Williams was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and now lives in Lees Summit, Missouri with his wife. He was raised in an impoverished single-parent home, and often dreamed of flying away like Superman. His sister supported his love of comics and his dream of becoming a comic book artist. Williams was inspired to become a comic book artist at the age of 15 after seeing Jim Lee's artwork in Uncanny X-Men #272.
Career
While attending the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con International, Williams submitted a portfolio to the DC talent search. He was hired to do a few issues of Seven Soldiers featuring Mister Miracle, for which he won an Eisner Award. He's known for drawing characters such as Robin, the Flash, Green Arrow, Conan, Star Lord, and Thor. Since then, he has illustrated Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, He-Man/ThunderCats and Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe. In 2006, Williams signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics. He became the regular artist on Robin beginning with issue 149 in 2006, and began illustrating The Flash in early 2008. Williams appears frequently on comic book-related podcasts including Comic Geek Speak, Half Hour Wasted, Raging Bullets and Fanboy Radio. He also posted online tutorials about creating digital artwork in comics. The tutorials are available on his YouTube page. On December 23, 2014, Williams was a featured guest on Episode 26 of the web show 'Best of the Worst' by RedLetterMedia and has since made multiple appearances in RedLetterMedia's videos. Williams is the author of a book about digital artwork, The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics.
Technique and materials
Williams trained in traditional art methods but is primarily a digital artist who uses a "hybrid method," as detailed in The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics.. In addition to working digitally, Freddie is also known for working in traditional medias, including Ink Wash. Freddie has made a variety of "How To" videos listed as Work in Progress "W.I.P" on his website, to demonstrate the methods he utilizes to create his artwork.
