Paul Kupperberg is the writer of close to 1,000 comic book stories (he long ago lost count) in a career that began in 1975 writing for the now defunct Charlton Comics, as well as the author of over two dozen books of fiction and non-fiction, short stories, and articles. He is the writer of the critically-acclaimed Life With Archie: The Married Life Magazine for Archie Comics (which was nominated for the 2012 Eisner Award in the Best Publication for Young Adults category, the 2013 Harvey Award, and the 2014 GLAAD Media Award), and his young adult novel, Kevin (featuring Kevin Keller, Archie’s popular, first openly gay character) was published in April 2013 by Grossett & Dunlap/Penguin Books. Coming soon from Price Stern Sloan/Penguin Books are Betty And Veronica Mad Libs and DC Superheroes Mad Libs.
Paul was born in a little log cabin he helped his father build in Brooklyn, New York, and honestly has no memory of a life without comic books. An avid reader and collector, he met fellow fan Paul Levitz while in junior high school, and the two friends eventually launched the comics fanzine Etcetera in 1971; several months later, they inherited the publication rights to The Comic Reader, the Ur-zine, created a decade earlier by comics historian and fan Dr. Jerry Bails and fan-turned-Marvel writer/editor Roy Thomas. For TCR Publications, Paul also edited a second volume of Etcetera, and worked on several years of program books for Phil Sueling’s legendary annual July 4th New York Comic Book Convention.
While still a student at Brooklyn College, he made his first sale to one of Charlton Comics’s horror titles and never looked back. A few months later, he also began selling stories to DC Comics and, in 1976-77 served his first staff gig at the publisher of Superman, working as assistant to the public relations department. He returned briefly in the mid-80s as an editor, and, in 1991, began an editorial stint that lasted until 2006, when he left DC to become Executive Editor of the fake news humor tabloid, Weekly World News (with Crazy 8’s own Bob Greenberger as Managing Editor), and, in 2008, worked briefly (but not briefly enough to avoid the emotional scars) as Senior Editor of the WWE’s WWE Kids Magazine.
Paul has written countless comic book characters, including Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Vigilante, Power Girl, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Doom Patrol, Captain America, Conan, Captain Action, Archie, The Simpsons, Johnny Bravo, Scooby Doo, and scores of others. He is the creator of the comic series Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, has written on-line web animation, the syndicated World’s Greatest Superheroes Starring Superman and Tom & Jerry newspaper strips, the feature “Trash” for England’s 2000 A.D. magazine, and humor and parody for Marvel’s Crazy Magazine and Weekly World News.
He has had stories in anthologies featuring Star Trek, Dr. Who, The Phantom, Batman, the Green Hornet, and the Lone Ranger, as well as stories for various fantasy and horror anthologies, more than a dozen young adult non-fiction books on subjects ranging from history and science to biography and pop culture, the Spider-Man novels Crime Campaign and Murdermoon for Pocket Books, the young adult novel Wishbone: The Sirian Conspiracy(with Michael Jan Friedman), the humor book Jew-Jitsu: The Hebrew Hands of Fury(Kensington Publishing), the (unpublished) novel JSA: Ragnarok (iBooks), storybooks featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for Stone Arch Books, and color & activity books featuring such DreamWorks properties as King Fu Panda, Penguins of Madagascar, Puss In Boots, and MegaMind for Dalmatian Publishing. Stories featuring his newspaper reporter-of-the-unknown, Leo Persky, have appeared in R. Allen Leider’s Hellfire Lounge anthologies, including Hellfire Lounge 2: Rat Pack Redux, Hellfire Lounge 3: Jinn Rummy and Hellfire Lounge 4: Reflections of Evil (Bold Venture Press).
Paul is currently contemplating a sequel to The Same Old Story, as well as a novel set in his old hometown of Brooklyn in the 1960s, and several other projects that will no doubt leave him befuddled as he tries to navigate the cyberworld of New Media. He is also one of the madmen behind the new Charlton Neo Media line of comic books, including his own Paul Kupperberg’s Secret Romances and the upcoming Scarry Squad. He lives in Connecticut and is the proud father of son Max.
You can follow Paul at PaulKupperberg.com, at charltonneo.blogspot.com/, on Facebook, and Twitter @PaulKupperberg.
