avg_rating: 3.86
name: Eric Trautmann
about: Eric Trautmann is a comic book writer, editor, and graphic designer.For several years, Eric was a writer and editor for West End Games' acclaimed Star Wars roleplaying game line. After leaving dice-and-paper gaming behind, Eric then moved into videogames, an early recruit into Microsoft Game Studios' nascent entertainment licensing apparatus.While at Microsoft, Eric wrote and edited in-game dialogue, story bibles, marketing materials, and original fictional content for the web.Among the titles that Eric helped develop were the smash-hit HALO: Combat Evolved (including editing chores on the first three HALO novels for Ballantine / Del Rey, as well as writing The Art of HALO, also for Del Rey); Crimson Skies (creating a strongly immersive in- Eric Trautmann is a comic book writer, editor, and graphic designer.For several years, Eric was a writer and editor for West End Games' acclaimed Star Wars roleplaying game line. After leaving dice-and-paper gaming behind, Eric then moved into videogames, an early recruit into Microsoft Game Studios' nascent entertainment licensing apparatus.While at Microsoft, Eric wrote and edited in-game dialogue, story bibles, marketing materials, and original fictional content for the web.Among the titles that Eric helped develop were the smash-hit HALO: Combat Evolved (including editing chores on the first three HALO novels for Ballantine / Del Rey, as well as writing The Art of HALO, also for Del Rey); Crimson Skies (creating a strongly immersive in-universe website for the pulpy, two-fisted adventure setting; editing weekly serialized online pulp novellas; and editing and contributing to Del Rey's mass-market paperback fiction anthology based on the setting); MechWarrior 4; and Perfect Dark Zero, acting as a story consultant to the property and helping to develop a fiction publishing program in support of the game.In addition, Eric has consulted on videogame properties for EPIC (drafting a story bible for the Gears of War franchise), story development for Radical Entertainment, and delivering talks on the craft of writing in games to various publishers (notably, Blizzard Entertainment). After leaving Microsoft, Eric wrote a six-issue miniseries for Perfect Dark (titled Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears), published by Prima Games, as well as editing and lettering an original graphic novel prequel to the hyperviolent videogame Army of Two, titled Army of Two: Dirty Money (written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Brandon McKinney).While developing Perfect Dark Zero's novel program, he edited Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front, scribed by Greg Rucka (and published by TOR). The collaboration proved fruitful, and Eric was later invited to write a fill-in issue of Greg's DC Comics superhero/espionage title, Checkmate (which led to a half-year stint as co-writer on the title, ending his run with issue #25). Checkmate led to several other DC Comics projects (as both writer or co-writer), including Final Crisis: Resist, JSA Vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith, The Shield, Mighty Crusaders, Adventure Comics and others. Eric currently writes the continuing adventures of classic sword-and-sorcery heroine, Red Sonja, for Dynamite Entertainment.In November 2010, Eric's debut issue of a revitalized Vampirella (also published by Dynamite Entertainment) was released to widespread critical praise and excellent sales (Vampirella #1 was the best selling non-premier publisher title for Diamond Comics Distribution in the month of its release). In addition to writing comics, Eric is a graphic designer and marketing consultant, through his Fedora Monkey Studio, which offers (among other services) logo and branding design, intellectual property development, and viral marketing (such as the infamous "Montoya Journal" to promote the DC Comics' series The Question: The Five Books of Blood).Eric splits his time between Raymond, Wa (where he resides) and Lacey, WA (where his wife runs the best comic shop ever). ...more