Jonathan Maberry
Jonathan Maberry is an American suspense author, anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He has been named one of the "Today's Top Ten Horror Writers" by Horror Novel Reviews.
Early life
Jonathan Maberry was born in Kensington, Philadelphia, attended Frankford High School, and then went on to Temple University. Growing up in a rough neighborhood, he began learning martial arts at the age of 6.Career
Author
Maberry's early work featured martial arts as a topic, such as Judo and You, Ultimate Jujutsu and Ultimate Sparring.In the next phase of his career, he departed from martial arts writing and wrote several books on the folklore and beliefs of the occult and paranormal, including The Vampire Slayers Field Guide to the Undead, written under the pen name of Shane MacDougall; Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt Us and Hunger for Us ; The Cryptopedia, co-authored by David F. Kramer ; Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead ; They Bite ; and Wanted Undead or Alive. The Cryptopedia won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction.
His first novel, Ghost Road Blues, won the 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. That book was the first of the Pine Deep Trilogy and was followed by Dead Man's Song and Bad Moon Rising, all from Pinnacle Books.
Maberry is also a freelance comic book writer, first for Marvel and later for Dark Horse and IDW Publishing. His first story, "Wolverine: Ghosts", was published as a backup story in Wolverine: Anniversary, April 2009. In August 2009 he became the regular writer for Marvel's Black Panther series, starting on the 7th issue, and he wrote Marvel Zombies Return: Wolverine. In 2010, he wrote Doom War and Marvel Universe Vs The Punisher, ''Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine, Marvel Universe Vs The Avengers; Klaws of the Panther, and Captain America: Hail Hydra. He moved to Dark Horse Comics and produced a single miniseries, Bad Blood, with artist Tyler Crook, which went on to win the Bram Stoker Award for Best Graphic Novel. His work for IDW Publishing includes two collections of V-Wars, a five-issue standalone series Rot & Ruin: Warrior Smart, and his latest series Pandemic.
His bestselling work was the novelization of the 2010 film The Wolfman which starred Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving. In March 2010, the novel reached No. 35 on the mass-market paperback section of The New York Times Best Seller List. It was nominated for and won the Scribe Award for Best Film Adaptation, issued by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
In 2010, Maberry began writing young adult post-apocalyptic zombie stories. His first prestigious award was for his first young adult novel, Rot & Ruin. It won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, was named in Booklist
Maberry then launched a series called The Nightsiders that blends science fiction with horror. Book 1 of that series, The Orphan Army was named as one of the 100 Best Books for Children. A follow-up, Vault of Shadows was published in August 2016.
The series for which Maberry is best known is the Joe Ledger Series, in which a Baltimore police detective is recruited into a Special Ops unit attached to the mysterious Department of Military Sciences, which is run by enigmatic Mr. Church. Each of the books in the series pits Ledger and his team against a different kind of extreme science threat. In the first novel, Patient Zero, the threat is a pathogen that turns people into zombies. In the second book, The Dragon Factory, the villains are geneticists using cutting-edge science to restart the Nazi master race eugenics program. The rest of the series follows with The King of Plagues, Assassin's Code, Extinction Machine, Code Zero, Predator One, Kill Switch, Dogs of War; and Deep Silence. Maberry recently launched Rage, the first in the follow-up Rogue Team International series, also featuring Joe Ledger. A collection of Maberry's Joe Ledger short stories, Joe Ledger: Special Ops, was released by JournalStone. The series' main publisher, Griffin, released Joe Ledger: Unstoppable, an anthology of Ledger stories written by a variety of top suspense and mystery writers including Tim Lebbon, Scott Sigler, Steve Alten, Weston Ochse, Dana Fredsti, Christopher Golden, Joe McKinney, Jeremy Robinson, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Bryan Thomas-Schmidt, and others.
In 2015, Maberry released a rare standalone novel, Ghostwalkers, based on the Deadlands table top role playing game. The book was nominated for a Scribe Award for best original novel based on a licensed property.
His most recent standalone novel was Glimpse, published in March 2018 by St. Martin's Press. Glimpse is a chilling thriller that explores what happens when reality and nightmares converge, and how far one will go to protect the innocent when their own brain is a threat. Another standalone, Ink, will be released by St. Martin's Griffin as a trade paperback in 2020. Although a standalone, Ink has elements of other books, including characters and locations from the Pine Deep Trilogy, and the appearance of Monk Addison and Patty Cakes from Glimpse.
Maberry is also a prolific editor of anthologies in a variety of genre including dark fantasy, science fiction/horror ; horror ; mystery pastiche, political thrillers with horror , and an anthology of horror stories for teens which features original stories and poetry by R.L. Stine, Ellen Hopkins, Linda Addision, Ilsa J. Bick, and many others.
In 2017, he published Devil's Advocate, one of the first two books in the X-Files Origins series. Maberry wrote the story about a young Dana Scully, while colleague Kami Garcia, wrote Agent of Chaos, a young Fox Mulder story.
Also in 2017, Maberry published Indigo'', a collaborative work of fiction written with nine other authors including Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden.
Film and television
In May 2010, Maberry's work was the basis of a television pilot written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach named "Department Zero", which was moved into active production by ABC Television.In April 2018, it was announced that Netflix greenlit a television adaptation of the V-WARS novels and comics. Following the series announcement, it was confirmed that Maberry would be credited as an executive producer and creator for the Netflix series V Wars. Production for the first season began and ended in 2018 for a 10-episode first season. The series premiered on December 5, 2019.
Other work
Maberry is a speaker for the National Writers Union, a writing mentor for the Horror Writers Association and the Mystery Writers of America, a member of the International Thriller Writers and president of the NJ-PA Chapter of the Horror Writers Association.Maberry is also a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, the monthly newsletter of the International Thriller Writers, and a founding partner of The Liars Club, a networking group of professionals in publishing and other aspects of entertainment.
Personal life
Maberry holds an 8th degree black belt in Shinowara-ryu Jujutsu. In 2004 he was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.Awards
Maberry has won or been nominated for 17 Bram Stoker Awards between 2006 & 2021 in a variety of categories.| Work | Year & Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
| Ghost Road Blues | 2006 Bram Stoker Award | First Novel | Won | |
| Ghost Road Blues | 2006 Bram Stoker Award | Novel | ||
| The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre ' | 2007 Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | Won | |
| Zombie CSU | 2008 Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | ||
| Zombie CSU | 2008 Black Quill Award | Dark Genre Book of Non-Fiction | Won | |
| Joe Ledger: Patient Zero | 2009 Bram Stoker Award | Novel | ||
| Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil ' | 2010 Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | ||
| Rot & Ruin | 2010 Bram Stoker Award | Novel | ||
| Rot & Ruin | 2010 Cybils Award | Young Adult | Won | |
| Rot & Ruin | 2012-2013 South Dakota Library Association | SD Teen Choice Book Awards | ||
| Rot & Ruin | 2014 Utah Beehive Book Award | Young Adult | ||
| Joe Ledger #3: The King of Plagues | 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards | Horror | ||
| Dust and Decay | 2011 Bram Stoker Award | Young Adult Novel | Won | |
| Dust and Decay | 2013 Westchester Fiction Award | Won | ||
| Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine | 2011 Bram Stoker Award | Graphic Novel | ||
| The Wolfman | 2011 Scribe Award | Adapted Novel | Won | |
| Joe Ledger #4: Assassin's Code | 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards | Horror | ||
| Flesh and Bone | 2012 Bram Stoker Award | Young Adult Novel | Won | |
| Bad Blood ' | 2014 Bram Stoker Award | Graphic Novel | Won | |
| Joe Ledger #5: Extinction Machine | 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards | Horror | ||
| Joe Ledger #5: Extinction Machine | 2014 Audie Awards | Science Fiction | ||
| Three Guys Walk into a Bar | 2014 Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | ||
| Joe Ledger #6: Code Zero | 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards | Horror | ||
| X-Files: Trust No One | 2015 Bram Stoker Award | Anthology | ||
| Ghostwalkers | 2016 Dragon Awards | Alternate History Novel | ||
| Ghostwalkers | 2016 Scribe Awards | Original Novel - Speculative | ||
| Joe Ledger #8: Kill Switch | 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards | Horror | ||
| Nights of the Living Dead ' | 2017 Bram Stoker Award | Anthology | ||
| Broken Lands | 2018 Bram Stoker Award | Young Adult Novel | ||
| Banana Republic | 2018 Scribe Award | Short Story | Won | |
| X-Files Origins: Devil's Advocate | 2018 Scribe Award | YA Original | Won | |
| Glimpse | 2018 Bram Stoker Award | Novel | ||
| Glimpse | 2018 Dragon Awards | Horror Novel | ||
| Empty Graves: Tales of the Living Dead | 2021 Bram Stoker Award | Fiction Collection | ||
| Diablo "The Toll of Darkness and Light" | 2024 Scribe Awards | Short Story | ||
| Joe Ledger/Rogue Team International: Cave 13 | 2024 ITW Awards | Paperback Original Novel | ||
| 2017 Inkpot Award | Won |
- 2003, Writer's Award, International Martial Arts Hall of Fame
- 2004, Martial Arts Hall of Fame