|
|
|
|
Chris Claremont (born November 30, 1950) is a writer of American comic books, known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.
BiographyWriter profileClaremont was born in London, England. He is regarded as one of the hallmark Marvel Comics writers, having written one of the flagship titles, the Uncanny X-Men, for sixteen consecutive years. Many of his stories contained the social undercurrent of mutants being a harassed minority. Claremont also promoted strong female characters such as Rogue, Storm and Moira MacTaggert. Claremont is also known for certain characteristic phrases, known as "Claremontisms" among fans.[1] Claremont has revisited several characters repeatedly over his career, such as Captain Britain, Rogue, Sage, Kitty Pryde, and Psylocke. Claremont's work on X-Men, which was longer than that of any other writer, defined many of the X-Men characters years after his departure from Marvel Comics. Marvel ComicsAs an entry into comic writing Claremont was given the fledgling title Iron Fist in 1974 that also teamed him with John Byrne for the second time. (The first was on Marvel Premiere, where Byrne did Fist's last two appearances.) Len Wein then gave him the writing duties for the relaunched X-Men. Claremont also found narrative excuses to sideline Professor X, as one of the problems with the original X-Men series was that the Professor would often appear at the end of the story to provide a deus ex machina solution to whatever problem the X-Men faced. During his years as X-Men writer, Claremont wrote or co-wrote many classic stories such as the "Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past". He also co-created numerous important X-Men characters, including Rogue, Psylocke, Shadowcat, Phoenix, Sabretooth, Avalanche, Mystique, Emma Frost, Strong Guy, Siryn, Multiple Man, Captain Britain, Jubilee, Rachel Summers, Mister Sinister, Madelyne Pryor, and Gambit. In addition, he helped launch best-selling spin-offs such as X-Men, New Mutants , Excalibur, and Wolverine. In 1986, Marvel launched an X-Men spinoff, X-Factor, altering the Phoenix/Jean Grey continuity Claremont had established. In 1991 a second X-Men title simply called X-Men (often referred as "adjectiveless" X-Men) was launched having Claremont as writer though he only wrote three issues since he left Marvel following a series of editorial differences with the X-Men editor at the time Bob Harras. In 1998, he returned to Marvel as editorial director and the regular writer of Fantastic Four. He also wrote a Wolverine story arc. In 2000, as part of the company's "Revolution" event, he wrote Uncanny X-Men and X-Men until he moved to X-Treme X-Men with penciller Salvador Larroca. In 2006, cardiac illness forced Claremont to postpone the beginning of a planned run on Exiles as well as the launch of GeNext. Also cut short was his run on Uncanny X-Men, which was completed by Tony Bedard over Claremont's plots. Likewise, writer Frank Tieri took over on New Excalibur in Claremont's stead for a time. In 2007, Claremont returned to New Excalibur, writing a story arc where the character Nocturne has a stroke. He has also recently completed his first arc on Exiles, introducing Psylocke to the team. His latest project will be returning to GeNext.[2] Career outside Marvel ComicsClaremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman. Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. He also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female USAF pilot/astronaut Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series. He has a cameo in the film X-Men 3 during the Jean Grey prologue, for which he is credited as "Lawnmower man". Bibliography
AwardsClaremont won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for "Favorite Writer" in 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, and 1990. Also, he won CBG Fan Awards for "Favorite Comic Book Story" in 1990 (The X-tinction Agenda) and "Favorite Graphic Novel or Album" in 1992 (Star Trek: Debt of Honor).[3] During the long years of writing Uncanny X-Men the book has been nominated and won several Eagle Awards:
NotesReferences
External links
CommentsNo comments have been added. |
Switch Language
Popular PagesEmail this PageSyndicate
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
