Michael Turner  was born in Crossville, Tennessee on April 21, 1971. He was a student at the University of Tennessee, and graduated from International Performing Arts Academy after which he moved to San Diego, California, where he developed an interest in comics where he developed an interest in comics and started his career at Top Cow Productions, where he co-created the popular titles "Witchblade" and "Fathom". Michael Turner departed Top Cow in late 2002 to found his own comic book publishing company,  Aspen MLT Inc. (where MLT stands for Michael Layne Turner), located in Santa Monica, with a studio in Marina del Rey, California. The release of comics from Aspen was delayed by a year-long lawsuit with Top Cow Productions over the rights to Fathom, and over the rights to the unreleased titles Soulfire (initially called Dragonfly) and Ekos, both of which Turner had begun development on before leaving Top Cow and before his diagnosis of cancer. Aspen and Top Cow settled the lawsuit with Michael Turner out of court in 2003.

In 2004 Michael Turner contributed covers to various DC Comics titles, including The Flash and Identity Crisis. He provided cover art and co-wrote the "Godfall" story arc that ran in the three main Superman titles in early 2004 and illustrated the six-issue Supergirl story arc in Superman/Batman. His creator-owned title Soulfire began publication in 2004, and Fathom resumed publication in that year as well, though this time with Aspen MLT rather than Top Cow. On August 6, 2005, Marvel Comics announced the signing of Michael Turner to a work-for-hire deal for a six-issue project and covers. This would turn out to be at least the variant covers for the miniseries Civil War and the Wolverine ongoing series Wolverine: Origins. In addition Turner had been announced as the artist on Ultimate Wolverine. Eventually, Turner would contribute cover art to the Marvel titles X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four, among others. His career was cut tragically short when he died of bone cancer in 2008. The Artwork of Michael Turner is credited in 615 separate comic book issues.