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Mark Ellis is an American novelist/graphic novelist, journalist, and comics creator who under the pen name James Axler has written scores of books for the Outlanders and Deathlands paperback novel series as well as numerous other books under his own name.
In 1980, Ellis married Melissa Martin, a graphic designer, photographer and writer who served as his business partner. He began working as a full-time writer in 1986. [1]
A busy comics creator in the 1980s and 90s, Ellis created the popular Death Hawk character and also developed/created Star Rangers , Ninja Elite, The Justice Machine , as well as working on such popular properties as Doc Savage, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu , The Green Hornet, and The Wild Wild West.
In 1990, Ellis co-founded Millennium Publications, serving as editor, with his wife and co-founder Melissa Martin [1] as vice-president and art director. Millennium gave early exposure to comics artists such as Mike Wieringo and Darryl Banks, and utilized industry veterans Jim Mooney and Don Heck. Projects included The Wild, Wild West , a four-part series based on the classic TV show, H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness and a twelve-issue adaptation of Anne Rice's The Mummy or Ramses the Damned among many others.
For Millennium, Ellis conceived and scripted Nosferatu: Plague of Terror, a four-part series that provided a complete story of the title character's origin quite apart from the Dracula legend. Ellis also adapted the horror film It! The Terror from Beyond Space into comics. Working with artist Darryl Banks he adapted the pulp fiction hero Doc Savage into the four-part miniseries Doc Savage: The Monarch of Armageddon.
The Comics Buyer's Guide Catalog of Books referred to the Ellis/Banks version of Doc Savage as having "come[s] closest to the original, capturing all the action, humanity, and humor of the original novels".
In 1995, Ellis began writing action-adventure novels for Harlequin Enterprises Gold Eagle imprint, first for the long-running Mack Bolan franchise and the post-apocalyptic Deathlands series.
In 1996 under the house pseudonym of "James Axler", he created the best-selling Outlanders series, the first entry of which was released in 1997. With the cancellation of the Gold Eagle imprint at the end of 2015, Outlanders concluded its 18.5 year run, making it the most successful mass-market paperback series of the last 35 years. Combined with the audio book editions, Outlanders comprises well over 100 novels. Although the Axler pseudonym was shared with other writers, primarily the multiple contributors to Gold Eagle's Deathlands series, Ellis authored more novels as "James Axler" than any other writer. [2]
In 2008, Ellis co-authored The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels with Melissa Martin (published by Simon & Schuster). The book led to several of his earlier comic series being compiled as graphic novel editions by publishers such as Caliber Comics/Transfuzion, Markosia and Ying Ko Graphics.[ citation needed ]
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L. Nanovic at Street & Smith Publications, with additional material contributed by the series' main writer, Lester Dent. Doc Savage stories were published under the Kenneth Robeson name. The illustrations were by Walter Baumhofer, Paul Orban, Emery Clarke, Modest Stein, and Robert G. Harris.
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales.
Deathlands is a series of novels written by Christopher Lowder under the pseudonym Jack Adrian and published by Gold Eagle Publishing. The first novel, Pilgrimage to Hell, was published in 1986. This series of novels was written by Lowder until he became ill following his development of the plot and writing most of the book. Laurence James, under the pseudonym James Axler, then completed the series.
James Axler is a house name used by the publishing company Gold Eagle Publishing, the action adventure series published by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Outlanders is a long-running series of science-fiction novels created by Mark Ellis and published by Gold Eagle, an imprint of Harlequin Enterprises.
Death Hawk is a fictional American comic book character, a self-styled salvage expert in the 25th century. The character starred in a namesake, three-issue series published by Adventure Publications from 1987 to 1988, created and written by Mark Ellis. He first appeared in a five-page back-up feature in Star Rangers #2–3, by the same writer.
Nosferatu: Plague of Terror, later published under the title Nosferatu: Sovereign of Terror, is a four-part comic series released by American publisher Millennium Publications from 1991 to 1992. Conceived as both a prequel and sequel to F.W. Murnau's silent film Nosferatu, it was written by Mark Ellis, designed by Melissa Martin, with art provided by Rik Levins, Richard Pace, and Frank Turner.
Star Rangers was a four-issue American science-fiction comic-book series created by writer Mark Ellis and artist Jim Mooney, following the adventures of a military spaceship crew in a 25th-century controlled by corporations.
H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness was a three-part comic book mini-series published in the USA by Millennium Publications. It followed a group of investigators, the Miskatonic Project, as they confronted the Mi-go, the cunning Fungi from Yuggoth.
Pilgrimage to Hell is the first book in the Deathlands saga of novels. Written by Christopher Lowder under his pen name Jack Adrian and Laurence James under his pen name James Axler published on May 1, 1986, it follows the adventures of Ryan Cawdor, Krysty Wroth, and J.B. Dix, and delves into how they met.
The Justice Machine is a fictional team of superheroes originally created by Mike Gustovich and appearing in comic books from many small publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to Gustovich, writers Tony Isabella and Mark Ellis have also had lengthy creative associations with Justice Machine.
Gary Reed was an American comic book writer, and the publisher of Caliber Comics, an independent comic book company that released 1,300 titles in the 1990s and published early work by many popular creators. Reed wrote over 200 comics and graphic novels, sometimes under assumed names. He was also Vice President of McFarlane Toys when the company launched in 1993. His comics writing credits include Saint Germaine,Baker Street and Deadworld. In addition to comics, Reed wrote a role-playing game for Palladium and wrote some of the storyline scenarios for Final Fight: Streetwise for Capcom.
GraphicAudio is an audiobook publishing imprint of RBMedia. The GraphicAudio format includes a full cast of actors, narration, sound effects and cinematic music.
William Murray is an American novelist, journalist, short story, and comic book writer. Much of his fiction has been published under pseudonyms. With artist Steve Ditko, he co-created the superhero Squirrel Girl.
Markosia is a British comic book publishing company.
Christopher Sequeira is a Sydney-based Australian editor, writer and artist who works predominantly in the speculative fiction and mystery realms.
Millennium Publications was an American independent comic book publishing company active in the 1990s.
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