Donny Cates


Donny Cates is an American comic book writer, artist, and podcaster, known for his work on titles like Venom, Thanos, Doctor Strange, Thor, and ''Hulk.''

Early life

Donny Cates was born in Dallas, Texas. Raised in Garland, Texas, Cates states that he was taught to read by his father using comic books. Cates graduated from Garland High School and attended the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he would meet future artistic collaborators Tradd Moore and Geoff Shaw. Cates majored in sequential art, but left the school after being accepted into a Marvel internship program. While interning, Cates stole a Diamond Distributors Gem Award awarded to Astonishing X-Men #1. At the advice of Marvel editor Mark Peniccia, Cates left the program after a year to pursue writing his own comics. After a chance meeting with a Dark Horse Comics staffer at C2E2, Cates was given the opportunity to write short stories for the company.

Career

Cates' first comic work was a short story in Dark Horse Presents vol. 2 #24, released in August 2013. Co-written by himself and Eliot Rahal, the title of this story was Hunter Quaid: Armageddon Outta Here. It was followed up three issues later with Hunter Quaid: The Only Things We Have to Fear… are Nazis and Creepy Monsters. Satisfied with these stories, Dark Horse gave Cates the green light for later projects like Buzzkill, The Ghost Fleet with Daniel Warren Johnson and The Paybacks. Between 2016 and 2017 Cates also wrote stories for IDW Publishing, including an entry in Star Trek: Waypoint and a one-shot, Star Trek: Deviations. Cates eventually began writing for Image Comics, where he released God Country. With this title he attracted the attention of editors at Marvel, who offered him a contract.
His first long-term Marvel works were runs on Doctor Strange and Thanos. After the success of these titles, Cates was given writing duties on Venom, where he was paired with artist and podcaster Ryan Stegman. This led to him penning multiple company-wide events, including Absolute Carnage and King in Black. In January 2020, Cates took over as the new writer of Thor with Nic Klein as artist. Later that year, he would reteam with God Country artist Geoff Shaw on the book Crossover. In June 2021, Cates and Stegman started their own production company entitled KLC Press, named after a Todd McFarlane quote, with its first title set to be the book Vanish by Cates and Stegman. In November that same year, Cates became the new writer of Hulk, with Ryan Ottley joining as artist. In June 2022, it was announced Vanish would receive a physical release via Image Comics.
In August 2023, it was revealed that he provided "additional literary material" for Kraven the Hunter. In October 2024, it was confirmed that he was allowed to read the screenplay for Venom: The Last Dance and consulted alongside Stegman in an advisory relationship due to the film's adaptation of their character Knull.

Personal life

Cates lived in Austin, Texas with his ex-wife, comic artist Megan Hutchison. They hosted the comic review podcast, The Devil’s AdvoCATES Book Club.
In 2022, Cates was seriously injured in a car accident that gave him amnesia with no recollection of the prior six months of his life. During this time, he also went through a divorce. Cates was forced to pull out of numerous writing projects as a result.

Aftershock Comics

  • Babyteeth
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • * Volume 3
  • * Year One
  • Relay #1–6 collected as ''Relay Vol. 1: Reality Denied''

    Dark Horse Comics

  • Dark Horse Presents vol. 2 #24: "Hunter Quaid: Armageddon Outta Here"
  • Dark Horse Presents vol. 2 #27: "Hunter Quaid: The Only Things We Have to Fear... Are Nazis and Creepy Monsters"
  • Buzzkill collected as Buzzkill
  • The Ghost Fleet collected as The Ghost Fleet: The Whole Goddamned Thing
  • Dark Horse Presents vol. 3 #11: "The Paybacks: Downhill Ski" collected in The Paybacks Collection
  • The Paybacks vol. 1 collected in The Paybacks Collection
  • * ''Volume 1: Payback's A Bitch''

    Heavy Metal

  • Interceptor collected as Interceptor Vol. 1
  • The Paybacks vol. 2 #1-4 collected in ''The Paybacks Collection''

    House of Waxwork

  • House of Waxwork #2: "Nowhere Wolf"

    Image Comics

  • God Country collected as God Country
  • Redneck
  • * Volume 1: Deep in the Heart
  • * Volume 2: The Eyes Upon You
  • * Volume 3: Longhorns
  • * Volume 4: Lone Star
  • * Volume 5: Tall Tales
  • Crossover
  • * Volume 1: Kids Love Chains
  • * Volume 2: The Ten-Cent Plague
  • Vanish
  • * Volume 1
  • * ''Volume 2''

    IDW Publishing

  • Star Trek: Waypoint #1, collected in Star Trek: Waypoint
  • ''Star Trek: Deviations''

    Marvel Comics

  • Iron Man Presented by DJI #1
  • Secret Wars: Battleworld #2: "Ross Against The Machine" collected in Secret Wars Journal/Battleworld
  • Captain America: Steve Rogers #18–19 collected in Captain America: Secret Empire
  • Captain America: Sam Wilson #24 collected in Captain America: Secret Empire
  • Doctor Strange vol. 1 collected as Doctor Strange by Donny Cates
  • * Volume 1: God of Magic
  • * Volume 2: City of Sin
  • Thanos vol. 2 #13–18; Annual #1 collected in Thanos Wins
  • Doctor Strange: Damnation collected in Doctor Strange: Damnation The Complete Collection
  • Venom vol. 4
  • * Volume 1: Rex
  • * Volume 2: The Abyss
  • * Volume 3: Absolute Carnage
  • * Volume 4: Venom Island
  • * Volume 5: Venom Beyond
  • * Volume 6: King in Black
  • * Volume 1
  • * Volume 2
  • * Volume 3
  • * Web of Venom: Ve'Nam collected in Venom Unleashed Vol. 1
  • Cosmic Ghost Rider collected in Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die
  • Death of The Inhumans collected in Death of The Inhumans
  • Venom Annual #1: "Tall Tales"
  • Marvel Knights 20th
  • Web of Venom: Carnage Born collected in Venom Unleashed Vol. 1
  • Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 5 collected in Guardians of the Galaxy by Donny Cates
  • * Volume 1: The Final Gauntlet
  • * Volume 2: Faithless
  • Story in Free Comic Book Day 2019 Spider-Man/Venom
  • Silver Surfer: Black collected in Silver Surfer: Black
  • Absolute Carnage collected in Absolute Carnage
  • Marvel Comics #1000: "The Route" collected in Marvel Comics #1000
  • Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider: "Semper Fight"
  • Thor vol. 6
  • * Volume 1: The Devourer King
  • * Volume 2: Prey
  • * Volume 3: Revelations
  • * Volume 4: God of Hammers
  • * Volume 5: The Legacy of Thanos
  • * Volume 6: Blood of the Fathers
  • Incoming!: "45–48"
  • Story in Free Comic Book Day 2020 Spider-Man/Venom
  • Fortnite X Marvel - Nexus War: Thor
  • Web of Venom: Wraith
  • King in Black #1–5 collected in King in Black
  • Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #3: "Burn" collected in Wolverine: Black, White & Blood Treasury Edition
  • Story in Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2
  • Story in Free Comic Book Day 2021 Avengers/Hulk
  • Hulk vol. 5
  • * Volume 1: Smashtronaut!
  • * Volume 2: Hulk Planet
  • Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War: Alpha collected in Hulk Vs. Thor: Banner of War''

    Panel Syndicate

  • ; to be republished by Image Comics

    Vault Comics

  • Reactor #1–3

    Others

  • Venom: The Last Dance Creative consultant
  • Kraven the Hunter Additional Literary Material