David Matthew Gallaher (born June 5, 1975) is an American video game writer,

comics writer A script is a document describing the narrative and dialogue of a comic book in detail. It is the comic book equivalent of a television program teleplay or a film screenplay. In comics, a script may be preceded by a plot outline, and is almost al ...

, podcaster and editor, known primarily for his work in comics and video games: '' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint'', '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', ''

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962. The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama, with Charles Russell, Edmond O ...

'', '' High Moon'', ''Box 13'', ''The Only Living Boy'' and 'The Only Living Girl'. His clients include

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

, the CBLDF,

Harris Publications Harris Publications Inc. was an American special interest media company, operating over 75 brands with print, digital, mobile and live-event platforms prior to its sale to Athlon Media in 2016. It produced magazines that educate, entertain and ...

and

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

. He also helped create ad campaigns for the

New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

Early life

Gallaher's family did not own a television until he was five years old. The first film he saw was the 1978 ''

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

'' movie. When his family finally obtained a television, he enjoyed '' Shazam!'', '' Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends'', ''

Super Friends ''Super Friends'' is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC as part of its Saturday-morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of Am ...

'', '' The Incredible Hulk'' and ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

''. Shortly after, he read his first comic '' Power Man and Iron Fist''. When he was 7, his mother bought a book for Gallaher which featured superhero designs one could trace.Lien-Cooper, Barb
"Shadow Man: David Gallaher"
Sequential Tart. Retrieved September 30, 2015. During Boy Scout summer camp in '88, Gallaher and became an avid reader of ''

Captain America Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in '' Captain America Comics'' #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely C ...

'', ''

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...

'', ''

West Coast Avengers The West Coast Avengers is a fictional group of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team first appeared in ''The West Coast Avengers'' #1 (Sept. 1984), created by Roger Stern and Bob Hall (comics), Bob Ha ...

'', and '' Speedball''. Gallaher cites John Byrne's "Vision Quest" storyline in ''West Coast Avengers'' as a story that had significant influence on him. He became a fan of Byrne's, particularly his work on ''

Namor Namor McKenzie (), also known as the Sub-Mariner, is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Bill Everett for comic book packager Funnies Inc., the character first appeared in '' Moti ...

''. A graduate of Frederick High School, Gallaher attended

Hood College Hood College is a private college in Frederick, Maryland. In fall 2018, Hood enrolled 2,052 students (1,092 undergraduate students; 960 graduate students). Thirty-eight percent of students are either members of under-represented racial or ethni ...

in Maryland, double-majoring in both

Special Education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...

and

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

. During his junior year, despite his love for teaching, he felt compelled to write. He switched to

Goddard College Goddard College was a Private college, private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor ins ...

on learning that

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...

William H. Macy William Hall Macy Jr. (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He is a two-time Emmy Award and four-time Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and has been nominated for an Acade ...

, and

Piers Anthony Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born August 6, 1934) is an American author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is best known for his long-running novel series set in the fictional realm of Xan ...

studied there. The school allowed him to create his own curriculum to major in Comics. He also taught a comics class to seniors and juniors with the work of

Garth Ennis Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish-American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series ''Preacher'' with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' ''Punisher'' franchise, and '' The Boys'' with artist Dar ...

and

Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...

included as part of the curriculum.

Career

After graduating from Goddard, Gallaher drew a crude version of his résumé as a six-panel comic strip and faxed it to

. The next day, he received a call to work at Marvel as an intern for the Interactive and Marketing department. After a week, he was hired as the department production editor, editing digital comics, training interns, researching material, writing character biographies and developing websites. His work as a creator at Marvel includes ''Hulk:

Winter Guard Winter guard (sometimes spelled "winterguard") is an indoor Color guard (flag spinning), color guard sport and performance art derived from military ceremonies. Modern winter guard is a competitive, performance-based activity which incorporates c ...

'' and '' Darkstar and the Winter Guard''. In late 2001, Gallaher met Joe Gentile of Moonstone Books at the Detroit Motor City Comic Con. Gentile encouraged Gallahar to submit for the Moonstone Noir Line and was hired to write ''

''. He wrote single issues of comics for ''Annex'' (Chalk Outline Studios), ''Immortals Gods and Heroes'' (Archaia), ''Deadlands'' (IDW and Image Comics), ''More Fund Comics'' (Sky Dog Press), and ''Vampirella'' #8-10 (Harris). He also wrote articles for Marvel Comics and ''Visual Opinions Magazine''. In advertising, Gallaher worked on several successful campaigns for the New York Police Department including a multimedia presentation CD Rom which won the 2007 CEA Award, and the 2008 "My NYPD" and "Only in NY, Only in The NYPD" campaigns which also won CEA Awards in 2008 and 2009. He also worked on books about marketing and computers, such as ''Introduction to Web Databases'' and ''Networking Tools 2.0''. In 2008, Gallaher was named as a 'Breakout Creator' by Comic Foundry magazine. In October 2009, Gallaher earned a

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for his work on the series '' High Moon''. In July 2011, Gallaher worked as consulting editor on a broad range of titles for

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

including

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

, Gon, Negima and Arisa. In July 2012, he and artist Steve Ellis formed Bottled Lightning Studios to self-publish their comics. Gallaher wrote 2 issues of

Green Lantern Corps The Green Lantern Corps is a intergalactic Peacekeeping, peace keeping agency appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They patrol the farthest reaches of the DC Universe at the behest of the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the plan ...

for DC Comics during the "

Convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen *Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that ...

" storyline. In 2018, Papercutz announced it would publish the spin-off series to The Only Living Boy, The Only Living Girl with David Gallaher and Steve Ellis resuming their young-adult children's adventure series. In February 2019, Gallaher became the co-host of the For The Love Of Comics podcast with Adam Vermillion. In June 2019, it was announced that David Gallaher would be one of the writers on

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

's Ghost Recon series. In October 2019, Gallaher and his studio were hired by the Children's Tumor Foundation to release a series of comic strips to promote the awareness of

neurofibromatosis Neurofibromatosis (NF) refers to a group of three distinct genetic conditions in which tumors grow in the nervous system. The tumors are non-cancerous (benign) and often involve the skin or surrounding bone. Although symptoms are often mild, e ...

Awards

*Gallaher's creation ''High Moon'' (with collaborator Steve Ellis and Scott O. Brown) won the "Best Online Comic" and was nominated for a ‘Best New Series’ Harvey Award for 2009. *Gallaher's was again nominated for a 2010 Harvey Award for "Best Online Comic" for ''High Moon'' *Gallaher (with collaborator Steve Ellis and Scott O. Brown) was nominated for a 2014

for "The Only Living Boy" in the "Best Graphic Publication for Young Readers" category *Gallaher was nominated for a 2016

for "The Only Living Boy" in the "Best Graphic Publication for Young Readers" category *Gallaher's work The Only Living Boy Omnibus received a nomination for "Best Presentation in Design" category *Gallaher's (and his team's work) on Ghost Recon: Breakpoint received the 'Best PC Game' in the Gamescom Awards 2019.

Personal life

Gallaher has

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. He is divorced (having been previously married to comics writer/editor Valerie D'Orazio) and lives in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

.https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgallaher/

Bibliography

Amazon Studios

* ''It Came In The Mail'' storyboards with artist Steve Ellis

Archie Comics

* ''Mighty Crusaders: The Shield'' with artist Rob Liefeld

Archaia

* ''Immortals: Gods & Heroes'' with artist Kevin Colden

Bottled Lightning

* ''The Altern80s'' with artist Kevin Colden

comiXology

* Box 13 (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis) * Box 13: The Pandora Process (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis)

DC Comics

* High Moon - Zuda webcomic imprint (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis) *

(with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis)

Image Comics

* Deadlands: The Devil's Six Gun (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis)

Marvel Comics

* Iron Man: Threaded Web * Untold Tales of Spider-Man: Threaded Web * Hulk: Winter Guard * '' Darkstar and The Winter Guard''

Moonstone Books

* Vampire: The Masquerade Blood and Shadows * Yours Truly, Jonny Dollar: The Brief Candle Matter * Moonstone Monsters: Ghosts (incorrectly credited as Ken Wolak)Gallaher, David
"NUMBER EIGHT IS MISSING!"
. Topica. August 19, 2003

Papercutz

* ''The Only Living Boy'' (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis) * ''The Only Living Girl'' (with artist and co-creator Steve Ellis)

Skydog Press

* More Fund Comics

Ubisoft

* Ghost Recon: Wildlands * Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

Notes

References

External links

*

graphic novel illustrated by

Eric Theriault The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Nor ...

, written by David Gallaher

Interviews

Interview
at 2008's New York Comic Con with comiXology
Podcast interview
with David at comiXology

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallaher, David 1975 births American male bloggers American bloggers Goddard College alumni Hood College alumni Writers from Brooklyn Writers from Honolulu Living people American webcomic creators American comics writers Marvel Comics people People with epilepsy