J. M. DeMatteis
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, J. M. DeMatteis was a professional musician and rock music journalist before entering the comic book field. Although he’s written almost all of the major DC and Marvel icons—including memorable runs on Spider-Man and Justice League—DeMatteis’s greatest acclaim has come for sophisticated original graphic novels like Seekers Into The Mystery, Blood: A Tale, The Last One, and Mercy. The autobiographical Brooklyn Dreams was picked by the ALA as one of the Ten Best Graphic Novels and Booklist, in a starred review, called it “as graphically distinguished and creatively novelistic a graphic novel as has ever been...a classic of the form.” The groundbreaking Moonshadow was chosen (along with Brooklyn Dreams, Blood and other DeMatteis works) for inclusion in Gene Kanenberg, Jr’s 2008 book 500 Essential Graphic Novels—where it was hailed as one of the finest fantasy graphic novels ever created.
His success in the comic book medium has led DeMatteis to work in both television (writing live action and animation) and movies (creating screenplays for Fox, Disney Feature Animation, directors Carlo Carlei and Chris Columbus and producer Dean Devlin, among others).
In the past decade, DeMatteis has had great success with the acclaimed children’s fantasy Abadazad—which Entertainment Weekly, giving the series an A grade, hailed as “...one of those very rare fantasy works that can enchant preteen kids and 40-year old fanboys...” and Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, called “an appealing blend of Spirited Away and The Wizard of Oz.” Abadazad began life as a CrossGen comic book before morphing into a three-book series published by Disney’s Hyperion Books For Children. DeMatteis’s 2009 graphic novel, The Life and Times of Savior 28, was called “one of the finest superhero stories of the decade” by Newsarama.
In 2011, DeMatteis reunited with frequent collaborators Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire for the warmly-received Justice League Retroactive. Recent projects include the fantasy novel Imaginalis, published by HarperCollins, and episodes of the animated series Sym-Bionic Titan, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Ben 10. Current projects include the upcoming all-ages fantasy The Adventures of Augusta Wind from IDW Publishing and multiple episodes of Cartoon Network’s ThunderCats.
DeMatteis recently launched Imagination 101, a three-day workshop exploring the practicalities and metaphysics of writing for comics, graphic novels and animation. He also co-founded Creation Point, a story consultation service that offers in-depth guidance for both the professional and aspiring writer.
