J. M. DeMatteis

John Marc DeMatteis (; born December 15, 1953) is an American writer of comic books, television and novels.

Biography

Early career

J. M. DeMatteis's earliest aspirations were to be a rock musician and comic book artist. He began playing in bands starting in the sixth grade, generally in the role of lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist, and also wrote music reviews for a number of publications. He began drawing at a young age, and was accepted into the School of the Visual Arts. DeMatteis recalled, "...for some reason, I think it was financial, I ended up not going. Somewhere after that what little drawing skills I had began to atrophy." He graduated from Midwood High School in Brooklyn in 1971.

DeMatteis then turned from drawing to writing. He got his start in comic books at DC Comics in the late 1970s. After a number of rejected submissions, his first accepted story was "The Lady-Killer Craves Blood", but it would not be published until years later in ''House of Mystery'' #282 (July 1980). His first published story for the company was "The Blood Boat!" in ''Weird War Tales'' #70 (Dec. 1978). He contributed to the company's line of horror comics notably with the creation of the Creature Commandos in ''Weird War Tales'' #93 (Nov. 1980) and I…Vampire in ''House of Mystery'' #290 (March 1981). He briefly wrote the Aquaman feature in ''Adventure Comics'' as well. DeMatteis and artist Brian Bolland produced a backup story titled "Falling Down to Heaven" in ''Madame Xanadu'', DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to the "direct market" of fans and collectors. DeMatteis had long been eager to work for Marvel Comics, and following roughly a year in which editor-in-chief Jim Shooter kept him busy with odd jobs and fill-ins, in 1980 he was made the lead writer for Marvel on '' The Defenders'', and had lengthy runs on ''Captain America'', paired with penciler Mike Zeck, and '' Marvel Team-Up''.

1980s

After writing a negative review of the Grateful Dead's 1980 album '' Go to Heaven'' which was published in ''Rolling Stone'', DeMatteis ended his career as a music critic. He explained, "Grateful Dead fans are like hardcore comic book fans, you know... and I know that when I sit down to write a review that I'm just some shmuck sitting down at a typewriter with an opinion—but then it's in print in something like ''Rolling Stone''. I got all these letters, which I saved, from all these hardcore Grateful Dead fans—wounded. ... I said if I'm gonna review at all I'm not gonna write negative reviews anymore..." Around this time he also surrendered his professional career as a rock musician, after years of playing in New York City–based bands.

In 1984, DeMatteis and artist Bob Budiansky produced a '' Prince Namor'' limited series. He saw the series as an opportunity to both delve more into the psychology of the title character than he had been able to in ''The Defenders'' and to continue his collaboration with Budiansky from the recently canceled ''Ghost Rider'', later recalling, "We'd get on the phone, start talking, and the stories would come so easily. We had a fantastic rapport, personally and professionally." DeMatteis had mixed feelings about the series itself, and said the one part of which he was unreservedly proud was the look into Namor's years as an amnesiac homeless man. DeMatteis and illustrator Jon J. Muth created the graphic novel '' Moonshadow'', for Marvel's Epic line: the groundbreaking story was the first fully painted series in American comics. DeMatteis followed this with the 1986 Doctor Strange graphic novel '' Into Shamballa'' drawn by Dan Green and '' Blood: A Tale'', a hallucinatory vampire story drawn by Kent Williams. In 1987, DeMatteis and Zeck re-teamed for the " Kraven's Last Hunt" arc that ran throughout Marvel's then-three Spider-Man titles. The arc has been collected in multiple editions and remains one of the most popular, and respected, stories in Spider-Man's history.

Moving back to DC, DeMatteis succeeded Gerry Conway as writer of the superhero-team title ''Justice League of America''. He used the pen name Michael Ellis on his first issue of the series. When that title was cancelled in the wake of the company-wide crossover '' Legends'', DeMatteis stayed through its relaunch as '' Justice League International'', scripting over the plots of Keith Giffen.

''JLI'' took such lesser-known DC characters as Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Mister Miracle, Captain Atom, and Power Girl and turned the then-current preoccupation with "grim 'n' gritty" superheroes on its head. The lighthearted series emphasized the absurd aspects of people with strange powers, wearing colorful costumes, volunteering to fight evildoers. Although the League had its serious side and often faced world-threatening villains, the stories included such characters as the lovably inept G'nort, the worst Green Lantern in the Green Lantern Corps, Mr. Nebula, the interplanetary decorator, the Injustice League, a bunch of bumbling losers and a flock of homicidal penguins who had been hybridized with piranhas. The success of ''Justice League International'' led to a spin-off in 1989 titled '' Justice League Europe'' also co-written with Giffen and featuring art by Bart Sears.

1990s

The Giffen/DeMatteis team worked on ''Justice League'' for five years and closed out their run with the "Breakdowns" storyline in 1991 and 1992. DeMatteis scripted ''Justice League'' spin-offs such as solo series for Mister Miracle and Doctor Fate.

Back at Marvel, DeMatteis again succeeded Conway, this time as writer of '' The Spectacular Spider-Man'' in 1991, taking the series in a grimmer, more psychologically oriented direction. In collaboration with regular artist Sal Buscema, DeMatteis' story arc "The Child Within" (#178–184) featured the return of the Harry Osborn Green Goblin. Spider-Man's battle with the Goblin continued in "The Osborn Legacy" in #189 and came to an end when Harry died in "The Best Of Enemies!" (#200).

In 1994, DeMatteis took over from David Michelinie as writer of ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #389–406 for a run that included the apparent death of Peter Parker's Aunt May and the beginnings of the " Clone Saga" arc. DeMatteis as well worked on such characters as Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Man-Thing, and the Silver Surfer.

DeMatteis helped launch DC's mature-audience Vertigo imprint, writing the graphic novels '' Mercy'' and '' Farewell, Moonshadow'' (a sequel to the Epic Comics series), the miniseries '' The Last One'', and the 15-issue series '' Seekers Into The Mystery'', the story of a Hollywood screenwriter on a journey of self-discovery

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