J. Michael Straczynski
Joseph Michael Straczynski, known as J. Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 and its spinoff Crusade, as well as the series Jeremiah and Sense8. He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.
Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin, was one of the key writers for Marvel's Thor, as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening, and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z. From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four. He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics. Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.
A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go for Simon & Schuster, the instructional Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer for Benbella Books, and the novel The Glass Box for Blackstone Publishing. In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.
Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums since 1984. He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show. Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
Early and personal life
Straczynski was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and is the son of Charles Straczynski, a manual laborer, and Evelyn Straczynski. He was raised in Newark, New Jersey; Kankakee, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Chula Vista, California, where he graduated from high school; and San Diego, California. Straczynski's family religion was Catholic although he is an atheist. He has Polish ancestry and his grandparents lived in the area which today belongs to Belarus and fled to the United States from the Russian Revolution; his father was born in the United States and has lived in Poland, Germany and Russia.Straczynski began his postsecondary education at Southwestern College, where he was mentored by Bill Virchis and received an Associate of Arts degree. Thereafter, he transferred to nearby San Diego State University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in psychology and sociology. While at SDSU, he wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily Aztec.
Straczynski met Kathryn M. Drennan while they were at SDSU. They moved to Los Angeles in 1981, married in 1983, separated in 1999, and they were divorced in 2001.
Straczynski has Asperger syndrome. Straczynski had a voluntary vasectomy when he turned 21, and wrote about the experience in the January 28, 1983 edition of the Los Angeles Reader.
Career
1970s–1980s
Early work
Straczynski began writing plays, having several produced at Southwestern College and San Diego State University before publishing his adaptation of Snow White with Performance Publishing. Several other plays were produced around San Diego, including The Apprenticeship for the Marquis Public Theater. During the late 1970s, Straczynski became the on-air entertainment reviewer for KSDO-FM and wrote several radio plays before being hired as a scriptwriter for the radio drama Alien Worlds. He produced his first television project in San Diego, Marty Sprinkle for KPBS-TV as well as worked on the XETV-TV project Disasterpiece Theatre. He worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times as a special San Diego correspondent and worked for San Diego Magazine and The San Diego Reader, and wrote for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the Los Angeles Reader, TV-Cable Week, and 'People' magazine. Straczynski wrote The Complete Book of Scriptwriting for Writer's Digest. Published in 1982, the book is often used as a text in introductory screenwriting courses, and is in its third edition.He spent five years from 1987 to 1992 co-hosting the Hour 25 radio talk show on KPFK-FM Los Angeles with Larry DiTillio. During his tenure, he interviewed John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison and other writers, producers, actors and directors. In 2000, Straczynski returned to radio drama with The City of Dreams for scifi.com.
Work in animation
Straczynski was a fan of the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He wrote a spec script in 1984 and sent it directly to Filmation. Filmation purchased his script and several others, and hired him on staff. During this time he became friends with Larry DiTillio, and when Filmation produced the He-Man spinoff She-Ra: Princess of Power, they worked as story editors on the show.Straczynski and DiTillio worked to create an animated version of Elfquest, but that project fell through when CBS attempted to retool the show to appeal to younger audiences.
While working on Jayce, Straczynski was hired to come aboard the Len Janson and Chuck Menville project to adapt the movie Ghostbusters to an animated version called The Real Ghostbusters. When Janson and Menville learned that there was not only a 13-episode order but a 65-episode syndication order as well, they decided that the workload was too much and that they would only work on their own scripts. DIC head Jean Chalopin asked Straczynski to take on the task of story editing the entire 78-episode block as well as writing his own scripts. After the show's successful first season, consultants were brought in to make suggestions for the show, including changing Janine to a more maternal character, giving every character a particular "job", and to add kids into the show. Straczynski left at this point, Janson and Menville resuming the story editing job for the second network season. Straczynski then began development on a show called Spiral Zone but left after only one script, taking his name off the series, because management drastically altered his conception of the show.
Live action and network shows
After leaving animation, Straczynski freelanced for The Twilight Zone writing an episode entitled "What Are Friends For" and, for Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics, adapting The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award.Straczynski was offered the position of story editor on the syndicated live-action science fiction series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Straczynski constructed a season long arc with lasting character changes and wrote a third of the scripts himself. After one season, the toy company Mattel demanded more input into the show, causing Straczynski to quit. He recommended DiTillio to take over the job as story editor for a second season, but the toy company financing fell through and that season was never produced.
Soon after, the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike began. Straczynski met Harlan Ellison during this time and later became friends with him. Straczynski is an executor of Ellison's collected works.
After the strike ended, the producers of the new Twilight Zone needed to create more episodes to be able to sell the series into syndication with a complete 65-episode package. They hired Straczynski as executive story editor to fill in the remaining number of needed episodes.
After leaving Twilight Zone, his agent of the time asked him to pitch for the show Jake and the Fatman. Initially wary, Straczynski finally did and was hired on as an executive story consultant under Jeri Taylor and David Moessinger. When Taylor and Moessinger left the show, Straczynski left too as an act of solidarity.
When Moessinger was hired as executive producer for Murder, She Wrote, he offered Straczynski a job as co-producer. Straczynski joined Murder, She Wrote for two seasons and wrote seven produced episodes. Moessinger and Straczynski moved the protagonist, Jessica Fletcher, from the sleepy Maine town of Cabot Cove to New York City to revitalize the show. The move effectively brought the show back into the top ten from the mid-thirties where it had fallen.
Straczynski wrote one episode of Walker, Texas Ranger for Moessinger between the pilot episode for Babylon 5 and the start of its first season.
Straczynski wrote an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Showtime network, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award, and a Murder, She Wrote movie, Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For, which he produced.
1990s
''Babylon 5'' and ''Crusade''
In late 1991, Warner Bros. contracted with Straczynski and Doug Netter as partners to produce Babylon 5 as the flagship program for the new Prime Time Entertainment Network.Straczynski and Netter hired many of the people from Captain Power, as well as hiring Ellison as a consultant and DiTillio as a story editor. Babylon 5 won two Emmy Awards, back-to-back Hugo Awards, and dozens of other awards. Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes, as well as the pilot and five television movies. The show is a character-driven space opera and features an intentional emphasis on realism in its portrayal of space operations. It pioneered extensive use of CGI for its special effects. Babylon 5 was produced and broadcast for five seasons completing Stracynski's planned story arc.
He wrote the outlines for nine of the canonical Babylon 5 novels, supervised the three produced Babylon 5 telefilm novelizations, and is the author of four Babylon 5 short stories published in magazines, not yet reprinted.
In 2005, Straczynski began publishing his Babylon 5 scripts. This process ended in June 2008, with the scripts no longer being available from the end of July of that year. His scripts for the television movies were published for a limited time in January 2009.