Ron Fortier (born November 5, 1946) is an American author, primarily known for his Green Hornet and The Terminator comic books and his revival of the pulp hero Captain Hazzard. [1] Early in his career he also wrote short stories and co-authored two novels for TSR.
Fortier grew up in New Hampshire and now resides in Colorado. He graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School, in Dover. He served in the U.S. Army between 1965 and 1968 and is a Vietnam veteran. Upon his discharge, he attended the Southern New Hampshire University earning a BS degree in Business Administration. During his comics career, he wrote many series for Now Comics, including the best selling Green Hornet series done with artist Jeff Butler and Terminator Burning Earth, with Alex Ross. He later adapted a Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe for Tekno Comix, and wrote an Incredible Hulk Annual.
Following his work on comic books, he returned to longer fiction with a series of pulp fiction novels, short stories, and a 2001 play. In 2006, along with artist Rob Davis, he started Airship 27 Productions, a production company devoted to publishing new adventures of classic pulp heroes. The company first worked with Wild Cat Books but in 2007 they partnered with Cornerstone Book Publishers of New Orleans. Also in 2007 Fortier created pulp SF revival character "Mars McCoy." In 2011 Fortier and Airship 27 ended their partnership with Cornerstone and began publishing their books under their own Airship 27 Productions imprint. Fortier writes new Captain Hazzard novels based on a classic one-shot magazine from 1938 and created the new pulp character, Brother Bones; the Undead Avenger.
At the same time they started Redbud Studio to publish their own comics via the on-demand printing company, KaBlam. Redbud Studios publishes Fortier's comedy super-hero series, Mr. Jigsaw Man of a Thousand Parts illustrated by Gary Kato and edited by Rob Davis.
In 2011, Twilight Star Studio and Redbud Studio Comics began publishing Ron Fortier's Tales of the Macabre, a series of horror short stories written by Fortier and illustrated by comics industry up-and-coming artists. There have been six volumes to date including a collected edition.
In 2017 Fortier was the recipient of the Pulp Factory's first Pulp Grand Master Award.
Fortier has also co-written three novels with the late science fiction author Ardath Mayhar. He currently teaches a class in How To Write Comics & Graphic Novels at the Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, CO.
Bryan Talbot is a British comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire, as well as the Grandville series of books. He collaborated with his wife, Mary M. Talbot to produce Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, which won the 2012 Costa biography award.
Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. They span across a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.
The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s. The character was created by publisher Harry Steeger and written by a variety of authors for 118 monthly issues of The Spider from 1933 to 1943. The Spider sold well during the 1930s, and copies are valued by modern pulp magazine collectors. Pulp magazine historian Ed Hulse has stated "Today, hero-pulp fans value The Spider more than any single-character magazine except for The Shadow and Doc Savage."
Kathleen Louise Worley was an American comic book writer, best known for her work on Omaha the Cat Dancer, a sexually explicit anthropomorphic animal comic book series about a female stripper. Worley was also a musician, and a writer and performer for the science fiction comedy radio program Shockwave Radio Theater.
Paul Pope is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's two protagonist types are the silent, lanky outsider male of The One Trick Rip-Off, Escapo, and Heavy Liquid; or the resourceful, aggressive, humorous young teenage girls of THB. He has self-published some of his work, most notably THB, through his own Horse Press, with other work for such publishers as DC Comics/Vertigo and First Second Books.
Captain Action was an action figure created in 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes and facial masks allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's G.I. Joe, although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy-and-idea man, Stan Weston. Captain Action also had a working 4 foot parachute.
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.
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.
Roberta Gregory is an American comic book writer and artist best known for the character Bitchy Bitch from her Fantagraphics Books series Naughty Bits. She is a prolific contributor to many feminist and underground anthologies, such as Wimmen's Comix and Gay Comix.
Trina Robbins was an American cartoonist. She was an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement. She co-produced the 1970 underground comic It Ain't Me, Babe, which was the first comic book entirely created by women. She co-founded the Wimmen's Comix collective, wrote for Wonder Woman, and produced adaptations of Dope and The Silver Metal Lover. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Eisner Awards in 2017 and 2021.
Mike Bullock is an American author. He began writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the 1980s. He worked professionally in the music and comic book industries since 1986 and is best known as the creator of comic book series Lions, Tigers and Bears from Image Comics, and as the regular writer of The Phantom from Moonstone Books.
Dean Edmund Haspiel is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter, and for his collaborations with Jonathan Ames on The Alcoholic and HBO's Bored to Death. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work.
Dennis Calero is an American comic book artist and illustrator, known for his work on titles such as X-Men Noir, Spider-Man Noir, X Factor, Legion of Superheroes, and Kolchak.
The Green Lama is a fictional pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, created by American author Kendell Foster Crossen. He is commonly portrayed as a powerful Buddhist Lama, dressing in green robes with a red scarf and using his powerful skill set to fight crime. Slightly different versions of the same character also appeared in comic books and on the radio. Unlike many contemporary characters from smaller publishers, the Green Lama character is not in the public domain, as the author "wisely retained all rights to his creation".
Richard Dean Starr is an American entrepreneur, editor, screenwriter, and author of fiction, comics, and graphic novels. He is also a former journalist and film critic who has written for newspapers and magazines.
Van Allen Plexico is an American professor of Political Science and History, a Sports and Pop Culture podcast host and producer, and a science fiction and fantasy author. He is generally considered one of the leading figures in the New Pulp movement.
The Domino Lady was a masked pulp heroine who first appeared in the May 1936 issue of Saucy Romantic Adventures.
Chris "C. J." Henderson was an American writer of horror, hardboiled crime fiction and comic books, known for such works as the Piers Knight and Teddy London series. His comics work includes books for Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics.
Joyce Farmer is an American underground comix cartoonist. She was a participant in the underground comix movement. With Lyn Chevli, she created the feminist anthology comic book series Tits & Clits Comix in 1972.
James Chambers is an American author, comic book writer, and a member of the Horror Writers Association.