Jean-Marc Lofficier

Jean-Marc Lofficier
Born June 22, 1954 (1954-06-22) (age 57)
Toulon, France
Nationality French
Spouse(s) Randy Lofficier
www.lofficier.com

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 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 3, 1953).

Contents

Biography

Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954. The son of a serviceman, he moved several times during his formative years, spending "a goodly part of my childhood in Bordeaux, and my teenage years in Fontainebleau."[1] A budding writer from an early age, Lofficier also

"drew my own little comic strips when I was 13, 14, and began being published in French 'zines at 16."[1] Recalling in 2005 that "writing wasn't deemed a respectable, economically sound way of making a living," he "got a MBA and a Law degree, then went to work in international banking."[1]

Graduating from the Sorbonne Law University and from ESCP Europe business school in 1978, Jean-Marc Lofficier moved to Los Angeles, California, where he met Randy. Jean-Marc and Randy were married the following year.[1] Jean-Marc recalled in 2005 that their writing partnership developed alongside their personal relationship; "Randy always wanted to write... [so] it evolved organically in a mutually complementary working relationship."[1] Jean-Marc and Randy moved to Chalabre, France in 2005.

Magazines and Hollywood

In 1979, the Lofficiers built on Jean-Marc's earlier work for fanzines and French magazines - including Lunatique and L'Ecran Fantastique, for which he wrote a combination of articles, reviews and short stories - and began working as "film journalists" for a variety of "cinema/sf pro magazines."[1] Covering the Hollywood-based film industry (and particularly those aspects with a Sci-Fi or Fantasy bent), the Lofficiers wrote for a number of magazines created both for American and overseas audiences.

Their work appeared in such mainstream U.S. publications as Starlog, Cinefex, Heavy Metal and American Cinematographer, as well as more focused publications including T. E. D. Klein's The Twilight Zone Magazine. Overseas, the Lofficiers' work appeared in UK magazines including Dez Skinn's Starburst (the magazine of "Science Fantasy in Television, Cinema and Comix") and House of Hammer,[1] while in France, they continued to contribute to L'Ecran Fantastique.

Guides, books and novels

The Lofficiers' magazine work, which included short stories, retrospectives and TV program guides alongside journalistic articles, led naturally to them co-authoring a number of non-fiction books about film and television programs. Their first - The Doctor Who Programme Guide, published by W. H. Allen Ltd in 1981 - arose from their work for French magazine L'Ercran Fantastique. The pair produced

"a series of dossiers on SF TV series for L'Ecran Fantastique: The Prisoner, Star Trek, Twilight Zone and... Doctor Who. For that [Who] dossier [Jean-Marc Lofficier] interviewed Terrance Dicks and Graham Williams. Then I sent them a courtesy copy. Terrance passed it on to Christine Donougher at WH Allen who saw an opportunity to publish it as a book."[1]

This title in turn led to the Lofficiers producing several novelizations and editing various anthologies of science fiction and fantasy short stories.

Animation and comics

In 1985, Randy Lofficier completed Harry Love's Animation Writing Seminar at Hanna-Barbera, which led the Lofficiers to write a number of animation scripts for television series such as The Real Ghostbusters and Duck Tales. They also began to write numerous scripts for a variety of comic books, often in collaboration with other writers, notably Roy Thomas, for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Their best-known works include a trilogy of DC Elseworlds based on German Expressionism cinema incorporating characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the Book of the Vishanti back-up feature for Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme, two stories for Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, and the Tongue*Lash series for Dark Horse Comics.

Translation

The following year, the Lofficiers were hired by French artist Moebius then living in Santa Monica to translate and arrange for the publication of his works in English under the aegis of his company, Starwatcher Graphics. This led to a series of 30+ graphic novels published mostly by Epic Comics until 1995. During that time, the Lofficiers also translated numerous French comics for Dark Horse Comics, co-editing their comic Cheval Noir, and for Renegade Press, co-editing their comic French Ice, featuring the series Carmen Cru by French artist Jean-Marc Lelong. 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.

Comics

After Moebius returned to France and Starwatcher Graphics was disbanded in 2000, the Lofficiers started their own company, Hollywood Comics,[2] which advises and counsels comic book professionals in their dealings with Hollywood. In 2003, they created their own small press, Black Coat Press,[3] to translate and publish classics of French pulp literature into English, relying in part on the output of British writer/translator Brian Stableford.

From 2000 to 2003, Jean-Marc Lofficier was editor and senior writer of a line of French comic books published by Semic Comics, redeveloping 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 Comics in 2003.[4] This universe of characters is now gathered as Hexagon Comics. The Lofficiers also wrote "Blood Oath" a crossover between Phenix and Top Cow's Witchblade.[5][6] In 2011, the Lofficiers started to reprint the "classic" stories from the 1960s and 1970s in a series of black & white trade paperbacks, as well as write new stories in partnership with Wanga Comics.

Pulps and science-fiction

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, the first two volumes were nominated for the 2005 Jules Verne Award for Bandes Dessinees.[7] There were published in English in Heavy Metal.

In 2005, the Lofficiers left California and relocated to the town of Chalabre, in the South of France. They started another small press, Rivière Blanche,[8] to publish French science fiction novels in the nostalgic style of the long-defunct Anticipation imprint of Editions Fleuve Noir.

Lofficier's official website 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.[9]

Works

Bibliography

Books

Books include:

Comics (writing)

Comics work includes:

Comics (translations)

Works by Moebius[10] :

Cheval Noir (Dark Horse, 1989–94)

Other:

Filmography

Animation

Features

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Christian Cawley, "Jean-Marc Lofficier Interview" (Part 1) for Kasterborous, March 13, 2005. Accessed December 29, 2008
  2. ^ Hollywood Comics.com
  3. ^ Black Coat Press.com
  4. ^ Starnger No More - Lofficier on Semic/Image's Strangers, Newsarama, November 12, 2002
  5. ^ Witchblade Teams With Semic Heroines, Newsarama, June 10, 2003
  6. ^ Frenchblade: Semic's Witchblade: Witchblade , Newsarama, December 5, 2004
  7. ^ http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.yozone.fr/article.php3%3Fid_article%3D968&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drobur%2Bjules%2Bverne%2Baward%2Blofficier%2B2005%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
  8. ^ Rivière Blanche.com
  9. ^ http://www.lofficier.com/saint.html
  10. ^ MOEBIUS graphic novels; Translations by R & JM Lofficier. Accessed 31st December 2008
  11. ^ http://www.despair-themovie.com/

References

External links

Interviews