My first book, Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!, was published in September 2006 by Chicago Review Press. It's a series of Rolling Stone-style biographical profiles of great artists – in this case, comic book creators. By chronicling their lives and careers, I'm presenting a sort of oral history of the comics medium itself. I interviewed and profiled eleven innovative and influential comic book luminaries – Will Eisner (The Spirit), Jerry Robinson (Batman), Stan Lee (Spider-Man), Trina Robbins (GoGirl!), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets), Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Dwayne McDuffie (Static Shock), Ho Che Anderson (KING), and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).

In researching this book, I had a few definite goals in mind. I tried to make this book more diverse, more multicultural, than the average book on comics. Many in today’s comics industry have chosen to use the medium as a forum on the struggles of the oppressed. You see this in Kyle Baker’s depiction of the Nat Turner revolt; in Art Spiegelman’s war-torn Holocaust memoirs; in Marjane Satrapi’s stories of the Islamic Revolution in Iran; in Will Eisner’s chronicles of old-time Jewish New York; in Ho Che Anderson’s Wellesian docudrama about the life and death of Martin Luther King; in Neil Gaiman’s frank, honest depiction of human sexuality; in Gilbert Hernandez’s tales of Palomar, the mythical Central American small town. You see it in Stan Lee’s vision of a 1960s-era multicultural superhero community, and in Dwayne McDuffie’s ‘90s-era version of same. You see it in Jerry Robinson’s angry political cartoons and in Trina Robbins’ equally trenchant feminist funnies. And while diversity in comics still has a way to go, I believe the writers and cartoonists profiled herein are a good start.

Some of the people in this book aren’t as famous as the “marquee names.” But they should be. Everyone in Masters of TCBUR! is someone who’s doing something different, innovative, and special in the comics field.

If you are a publisher looking to get in touch with me, please feel free to contact me through this site or contact my literary agent, Rita Rosenkranz. Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency, (212) 873-6333.