Creation Point

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

--Thomas Mann

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. “While Sandman may be the best known fantasy comic,” he wrote, “Moonshadow is arguably the finest.”

More recently 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, a unique blend of prose, illustration and sequential art, published by Disney’s Hyperion Books For Children.  

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).

Currently editor-in-chief of Ardden Entertainment, overseeing their line of comic books and graphic novels, DeMatteis's latest projects include the fantasy novel, Imaginalis, to be published in July, 2010 by HarperCollins; reuniting with frequent collaborator Keith Giffen on a top-secret television project; multiple episodes of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold; and two comic book mini-series: Ardden Entertainment’s The Merlin Prophesies (co-written with Derek Ivan Webster) and IDW’s The Life and Times of Savior 28.

read more at:

www.jmdematteis.blogspot.com/

Derek Ivan Webster

Derek graduated, with honors, from Yale University's Film Department, where he focused his study on the narrative elements shared between film and literature.

Within the industry, he spent time acquiring first hand film experience with Open Road Productions before taking a job at Acme Talent & Literary.  There he was mentored by the Head of the Literary Division, and 30 year industry veteran, Mickey Freiberg.  Derek eventually established an in-house Story and Development Department within the Agency and provided invaluable support for the development of represented properties.

Most recently he has teamed up with J. M. DeMatteis to form a freelance consulting firm, making his Story Development skills available to both seasoned and beginning writers.  He enjoys working with other creative minds and helping good stories, dialogue and characters become even better...

read more at:

www.ivanhope.com/blog

Cody DeMatteis

Cody DeMatteis studied both documentary cinematography and film theory at Chicago's Columbia College.  After graduating with honors, he spent several years freelancing in both post production and music journalism, then moved to Los Angeles to serve as the publishing coordinator for then-fledgling comic book publisher Boom! Studios.  In 2008, he moved on to become an editor at Devil's Due Publishing, where his duties include managing the company's forthcoming continuation of the cult favorite CBS show Jericho.

Cody also manages the music site www.takingtigermountain.com in hopes of getting into some shows for free.