Rucka made his debut as a screenwriter with the screenplay for the 2020 film The Old Guard, based on his comic book series of the same name.
Early life
Greg Rucka was born in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, in an area known to the locals as "Steinbeck Country". Rucka is Jewish.[1] He first discovered comics at the Nob Hill Market in Salinas, California, where at age five, he first saw digest-sized black and white reprints of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's work on The Incredible Hulk, which he convinced his mother to buy. He began writing at a young age, and at age 10, he won a county-wide short story contest. He graduated from Vassar College with an A.B. in English. He then enrolled in the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts. He names Douglas Adams as his biggest influence.[2][3]
Before becoming a professional fiction writer he worked in a number of other occupations, including house painting, restaurant work, emergency medical technician, security guard, technical writer, and fight choreographer.[3]
Career
Rucka's writing career began with the Atticus Kodiak series. Kodiak is a bodyguard whose jobs are rarely as uncomplicated as they at first appear. The series to date consists of Keeper, Finder, Smoker, Shooting at Midnight, Critical Space, Patriot Acts, and Walking Dead. These works garnered Rucka much critical acclaim and comparisons to the elite writers of crime/suspense fiction. The "Atticus" novels are notable for their realism and attention to detail, which is partly a product of Rucka's fight training and experience as an EMT. He has written six non-Atticus books: Fistful of Rain,Alpha,Bravo,A Gentleman's Game,Private Wars, and The Last Run; the latter three are tie-ins to his comic book series Queen & Country.[4]
In 1998, Rucka entered the comics industry with Whiteout, published through Oni Press.[5]Whiteout focuses on a murder in an Antarctic base. It was followed by a sequel, Whiteout: Melt.
The majority of Rucka's work throughout the 2000s was for DC Comics,[5] where he was involved with their main trinity of characters: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Rucka wrote Batman on a regular basis in the Detective Comics series following the events of "No Man's Land'".[6] He wrote the novelization of the year-long arc.[7] While writing Detective Comics, he created a number of background characters that led to the co-creation of Gotham Central with co-writer Ed Brubaker.[8] His Batman work includes such story arcs as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?"[9] and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive".[10] as well as the Batman: Death and the Maidens limited series.[11] From October 2003 to April 2006 he wrote Wonder Woman after having previously written the character in the Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia original graphic novel.
He co-wrote Countdown to Infinite Crisis, a one-shot and the official start of the Infinite Crisis storyline, with Geoff Johns and Judd Winick.[13] Rucka's work on both Wonder Woman and Gotham Central ended in 2006. Although he was not involved in the main storyline of Infinite Crisis, he did write The OMAC Project[5] which built towards the event, focusing on Batman's distrust of other superheroes. This led to the revival of Checkmate, a UN authority that oversaw superheroes including Sasha Bordeaux, an integral character of The OMAC Project. He was a co-writer on the weekly series 52, which he co-wrote with Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Mark Waid.[14] This series chronicled in real-time the year following Infinite Crisis, and saw Rucka focus on Renee Montoya of Gotham Central[15] and the creation of the new Batwoman, Kate Kane.[16] Rucka returned to the Batwoman character frequently over the years in a 52 sequel The Crime Bible and Final Crisis: Revelations before returning to the character in Detective Comics with artist J. H. Williams III, as well as reviving Renee Montoya in the book's second feature with artist Cully Hamner.[17][18][19]
Rucka wrote the screenplay for the "Crossfire" segment in the direct-to-DVD anime Batman: Gotham Knight, in which Crispus Allen, a character he created, appears.[20] In 2009, Rucka and artist Eddy Barrows took over Action Comics as the title moved its focus from Superman to Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird in the aftermath of the "New Krypton" story arc.[21] As well as writing Action Comics, Rucka co-wrote the main New Krypton 12 part series with Superman writer James Robinson.
At Wondercon 2010 Rucka announced he would part ways with DC Comics to focus on his own projects, in part because of DC's failure to keep him on as writer of Wonder Woman: Earth One as promised.[22][23][24] Rucka then wrote The Punisher for Marvel Comics.[25]
On July 11, 2011, Rucka launched the webcomicLady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether, a steampunk adventure series illustrated by Rick Burchett. New installments appear every Monday and Thursday.[26] In May 2013, Rucka launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of a print edition of Lady Sabre,[27] and achieved their initial funding goal of $27,500 within eight hours.[28]
He wrote the creator-owned series, Black Magick, which was drawn by Nicola Scott and published by Image Comics.[29] The Rucka/Scott creative team produced a new Wonder Woman series for DC Comics in June 2016 as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch.[30] Rucka concluded his run on Wonder Woman as of issue #25.[31]
In 2017, Rucka wrote the creator-owned series The Old Guard, which was drawn by Leandro Fernandez, colored by Daniela Miwa and published by Image Comics.[32] In March 2017, Skydance Media picked up the rights to adapt the comic into a film with the same name. Rucka wrote the film's script.[33] The film was released on Netflix in July 2020.[34]
In July 2019, Rucka began writing the Lois Lane 12-issue limited series with artist Mike Perkins.[35] In December 2019, Rucka began writing a second volume of The Old Guard called The Old Guard: Force Multiplied.[36]
Rucka is one of several professional comics whose names were used for characters in an episode of the ninth season of the BBC police drama New Tricks.[40]
^Manning, Matthew K.; Dougall, Alastair, ed. (2014). "2000s". Batman: A Visual History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 246. ISBN978-1465424563. A stand-out writer in the 'No Man's Land' event, Greg Rucka was handed the reins of Detetive Comics, alongside artist Shawn Martinbrough.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Cowsill, Alan; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "2000s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 308. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. Presented by writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, with art by Michael Lark, the series followed the night and day shifts of the Gotham City Police Department.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 269: "Writer Greg Rucka and artist Klaus Janson created this series that delved into the family tree of [Ra's al Ghul]."
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "2000s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 315. ISBN978-0756641238. Novelist Greg Rucka restarted Wolverine's title and stayed on for a nineteen-issue run, pairing with artist Darick Robertson.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 319: "The prequel to Infinite Crisis was a collection of short stories...which were written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick."
^Cowsill "2000s" in Dolan, p. 325: "The title was masterminded by writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid, with Keith Giffen providing art breakdowns."
^Manning "2000s" in Dougall, p. 305: "Batman's flagship title had a new boss - Batwoman. Taking over as the title's protagonist...thanks to her longtime writer Greg Rucka and artist J. H. Williams III."
