group Big Daddy.
- Evanier has a strong dislike for cole slaw. He once attempted an episode of Garfield that dealt with cole slaw (having previously done so with a C.B. Bears comic story), which went unmade due to a disagreement with Jim Davis (who loves cole slaw).[2]
- Evanier's father, Bernard, was occasionally present at the recording sessions of Garfield and Friends during its first three seasons. The elder Evanier died one day before the first session for the fourth season.[3]
- Evanier wrote the Looney Tunes comic book story "The Greatest of E's", released as part of Beep Beep the Road Runner issue 53 (cover-dated September 1975). In the story, "Ethelbert" is given as Wile E. Coyote's middle name.[4]