Frank Lovece

Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic-book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996.

For an "Entertainment Weekly" article on direct-to-video movies representing themselves as theatrical releases, he produced the first — and, after the article's publication, only — home video to obtain an MPAA rating. [cite web | url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451077/ | title=Frank Lovece entry | publisher=IMDb.com | work= | accessdate=2006-06-08] ["The Washington Post" (Friday, August 9, 1991): Style section, p.D6]

Biography

Early life and career

Raised in Morgantown, West Virginia [ [http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522947 Lovece, Frank. "We Are Marshall" (movie review)] , "Film Journal International", posted online Dec. 22, 2006] Frank Lovece attended West Virginia University in that city, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in communication. He was the arts/entertainment editor of the college newspaper, the "Daily Athenaeum", held posts in student government, and interned with both the WWVU statewide radio news service, and, in Washington, D.C., the USDA Cooperative Extension Service. [http://franklovece.com/ Frank Lovece official site] ]

He became a stringer for the New York City newspaper "Newsday" in the late 1980s, becoming a weekly TV columnist there in 2003. Lovece's book "Hailing Taxi: The Official Book of the Show", was published in 1988, the first of several books he would write on topics including the TV series "The Brady Bunch" and "The X-Files", and on the Godzilla movie series.

Comic books

Lovece and artist Mike Okamoto created the four-issue miniseries "Atomic Age" (Nov. 1990 - Feb. 1991) for Marvel Comics' creator-owned Epic Comics imprint. The series was among the items featured in the Bowling Green State University exhibition "The Atomic Age Opens: Selections from the Popular Culture Library." Collaborator Al Williamson won the 1991 Eisner Award for Best Inker for his work on that and other series that awards-year, with Okamoto winning the Russ Manning Award for most promising newcomer.

Lovece went on to write stories for Epic's anthology series "Clive Barker's Hellraiser", and wrote the nine-issue run of "Hokum & Hex" for Marvel's Razorline imprint, created by novelist Barker. Other work includes such children's comics as the licensed series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (including one story penciled by industry legend Steve Ditko), "VR Troopers" and "Masked Rider". The "Hellraiser" story "For My Son", by Lovece and artist Bill Koeb, originally published in "Clive Barker's Hellraiser Summer Special" #1 (Summer 1992), appears in Checker Publishing's "Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Volume 1" (ISBN 0-9710249-2-8), though with the last page inexplicably missing; the complete story appears in an authorized, free online version from web publisher Wowio. [ [http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=1676 Wowio: "Hellraiser" Collection 06] ]

Additionally for Marvel, Lovece wrote for the series "Nightstalkers" and for "The Incredible Hulk" and "Ghost Rider" annuals, as well as an inventory story for "Alpha Flight". He additionally wrote a "Vampirella" inventory story for Harris Comics. His three-part child-abuse drama "Egg" ran in Dark Horse Comics' "Dark Horse Presents" #110-112. Additionally, he wrote an educational comic book about the American banking system for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Later career

By the 1990s, Lovece was a weekly syndicated columnist for United Media/NEA, and a writer for periodicals including the "Los Angeles Times", the "New York Post", "Penthouse", "Billboard", and "Entertainment Weekly", where he wrote features and reviewed home video releases and comic books.

Beginning 1996, he served as a website editor and streaming video producer at "Gist TV". He later became a web editor at Hachette Filipacchi, creating sites for "Sound & Vision" and "Popular Photography" magazines, and, from 2001 to 2004, at the Sci-Fi Channel television network, creating sites for "Battlestar Galactica", "Stargate SG-1", "Stargate Atlantis", "The X-Files", "The Incredible Hulk", "Legend of Earthsea" and other television shows, movies and miniseries. Since 2005, in addition to his "Newsday" column and features, Lovece has been a movie critic for "Film Journal International". He had previously been a movie critic for the "TV Guide" website [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-3134/ Rotten Tomatoes: Frank Lovece] ] and for "The Bergen Record". [ [http://www.compleatsteve.com/person/tennant.htm The Compleat Steve: Except of "L.A. Story" review] ]

In 2005, Lovece and photographer Matthew Jordan Smith collaborated on "Lost and Found" (Filipacchi, New York, 2006; ISBN-13 9781599756110 ISBN 1599756110), a photojournalistic record of families of abducted children and the work of The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. [ [http://www.takegreatpictures.com/Articles/Details/params/object/10435/default.aspx TakeGreatPictures.com: "Behind the Scenes of Lost and Found", by Frank Lovece] ]

Humor

From 2001-2003, Lovece was a member of the New York City improv comedy troupe Wingnuts. His humor writing has appeared in "Entertainment Weekly", "Newsday", Yahoo!/MSN, and elsewhere.

Quotes

Dark Horse Comics editor Bob Schreck: "Frank is probably the most under-exploited, most sensitive writer this field has to offer". [Bob Schreck, "Dark Horse Presents" #110 (June 1996), p. 9]

"Nuclear Texts & Contexts" #6 (Spring 1991): "Atomic Age" (Frank Lovece, writer, & Mike Okamoto, artist, Epic Comics) is a four-part series dealing with alien invaders set during the Sputnik era. ... Although no nuclear war is featured, there is plenty of wry satire on Cold War paranoia, and on racism". [ [http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/ntc/NTC6.pdf "Comic Books (reviews)", "Nuclear Texts & Contexts" #6 (Spring 1991), p. 11] ]

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators]
* [http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?query=Frank+Lovece&type=writer&sort=chrono&Submit=Search Frank Lovece] at the Grand Comic-Book Database
* [http://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/bib/comics/ Clive Barker's Official Site: Comics]
*Thompson, Maggie, "'Atomic Age' Features '50s SF". "Comics Buyer's Guide" #885 (November 2, 1990)
* [http://labs.daylife.com/journalist/frank_lovece Journalist Pages: Frank Lovece] Daylife

External links

* [http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2487 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: "Lost and Found"]