| Chris Ryall | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Ryall April 2, 1969 Long Beach, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer |
Christopher "Chris" Ryall (born on April 2, 1969) is best known as the Chief Creative Officer and Editor-in-Chief of IDW Publishing (2004–Present), and as a writer in the comic book industry. In February 2011, his Eisner Award-nominated series, Zombies vs. Robots, co-created with artist Ashley Wood, was optioned by Sony Pictures for Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes. He lives in San Diego with his wife Julie and daughter Lucy.
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Ryall was born in Long Beach, California. He is the son of Ken and Patricia Ryall, who encouraged Chris’ creativity from an early age. In particular, Patricia’s love for pop culture would begin to influence Chris’ own sensibilities, providing him with a healthy balance of and appreciation for high art to the low brow. It was not uncommon for there to be discussions about Richard Matheson’s short stories while a KISS album or Steve Martin comedy record was playing on the stereo. Patricia would often act as a sounding board and barometer for her son’s tastes, coupled with his own insatiable appetite for reading and writing (skills that would surface in Chris’ early work in such various capacities as a music reviewer for local newspapers, an advertising copywriter, a technical automotive writer, and a corporate speechwriter).
Ryall says he has known he wanted to be a writer since the age of ten, and gives credit to Stan Lee and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles for fostering his love of the written word.
In 1995 Ryall graduated from Cal State Fullerton.
After a brief stint working as a Project Director writing for Dick Clark Communications, one that would leave Ryall feeling unfulfilled personally and stifled creatively, he made a concerted effort to break into the entertainment industry on his own terms while still working as an advertising copywriter in Santa Monica, CA. While Ryall always had a proactive approach to his professional career and a gregarious nature that gave him a knack for networking, his writing (and opinions) began maturing to the point where others took a genuine interest in his valuable feedback. One such person was writer-director-actor Kevin Smith.
After a rather fortuitous encounter with Smith, who contacted Ryall after disagreeing with an online review Ryall had posted about Smith’s take on the Green Arrow comic book, the two began trading emails with a tone that eventually shifted from defensive to friendly. Perhaps seeing a kindred spirit at the time, Smith was won over by Ryall’s quick wit and honest opinions.
In 2002 Smith offered Ryall [1] his highest profile opportunity up to that point, that of running the entertainment-based MoviePoopShoot.com, one of Smith’s first forays outside of filmmaking. Ryall saw the potential, but there was one major hurdle: there was a domain name and a site built as a snarky parody of movie sites such as Ain’t It Cool News. Ryall seized the opportunity to turn the site into a true pop-culture portal and dove in headfirst, building the ambitious enterprise from the ground-up, wearing many hats including that of chief content provider, copy editor, Webmaster, and editor to 20+ freelancers, ranging from film critics to comic book artists.
With Ryall’s round-the-clock work ethic and ability to keep his finger firmly on the pulse of pop culture, MoviePoopShoot.com became a resounding hit on the Internet and garnered a massive following of its own. In 2003 it was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “100 Sites to Bookmark Now,” along with receiving write-ups in USA Today, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, L.A. Business Journal, Los Angeles Times, and mentions on CNN Headline News. It was also named Yahoo.com’s Site of the Week for July 2002.
When Ryall announced his departure from the site in 2006, Kevin Smith said:
“Chris managed to shape my whims into viable version of an all-purpose entertainment web destination and build it into an oft-visited community that maintains the most consistent traffic of the many web sites I lay claim to. He’ll be missed.”
Ryall’s exit was not a total surprise to the online community. Some had expected it as early as 2004, when Ryall accepted the position of Editor-in-Chief at IDW Publishing, a San Diego-based comic-book publisher. Everything had come full circle, and Ryall’s career would grow by leaps and bounds at a rather unprecedented pace (along with that of IDW’s own growth rate).
Not only would Ryall act as an editor-in-chief, he also finally received his chance to live out his boyhood dream by using his creative writing and overactive imagination to full effect. He started by writing and/or adapting comics based on licensed properties such as Shawn of the Dead; horror mag revival Doomed (for which he and artist Ashley Wood received an Eisner nomination for their adaptation of Richard Matheson’s “Blood Son” short story); George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead; Masters of Horror: the first Transformers Movie Prequel; Beowulf; Gene Simmons’ House of Horrors; a prose short in 30 Days of Night, a DVD pack-in comic for the movie Role Models; and Weekly World News. He was gaining valuable insight and on-the-job training, and by the time he adapted the epic Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show, Ryall truly began to flex his creative muscles and find his legs.
Author/Filmmaker/Artist Clive Barker praised Ryall’s work by stating “Chris is the man. I trust him as a friend and as a collaborator. He's just a thoroughly decent human being who just so happens to be brilliant." [1] [2][2][3]
Ryall’s influences would span the gamut from Stephen King, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Danny Elfman, Norton Juster, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, Steve Martin, Anthony Michael Hall, Harlan Ellison, the Marquis de Sade, and Lemmy Kilmister. This eclectic, arguably absurd mix would contribute to Ryall’s writing style and the general joie de vivre found in his work.
Certainly it’s on display in all of the comic book properties that he had a hand in personally creating, including Zombies vs. Robots (and its sequel Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons) both co-created with artist Ashley Wood, Groom Lake (co-created with artist Ben Templesmith and one of Ryall’s pet projects, the Weekly World News comic book series. In total, Ryall has written over three dozen successful, acclaimed comics based on licensed properties for IDW (excluding his creator-owned and/or non IDW comics writing).
In February 2006, IDW recognized Ryall’s contributions and promoted him with the title of Publisher. Ted Adams, CEO of IDW Publishing, said: “Chris’ contribution to the company can’t be overstated. He works as hard as anyone I’ve ever met and is fiercely loyal to the company that he’s helped build.” [3] [4]
Ryall’s track record in the comic book industry continued to shine and reach new heights by the day. Among the properties he helped develop and shepherd to IDW Publishing were: the critically acclaimed Locke & Key (which was optioned by Dimension Films and then Fox Studios); Toho’s Godzilla (which became the best-selling comic book in the history of IDW), Star Trek, HBO and Alan Ball’s True Blood and scores of others with authors like James Patterson, Harlan Ellison, Joe Hill, and Anne Rice.
With Ryall’s direction, IDW Publishing made the decision to pursue a partnership with Hasbro on the immensely popular Transfomers property. The toy company subsequently awarded IDW the G.I. Joe and Dungeons & Dragons properties.
In 2009, Ryall and co-writer Scott Tipton released the prose primer on the comic-book industry, Comic Books 101, through IMPACT Publishing. In addition to featuring Ryall and Tipton’s overview of comics’ long history and creators, the book features new contributions from such luminaries as Stan Lee, Harlan Ellison, Gene Simmons, Mark Waid, Joe Hill, Brian Lynch, and many others.
Also independent of IDW Publishing, Ryall published Frank Frazetta’s Neanderthal with Jay Fotos and Tim Vigil, through Image Comics.
July 2010 saw Ryall receive a third promotion at IDW: Chief Creative Officer, and justifiably so. When Ryall joined the IDW staff in 2004, the company ranked sixth among American graphic novel publishers; now IDW is the third largest (behind only Marvel and D.C. Comics). No new publisher had attained the third spot for well over a decade before IDW claimed the spot in 2009. In March 2010, IDW attained Premier status with the sole comic distributor, Diamond, the first time ever an indie publisher has attained this status.
In October 2010, Ryall contrbuted a prose story, "Twilight of the Gods," to Classics Mutlated, a prose "monster-lit" anthology. About his story, Creature Cast said "Riffing on both the Twilight series and Norse mythology, this clever little parody boasts some of the funniest, most charming storytelling of the book. Loki replaces the Bella character and his rakishly sociopathic take on her romance is absolutely hilarious. Of all the stories in the book, this is the one I'm most likely to recommend to people."
Sony Pictures and blockbuster director Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company announced in February 2011 that they acquired the rights to co-produce the film adaptation of Ryall and Wood’s Zombies vs. Robots.
His projects for 2011 include a fourth Zombies vs Robots series, UnderCity, and Infestation: Outbreak, a four-issue series co-written with Tom Waltz and spinning out of Infestation, the first-ever event in IDW’s history. Infestation, spearheaded by Ryall and Waltz, wove elements from IDW’s titles, such as CVO and Zombies vs Robots, into the worlds of their licensed comics such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Star Trek, and Ghostbusters. Ryall will contribute a new story to Doomed Quarterly, coming Fall 2011.