JOHN OSTRANDER: Life and Death and Comics

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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3 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    Also, life is too short to knit with crummy yarn. Not that you asked.

    Feel better, John.

  2. 'Life’s too short to read bad comics.'

    That's why I read yours John.

  3. I hate "death as a plot device" in comics. I've dropped comics in the past when a death felt gimmicky.

    I believe it was Jim Shooter, in Valiant's early days, (don't quote me on that, not 100%) who said that death should have meaning even in comics and no story will be published with a character's death unless it is relevant, meaningful and permanent.

    I really like that sensibility.