Biography
Gary Trent Westbrook, Jr. was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, September 15th, 1972. To differentiate him from his father, Gary Trent, Sr., his family referred to him by his middle name only, Trent. Born the son of an architect, Trent's father would entertain him at a very young age by drawing pictures for him, and it wasn't long that Trent began to do the same, taking lessons in both illustration and painting in his youth, but never applying them as a vocation until 2006. Trent also took music lessons throughout his life, starting with the piano, the cello, the clarinet, and finally guitar and bass.
Trent attended Texas A&M University - Kingsville right out of high school as an English major and a Communications minor, having an affinity for writing short fiction, which established author Dr. Drewey Wayne Gunn, professor emeritus at Texas A&M - Kingsville, mentored. Dr. Gunn had heavily influenced Trent with fiction that centered around actual locations, and the idea of being able to visit a site where an apparent piece of fiction supposedly occurred really sparked Trent's passion for writing.
Trent began putting ideas he had worked on throughout college onto paper as a script which at the time he envisioned as a graphic novel, around 2001. The first full script which would become "Corpus Christi: Visions" was completed in 2002 for a first issue, which a script for a following issue completed that same year. At the time Trent did not believe he had the skills as an artist to create the visuals for a graphic novel, so he began trying to find artists to work on the project, even paying a couple of illustrators for their work, all of which never panned out. One artist kept telling me him that he didn't understand what Trent was asking him to draw. Out of frustration, Trent actually started sketching out the pages to get his ideas across and his friends and colleagues finally convinced Trent to just try and do the work himself. As he began he knew he had a long road ahead of him until he was convinced the art was good enough to publish, and he began practicing his skills and posting a portfolio of his work online through Deviant Art as he worked and improved over the next 4 years.
It was in 2006, that Trent was picked up by an art director who saw his online portfolio to begin working on illustrations for books, starting with A Life of Ravens by Alex Ness. Alex Ness asked Trent to work on his following books of poetry for the next several years, including Lancelot: Poems About The Man And Legend, Mythic Memories, Arthur Rex Eternus, and Empire Of Stone.
Working professionally as an illustrator for a handful of years gave Trent the impetus to begin work on the graphic novel he had scripted back in 2002, "Corpus Christi", and on August 31st, 2011 it would be released as an independent title that saw distribution throughout the state of Texas through local comic shops and comic conventions, selling 2000 copies of the first issue, followed by another 5 issues through 2013, two omnibus collections, a separate one-shot titled "Corpus Christi: Within", set within the same universe as "Corpus Christi", and a special edition hardcover which included a CD of music written by Trent Westbrook. The first issue went through 11 print runs and the title and separate issues thereafter were all known for having multiple variant covers for fans to chase. A song from the hardcover release called "Vision, Part II", written and performed by Trent Westbrook under the moniker of 2023 was featured on Corpus Christi, Texas radio station C101. Trent also created his own brand during this time, 2023 Comics, and signs a lot of his work as "2023".
During this time, Trent was approached twice by filmmakers in Texas to try and produce a film of the "Corpus Christi" comic title, but, known to continue to tinker with his work well after completion, Trent decided it wasn't the right time as he was considering beginning a second volume to the story. This would be put on pause in 2016 when he was picked up to work as professional illustrator on the Star Wars license by Lucasfilm/Disney through Topps Trading Cards. Trent continues through 2022 since then to work on the license for Topps, creating sketches and paintings for trading cards for the Star Wars brand. While working on Star Wars, he began working on other licenses as well for the trading card profession, namely Aliens and Predator by 20th Century Fox and Upper Deck, Batman by DC Comics and Cryptozoic Entertainment, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles through Topps, Mystery Science Theatre and Ultraman through RRParks, and Stranger Things from Netflix, of which he worked on both trading cards as well as paintings for the Stranger Things Artbook - Visions From The Upside Down by Printed In Blood. His work in the book is credited as Trent Brian Westbrook.
Trent began working on a film project for the "Corpus Christi: Visions" title in 2019, writing a full script for the project and working with James Adam Rubin III on pre-production and further drafts. The project is still in pre-production as of today.
