Greg Rucka

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Greg Rucka
GregRucka.jpg
Rucka at a comic book convention during a meet-and-greet in 2004
Born Gregory Rucka
(1969-11-29) November 29, 1969 (age 43)
San Francisco, California
Nationality American
Area(s) Writer
Notable works 52
Detective Comics
Action Comics
Wolverine
Gotham Central
Wonder Woman
Queen & Country
Whiteout
Stumptown
Awards 3 Eisner Awards
2004 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story
2010 Annual GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book
Spouse Jennifer Van Meter

Official website

Gregory "Greg" Rucka (born November 29, 1969) is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman, Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Atticus Kodiak series.

Contents

Career [edit]

Rucka's writing career began with the 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 throughout the 2000s was for DC Comics, where he was involved with their main trinity of characters: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Rucka wrote on a regular basis for Batman following the events of No Man's Land. He also penned the novelization of the year-long arc. While writing Batman, he created a number of background characters that led to the co-creation of Gotham Central with fellow scribe Ed Brubaker. The police procedural was critically acclaimed but commercially underwhelming. During this time, from October 2003 to April 2006 he also wrote Wonder Woman after the success of The Hiketeia original graphic novel.

His run on both Wonder Woman and Gotham Central was ended due to the effects of Infinite Crisis, a company-wide crossover. Brubaker left DC for Marvel Comics and Rucka opted not to continue writing without him, while Wonder Woman started volume 3. During this time he did some work for Marvel, including the start of the third 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.

Although Rucka was not involved in the main storyline of Infinite Crisis, he did write The OMAC Project which built towards the event, focussing on Batman's distrust of other superheroes. This led to the revival of Checkmate, a UN authority that oversaw superheroes including Sasha Bordeaux, an integral character of The OMAC Project. He also was a co-writer on the weekly series 52, which he co-wrote with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Mark Waid. This book chronicled in real-time the year following Infinite Crisis, and saw Rucka focus on Renee Montoya of Gotham Central and the creation of the new Batwoman, Kate Kane. Rucka returned to the Batwoman character frequently over the years in a 52 sequel: The Crime Bible and also Final Crisis: Revelations before by returning to Detective Comics with artist J.H. Williams III.[1][2]

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.[3] In 2009, Rucka and artist Eddy Barrows took over Action Comics from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank as the title moved its focus from Superman to Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird in the aftermath of the "New Krypton" story arc.[4][5] As well as writing Action Comics, Rucka co-wrote the main New Krypton 12 part series with Superman writer James Robinson.

At Wondercon 2010 Rucka announced he would part ways with DC Comics to focus on his own projects, in part because of DC's failure to keep him on as writer of Wonder Woman: Earth One as promised.[6][7] Rucka is now writing The Punisher for Marvel Comics.[8]

On July 11, 2011, Rucka launched the webcomic Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Ether, a steampunk adventure series illustrated by Rick Burchett. New installments appear every Monday and Thursday.[9] In May 2013, Rucka launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of a print edition of Lady Sabre,[10] and achieved their initial funding goal of $27,500 within eight hours.[11]

Appearances in media [edit]

Rucka was featured as a character 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.[volume & issue needed]

Personal life [edit]

Rucka lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, author Jen Van Meter, and two children. Among his past non-writing occupations are house painting, restaurant work, emergency medical technician, security guard and technical writer.[12]

Awards [edit]

Wins [edit]

Nominations [edit]

  • 1999 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series (for Whiteout, with Steve Lieber)[18]
  • 1999 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Whiteout)[18]
  • 2000 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint (for Whiteout, with Steve Lieber)[13]
  • 2000 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Whiteout: Melt)[13]
  • 2002 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #1-4: "Operation: Broken Ground", with Steve Rolston)[14]
  • 2002 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Queen and Country, with Steve Rolston)[14]
  • 2002 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country)[14]
  • 2003 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country)[19]
  • 2003 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country and Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia)[20]
  • 2003 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #8-12: "Operation: Crystal Ball", with Leandro Fernández)[20]
  • 2003 Eisner Award for Best New Series (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark)[20]
  • 2003 Harvey Award for Best Writer (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker)[21]
  • 2004 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #13-15: "Operation Blackwall", with Jason Shawn Alexander)[15]
  • 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Brian Hurtt, and Stefano Gaudiano)[15]
  • 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Queen & Country, with Jason Alexander, Carla Speed McNeil, and Mike Hawthorne)[15]
  • 2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country, Wonder Woman and Wolverine)[15]
  • 2005 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country and Gotham Central)[19]
  • 2007 Harvey Award for Best New Series (for 52, with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, and Keith Giffen)[22]

Bibliography [edit]

Novels [edit]

Comic books [edit]

Marvel [edit]

DC [edit]

Oni Press [edit]

  • Oni Press Color Special 2001 (6 page Queen and Country story)
  • Oni Press Summer Vacation Supercolor Fun Special (pages 37–42)
  • Queen & Country 2001 #1-32
  • Queen and Country: Declassified vol. 1 #1-3
  • Queen and Country: Declassified vol. 2 #1-3
  • Stumptown (ongoing series)
  • Whiteout #1-4
  • Whiteout: Melt #1-4
  • Whiteout: Night (forthcoming) #1-4

Image/Top Cow [edit]

Webcomics [edit]

  • Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Ether

Video games [edit]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Greg Rucka Talks "Detective Comics", Comic Book Resources, February 9, 2009
  2. ^ NYCC | A relieved Rucka shares a little about Batwoman, Robot 6, Comic Book Resources, February 7, 2009
  3. ^ Rucka talks Gotham Central in "Batman: Gotham Knight", Comic Book Resources, July 8, 2008
  4. ^ Greg Rucka on being named new Acton Comics writer
  5. ^ Greg Rucka: Man of “Action”, Comic Book Resources, March 24, 2009
  6. ^ DC Women Kicking Ass: The Wonder Woman Earth One That Could Have Been, September 11, 2013, accessed May 22, 2013
  7. ^ Hugh Armitage (September 14, 2012) 'Wonder Woman Earth One': Greg Rucka, JH Williams were original team, DigitalSpy, accessed May 22, 2013
  8. ^ Brothers, David. "Greg Rucka Finished At DC, Off Batwoman", Comics Alliance, April 2, 2010
  9. ^ Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Ether
  10. ^ Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether Vol. 1 Kickstarter campaign
  11. ^ Hugh Armitage (May 8 2013) Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett Kickstarter funded in eight hours, DigitalSpy, accessed May 22, 2013
  12. ^ "About Greg Rucka". Greg Rucka. 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2012. 
  13. ^ a b c 2000 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d 2002 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  15. ^ a b c d e 2004 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  16. ^ 2004 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  17. ^ Award Recipients for the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards. March 13, 2010
  18. ^ a b 1999 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  19. ^ a b 2005 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  20. ^ a b c 2003 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  21. ^ 2003 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.
  22. ^ 2007 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners at Comic Book Awards Almanac, Accessed November 13, 2010.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Interviews [edit]

Audio interviews [edit]

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 with Eric Trautmann and James Dale Robinson (on the Captain Atom feature)
2009-2010		 Succeeded by
Paul Cornell
Preceded by
Paul Dini		 Detective Comics writer
2009-2010;		 Succeeded by
David Hine
Authority control
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