John Ostrander

John Ostrander (2009)

John Ostrander (born April 20, 1949 ) is an American comic book author .

Life and work

Ostrander began to study Catholic theology in the late 1960s , according to his own account, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. In the early 1970s he began working as an actor for a theater company in Chicago. In 1983 he finally switched to the comic industry as an author.

He delivered his first work for the series Sargon, Mistress of War , which appeared in the series Warp at the comic book publisher First Comics. Together with Timothy Truman , Ostrander created the character GrimJack, whose adventures were published in the Starslayer series .

In the mid-1980s, Ostrander developed a close relationship with the publisher DC-Comics , for whom he worked on series such as Firestorm , Justice League , Manhunter , Martian Manhunter , The Specter , Suicide Squad and Wasteland in the 1980s and 1990s . As a co-author, Ostrander was often at the side of his wife Kim Yale until her death in 1997 from breast cancer . Other artists Ostrander often works with are the draftsmen Tom Mandrake and Joe Staton .

For the publisher Marvel Comics Ostrander worked on series such as Bishop , X-Men , Quicksilver , Heroes for Hire and Punisher . For Eclipse Comics he wrote the series Hotspur, for Chaos! Comics the series Lady Death , for Valiant Comics Magnus, Robot Fighter , Rai and the Future Force and Eternal Warrior and for Dark Horse Comics he wrote various Star Wars series.

Ostrander wrote an audio drama about the adventurer Doctor Who for Big Finish Productions , while he wrote a prose story about the jungle hero The Phantom for the publisher Moonstone Books for an anthology with short stories.

Ostrander is currently working, again with Tom Mandrake, on a multi-part Batman story for DC.

Web links

• Works by John Ostrander at the German Comic Guide
• Column by Ostrander at ComicMix (English)