Quick Facts
Biography
Gregory "Greg" Rucka is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman, Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Atticus Kodiak series.
Early life
Greg Rucka was born on November 29, 1969 in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, in an area known to the locals as "Steinbeck Country". 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 an A.B. 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.
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.
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 are 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.
In 1998, Rucka entered the comics industry with Whiteout, published through Oni Press. 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, 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'". He wrote the novelization of the year-long arc. 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. His Batman work includes such story arcs as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive". as well as the Batman: Death and the Maidens limited series. 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, 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. 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 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. This series chronicled in real-time the year following Infinite Crisis, and saw Rucka focus on Renee Montoya of Gotham Central and the creation of the new Batwoman, Kate Kane. Rucka returned to the Batwoman character frequently over the years in a 52 sequel The Crime Bible and Final Crisis: Revelations before by returning to Detective Comics with artist J. H. Williams III.
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. 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. 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. Rucka then wrote The Punisher for Marvel Comics.
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. In May 2013, Rucka launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of a print edition of Lady Sabre, and achieved their initial funding goal of $27,500 within eight hours.
He wrote the creator-owned series, Black Magick, which was drawn by Nicola Scott and published by Image Comics. The Rucka/Scott creative team produced a new Wonder Woman series for DC Comics in June 2016 as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch.
Appearances in media
Rucka was featured as a character in the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation comic book miniseries Dying in the Gutters, as someone who accidentally killed a comics gossip columnist while attempting to kill Joe Quesada over his perceived role in the cancellation of Gotham Central.
Personal life
Rucka, his wife, author Jen Van Meter, and their two children, lived in Eugene, Oregon, and today live in Portland, Oregon.
Rucka's best friend, David Hale Smith, is also his literary agent.
Rucka names The Conversation, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Silence of the Lambs as his favorite films. He enjoys the music of Dexter Gordon, Lester Bowie, Joe Jackson, Warren Zevon, and Melissa Ferrick. His other hobbies include roleplaying games, computer games, playing the guitar and collecting action figures. He previously rode a motorcycle, but stopped doing so after its battery died, and hopes one day to give it to someone.
Awards
Wins
- 2000 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series (for Whiteout: Melt)
- 2002 Eisner Award for Best New Series (for Queen & Country, with Steve Rolston)
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Gotham Central #6-10: "Half a Life", with Michael Lark)
- 2004 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Gotham Central #6-10, with Michael Lark; tied with Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez for Love and Rockets #9)
- 2010 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book (for Detective Comics)
- 2011 Eisner Award for Best Short Story (for "Post Mortem" from I Am An Avenger #2, with Michael Lark).
Nominations
- 1999 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series (for Whiteout, with Steve Lieber)
- 1999 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Whiteout)
- 2000 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint (for Whiteout, with Steve Lieber)
- 2000 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Whiteout: Melt)
- 2002 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #1-4: "Operation: Broken Ground", with Steve Rolston)
- 2002 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Queen & Country, with Steve Rolston)
- 2002 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country)
- 2003 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country)
- 2003 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country and Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia)
- 2003 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #8-12: "Operation: Crystal Ball", with Leandro Fernández)
- 2003 Eisner Award for Best New Series (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark)
- 2003 Harvey Award for Best Writer (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker)
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story (for Queen & Country #13-15: "Operation Blackwall", with Jason Shawn Alexander)
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Gotham Central, with Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Brian Hurtt, and Stefano Gaudiano)
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series (for Queen & Country, with Jason Alexander, Carla Speed McNeil, and Mike Hawthorne)
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country, Wonder Woman and Wolverine)
- 2005 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Queen & Country and Gotham Central)
- 2007 Harvey Award for Best New Series (for 52, with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, and Keith Giffen)
- 2011 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series (for Stumptown, with Matthew Southworth)
- 2014 Eisner Award for Best New Series (for Lazarus, with Michael Lark)