WAID, Mark 1962-

PERSONAL:

Born March 21, 1962, in Hueytown, AL. Education: Attended Virginia Commonwealth University.

ADDRESSES:

Office—c/o Author Mail, CrossGeneration, 4023 Tampa Rd., Suite 2400, Oldsmar, FL 34677. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Comic-book writer. Worked variously as a bank teller, legal secretary, waiter, TV repairman, lounge singer, salesman and accountant. Freelance writer, c. 1980s; Amazing Heroes, editor, c. 1985; DC Comics, New York, NY, editor, 1987-89; freelance writer, 1989-2002; CrossGeneration (comic-book publisher), Oldsmar, FL, senior writer, 2002—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Eisner Award nominations for best writer, 2002, for Ruse: Enter the Detective.

WRITINGS:

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Flash: Terminal Velocity (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1995.

The Flash: The Return of Barry Allen (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Alex Ross) Kingdom Come (originally published in comic-book form), illustrated by Ross, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Fabian Nicieza) Justice League: Midsummer's Nightmare (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1996.

Impulse: Reckless Youth (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Brian Augustyn) The Flash—Green Lantern: Faster Friends, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Brian Augustyn and Mike Wieringo) Iris Allen, The Life Story of the Flash (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1997.

JLA: Strength in Numbers (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Scott Peterson) Underworld Unleashed, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Tom Peyer McGraw) Legion of Super-Heroes: The Beginning of Tomorrow (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1999.

The Kingdom (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 1999.

JLA: Heaven's Ladder, (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 2000.

The Flash: Dead Heat, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2000.

JLA: Tower of Babel (originally published in comic-book form), DC Comics (New York, NY), 2001.

Ruse: Inferno of Blue, illustrated by Butch Guice, CrossGeneration (Oldsmar, FL), 2002.

Ruse: Enter the Detective, illustrated by Butch Guice, CrossGeneration (Oldsmar, FL), 2002.

Sigil: The Lizard God, CrossGeneration (Oldsmar, FL), 2002.

Crux: Atlantis Rising, illustrated by Steve Epting and Rick Magyar, CrossGeneraton (Oldsmar, FL), 2002.

Contributor to comic-book series, including "Justice League of America/JLA" "Batman," "Avengers," "The Flash," "Impulse," "Archie," "Legion of Super-Heroes," "X-O Manowar," "Kingdom," "Sigil," "Ka-Zar," "Ruse," "Gorilla," "Legionnaires," and "Captain America"; co-creator of Gotham by Gaslight. Contributor of articles and stories to Amazing Heroes and Comic Buyer's Guide.

OTHER

The Golden Age of Superman: The Greatest Covers of Action Comics from the '30s to the '50s, Artabras (New York, NY), 1993, published as Superman in Action Comics, Abbeville Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The Silver Age of Superman: The Greatest Covers of Action Comics from the '50s to the '70s, Artabras (New York, NY), 1995.

(Author of introduction) Superman in the Sixties, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1999.

ADAPTATIONS:

The "Kingdom Come" comic-book series by Waid and illustrator Alex Ross was adapted as a book by Elliot S. Maggin, Aspect, 1998.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mark Waid is an Eisner Award-nominated comic-book writer who has penned stories featuring almost every major super hero who ever threw a punch. Beginning his career with Amazing Heroes, he moved to the staff of DC Comics from 1987 to 1989 before launching a freelance career that has allowed him to chart the adventures of everyone from Marvel's X-Men and Captain America to DC's the Flash and Impulse. Among Waid's most notable original work has been his project with Marvel artist Alex Ross on "Kingdom Come," a futuristic comic that was published in graphic-novel format in 1997, and his award-winning "Ruse" about a Victorian-era detective modeled on Sherlock Holmes. In "Kingdom Come" the first—and now aging—generation of super heroes returns to the front-lines in the battle against evil in order to teach a newer generation of crime-fighters the moral underpinnings of the battle between good and evil. Once again Superman and Wonder Woman do battle with the likes of Lex Luthor (also newly un-retired as Superman's nemesis) in a "gorgeously illustrated" story that Washington Post Book Review contributor Mike Musgrove characterized as a "dark vision of the next generation inhabiting the world of Metropolis and Gotham City." In praise of Ruse: Enter the Detective, a Publishers Weekly reviewer was equally laudatory of Waid's skills, noting that despite the "high-end representational illustration…the real star here is Waid's droll but exciting scripts."

As a freelancer during the 1990s Waid gained a reputation as one of the hardest-working comic writers in the United States. In fact, he had his hand in almost all the major action-hero series, from "Superman" and "Batman" to such lower-profile projects as "Legionnaires" and "Ka-Zar." Popular comic-book series by Waid include "Justice League of America"—or "JLA"—which he took over from writer Grant Morrison and which features the time-honored roster of super heroes as well as novice crime-fighters like Green Arrow as they organize against dark forces such as the Brotherhood of Evil. Waid's "Impulse" comic introduces thirtieth-century teen Bart Allen, who, armed with innumerable futuristic devices and the incredible speed of his ancestor, Barry Allen (a.k.a. the Flash), comes back in time to the twentieth century to understand his past and becomes a twentieth-century super hero into the bargain. In the graphic novel Underworld Unleashed, which Waid coauthored, a horde of DC Comic villains take advantage of a limited-time offer: sell their soul to the demonic Neron, and their powers against the forces of good will double in size.

In 2002 Waid left freelancing to take a job as senior writer at the Florida-based comic publisher CrossGeneration. There he has penned the "Crux" and "Sigil" series, both of which have been re-released in graphic-novel format. The futuristic space saga Sigil pits soldiers Sam Rey and Roiya against a lizard-like race of aliens. In Crux: Atlantis Rising, readers meet the occupants of Atlantis, guardians of all humanity, whose culture has been fueled by magic and who have evolved from one race into two. Those who have gained in energy are preparing for the Transition, during which they will change form, while others will remain as Earth's guardians. However, something malfunctions and Atlantis is submerged, her people left sleeping in stasis pods from which a small group led by the watcher Capricia are awakened 10,000 years after the Transition to find humanity gone and an evil menace threatening their world. Praising the artwork by Steve Epting and Rick Magyar, Library Journal contributor Steve Raiteri heralded Crux: Atlantis Rising as a "fine work, full of compelling characters and situations," while in School Library Journal reviewer Susan Salpini found Waid's "intriguing" storyline "more thoughtful and thought provoking than the usual fare."

In addition to writing his own comic-book stories, Waid has compiled several volumes of classic comic-book art. The Golden Age of Superman: The Greatest Covers of Action Comics from the '30s to the '50s and its companion volume, The Silver Age of Superman: The Greatest Covers of Action Comics from the '50s to the '70s collects the drawings that caused issues of the comic by Jerry Siegel to be snatched from store shelves with lightning speed. Superman in the Sixties contains Waid's introduction to seventeen stories featuring not only the beloved Man of Steel, but also Superboy, Superbaby, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen.

Asked in an interview with Minh Ta for Comic Fan online what caused him to devote his career to comic books, Waid was very clear. Attracted to the industry after watching Christopher Reeve play the Man of Steel in Superman: The Movie, because "I couldn't not be a part of something that could bring that much joy and excitement," Waid also has a deeper reason: "a belief that heroic-fiction comics are perhaps the last best place to remind tomorrow's adults that Right Makes Might and that doing good is its own reward. These are philosophies, as simplistic as they sound, that … I strongly champion."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2002, Carlos Orellana, review of Ruse: Inferno of Blue, p. 1944.

Library Journal, September 1, 2002, Steve Raiteri, review of Ruse: Enter the Detective, p. 151; November 1, 2002, Steve Raiteri, review of Crux: Atlantis Rising, p. 67.

Publishers Weekly, August 12, 2002, review of Ruse: Enter the Detective, p. 278; August 26, 2002, review of Sigil: The Lizard God, p. 46; May 26, 2003, review of Ruse: The Silent Partner, p. 51.

School Library Journal, October, 2002, Susan Salpini, review of Crux: Atlantis Rising, p. 198.

Sojourners, July-August, 1997, review of Kingdom Come, p. 1997.

Washington Post Book World, January 11, 1998, Mike Musgrove, review of Kingdom Come, p. 4.

ONLINE

Comic Fan,http://www.comicfanmag.com/ (January 29, 2003), Minh Ta, interview with Mark Waid.

Dragon*con,http://www.dragoncon.org/ (July 1, 1999), "Mark Waid."

Sequential Tart,http://www.sequentialtart.com/ (June, 1999), Barb Lien, "Comic Books Aren't about Rules, They're about Flying"; (September, 2003), Carrie Landers, "The Crux of the Matter."*