Nat Gertler
Nat Gertler | |
---|---|
Born | [1] | April 30, 1965
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | Writer, Editor |
Notable works |
The Peanuts Collection The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel The Factor |
Nat Gertler is an American writer known for his comic books and his books about comics. He is the author of books about Schulz's Peanuts, and runs an Internet site that sells memorabilia associated with the comic strip. Gertler is the publisher of About Comics, and founded an annual cartoonists' challenge, 24 Hour Comics Day.
He was nominated twice for the Eisner Award.
Early life
Gertler was raised in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, Simsbury, Connecticut, and Riverton, New Jersey. At 14, he attended Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts four years later. Wanting to pursue a comic-book career, he began writing in his spare time while working for Avant-Garde Computing in New Jersey, writing Z-80 assembly language code.[2]
Career
His first comic-book story, the six-page backup feature "The Visit", appeared in First Comics' Grimjack #57 (cover-dated April 1989). He went on to publish horror-comics stories in Hamilton Comics' Dread of Night and Grave Tales in 1991, and through the 1990s did work for the independent publisher Comic Zone Productions, WaRP Graphics, and Caliber Press, and an issue of Blood Syndicate for DC Comics' Milestone Comics imprint. For Image Comics, he wrote stories for Big Bang Comics #7–8 (Dec. 1996 – Jan. 1997).[3]
After leaving Avant-Garde Computing, he began writing for computer-book publisher Que Publishing, beginning with Computers Illustrated. Moving to the greater Los Angeles area, he founded comic-book publisher About Comics, initially for his own work, beginning with The Factor issue #0 (1998), and later encompassing new and reprinted work by other creators.[2][3] About Comics would go on to publish properties such as The Weasel Patrol, The Factor, Licensable BearTM, and The Liberty Project.[4][5]
In 2004, he founded the annual 24 Hour Comics Day challenge to cartoonists to produce a 24-page comic book,[5] based on a concept previously conceived by Scott McCloud and Steve Bissette in 1990.[6] Outside of comics, Gertler has written "for eleven computer books, a number of short stories (check out Shock Rock II for a good one), one animated TV episode, various magazine articles and columns, the back of some trading cards, and one button slogan,"[7] as well as titles in the Complete Idiot's Guides series of books.
Reviews
Gertler's 2010 The Peanuts Collection received positive reviews in USA Today[8] and elsewhere. The Chicago Sun-Times described it as a "slipcovered museum collection" filled with "treasures",[9] and the Christian Science Monitor described it as "a gold mine of Peanuts memorabilia and removable inserts".[10] Gertler's script anthologies Panel One and Panel Two were "highly recommend[ed]" by USA Today for persons interested in learning how to write comic books.[11]
Personal life
Gertler's sister, Brie Gertler, is a professor of philosophy. At the time he wrote his official site's biography, Gertler lived in Camarillo, California, with his wife and two children.[2]
Awards and nominations
- 1999 Eisner Award nomination: The Factor miniseries[12][13]
- 2006 Eisner Award nomination: Best Anthology 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2005, edited by Nat Gertler (About Comics)[14]
- 2016 Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award: Gold WInner, Coffee Table Book: The Snoopy Treasures (Thunder Bay Press)[15]
Selected works
Books
- Panel One: Comic Book Scripts by Top Writers (editor), About Comics, 2002 (ISBN 0-9716338-0-0).
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel (with Steve Lieber), Alpha Books, 2004 (ISBN 1592572332).
- Comics prose : short stories (editor and contributor), About Comics, 2004 (ISBN 0-9716338-6-X).
- The Factor (with various illustrators), About Comics, 2004 (ISBN 0-9716338-5-1).
- reprints The Factor, issues 0–4, About Comics, 1999.
- issue 0 previously published in Negative Burn 29–31.
- 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights, 2004 (editor), About Comics, 2004 (ISBN 0-9753958-0-7).
- 24 Hour Comics All-Stars (editor), About Comics, 2005 (ISBN 0-9753958-4-X).
- The Peanuts Collection: Treasures from the World's Most Beloved Comic Strip, Little, Brown and Company, 2010 (ISBN 978-0316086103)
Comics
- Speed Racer Classics (Now Comics, 1998; writer, English script, for original Japanese manga Mach go go go by Tatsuo Yoshida)[3][16]
- reprinted in Speed Racer: The Original Manga #1 (DC Comics, June 2000)[3]
References
- ↑ Happy Birthday: Nat Gertler, By Aaron Rosenberg, April 30, 2008, ComicMix
- 1 2 3 "Biography". Nat Gertler official website. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Nat Gertler at the Grand Comics Database.
- ↑ Langshaw, Mark (July 9, 2009). "Free comics for Second Life subscribers". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- 1 2 Mertes, Micah (October 14, 2008). "Rest up now to take part in 24 Hour Comics Day Saturday". Lincoln Journal Star. Lincoln, Nebraska. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ "Alec Longstreth, 24 Hour Comics survivor". The Daily Cross Hatch. April 7, 2007. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ↑ Gertler in Kallies, Christy (November–December 1998). "Nat Gertler". SequentialTart.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- ↑ Matheson, Whitney (November 11, 2010). "Comics recs: 'Peanuts,' Charles Burns and more". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 17, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ Jevens, Darel (December 16, 2010). "Reviews in brief: Coffee table gift books". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 23, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ "Top picks: TV series 'Slings and Arrows' on DVD, Charles Schulz's 'The Peanuts Collection,' Rock Band 3, and more". Christian Science Monitor. October 22, 2010. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ Smith, Zack (November 28, 2012). "How to write a comic book". USA Today. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ↑ Kallies, Christy (1999). "Nat Gertler: Eisner Nominee". 2 (5). Sequential Tart. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ Murphy, Chris (November 17, 2008). "About Comics at the Ten Year Mark". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
Issue 0 of The Factor collected shorter works by writer Nat Gertler ... The Eisner-nominated miniseries told the story of one superhero....
- ↑ "2006 Eisner Award Nominations". ComicsReporter.com. April 5, 2006. Archived from the original on May 6, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ↑ "2016 IBPA BFA Winners". Independent Book Publishers Association. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
- ↑ "Speed Racer classics". OCLC WorldCat. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
External links
- About Comics official website
- Edmon J. Rodman, April 25, 2012, Jewish Journal, Barmitzvahman — Hero for more than a day, Accessed March 13, 2014