Gerard Jones (born July 10, 1957) is an American author and comic book writer.

Biography[edit]

Jones was born in Cut Bank, Montana, and raised in Los Gatos and Gilroy, California. He currently resides in San Francisco, where he teaches writing classes at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, a workspace co-operative that also includes Po Bronson, Caroline Paul, Tom Barbash, Peter Orner, Jason Roberts, and Laura Jane Fraser, among others.^[1]

From 1983 to 1988, Jones and Will Jacobs were contributors to National Lampoon magazine. They also wrote a humor book, The Beaver Papers, parodying the TV series Leave It to Beaver, and a history of comics, The Comic Book Heroes: From the Silver Age to the Present. He and Jacobs returned to humorous fiction in 2014 with The Beaver Papers 2.^[2]

From 1987 to 2001, Jones wrote comic books for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Viz Media, Malibu Comics and other publishers, including such series as Green Lantern, Justice League, Prime, Ultraforce, El Diablo, Wonder Man, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, The Shadow, Pokémon, Batman and, with Jacobs, The Trouble with Girls.^[3]

Since 1993, Jones has been primarily a writer of non-fiction books, mainly concerning American culture and media, including television comedy (Honey I'm Home), violence in entertainment (Killing Monsters), and comic book history (Men of Tomorrow, which won an Eisner Award in 2005). He appears in Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, American Masters: Lucille Ball, Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, and other documentaries.^[4]

Awards[edit]

• 2005 Eisner Award, Best Comics-Related Book: Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book

Bibliography[edit]

Books[edit]

• The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season (with Will Jacobs, Crown Publishers, 1984, ISBN 978-0-517-54991-9)
• Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (St. Martin's Griffin, 1993, ISBN 978-0-312-08810-1)
• The Comic Book Heroes: The First History of Modern Comic Books - From the Silver Age to the Present (with Will Jacobs, Crown Publishing Group 1985, 1996 - revised edition - ISBN 0-517-55440-2 )
• Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (Basic Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0-465-03696-7)
• Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-465-03657-8)

Comics[edit]

Comics work includes:

• The Trouble with Girls (with Will Jacobs and Tim Hamilton, Malibu Comics, 1987)
• Oktane (with Gene Ha, Dark Horse Comics, 1996, ISBN 978-1-56971-212-2)
• Martian Manhunter: American Secrets, DC Comics

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Gerard Jones at the Comic Book DB
• Gerard Jones at the Internet Movie Database