Helfer, Andrew

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Helfer, Andrew

Personal

Male.

Addresses

E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author and publisher. Founding partner of Serious Comics. DC Comics, New York, NY, group editor, beginning c. 1984.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1984.

Dinosaur Valley, illustrated by Willy Ito and Vaccaro Assoc., Inc., Western Publishing Company (Racine, WI), 1990.

Disney's Darkwing Duck: The Darkest Night, illustrated by Don Williams and Jim Story, Western Publishing Company (Racine, WI), 1991.

Disney's Talespin Ghost Ship, illustrated by Sue Dicicco, Western Publishing Company (Racine, WI), 1991.

The Purrfect Crime, illustrated by Al Bigley, Mike DeCarlo, and Tad Zar Chow, Western Publishing Company (Racine, WI), 1991.

Scared Stiff and Other Creepy Tales, illustrated by Linda Medley, Western Publishing Company (Racine, WI), 1991.

(Adaptor) Batman Returns (based on a screenplay by Daniel Waters), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1992.

(Adaptor with Carlos Ezquerra and Michael Danza) Judge Dredd: The Official Movie Adaptation, DC Comics (New York, NY), 1995.

Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, illustrated by Randy DuBurke, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 2006.

Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography, illustrated by Steve Buccellato and Joe Staton, Hill and Wang (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to ongoing comic-book series, including American Honda Presents, Atari Force, Swamp Thing, Robotech Defenders, Secret Origins, Deadman, The Shadow, Justice Inc., Fast Forward, Judge Dredd, Batman, and Legends of the DC Universe. Author of standalone comic series, including Heroes against Hunger: A Song of Pain and Sorrow, DC Comics, 1986.

Sidelights

In addition to working as a group editor for DC Comics for over twenty years, Andrew Helfer has written several books for children and young adults. Helfer has also been credited for spearheading Paradox Press, an imprint of DC Comics. In addition, Helfer is one of the founding partners of the new publishing press, Serious Comics which focuses on creating graphic art biographies of historical Americans.

Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, Helfer's work profiling the twentieth-century civil-rights leader, was well received by critics. Malcolm X is based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a work originally published in

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1965. Helfer's text is accompanied by Randy DuBurke's black-and-white illustrations, which "have the quality of photographs" as School Library Journal reviewer Heidi Dolamore noted. In her review, Dolamore also commented on Helfer's ability to bring a compact version of Malcolm X's story to readers and remarked on the tension he creates by building to the activist's imminent assassination. A Publishers Weekly critic noted that while the account of Malcolm X's life is sometimes "tangled," Helfer and DuBurke nonetheless present readers with an "evocative and studied look at not only Malcolm X but the racial conflict that defined and shaped him." Hazel Rochman in her review of the graphic novel for Booklist, wrote that the author and illustrator are able to convey "the big issues close in a way that is sure to interest YAs."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, p. 50.

Esquire, October, 2007, Tyler Cabot and Zeke Warren-Weigmann, "The Cartoon President: Two Book Reports on the New Graphic Biography of Ronald Reagan," p. 64.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007, review of Ronald Reagan.

New York Times Book Review, December 2, 2007, review of Ronald Reagan, p. 26.

Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2007, review of Ronald Regan, p. 176; December 4, 2006, review of Malcolm X, p. 41.

School Library Journal, January, 1985, review of Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire, p. 91; May, 2007, Heidi Dolamore, review of Malcolm X, p. 170.

Teacher Librarian, June, 2007, Michel Gorman, review of Malcolm X, p. 28.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2007, Angela Semifero, review of Malcolm X, p. 80.