J. Michael Straczynski

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Joseph Michael Straczynski (born July 17, 1954) is an American television and film screenwriter, producer, and editor, as well as a comic book writer.

Straczynski is the creator of Studio JMS' science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its sequel Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004), and Sense8 (2013). Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man from 2001 to 2007, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four.

He is also the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, as well as Wonder Woman and Before Watchmen for DC Comics.

Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series including Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand Through Joe's Comics. Straczynski, a prolific writer who has worked in a number of mediums and former journalists, is author of Blood Night (1988), Othersyde (1990), and Tribulations (2004), the short fiction collection Straczynski Unplugged (2004), and the nonfiction book The Complete Book of Scriptwriting (1982). Straczynski has been an early computer network in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with followers online (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984.

He is credited with being the first TV producer to interact directly with followers on the internet and allow their viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show.

(See Babylon 5's use of the Internet.) GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.moderated were two key areas where he was present, including Moderated.

Personal life

Straczynski was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and is the son of Charles Straczynski, a manual laborer, and Evelyn Straczynski (née Pate). He was born in Newark, New Jersey; Kankakee, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Chula Vista, California; and San Diego, California; Straczynski's family was Catholic, and he has Polish roots. His grandparents grew up in Belarus, Germany, and Russia; his father was born in the US and has lived in Poland, Germany, and Russia.

Straczynski is a graduate of Southwestern College and San Diego State University (SDSU), having obtained an AA and later an honorary degree from Southwestern, where he was mentored by Professor Bill Virchis, as well as a BA in psychology and sociology (with minors in philosophy and literature) from San Diego State University. While at SDSU, he wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily Aztec was occasionally referring to so many journals that the paper was jokingly referred to as the "Daily Joe" in reference.

When Straczynski and Kathryn M. Drennan first met while attending SDSU, they became friends. They married in 1981 (where he now lives), divorced in 2001, and moved to Los Angeles. Straczynski began a friendship with Patricia Tallman, whom he had met when she appeared in his 1990s film Babylon 5. She worked as CEO and executive producer of Studio JMS in collaboration with him; both their friendship and collaboration ended in 2013.

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Career

Straczynski began writing plays, and several of them were produced at Southwestern College and San Diego State University before releasing his version of "Snow White" with Performance Publishing. Several other plays were staged in San Diego, including "The Apprenticeship" for the Marquis Public Theater. Straczynski also served as the on-air entertainment reviewer for KSDO-FM and wrote several radio scripts before being recruited as a scriptwriter for Alien Worlds. In addition to producing the XETV-TV project Disasterpiece Theatre, he created "Marty Sprinkle" for KPBS-TV in San Diego. He worked with the Los Angeles Times as a special San Diego reporter and also worked for San Diego Magazine and The San Diego Reader, as well as Los Angeles's Los Angeles newspaper, TV-Cable Week, and People magazine. For Writer's Digest, Straczynski wrote The Complete Book of Scriptwriting. The book, which was published in 1982, is often used as a text in first screenwriting classes, and is now in its third edition.

On April 1, 1981, he and Kathryn M. Drennan, who he met in San Diego State, migrated to Los Angeles. They married in 1983 and then separated in 2002. Larry DiTillio co-hosted the Hour 25 radio talk show on KPFK-FM Los Angeles from 1987 to 1992. During his tenure, he interviewed John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and other writers, producers, actors, and directors. Straczynski returned to radio drama with scifi.com's City of Dreams. Straczynski is the author of three horror books, Demon Night, Othersyde, and Tribulations, as well as almost twenty short stories, many of which are included in two compilations: Tales from the New Twilight Zone and Straczynski Unplugged.

Straczynski was a devotee of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In 1984, he wrote a spec script and sent it directly to Filmation. They bought his script, purchased several others, and employed him on staff. During this period, he became friends with Larry DiTillio, and when Filmation produced the He-Man spinoff She-Ra: Princess of Power, they both served as story editors on the program. However, when filming refused to give them credit on film, they were left with DIC jobs on Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

Straczynski and DiTillio also attempted to produce an animated version of Elfquest, but the scheme fell apart when CBS attempted to retool the show to appeal to younger audiences.

Straczynski was hired to join Len Janson and Chuck Menville's Len Janson and Chuck Menville's Len Janson and Chuck Menville's effort to convert the movie Ghostbusters to an animated version of The Real Ghostbusters while living on Jayce. When Janson and Menville discovered that there wasn't only a 13-episode order but also a 65-episode syndication order, they decided that the workload was too much and that they should only be working on their own scripts. Jean Chalopin, the DIC, had asked Straczynski to take on the challenge of story editing the entire 78-episode block as well as writing his own scripts. Consultants were brought in to make suggestions for the show, including changing Janine to a more feminine role, making every character have a specific "job" (Peter is the naught one), and finally include children in the show's successful first season. Straczynski was still on the job at this point, with Janson and Menville resuming the story editing duties for the second network season. Straczynski began working on a show titled Spiral Zone but was left with just one script, taking his name off the series because the show's producer had drastically changed his vision of it. (derived from the names of the grave robbers in The Body Snatcher) he used the pseudonym "Fettes Grey" instead.

Straczynski also contributed to CBS Storybreak, writing an adaptation of Evelyn Sibley Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek.

Straczynski freelanced for The Twilight Zone, composing "What Are Friends For") and Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics, based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award after leaving animation.

Straczynski was then given the role of story editor on the syndicated live action science fiction film Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Straczynski penned a season long character change and wrote a third of the scripts himself. Mattel's toy company Mattel wanted more involvement in the show, prompting Straczynski to resign, after a season. He recommended DiTillio to take over the role as story editor for a second season, but the toy company funding was not available and no work was ever published.

The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike in New York began shortly after. During this period, Straczynski met Harlan Ellison and later became friends with him. Straczynski is an executor of Ellison's collected works.

To be able to sell the series as a whole in syndication with a complete 65-episode box, the designers of the new Twilight Zone had to produce more episodes after the strike ended. Straczynski was hired by the company as executive story editor to fill in the remaining number of needed episodes. Straczynski wrote several of the scripts himself. Ellison wrote "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" in addition.

After leaving Twilight Zone, his agent of the time asked him to pitch for the show Jake and the Fatman. Straczynski, who was initially wary, has since been hired as an executive story consultant under Jeri Taylor and David Moessinger. Straczynski was left too as an act of solidarity after Taylor and Moessinger's departure from the performance.

She Wrote that Moessinger had been hired as an executive producer for Murder, and he gave Straczynski a role as a co-producer. Straczynski appeared on Murder for two seasons and wrote seven original script episodes. Jessica Fletcher, the protagonist from Cabot Cove's sleepy Maine town, was taken by Moessinger and Straczynski to resurrect the show. The step brought the show right back to the top ten from the mid-thirties, where it had dropped. Straczynski made Jessica a writer and criminology instructor, and he emphasized her work as a freelance writer, despite the deadlines and difficulties inherent in the field.

During the pilot episode of Babylon 5 and the start of the first season, Straczynski wrote one episode of Walker, Texas Ranger for Moessinger.

Straczynski produced a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Showtime network, which was nominated for a Writer's Guild of America award, and Murder, She Wrote, which was directed by Sheryl Stevenson.

Warner Bros. joined Straczynski and Doug Netter in late 1991 to produce Babylon 5 as the company's flagship product on the new Prime Time Entertainment Network.

Both Straczynski and Netter recruited several of the people from Captain Power, as well as Ellison as a writer and DiTillio as a story editor. Babylon 5 received two Emmy Awards, back-to-back Hugo Awards, and dozens of other prestigious honors. Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes, as well as the pilot and five television films. The show is a character-driven space opera with a deliberate emphasis on realism in its representation of space operations. It also pioneered the widespread use of CGI for its special effects. Babylon 5 was produced and broadcast for five seasons, concluding Stracynski's planned story arc. Crusade, the TNT Network's sequel, was made, but it came to a conclusion of only 13 episodes. Before the first episode aired, production was suspended.

He drafted the outlines for nine of the canonical Babylon 5 novels, directed the three B5 film novelizations (In the Beginning, Thirdspace, and A Call to Arms), and is the author of four Babylon 5 short stories that have not been published in magazines (as of 2008).

Straczynski began releasing his Babylon 5 scripts in 2005. The scripts were no longer available from the beginning of July of this year, so this process came to an end in June 2008. In January 2009, his scripts for the television films were only available for a limited period.

Straczynski wrote and produced Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, a SciFi Network pilot, as well as a two-hour direct-to-DVD film Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.

Straczynski has been a comic fan since childhood and began writing comics in the late 1980s. Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and Babylon 5 are just some of the comics by the author. Rising Stars for Top Cow/Image Comics was created by David A. in 1999. He eventually worked under his own imprint, Joe's Comics, for which he wrote the Midnight Nation miniseries and the illustrated fantasy parable Delicate Creatures.

He went from 2001 to 2007, with Marvel Comics securing him under a sole deal, beginning with a run on The Amazing Spider-Man. With Volume 2 issue #30 (cover dated June 2001), he took over the series. In reaction to the September 11 attacks, Straczynski and artist John Romita Jr. wrote an outstanding story for The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (Dec. 2001). Several major Spider-Man story arcs including "Spider-Man: The Other," "Back in Black," and "One More Day" were among his written or co-wrote many major Spider-Man story arcs. He later wrote several other Marvel titles, including Supreme Power, Strange, Amazing Four, Thor, and a mini-series starring the Silver Surfer and a "What If" scenario, Bullet Points.

Jeremiah, a Belgian post-apocalyptic comic based on the same name, was also produced by Straczynski from 2002 to 2004. Straczynski starred in the series for two seasons but was dissatisfied with the show's competing directions, including the use of the pseudonym "Fettes Grey" for the first time since Spiral Zone on one of the scripts. Straczynski decided to leave the show if it didn't improve, and the show came to an end after two seasons.

Straczynski produced Changeling, a psychological drama film based partially on the "Wineville Chicken Coop" kidnapping and murder trial in Los Angeles, California. Clint Eastwood, directed by Ron Howard, and starring Angelina Jolie, the film premiered in 2008 and received eight nominations for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. After Eastwood refused to make any changes, the first draft script was written in eleven days, after Straczynski figured out "how to tell" the tale, which ended up being the shooting draft. Howard, who had intended to direct the film but later canceled due to scheduling conflicts, pushed it immediately.

Straczynski expressed surprise at the beginning of the story at first, but the investigation took place over six thousands of pages of evidence. Straczynski said that 95% of the script's material came from the historical record and went through Universal's legal department, giving attribution for every scene so that the film will be described as "a true story" rather than "based on" one. Straczynski wrote about how his journalistic experience aided him in writing the film.

On February 23, 2007, Straczynski revealed that he had been hired to write the full film version of Max Brooks's best-selling book World War Z for Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, which received screen credit for the finished film.

Straczynski drafted a Ninja Assassin blueprint for Joel Silver in 2008, which he completed in just 53 hours. The Wachowskis made the film, which was released on November 25, 2009.

Straczynski and Mark Protosevich are credited as "story writer" on the 2011 film Thor. He makes a cameo appearance in the film, his first appearance in a film and his second appearance as an actor (the first being "Sleeping in Light," Babylon 5's final episode). Straczynski was in the writers' room alongside Terry Rossio, Patrick McKay, J. D. Payne, Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, T.S. Nowlin and Jack Paglen (the final script) will write Godzilla vs. Kong, but not officially acknowledged.

He was confirmed as the writer for a run on The Brave and Bold for DC Comics when his exclusive deal with Marvel came to an end. Superman: Earth One, a science original graphic novel starring Superman, Shane Davis, was he collaborated with artist Shane Davis on an out-of-continuity original graphic novel starring Superman. The tale revolves around a young Superman and the importance of deciding about the position he wants to take in life. Beginning with issues 701 and 601 respectively, it was announced on March 8, 2010 that he would take over writing for the monthly Superman title "Grounded," and the Wonder Woman title. He was asked to step away from both books in order to concentrate on the second volume of Superman: Earth One and handed them over to Chris Roberson and Phil Hester to finish his Superman and Wonder Woman stories respectively, less than a year later. Straczynski wrote Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan drew by Adam Hughes and Before Watchmen: Before Watchmen: Sam Hughes and Joe Kubert drew Dr. Nite Owl drew by Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert. Later this year, a second volume of Superman: Earth One was published.

DC Comics' The Flash: Earth One, a new graphic novel of its Earth One line that will be published by Straczynski, will be published in 2016.

J. Michael Straczynski revealed in July 2012 that Studio JMS would produce television series, films, comics, and, of course, road, games, and web series. On March 27, 2013, Netflix revealed that they would produce the show Sense8 with Studio JMS and the Wachowskis, which premiered on June 5, 2015, and earned a season 2 award by August 10, 2015.

In 2013, the Joe's Comics line was revived at Image Comics, with the introduction of Ten Grand drawn by Ben Templesmith and Sidekick by Tom Mandrake.

Dynamite Entertainment unveiled a new 12 issue in July 2013 that was the first issue of Straczynski's The Twilight Zone comic book series. Guiu Vilanova's art was used in the series from December 2013 to February 2015. Straczynski, as the author of Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, a 12 issue comic book collection from Dark Horse Comics, was announced as the writer of the Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, as well as artist Pete Woods.

By Netflix in March 2013, Sense 8, a science fiction television series created by Straczynski and the Wachowskis, was converted straight-to-series. On Netflix, Studio JMS and Georgeville Television's first season debuted in June 2015. All 12 episodes of the first season's with co-innovators, executive producers, and producers Lilly and Lana Wachowski were written by Straczynski. In August 2015, Netflix resurrecting Sense8 for a second season.

Straczynski was appointed head of the Creative Council for AWA's new comics publishing company, where he was in charge of establishing the shared universe used by several of the company's writers in 2020.

Following the publication of his autobiography Becoming Superman by HarperVoyager in 2021, Simon & Schuster's Scout Press published Staying A Writer in 2021.

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