Jen Van Meter

Jennifer "Jen" Van Meter is an American comic book writer best known for her Oni Press series Hopeless Savages as well as for series at Marvel and DC Comics. Her most recent work for Marvel features Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.

Jen Van Meter was born and raised in Fresno, California. She graduated from Vassar College with an Bachelor of Arts in English, and followed that with a Master of Arts in Folklore Studies and Literature from the University of Oregon.

Van Meter diverged from the Ph.D. track and began pursuing a career in comics, her first published work was a story in the 1998 Dark Horse Presents annual that saw the first appearance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in comic book form.

Van Meter's first major writing gig in comics was the Oni one-shot set in the world and sharing the name of The Blair Witch Project, along with the follow-up series The Blair Witch Chronicles. Her work with Oni led to the creation of Hopeless Savages, featuring members of the Hopeless-Savage family, parents hailing from the 70s era of punk and their offspring, who have carved out their own cultural identities. The first four-issue series was nominated for an Eisner Award for best limited series in 2002, a Friends of Lulu Award in 2003, and was chosen as a 2004 Popular Paperback for Young Adults by the American Library Association. The original mini-series was followed by two more four-issue miniseries, Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero and Too Much Hopeless Savages.

Van Meter's work at Oni led to other series at DC, including the mini-series Cinnamon: El Ciclo and Black Lightning: Year One, and at Marvel, where she recently wrote a mini-series featuring Black Cat. In addition to her Marvel work, Van Meter wrote the ten-part "Liberty Belle & Hourman" back-up series that ran in JSA All-Stars until October 2010.

In 2014, Van Meter began writing the ongoing series "The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage" for "Valiant Comics"

Van Meter lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, comics creator Greg Rucka, and their two children:Elliot and Dashiell Rucka.