GREG RUCKA

'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.
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'', and ''Critical Space''. 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 and 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 woman characters. ''Queen and 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 Five" writers at DC Comics, along with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Judd Winick. 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 despite intending to kill Joe Quesada over his conceived role in the cancellation of ''Gotham Central''.

Contents

Early Life and Education

Bibliography

Novels

Comic books

Marvel

DC

Oni Press

Image

Audio Interviews

References

Early Life and Education

''Greg 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.F.A.

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

★ ''Elektra/Wolverine: The Redeemer'', a novella with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano #1-3

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, 1992)

★ ''Gotham Central'' various issues with co-writer Ed Brubaker

★ ''Checkmate'' #1-Present

★ ''52'' (Year-long weekly series starting May 2006, co-written with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid)

Oni Press

★ ''Oni Press Color Special 2001'' (6 page Queen and Country story)

★ ''Oni Press Summer Vacation Supercolor Fun Special'' (pages 37-42)

★ ''Queen and Country'' #1-32

★ ''Queen and Country: Declassified'' vol. 1 #1-3

★ ''Queen and Country: Declassified'' vol. 2 #1-3

★ ''Whiteout'' #1-4

★ ''Whiteout: Melt'' #1-4

Image

★ ''Felon'' #1-4

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.

References

★ Greg Rucka official site

★ Interview at CBR

★ Greg's Blog

★ Wonder Woman Panel Highlights - Dragon
★ Con 2003

★ Interview at Sequential Tart