Jean-Marc Lofficier

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Jean-Marc Lofficier (born June 22, 1954) is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier (born February 3, 1953).

Lofficier was born in Toulon, France.

Contents

[edit] Books

In 1979, the Lofficiers began covering the Hollywood scene for a variety of American and foreign cinema magazines, including Starlog, Cinefex, The Twilight Zone Magazine, American Cinematographer and Heavy Metal in the U.S., Starburst in the United Kingdom and L’Ecran Fantastique in France. Prior to that, Jean-Marc had written articles, reviews and short stories for French magazines Lunatique and L’Ecran Fantastique.

This led the Lofficiers to author or co-author a number of non-fiction books about film and television programs, starting with The Doctor Who Programme Guide in 1981 (revised/expanded 1989, 1994, 2003), which was followed by The Doctor Who Terrestrial Index (1991), The Doctor Who Universal Databank (1992), Into The Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide (1995) and The Nth Doctor (1997). With fellow Starlog journalists Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, they co-authored Science Fiction Filmmaking In The 1980s and The Dreamweavers (both 1995). In 2000, they wrote a mammoth 800-page encyclopedia entitled French Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Pulp Fiction. Their latest non-fiction books are a Pocket Essential devoted to The Adventures of Tintin (2002), Shadowmen: Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction (2003), Shadowmen 2: Heroes and Villains of French Comics (2004), Over Here: An American Expat in the South of France (2006) and Martervénux: The Encyclopedia of Chevalier Coqdor's Universe (2008).

The Lofficiers also wrote the children's novelization of Walt Disney's Basil of Baker Street a.k.a. The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and a novelization of Moebius’ Arzach (2000). They have edited various anthologies of science-fiction and fantasy short-stories, Les Grands Maitres du Fantastique (1985) and Science-Fiction (1999) for the French market, and the Tales of the Shadowmen series, Volume 1: The Modern Babylon (2005), Volume 2: Gentlemen of the Night (2006), Volume 3: Danse Macabre (2007) and Volume 4: Lords of Terror (2008), for the American market.

In 2003, the Lofficiers created their own small press, Black Coat Press [1], to translate classics of French pulp literature. They have adapted Arnould Galopin’s Doctor Omega (1906/2003), Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan (1928/2004), Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera (1911/2004) and two of Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin Sherlock Holmes pastiches The Hollow Needle (1909/2004) and The Blonde Phantom (1907/2005). Jean-Marc has also translated Robert Sheckley's The Dimension of Miracles Revisited into French (2007).

Together or separately, the Lofficiers have written several original science fiction novels: a juvenile, Robonocchio (2004), Edgar Allan Poe on Mars (2007), a fantasy novel that brings together a young Edgar Allan Poe and Lt. Gullivar Jones; and, in French, Les Survivants de l’Humanité (2004), Le Quatorzième Signe du Zodiaque (2006) and Là où s'ouvre l'Univers (2008) (with Jean-Michel Archaimbault, based on characters created by Maurice Limat), and Crépuscule Vaudou (2008).

[edit] Comic books

Beginning in 1985, the Lofficiers began to write numerous scripts for a variety of comic-books, often in collaboration with other writers, notably Roy Thomas.

For DC Comics, they wrote Firestorm No. 32, Arak, Son of Thunder Nos. 45–50 (based on plots by Roy and Dann Thomas), Action Comics No. 579, a homage to Asterix, Teen Titans Spotlight No. 11, a homage to Tintin, and plotted Blue Beetle Nos. 14–22 and Young All-Stars Nos. 16 and 17. More recently they wrote Transilvane, a Superman story for Legends of the DC Universe Nos. 22–23 and Superman's Metropolis (1996; with Roy Thomas), Batman: Nosferatu (1999) and Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon (2003), a trilogy of DC Elseworlds based on German Expressionism cinema incorporating characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman into stories reminiscent of Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Blue Angel and Doctor Mabuse the Gambler.

For Marvel Comics, the Lofficiers worked with Thomas on the plots of Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Nos. 6–47, What If Nos. 15, 19, 24 and 35–39, and Code: Blue in Thunderstrike Nos. 13–19. For Epic Comics, they edited and translated all the award-winning Moebius, Incal and Blueberry graphic novels, wrote two Moebius’ Airtight Garage mini-series, The Elsewhere Prince and Onyx Overlord and two stories for Clive Barker’s Hellraiser.

Other comic book credits include Legends of Arzach (Kitchen Sink Press) The Dracula-Frankenstein War (with Roy Thomas, Topps), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Nos. 26–27 (Malibu Comics), the Tongue*Lash series (Dark Horse Comics), Alone in the Dark (Image Comics) and Witchblade: Blood Oath (Top Cow Comics).

From 2000 to 2003, Jean-Marc Lofficier was editor and senior writer of a line of French comic books published by Semic Comics, including titles such as Zembla, Fantask, Yuma, Mustang and Kiwi. He redeveloped old French characters from the 1960s such as Wampus, Kabur, Phenix, Homicron, Dragut and Dick Demon into more modern versions, even gathering a number of them in the mini-series Strangers published by Image in 2003. Two French graphic novels, King Kabur and Brigade Temporelle, were also released. This universe of characters is now gathered as Hexagon Comics. [2]

Also for the French comic market, the Lofficiers recently wrote a trilogy of graphic novels based on the character of Robur created by Jules Verne. Illustrated by Gil Formosa[3], the first two volumes were nominated for the 2005 Jules Verne Award for Bandes Dessinees[4] (Graphic novels).

In 1990, in recognition of their career as writers, translators and editors, the Lofficiers were presented with the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts.

[edit] Screenplays

In 1985, Randy Lofficier completed Harry Love's Animation Writing Seminar at Hanna-Barbera, where she contributed a script for Clash of the Super-Powers. The Lofficiers then wrote a number of animation scripts for television series such as The Real Ghostbusters (DiC Entertainment), Duck Tales (Walt Disney), The Bionic Six (Universal) and Young Robin Hood (Hanna-Barbera).

[edit] Other work

Lofficier's official website, www.lofficier.com, includes a section entitled "Illustrated History of the French Saint Novels", a guide to French-language novels based upon the character of Simon Templar (alias "The Saint"), created by Leslie Charteris.[5]

[edit] External links