Greg Rucka
Rucka in 2004
BornGregory Rucka
(1969-11-29) November 29, 1969
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Area(s)Writer
Notable works
Atticus Kodiak
Whiteout
Batman: No Man's Land
Batman: New Gotham
Queen & Country
Elektra
Wolverine
Wonder Woman
Gotham Central
52
Stumptown
Batwoman: Elegy
The Punisher
Lazarus
AwardsThree Eisner Awards
2004 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story
2010 Annual GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book
Spouse(s)Jen Van Meter
Official website

Gregory Rucka (born November 29, 1969) is an American writer known for the series of novels starring his character Atticus Kodiak, the creator-owned comic book series Whiteout, Queen & Country, Stumptown and Lazarus, as well as lengthy runs on such titles as Detective Comics, Wonder Woman and Gotham Central for DC Comics, and Elektra, Wolverine and The Punisher for Marvel. He has written a substantial amount of supplemental material for a number of DC Comics' line-wide and inter-title crossovers, including "No Man's Land", "Infinite Crisis" and "New Krypton".

Rucka made his debut as a screenwriter with the screenplay for the 2020 film The Old Guard, based on his comic book series of the same name.

Early life

Greg Rucka was born in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, in an area known to the locals as "Steinbeck Country". Rucka is Jewish.[1] He first discovered comics at the Nob Hill Market in Salinas, California, where at age five, he first saw digest-sized black and white reprints of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's work on The Incredible Hulk, which he convinced his mother to buy. He began writing at a young age, and at age 10, he won a county-wide short story contest. He graduated from Vassar College with a BA in English. He then enrolled in the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts. He names Douglas Adams as his biggest influence.[2][3]

Before becoming a professional fiction writer he worked in a number of other occupations, including house painting, restaurant work, emergency medical technician, security guard, technical writer, and fight choreographer.[3]

Career

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 is partly a product of Rucka's fight training and experience as an EMT. He has written six non-Atticus books: Fistful of Rain, Alpha, Bravo, A Gentleman's Game, Private Wars, and The Last Run; the latter three are tie-ins to his comic book series Queen & Country.[4]

In 1998, Rucka entered the comics industry with Whiteout, published through Oni Press.[5] Whiteout focuses on a murder in an Antarctic base. It was followed by a sequel, Whiteout: Melt.

The majority of Rucka's work throughout the 2000s was for DC Comics,[5] where he was involved with their main trinity of characters: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Rucka wrote Batman on a regular basis in the Detective Comics series following the events of "No Man's Land'".[6] He wrote the novelization of the year-long arc.[7] While writing Detective Comics, he created a number of background characters that led to the co-creation of Gotham Central with co-writer Ed Brubaker.[8] His Batman work includes such story arcs as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?"[9] and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive".[10] as well as the Batman: Death and the Maidens limited series.[11] From October 2003 to April 2006 he wrote Wonder Woman after having previously written the character in the Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia original graphic novel.

From 2002 to 2004, he did some work for Marvel, including the start of the third volume of Wolverine,[12] Elektra and the mini-series Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra. He has worked for Image Comics. The first volume of his series Queen & Country concluded in July 2007 with issue #32.

He co-wrote Countdown to Infinite Crisis, a one-shot and the official start of the Infinite Crisis storyline, with Geoff Johns and Judd Winick.[13] Rucka's work on both Wonder Woman and Gotham Central ended in 2006. Although he was not involved in the main storyline of Infinite Crisis, he did write The OMAC Project[5] which built towards the event, focusing 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 was a co-writer on the weekly series 52, which he co-wrote with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Mark Waid.[14] This series chronicled in real-time the year following Infinite Crisis, and saw Rucka focus on Renee Montoya of Gotham Central[15] and the creation of the new Batwoman, Kate Kane.[16] Rucka returned to the Batwoman character frequently over the years in a 52 sequel The Crime Bible and Final Crisis: Revelations before returning to the character in Detective Comics with artist J. H. Williams III, as well as reviving Renee Montoya in the book's second feature with artist Cully Hamner.[17][18][19]

Rucka wrote the screenplay for the "Crossfire" segment in the direct-to-DVD anime Batman: Gotham Knight, in which Crispus Allen, a character he created, appears.[20] In 2009, Rucka and artist Eddy Barrows took over Action Comics as the title moved its focus from Superman to Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird in the aftermath of the "New Krypton" story arc.[21] 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.[22][23][24] Rucka then wrote The Punisher for Marvel Comics.[25]

On July 11, 2011, Rucka launched the webcomic Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether, a steampunk adventure series illustrated by Rick Burchett. New installments appear every Monday and Thursday.[26] In May 2013, Rucka launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of a print edition of Lady Sabre,[27] and achieved their initial funding goal of $27,500 within eight hours.[28]

He wrote the creator-owned series, Black Magick, which was drawn by Nicola Scott and published by Image Comics.[29] The Rucka/Scott creative team produced a new Wonder Woman series for DC Comics in June 2016 as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch.[30] Rucka concluded his run on Wonder Woman as of issue #25.[31]

In 2017, Rucka wrote the creator-owned series The Old Guard, which was drawn by Leandro Fernandez, colored by Daniela Miwa and published by Image Comics.[32] In March 2017, Skydance Media picked up the rights to adapt the comic into a film with the same name. Rucka wrote the film's script.[33] The film was released on Netflix in July 2020.[34]

In July 2019, Rucka began writing the Lois Lane 12-issue limited series with artist Mike Perkins.[35] In December 2019, Rucka began writing a second volume of The Old Guard called The Old Guard: Force Multiplied.[36]

In August 2023 Netflix released Heart of Stone, an action-thriller starring Gal Gadot whose story was conceived by Rucka,[37] and whose script was written by Rucka and Allison Schroeder.[38]

Appearances in media

Rucka was featured as a character in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation comic book mini-series Dying in the Gutters, where he accidentally killed comics gossip columnist Rich Johnston while attempting to kill Joe Quesada over his perceived role in the cancellation of Gotham Central.[39]

Rucka is one of several professional comics whose names were used for characters in an episode of the ninth season of the BBC police drama New Tricks.[40]

Personal life

Rucka, his wife, author Jen Van Meter, and their two children, lived in Eugene, Oregon, and as of 2013 live in Portland, Oregon.[2][3]

Rucka names The Conversation, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Silence of the Lambs as his favorite films.[2] He enjoys the music of Dexter Gordon, Lester Bowie, Joe Jackson, Warren Zevon, and Melissa Ferrick. His other hobbies include role-playing games, computer games, playing the guitar and collecting action figures.[3]

Awards

Wins

Nominations

Bibliography

Video games

References

  1. ↑ Hudson, Laura. "The Complete Greg Rucka Wondercon Panel Transcript". Comics Alliance. Townsquare Media. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Third Degree: Greg Rucka". Jupiter's Legacy #2 (June 2013) Image Comics. p. 27.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Rucka, Greg (2012). "About Greg Rucka". gregrucka.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  4. ↑ Spies Like Us: Greg Rucka Interview, Comic Book Resources, March 28, 2001
  5. 1 2 3 Greg Rucka at the Grand Comics Database
  6. ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Dougall, Alastair, ed. (2014). "2000s". Batman: A Visual History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 246. ISBN 978-1465424563. A stand-out writer in the 'No Man's Land' event, Greg Rucka was handed the reins of Detetive Comics, alongside artist Shawn Martinbrough. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Rucka, Greg (2000). Batman: No Man's Land. Pocket Books. p. 448. ISBN 0671038281.
  8. ↑ Cowsill, Alan; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "2000s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. Presented by writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, with art by Michael Lark, the series followed the night and day shifts of the Gotham City Police Department. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 262
  10. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 263
  11. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 269: "Writer Greg Rucka and artist Klaus Janson created this series that delved into the family tree of [Ra's al Ghul]."
  12. ↑ Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "2000s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 315. ISBN 978-0756641238. Novelist Greg Rucka restarted Wolverine's title and stayed on for a nineteen-issue run, pairing with artist Darick Robertson. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 319: "The prequel to Infinite Crisis was a collection of short stories...which were written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick."
  14. ↑ Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 325: "The title was masterminded by writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid, with Keith Giffen providing art breakdowns."
  15. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 292
  16. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 287
  17. ↑ Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 305: "Batman's flagship title had a new boss - Batwoman. Taking over as the title's protagonist...thanks to her longtime writer Greg Rucka and artist J. H. Williams III."
  18. ↑ Renaud, Jeffrey (February 9, 2009). "Greg Rucka Talks Detective Comics". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012.
  19. ↑ Melrose, Kevin (February 7, 2009). "NYCC A relieved Rucka shares a little about Batwoman". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013.
  20. ↑ Jones, Seth (July 8, 2008). "Rucka talks Gotham Central in Batman: Gotham Knight". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on June 26, 2013.
  21. ↑ Renaud, Jeffrey (March 24, 2009). "Greg Rucka: Man of Action". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012.
  22. ↑ "The Wonder Woman Earth One That Could Have Been". DC Women Kicking Ass. September 11, 2012. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  23. ↑ Armitage, Hugh (September 14, 2012). "Wonder Woman Earth One: Greg Rucka, J. H. Williams were original team". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013.
  24. ↑ Brothers, David (April 2, 2010). "Greg Rucka Finished at DC, Off Batwoman". Comics Alliance. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013.
  25. ↑ Esposito, Joey (July 17, 2012). "Comic-Con: Greg Rucka Says Goodbye to the Punisher". IGN. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012.
  26. ↑ "Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether".
  27. ↑ Rucka, Greg (June 5, 2013). "Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether Vol. 1". Kickstarter. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013.
  28. ↑ Armitage, Hugh (May 8, 2013). "Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett Kickstarter funded in eight hours". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Nicola Scott". Image Comics. n.d. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  30. ↑ Phegley, Kiel (May 23, 2016). "Rucka, Sharp & Scott Aim To Make Rebirth's Wonder Woman Accessible & Fantastic". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 10, 2016. While Wonder Woman sees the return of writer Greg Rucka, he's teaming up with Liam Sharp, Matthew Clark and Nicola Scott to deliver a very different take from his previous run with the Amazon Princess. Archive requires scrolldown.
  31. ↑ Adams, Tim (April 12, 2017). "Greg Rucka Leaving Wonder Woman With Issue #25". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017.
  32. ↑ "The Old Guard is an action blockbuster with historical tragedy in its bones". AV Club. June 2, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  33. ↑ "Skydance Picks Up Rights to Greg Rucka Comic 'Old Guard' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. March 31, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  34. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (May 7, 2020). "First Look at Charlize Theron's Immortal Warrior in The Old Guard". Vanity Fair. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  35. ↑ Brown, Tracy (April 12, 2019). "DC's new Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen comic-book series will debut in July". Los Angeles Times.
  36. ↑ Jackson, Matthew (May 18, 2020). "Read this before you watch The Old Guard". Looper.com. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  37. ↑ "Heart of Stone". Writers Guild of America West. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  38. ↑ Zacharek, Stephanie (August 11, 2023). "Netflix's Heart of Stone Is a Mission: Impossible Wannabe That Mostly Misses". Time. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  39. ↑ Grant, Steven; Mooney, Stephen (2007). CSI: Dying in the Gutters. IDW Publishing. pp. 124. ISBN 978-1-60010-048-2.
  40. ↑ Johnston, Rich. "Simon Bisley Was Not Killed In A Hit And Run Incident On BBC One Tonight". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  41. 1 2 3 "2000 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  42. 1 2 3 4 "2002 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  43. 1 2 3 4 5 "2004 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  44. ↑ "2004 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  45. ↑ "English-Language Awards Announced in New York". GLAAD. March 13, 2010. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  46. 1 2 "1999 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  47. 1 2 3 "2003 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  48. 1 2 "2005 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  49. ↑ "2003 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  50. ↑ "2007 Harvey Award Nominees and Winners". Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
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