Fred Van Lente

Fred Van Lente is a six-time New York Times bestselling comics writer, novelist and playwright whose work spans mystery/thrillers to historical fiction to superheroes to comedy.

Van Lente burst onto the scene with his first collaboration with cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey, "Action Philosophers", which became a American Library Association Best Book for Teens and the New York Times called "intensely goofy but intellectually rigorous”.

From there he went on to a long career at Marvel, where he worked on titles like "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Captain America" and "Marvel Zombies". He’s also written for DC, Archie Comics, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios, Dynamite Comics, and Valiant, where his run on "Archer & Armstrong" was nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Continuing Series.

Van Lente has continued writing non-fiction graphic novels, often with his artistic collaborator Ryan Dunlavey, including the bestselling Comic Book History of Comics and the middle grade series "Action Presidents". Two entries in the series were nominated for the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards. In 2021, the third volume won the Theodore Roosevelt Association's Theodore Roosevelt Children’s Book Prize.

His Platinum Studios graphic novel "Cowboys & Aliens" was adapted into a film in 2011 starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, directed by Jon Favreau. The following year, Helen Cho, a character created with co-writer Greg Pak in their acclaimed "Incredible Hercules" series, made her MCU debut in the blockbuster "Avengers: Age of Ultron". His "MODOK’s 11" and "Scorpion" became Hulu’s "Marvel’s MODOK", which named the elementary school in the show after him.