| Greg Rucka | |
|---|---|
 Rucka at a Comic Book Convention during a meet-and-greet in 2004 |
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| Born | Gregory Rucka November 29, 1969 San Francisco, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer |
| Notable works | 52 Detective Comics Action Comics Wolverine Gotham Central Wonder Woman Queen & Country Whiteout' |
Gregory "Greg" Rucka (born November 29, 1969) is an American comic book writer and novelist. He is married to fellow comic writer Jen Van Meter. Currently, Rucka is writing DC's Action Comics, Detective Comics (starring Batwoman), and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton, as well as creator-owned series,
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Biography
Rucka was born in San Francisco, California and raised on the Central Coast of California, in what is commonly referred to as "Steinbeck Country." He began his writing career in earnest at the age of 10 by winning a county-wide short-story contest, and hasn't let up since. He graduated from Vassar College with an A.B. in English, and from the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program with an M.P.W.
His writing career began with his Atticus Kodiak series. Kodiak is a bodyguard whose jobs are rarely as uncomplicated as they at first appear. The series to date consists of: Keeper, Finder, Smoker, Shooting at Midnight, Critical Space, Patriot Acts, and Walking Dead. These works garnered Rucka much critical acclaim and comparisons to the elite writers of crime/suspense fiction. The "Atticus" novels are notable for their realism and attention to detail, which are partly a product of Rucka's fight training and experience as an EMT. He has also written three non-Atticus books: Fistful of Rain, A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars; the latter two are tie-ins to his comic book series Queen & Country.
In the 1990s, Rucka would hop onto the comic scene with his highly praised Whiteout, published through Oni Press. Whiteout focuses on a murder in an Antarctic base. It was followed by a sequel, Whiteout: Melt. Rucka would begin a pattern with this book: writing strong, independent female characters. Queen & Country, dealing with British spies, is his longest and most personal work (also published by Oni).
The majority of Rucka's work today is for DC Comics, where he started the current volume of Checkmate, and was an instrumental co-writer on the weekly series 52. Gotham Central, the series Rucka co-created with fellow scribe Ed Brubaker, was concluded by Rucka alone after Brubaker left DC to work exclusively with Marvel. Both Rucka and Brubaker had previously dealt with Batman and his supporting cast in Detective Comics, which Rucka wrote on a regular basis following the events of No Man's Land. He also penned the novelization of the year-long arc.
He also had long runs on Adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman. On the DC comic 52, Johns, Morrison and Waid were his co-writers. He has also done work for Marvel Comics, including the start of the new (and current) volume of Wolverine, Elektra and the mini-series Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra. He has also worked for Image Comics. The first volume of his series Queen and Country concluded in July 2007 with issue #32.
Rucka's work, particularly in comics, has attracted critical and fan acclaim, and has also won several awards, including Eisner Awards for the "Half a Life" storyline in Gotham Central (for which he also won a Harvey Award), Whiteout: Melt and Queen and Country. He was also featured in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation comic book miniseries "Dying in the Gutters" as the accidental killer of a comics gossip columnist while intending to kill Joe Quesada over his perceived role in the ending of Gotham Central.
Rucka also wrote the screenplay for the "Crossfire" segment in the direct-to-DVD anime Batman: Gotham Knight, in which Crispus Allen, a character he created, also appears.[1] In 2009, Rucka and artist Eddy Barrows will take over Action Comics from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank as the title moves its focus from Superman to Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird in the aftermath of the New Krypton story arc.[2][3] Rucka will also be returning to the Batman world (albeit without Bruce Wayne due to the aftermath of Batman R.I.P., Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl) by jumping back on Detective Comics as the ongoing writer with artist J.H. Williams III for the first year.[4] At least at the beginning of Rucka's new tenure on the title will focus on the new Batwoman introduced by Rucka in 52.[5]
Bibliography
Novels
- Atticus Kodiak Series
- Queen & Country Series: A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars
- Perfect Dark: Initial Vector
- Perfect Dark: Second Front
- Fistful of Rain
- No Man's Land (Batman story arc)
- Grendel: Past Prime (illustrations by Matt Wagner)
Comic books
Marvel
- Wolverine vol. 3 #1-19
- Black Widow "Break Down" #1-3, "Pale Little Spider" #1-3
- Elektra vol. 2 #7-22
- Spider-Man Quality of Life #1-4
- Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra #1-4
- Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer, a novella with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano #1-3
- Daredevil vol. 2 #107-110 (with Ed Brubaker)
DC
- Batman #565, 568, 572-574, 587
- Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood #1-6 of 6
- Batman: Death and the Maidens #1-9 of 9
- Detective Comics #732, 735, 739-753, 755-775, 783 (Batman: Death and the Maidens backup story only in 783), 854-? (Current writer)
- Adventures of Superman #626 (backup story), 627-638, 640-648
- The OMAC Project #1-6 of 6 and Infinite Crisis Special #1 of 1
- Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) #195-226
- Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia (original graphic novel, 2002)
- Gotham Central most issues, usually with co-writer Ed Brubaker
- Checkmate (Vol. 2) #1-25
- 52 (Year-long weekly series starting May 2006, co-written with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid)
- The Question: The Five Books of Blood #1-5 of 5
- Final Crisis: Revelations #1-#5 of 5
- Final Crisis: Resist #1 of 1
- Action Comics
- Superman: The World of New Krypton #1-12 of 12 (co-written with James Robinson)
Oni Press
- Oni Press Color Special 2001 (6 page Queen and Country story)
- Oni Press Summer Vacation Supercolor Fun Special (pages 37–42)
- Queen & Country #1-32
- Queen and Country: Declassified vol. 1 #1-3
- Queen and Country: Declassified vol. 2 #1-3
Stumptown - Whiteout #1-4
- Whiteout: Melt #1-4
Image/Top Cow
- Felon #1-4
Notes
- ^ Rucka talks Gotham Central in "Batman: Gotham Knight", Comic Book Resources, July 8, 2008
- ^ Greg Rucka on being named new Acton Comics writer
- ^ Greg Rucka: Man of “Action”, Comic Book Resources, March 24, 2009
- ^ Greg Rucka Talks "Detective Comics", Comic Book Resources, February 9, 2009
- ^ NYCC | A relieved Rucka shares a little about Batwoman, Robot 6, Comic Book Resources, February 7, 2009
References
- Greg Rucka at the Grand Comic-Book Database
- Greg Rucka at the Comic Book DB
- Greg Rucka at the Big Comic Book DataBase
External links
Interviews
- Spies Like Us: Greg Rucka Interview, Comic Book Resources, March 28, 2001
- Interview at Sequential Tart
- Extensive Interview with Greg Rucka
Audio interviews
- Interview with Around Comics - Oct 2006
- Interview on Wordballoon podcast (Part 1 0f 2) April 2007.
- Interview on Wordballoon podcast (Part 2 of 2) April 2007.
| Preceded by Chuck Dixon |
Detective Comics writer 2000–2002 |
Succeeded by Ed Brubaker |
| Preceded by Frank Tieri |
Wolverine writer 2003–2004 |
Succeeded by Mark Millar |
| Preceded by Walt Simonson |
Wonder Woman writer 2003–2006 |
Succeeded by Allan Heinberg |
| Preceded by Jeph Loeb |
Supergirl writer 2006 |
Succeeded by Joe Kelly |
| Preceded by none |
Checkmate writer 2006–2008 |
Succeeded by Bruce Jones |
| Preceded by Geoff Johns |
Action Comics writer 2009— |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by Paul Dini |
Detective Comics writer 2009— |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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