Mark Finn (born October 1969) is an American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

writer, essayist, and playwright. In 2007 he was nominated for World Fantasy Special Award: Professional.

Biography

Finn's earliest published work was a series of

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

stories that he wrote and drew for Absolute Comics, notably the “Punk” series he created with William Traxtle and Shane Campos, among others, from 1991 to 1994. He left comics in the mid-90s to concentrate on fiction writing. He also wrote a number of essays and articles for

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

’s online website before establishing his own weekly self-distributed column, “Finn's Wake.” Finn worked for Chessex Manufacturing for a year, serving as their editor-in-chief, where he worked on a number of product lines including ''Lost Worlds'', ''Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective'', and helped design a variety of ancillary game product tie-ins for ''Vampire: the Masquerade'', ''Call of Cthulhu'', Chessex's Speckled Dice line, and others. Finn returned to Texas in the late 1990s and formed

Clockwork Storybook Clockwork Storybook (CWSB) was a writer's collective and independent book publisher based in Austin, Texas. It specialized in the fantasy, horror and adventure genres. History Clockwork Storybook was formed in the late 1990s by fellow Austin- ...

with fellow writers Chris Roberson,

Matthew Sturges Lilah Sturges (; born Matthew Sturges, October 1970) is an American writer of comics and fantasy novels. She is best known for co-writing with Bill Willingham the Eisner-award-nominated '' Jack of Fables'', and other comics published by Vertigo Co ...

, and

Bill Willingham William Willingham (born 1956) is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series '' Elementals'' and ''Fables''. Career William Willingham was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During his father's military career the fam ...

. Their monthly

shared world A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where one or more writers (or other artists) independently contribute works that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, charact ...

anthology of

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban area, urban-affected setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual charac ...

centered on the fictitious city of San Cibola, California, and the magical inhabitants that lived side-by-side with the normal citizens. From this collective, Finn published the novels ''Gods New & Used'' and ''Year of the Hare'', the first collection of stories revolving around Sam Bowen. Finn later became a contributing editor for RevolutionSF.com and wrote a number of articles and reviews to the website. Finn served as the creative director for the Violet Crown Radio Players, an audio theater troupe based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, from 2002 to 2007. He has written several original scripts to critical acclaim and also adapted novels and short stories to an

old time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

format, most notably “The Adventures of Sailor Steve Costigan”, and “

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

”, which was nominated for a B. Iden Payne award. He has been active in

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp magazine, pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sor ...

studies since 2002 and is now considered to be a scholar in the field. His biography of Howard, '' Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard'' ( Monkeybrain, Inc.), was released in November 2006 at the

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual science fiction convention, convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art sh ...

and was a finalist for the 2007 Locus Awards for Best Non-Fiction. For his work on ''Blood & Thunder'', Finn was nominated for the 2007

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

in the Special Award Professional category. Finn won the 2005 Cimmerian Awards for Outstanding Achievement, Best Essay (for “Fists of Robert E. Howard” from ''The Barbaric Triumph''), and the Emerging Scholar plus the 2007 Awards for Outstanding Achievement, Book By A Single Author (for ''Blood & Thunder'') and Outstanding Achievement, Website (along with Leo Grin, Rob Roehm and Steve Tompkins for The Cimmerian blog). In 2013, 2014 and 2016 Finn was named one of the top movie critics in Texas by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors awards. Finn is a founding member o
the Gentlemen Nerds
podcast.

Partial bibliography

# "

Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized f ...

With a Dick" - RevolutionSF, 2001 # ''Gods New & Used'' - Clockwork Storybook, 2001 () # ''Year of the Hare'' - Clockwork Storybook, 2002 () # "Diary of a Dinopunk" - RevolutionSF, December 2002 # "The Transformation of Lawrence Croft" - RevolutionSF, (serialized) 2003 # "Fists of Robert E. Howard" (essay) - ''The Barbaric Triumph'',

Wildside Press Wildside Press is an independent publishing company in Cabin John, Maryland. It was founded in 1989 by John Betancourt and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limite ...

, 2004 () # “Bare Knuckles & Bulldogs”, (intro) - ''Waterfront Fists: The Complete Fight Stories of Robert E. Howard'', Wildside Press, 2004. () # "Something About Harry" - ''Projections: Science Fiction in Literature and Film'', Monkeybrain, Inc., 2004 () # "Robert E. Howard" (an interview with Rusty Burke) - ''Conversations with Texas Writers'', -

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is the university press of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly and trade books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Caribbean, Caribbea ...

, 2005. () # "Robert E. Howard: Lone Star Fantasist" - '' Conan: The Frost-Giant's Daughter and Other Stories'',

Dark Horse Books Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

, 2005 () # "The Chronicler of Conan: Robert E. Howard On His Most Famous Creation" - ''Conan: The God In the Bowl and Other Stories'', Dark Horse Books, 2005 () # "The Bridge of Teeth" - ''Adventure, Volume 1'', Monkeybrain, Inc., 2005 (honorable mention in

Gardner Dozois Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fict ...

’ ''Year's Best Science Fiction'') () # “A Whim of Circumstance” - ''Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard'', Monkeybrain, Inc., 2006 () # '' Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard 2nd edition'', The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press., 2014 () # “ The Transformation of Lawrence Croft: The Con-Dorks Saga Volume 1”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2014 () # “ The Chance of a Lifetime: The Con-Dorks Saga Volume 2”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2014 () # “

Road Trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2014 () # “ Year of the Hare: The Sam Bowen Chronicles Volume 1”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2014 () # “ The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey”, Fight Card Publishing, 2014 () # “ Bowen's Bluff: The Sam Bowen Chronicles Volume 2”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2015 () # “ One in a Million: The Con-Dorks Saga Volume 3”, Monkeyhouse Publishing, 2014 () # “Bones of the Rebellion” - ''Asian Pulp'', Pro Se Press, 2015 () # “Sic Semper Draconis” - ''HEROIKA 1: Dragon Eaters'', Perseid Press, 2015 () # “Shabby Chic” - ''Debris & Detritus: The Lesser Greek Gods Running Amok'', Story Spring Press, 2017 ()

References

External links

Publisher's page for ''Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard''

Baker's Dozen with Mark Finn

"Hemingway With a Dick"

"Diary of a Dinopunk"

"The Transformation of Lawrence Croft"

"Mark Finn as guest host on Chicken Fried Radio"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Mark 1969 births American biographers American male biographers American science fiction writers American short story writers American comics writers Living people Pulp fiction writers Robert E. Howard American male short story writers American male novelists