Mark Scott Ricketts

This article is about the comic book writer. For other persons named Mark Ricketts, see Mark Ricketts.
Mark Scott Ricketts
Born Mark Ricketts
Stuttgart, Arkansas
Nationality American
Area(s) Writer
artist
Notable works
 Nowheresville GN
Whiskey Dickel, International Cowgirl GN
Moose Mountain Comics
Lazarus Jack
Night Trippers
Awards 2000 Klasky Csupo Screenwriting Award

Mark Ricketts (born December 9, 1955) is an American comic book writer, illustrator and cartoonist. He has worked for a variety of publishers including McGraw-Hill, Caliber Comics, Chaos! Comics, Mojo Press, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Moonstone (comics) and Image Comics. He won the 2000 Klasky Csupo screenwriting award for his teleplay "Whiskey Dickel, Int'l Cowgirl."

Biography

Mark Ricketts was born in 1955 in Stuttgart, Arkansas. He attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas where he met musician and songwriting partner Almis Zdanius. In 1982, Ricketts moved to Chicago to form a band. His collaboration with Zdanius was explored in a series of podcasts entitled "Songs From the Matted Shag." During his time in Chicago, Ricketts created illustrations for Playboy magazine and various other publications. While providing spot illustrations for Playboy's music page, Ricketts befriended underground cartoonist Skip Williamson who encouraged him to pursue a career in comics.

Personal life

Ricketts was married at the Graceland Wedding Chapel on Valentine's Day in Las Vegas in 1991. According to his website, his wife walked down the aisle wearing a red dress and carrying black flowers while an Elvis impersonator sang a slow version of "Viva Las Vegas."

Ricketts and his wife moved from Illinois to Maine in 2006.

Comics

Ricketts got his break in 1990, when Gary Reed of Caliber Comics agreed to publish his first book "Warpwalking". Ricketts created many original comics under the Caliber banner, but dropped out of the comics scene in 1996 to pursue other interests. In 1999, longtime friend Brian Michael Bendis encouraged Ricketts to continue making comics and showed his work to Jim Valentino, then Image Comics publisher. In 2000, Image published the graphic novel Nowheresville– a mystery set in 1950s Greenwich Village that combines Beat Generation culture with hard-boiled pulp crime fiction.

Ricketts created many original graphic novels at Image, including Dioramas which was optioned by Venture Studios. He also created a graphic novel for Dark Horse entitled Lazarus Jack and wrote four issues of The Invincible Iron Man for the Avengers Disassembled event. Over the years, Ricketts has written stories illustrated by Mike Hawthorne, Sean Phillips, Tony Harris, Scott Kolins, Brian Michael Bendis, Eric Wight, Neil Gaiman, Micah Farritor, Mitch O'Connell, Leanne Buckley, Andy Kuhn, Phil Hester, Alex Ross, Mike Mignola, David Mack, Michael Lark, Terry LaBan, Guy Davis, Jim Calafiore, Jay Geldhof, Jill Thompson, Galen Showman, Andrew Robinson and Tim Bradstreet.

Bibliography

Caliber Comics

Chaos! Comics

Mojo Press

Dark Horse Comics

Image Comics

Moonstone

Marvel Comics

Islandport Press

References

Interviews

Preceded by
John Jackson Miller		 Iron Man writer
2004 		Succeeded by
Warren Ellis
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