Dheeraj Verma (22 October 1967 – 7 June 2021) was an Indian comic book artist and creator.
He is often credited with being the first Indian to enter the US comics industry.
Dheeraj Verma was born on 22 October 1967, in Delhi, India.
He attended school at N P Boys Sr Secondary School and graduated from Pannalal Girdharlal Dayanand Anglo Vedic College, University of Delhi in 1991.
Dheeraj spent his life in the heart of the capital, Connaught Place.
As an aspiring artist he started drawing "The Phantom, Batman and Superman" in his 3rd grade.
He was quite impressed with "The Phantom and Flash Gordon" which became his inspiration to draw.
There he created his famous one-of-a-kind wolfman character Bheriya.
Bheriya (wolfman) represents Verma’s immense love and dedication towards wild life and nature, which have always been the strongest aspects of his lifestyle.
His debut issue in Raj Comics was Bheria Aya in 1994.
He also wrote as well as illustrated its initial issues which were a huge hit such as Wolfano, Grahano, Lazy, Tilangey and many more.
He worked on almost all the major Raj comics characters as an artist.
He also worked on covers, posters, trading cards, pin-ups, and other promotional merchandising for Raj comics.
Verma was the first artist to introduce digital coloring to the Indian comic industry in 1996 on Parmanu's cover and then Bheria's Digest.
He joined a gaming company Escosoft Tech.
(Division of Escort) as a senior visualizer and worked there for three years until June 2003.
[2] In 2004, he got his big break in the American comic industry with Avatar Press where he worked as an artist for writer Joe R. Lansdale on By Bizarre Hands.
[12] He also did cover art for Marvel Comics's invincible Iron Man.
[13][14] He worked on Transformers' series published by IDW Publications.
[18] After this series he worked on Transformers: Robots in Disguise # 19 in July 2013 and it entered in Top 300 comics.
[20][21] He was working on Conan the Slayer (Dark Horse comics, USA), as a penciller.[when?
][citation needed] In January 2013, after a decade away, Verma made his comeback in the Indian comic industry with Jaljeevni (Bheria Series) from Raj Comics.
Subhasya Sheegram (Doga), Sarvanayak series was his latest project with Raj Comics.
[22][23] Verma also ventured to exhibit his painting in the world renowned Indian Government national academy of fine arts Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi, and caused quite a buzz in the fine art circle by introducing original comics pages from Transformers and Lady Death in the gallery in a seven-day exhibition, which was inaugurated by Mr. Taj Hassan, Special Commissioner of Police.
[citation needed] Verma died on 7 June 2021, in Delhi from pulmonary fibrosis complicated by a COVID-19 infection.
Issue #4: Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man's Back 5.
Issue #23: "Winners & Losers" - Dark Cybertron Chapter 3 24.
Issue #24: Finest Hour - Dark Cybertron Chapter 5 25.
Issue #26: Finis Temporis - Dark Cybertron Chapter 9 27.
Issue #27: Black Planet - Dark Cybertron Chapter 11 28.