Barry Reese
Encyclopedia
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. He is best known for his work on The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, D6 Space: Fires of Amatsumara Worldbook for West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
and the Rook Universe series of novels. He is married to artist Cari Reese and together they have one son, Julian Reese.
Reese was born in Milledgeville
Milledgeville, Georgia
Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon, located just before Eatonton on the way to Athens along U.S. Highway 441, and it is located on the Oconee River. The relatively rapid current of the Oconee here made this an...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
Career
In 2003 Reese began work for Marvel ComicsMarvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
on volume five of their Marvel Encyclopedia
Marvel Encyclopedia
The Marvel Encyclopedia is the name of several reference books that cover Marvel Comics.* The original run of Marvel Encyclopedias were produced by Marvel staff and freelancers...
series. Reese was responsible for handling the Blade
Blade (comics)
Blade is a fictional character, a superhero/vampire hunter in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan, his first appearance was in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula #10 as a supporting character.The character went on to alternatively star and co-star...
and Ghost Rider (comics)
Ghost Rider (comics)
Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional supernatural antiheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Night Rider and subsequently to Phantom Rider.The first supernatural Ghost Rider is...
sections of the book. Following this, Reese worked on both the ongoing The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series and on D6 Space: Fires of Amatsumara Worldbook for West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
. Amongst the issues of the Handbook that Reese worked on were Marvel Legacy: 1960s, Marvel Legacy: 1970s, Spider-Man 2006, Teams 2006, A-Z volumes 1-7 and Horror 2006. Reese also contributed to the New Avengers: Most Wanted and Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone books.
Reese then contributed to USER'S Most Wanted, a villains supplement for the Godsend Agenda game belonging to Khepera Publishing. USER'S Most Wanted was published in May 2007.
Reese's first novel Conquerors of Shadow: The Adventures of Eobard Grace was published in 2005, featuring a setting and character inspired by the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
. This work was followed by Lucifer's Cage and a sequel entitled Kingdom of Blood. These last two novels feature the adventures of a 1930s era masked vigilante dubbed the Rook and were inspired by the pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
heroes of the past. There are elements that relate back to the Conquerors of Shadow novel, forming a shared universe
Shared universe
A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
. Covers for the Eobard Grace book as well as Lucifer's Cage and Kingdom of Blood were by artist Cari Reese.
A collection of Rook stories was released in early 2008, reprinting the two previous Rook novels with three new short stories: "The Gasping Death," "The Black Mass," and "Abominations." This collection was published by Wild Cat Books under the title The Rook Volume One. Both Lucifer's Cage and Kingdom of Blood went out of print in late 2008 to avoid confusion in the marketplace.
A second collection entitled The Rook Volume Two was released in October 2008, with cover art by Frank Brunner
Frank Brunner
Frank Brunner is an American comic book artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.-Comics:...
. The stories contained in volume two are "Kazlov's Fire," "Blitzkrieg," "Bloodwerks," "The Gorgon Conspiracy," "The Shambling Ones," and "Origins."
A standalone e-book novella entitled "The Bleeding Hells" was released in February 2008, pairing the Rook with public domain pulp characters Doctor Satan, Ascott Keane and the Black Bat. "The Bleeding Hells" was reprinted in The Rook Volume Three, released in January 2009. Volume three featured cover and interior artwork by comics artist Anthony Castrillo. Wild Cat Books published volume four in September 2009, featuring cover artwork by Norm Breyfogle
Norm Breyfogle
Norman Keith "Norm" Breyfogle is an American comic book artist, fine artist, illustrator, and writer. He was involved with the character of Batman consistently from 1987-1995. Breyfogle has worked on many different characters for most comic book publishers at one time or another...
. The fifth volume was released in October 2010. In 2011, it was announced that The Rook series was moving to a new publisher and Pro Se Productions released the sixth volume in the series in June.
Reese has also written stories for several anthologies published by Wild Cat Books. Two stories featuring a character named Grimarr were published in Tales of the Norse Gods and a story starring the public domain hero the Black Terror
Black Terror
The Black Terror is a fictional comic book superhero who originally appeared in Exciting Comics #9, published by Nedor Comics in January 1941. Some Black Terror stories were written by Patricia Highsmith before she became an acclaimed novelist...
saw print in Legends of the Golden Age. As part of Wild Cat's new line of digest-sized pulp adventures
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
, Reese's Guan-Yin and the Horrors of Skull Island novella, a supernatural pirate story, was published in February 2009. June 2009 saw the release of Savage Tales of Ki-Gor, Lord of the Jungle, another in Wild Cat Books' line of Pulse Pounders, featuring two of Reese's stories -- "The Ivory Goddess" and "The Devil's Domain."
In January 2010, Wild Cat Books released Rabbit Heart, a slasher horror novel with pulp underpinnings. This was the first work in Reese's career to be labeled "For Mature Readers." Rabbit Heart is set entirely in Reese's hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia
Milledgeville, Georgia
Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon, located just before Eatonton on the way to Athens along U.S. Highway 441, and it is located on the Oconee River. The relatively rapid current of the Oconee here made this an...
. In March 2010, Reese's short story, "Sins of the Past," was published in the anthology How the West Was Weird from Pulpwork Press and in November 2010, a short story entitled "The Sacred and the Profane" was published in the anthology Mystery Men (and Women) Volume One from Airship 27.
The Damned Thing (no relation to the Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
story) was published in January 2011 and features a search for a cursed object in 1939 Atlanta.
At the 2011 Pulp Ark Awards, designated as recognizing excellence in pulp publishing, Reese was nominated for Best Book (Rabbit Heart), Best Author, Best Short Story ("The Girl With the Phantom Eyes," the first Lazarus Gray story) and Best Pulp Revival (Ascott Keane in Rabbit Heart.) On March 1, 2011 it was announced that Reese had been voted Best Author.
In September 2011, Reese was included in The Green Hornet Casefiles and The Avenger: Justice Inc. Files books published by Moonstone. The first volume in his Lazarus Gray series was also released by Pro Se Productions.
The Rook series
- The Rook: Volume One (2008)
- The Rook: Volume Two (2008)
- The Rook: Volume Three (2009)
- The Rook: Volume Four (2009)
- The Rook: Volume Five (2010)
- The Rook: Volume Six (2011)
Miscellaneous fiction
- The Conquerors of Shadow (2005)
- Legends of the Golden Age (2008)
- Tales of the Norse Gods (2009)
- Guan-Yin and the Horrors of Skull Island (2009)
- Savage Tales of Ki-Gor, Lord of the Jungle (2009)
- 818 (2009) - Reprints Guan-Yin and the Horrors of Skull Island as part of a larger anthology
- Rabbit Heart (2010)
- How the West Was Weird (2010)
- Mystery Men (And Women) Volume One (2010)
- The Damned Thing (2011)
- How the West Was Weird II (2011)
- The Green Hornet Casefiles (2011)
- The Avenger: Justice Inc. Files (2011)
Marvel Comics work
- Marvel Encyclopedia Vol. 5: The Marvel Knights (2004)
- Marvel Knights 2005 (2005)
- Spider-Man 2005 (2005)
- Ultimate Marvel Universe Fantastic Four and Spider-Man 2005 (2005)
- Horror 2005 (2005)
- Teams 2005 (2005)
- Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone (2005)
- New Avengers: Most Wanted (2005)
- All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (2006) - issues 1-7
- Marvel Legacy: The 1960s (2006)
- Marvel Legacy: The 1970s (2006)
- Marvel Legacy: The 1980s (2006)
- Marvel Monsters Hardcover (2006) - reprints the work from Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulyssess Bloodstone
- Ghost Rider: Finale (2007) - reprints the Dan Ketch entry from Marvel Knights 2006
- Marvel Legacy: The 1960s-1990s Handbook (2007) - reprints the individual 1960s, 1970s and 1980s volumes in a trade paperback format
- All-New Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe A To Z (2008) - reprints the individual entries from the various Official Handbook oneshots and A-Z series
Roleplaying game work
- D6 Space: The Fires of Amatsumara (2006)
- Godsend Agenda: USER's Most Wanted (2007)