Yanick Paquette leaving DC after 10-year run

(Image credit: Yanick Paquette (DC))

Long-time DC exclusive artist Yanick Paquette has announced he's leaving the publisher for new work elsewhere. Paquette drew portions of this week's Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 and Generations: Shattered #1, but his final work at DC will be March 9's Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3.

"Death Metal #7 is out there. As it turned out, this is a fitting celebratory end to my 10 years tenure at DC," Paquette wrote on Facebook. "I'll venture to some unannounced stuff for a while, but no doubt I'll get back to DC at some point."

Newsarama has confirmed that Paquette's work on Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3 was completed in 2020.

Paquette has been an 'exclusive' artist for DC since 2010 (after a previous 'exclusive' stint at Marvel). He's best known for his work on the Wonder Woman: Earth One OGN series, Terra Obscura, and runs on Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Batman Incorporated, Young X-Men, and Ultimate X-Men.

Paquette didn't disclose what this "unannounced" non-DC "stuff" was, but said it precludes him from doing any work for them in the near future.

"I'm sure DC will do fantastically this year, I have full trust In Marie Javins," Paquette says of the newly-promoted DC editor-in-chief. "I wish I could help out, but I made other plans already. Keep faith!"

It'd be interesting to see Paquette branch out for creator-owned work. In his 27-year professional career, the Montreal-based artist hasn't (yet?) pursued his own projects.

Paquette's Swamp Thing run is one of Newsarama's best Swamp Thing stories of all time.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)