About Me
Bill Comstock is the Staff Contest photographer for Muscular Development Magazine. He covers all the top IFBB and NPC events for the magazine, including Joe Weider's Olympia, the Arnold Classic, and the Ironman Pro Invitational. Comstock learned the ropes of physique photography shooting Jon Lindsay's NPC bodybuilding contests for Graphic Muscle, a popular bodybuilding Internet magazine that he helped co-found. He is the official photographer for Jon Lindsay Productions, and shoots all twelve outstanding NPC events for Jon's website Muscle Contest.Comstock caught the bug for photography from his uncle Daniel, who invented Technicolor. He grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and studied Elizabethan Theater for over two decades. From 1978-1980, he was the dramaturg for Michael Moriarity's Shakespeare Company Potter's Field, and published an edition of King Lear in 1982. Comstock studied film at New York University, and directed nearly a dozen shorts. He is best known for producing Channel 69, a delirious 30 minute weekly television series that aired from 1990 to 1992 on Manhattan Cable. It starred the beautiful Linda Simpson, and featured gender-bending burlesque shows live from the Pyramid Club. In 1992, he also produced Turn Out, a festival of dance, music, art and readings by lesbian artists in New York, which was cited as "One of the Year's Best" by N.Y. Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning.Comstock's attention turned to bodybuilding in the mid-90s when he became intensely involved in the preservation of "sword and sandal" films. He combined forces with MGM Archivist John Kirk on Sons of Hercules, a videoclip presentation that looked at the genre as a forgotten chapter in the history of Camp cinema. It was the origin of the first peplum film festival in the United States at UCLA, and David Chapman's Retro Stud: Muscle Movie Posters from Around the World. Comstock moved to California in 2000 to work closely with movie legends Mickey Hargitay and Gordon Mitchell, who became his close friends and mentors. Together with bodybuilding historians/photographers Gene Mozee and Joe Valdez, he founded Graphic Muscle, which gave him the opportunity to start shooting Jon Lindsay's NPC shows in Southern California. His passion and talent caught the attention of Ironman's Lonnie Teper and John Balik, who hired him to work for IronMan magazine taking contest pictures.Comstock's photos can be seen at www.musculardevelopment.com
