J. Michael Straczynski

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Joseph Michael Straczynski (born July 17, 1954) is an award-winning American writer/producer of television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas. He is also a playwright, journalist and author of a well-regarded tome on scriptwriting. He was the creator, executive producer and head writer for the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 and Crusade. Straczynski wrote most of the Babylon 5 episodes, notably an unbroken 59-episode run including all of the third and fourth seasons. He is also a participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1985. He is a friend and collaborator with speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison, a student and friend of Norman Corwin and an outspoken admirer of the work of Rod Serling.

Straczynski is a graduate of San Diego State University, having earned Bachelor's degrees in psychology and sociology (with minors in philosophy and literature). While at SDSU, he wrote prolifically for the student newspaper, at times penning so many articles that the paper was jokingly referred to as the "Daily Joe." Straczynski currently resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife, fellow writer Kathryn M. Drennan.

Straczynski's professional name is J. Michael Straczynski, although informally he goes by "Joe". In print, and particularly on Usenet, he is often referred to by his initials JMS.

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Early years

Straczynski hails from Paterson, New Jersey.

According to the jacket bio for the first edition of his scriptwriting text (see Other work below), Straczynski had a play produced when he was 17, a sitcom produced when he was 21, and sold his first movie script when he was 24. By the age of 28, he had credits that included television and film scripts, radio scripts for Alien Worlds and the Mutual Broadcasting System, a dozen plays, and more than 150 newspaper and magazine articles. He had also been teaching his craft for several years at various lectures and seminars in California and elsewhere.

He also spent some time co-hosting the Hour 25 radio talk show with Larry DiTillio.

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Television

Image:Babylon5 02.jpg

Straczynski started in television in 1983, working on various animated shows, and he quickly worked his way from staff writer to executive producer, culminating in his most famous television work: Babylon 5 (which won back-to-back Hugo Awards). He wrote 91 out of Babylon 5's 110 episodes, as well as the pilot and five television movies. The character-driven space opera is also notable for its five year story arc, gritty realism, and its pioneering, extensive use of CGI for its special effects. Straczynski was also creator and executive producer of B5's aborted sequel series, Crusade, for which he wrote 10 of the 13 episodes.

Straczynski created Jeremiah, loosely based on the Belgian post-apocalyptic comic of the same name. He wrote 19 of the 35 episodes.

A partial list of Straczynski's other television credits:

Additionally, Straczynski was involved in She-Ra: Princess of Power, and Spiral Zone, from which he removed his name and used the pseudonym Fettes Grey (derived from the names of the grave robbers in The Body Snatcher). He also wrote an episode of CBS Story Break (an adaptation of Evelyn Sibley Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek), as well as an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, where he was supervising producer at its inception.

Straczynski has also worked on television movies. Outside of the five Babylon 5 films, he wrote the award-winning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, an attempted Captain Power spin-off pilot, Captain Power: The Beginning, and a Murder, She Wrote movie, Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For, which he also produced.

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Novels and short stories

Straczynski is the author of three horror novels - Demon Night, Othersyde, and Tribulations - and nearly twenty short stories, many of which are collected in two compilations, Tales from the New Twilight Zone and Straczynski Unplugged. He wrote the outlines for nine of the canonical Babylon 5 novels, and is the author of four Babylon 5 short stories published in magazines and (as of 2005) not yet reprinted.

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Comic books

Straczynski has long been a comic aficionado, and wrote a few comics during the 1980s, namely an issue of Teen Titans Spotlight, The Twilight Zone, and Star Trek. With the exception of the Babylon 5 comics, television work took over most of his writing duties throughout the 1980s and 1990s, until 1999 when he started writing Rising Stars for Top Cow / Image Comics. Eventually he worked mostly under his own imprint, Joe's Comics, for which he also wrote the acclaimed Midnight Nation miniseries, and the illustrated fantasy parable Delicate Creatures.

Soon, Straczynski developed a good reputation in the comics industry, and Marvel Comics signed him to an exclusive contract, beginning with a highly regarded run on The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's flagship title, with notable stories including the somewhat controversial ASM #36 where Spider-Man deals with the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, ASM #38 where Aunt May learns about Peter's secret identity once and for all, and ASM #509-514 an extremely controversial story-arc, in which Peter Parker/Spider-Man has to deal with the memory and past actions of his dead girlfriend Gwen Stacy. Other successful titles for Marvel followed, including Supreme Power and a run on Fantastic Four.

Straczynski's work for Marvel includes:

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Graphic novels and collections

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Supreme Power trade paperbacks

  • Volume 1: Contact (#1-6)
  • Volume 2: Powers And Principalities (#7-12)
  • Volume 3: High Command (#13-18)
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The Amazing Spider-Man trade paperbacks

  • Volume 1: Coming Home (#30-35)
  • Volume 2: Revelations (#36-39)
  • Volume 3: Until The Stars Turn Cold (#40-45)
  • Volume 4: The Life & Death of Spiders (#46-50)
  • Volume 5: Unintended Consequences (#51-56)
  • Volume 6: Happy Birthday (#57-58, #500-502)
  • Volume 7: The Book of Ezekiel (#503-508)
  • Volume 8: Sins Past (#509-514)
  • Volume 9: Skin Deep (#515-518)
  • Volume 10: New Avengers (#519-524)
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Rising Stars trade paperbacks

  • Volume 0: Visitations (#0, ½, Preview)
  • Volume 1: Born in Fire (#1-8)
  • Volume 2: Power (#9-16)
  • Volume 3: Fire and Ash (#17-24)
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Graphic novels

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Other work

Straczynski wrote The Complete Book of Scriptwriting (ISBN 1852868821), often used as a text in introductory screenwriting courses, and now in its third edition.

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Awards

He has received a good deal of recognition for his work, including a nomination for the Comics' Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 2000.

His awards, numbering in the dozens, include: two Hugo Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, a Saturn Award, the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Award, and three technical Emmy Awards (for Babylon 5 itself).

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Trivia

  • Straczynski is the creator of the word spoo.
  • In 2004, Straczynski was approached by Paramount Studios to become a producer of the Star Trek: Enterprise series. He declined, believing that he would not be allowed to take the show in the direction he felt it should go. He did write a treatment for a new Star Trek series with colleague Bryce Zabel, and there are persistent rumors that he might be asked to develop another Trek series in the future.
  • Straczynski was supposed to write a screenplay adaptation of the comicbook GrimJack, but the unavailability of the rights to the GrimJack character following First Comics' bankruptcy forced the project to be shelved indefinitely.
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External links

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