Greg Rucka

Infobox Comics creator


imagesize =
caption = Greg at a Comic Book Convention during a meet-and-greet in 2004
birthname = Gregory Rucka
birthdate = birth date and age|1969|11|29
location = San Francisco, California
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = Writer
alias =
notable works = "Batman"
"Gotham Central"
"Queen & Country"
awards =

Gregory Rucka (born November 29, 1969) is an American writer of novels and comic books. He is married to fellow comic writer Jen Van Meter. Currently, he is writing the upcoming miniseries which ties into DC's major crossover event Final Crisis. He is also co-writing a Daredevil story arc with longtime collaborator Ed Brubaker for Marvel.

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", and "Patriot Acts". 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, "". Rucka would begin a pattern with this book: writing strong, independent woman 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 is the current writer 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 recently 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 aforementioned year-long arc.) Rucka is commonly considered to be one of the "Big Four" writers at DC Comics, along with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid. He also had long runs on the "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 runs on "Wolverine", "Elektra" and the mini-series "Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra" - and for Image Comics. The first volume of his series "Queen and Country" concluded in July of 2007 with issue #32. Greg has stated that another volume will resume sometime in 2009.

Rucka's work, particularly in comics, has attracted critical and fan acclaim, and also won several awards, including Eisner Awards for the "Half a Life" storyline in "Gotham Central" (which also won a Harvey Award), "Whiteout: Melt" and "Queen and Country". He was also featured in the "" comic book miniseries "" 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 "" segment in the direct-to-DVD anime in which Crispus Allen, a character he created, also appears. [ [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17118 Rucka talks Gotham Central in "Batman: Gotham Knight"] , Comic Book Resources, July 8, 2008]

Bibliography

Novels

* "Atticus Kodiak" Series
* "Queen & Country" Series: A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars
* ""
* ""
* "Fistful of Rain"
* "No Man's Land (Batman story arc)"
* ""

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
*"", a novella with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano #1-3
*"Daredevil vol. 2 #107-110 (with Ed Brubaker)

DC

*"Batman" #565, 568, 572-574, 587
*"" #1-6
*"" #1-9
*"Detective Comics" #732, 735, 739-753, 755-775, 783 (Batman: Death and the Maidens backup story only in 783)
*"Adventures of Superman" #626 (backup story), 627-638, 640-648
*"The OMAC Project" #1-6 and Infinite Crisis Special
*"Wonder Woman" (vol. 2) #195-226
*"" (graphic novel, 2002)
*"Gotham Central" most issues, usually with co-writer Ed Brubaker
*"Checkmate" #1-25
*"52" (Year-long weekly series starting May 2006, co-written with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid)
*" #1-5
*" #1-#5 (Ongoing, started August 2008)

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
*"Whiteout" #1-4
*"" #1-4

Image/Top Cow

*"Felon" #1-4

Notes

References

*gcdb|type=writer|search=Greg+Rucka|title=Greg Rucka
*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=428|title=Greg Rucka
* [http://www.comics-db.com/comics/search.cgi?query=&Writer=Greg%20Rucka&bool=or&substring=0 Greg Rucka] at the Big Comic Book DataBase

External links

*official|http://www.gregrucka.com
* [http://ruckawriter.livejournal.com/ Greg's Blog]
* [http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/oct03/art_1003_9.shtml/ Wonder Woman Panel Highlights - Dragon*Con 2003]

Interviews

* [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=132 Spies Like Us: Greg Rucka Interview] , Comic Book Resources, March 28, 2001
* [http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may00/rucka.shtml/ Interview at Sequential Tart]
* [http://www.g-wie-gorilla.de/content/view/786/18/ Extensive Interview with Greg Rucka]

Audio Interviews

* [http://www.aroundcomics.com/?p=48 Interview with Around Comics - Oct 2006]
* [http://cache.libsyn.com/wordballoon/WBrucka07pt1.mp3 Interview on Wordballoon podcast (Part 1 0f 2) April 2007.]
* [http://media.libsyn.com/media/wordballoon/WBruckadebrief07pt2.mp3 Interview on Wordballoon podcast (Part 2 of 2) April 2007.]

succession box | title="Supergirl" writer| before=Jeph Loeb
after=Joe Kelly| years=2006succession box | title="Wolverine" writer| before=Frank Tieri
after=Mark Millar| years=2003–2004succession box | title="Wonder Woman" writer| before=Walt Simonson
after=Allan Heinberg| years=2003–2006