Scott Snyder is an American writer. He is known for his 2006 short story
collection Voodoo Heart, and his comic book writing, including American
Vampire, Detective Comics, Batman, Batman: Gates of Gotham and Swamp Thing.
Early life At the age of nine, Snyder attended a
summer camp where one of the counselors read Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon
to him over the summer, an experience that Snyder says "really jump-started my
love of story-telling." He was also influenced by the writing of Denis
Johnson, Raymond Carver, Rick Bass, Joy Williams, and George Saunders.
Snyder graduated from Brown University in 1998 with a degree in creative
writing, and then worked at Walt Disney World for about a year. Snyder's Disney
World stint strongly influenced his writing; he later recalled, "it did a
world of good for my writing...All the things I ended up writing about, those
things that are deeply frightening to me—fear of commitment and growing up,
fear of losing loved ones, the wonder and terror of falling in love—all of it
was constantly being played out all around me in this weird, cartoonish,
magnified way at Disney." Snyder received his MFA from Columbia
University in 2002. Career
= Prose fiction= His first collection of stories, Voodoo
Heart, was published by the Dial Press in June 2006. The collection received
starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and was a Kirkus Reviews
"Hot Debut" of the year. The New York Times published a positive review by
author Andrew Sean Greer in the Sunday Book Review.
Stephen King picked two of the included stories—"Wreck" and "Dumpster
Tuesday"—for the 2007 The Best American Short Stories anthology shortlist.
Voodoo Heart was shortlisted for The Story Prize in 2006.
Snyder teaches writing at New York University, Columbia University, and
Sarah Lawrence College. = Comics=
In 2009, Snyder began writing for Marvel Comics. His first foray into the genre
was a one-shot focusing on the first Human Torch, part of Marvel's 70th
anniversary celebrations. He later wrote the four-issue miniseries, Iron Man:
Noir, which debuted in April 2010. Vertigo began publishing American
Vampire, Snyder's first creator-owned ongoing series, in March 2010. The first
five issues feature an original storyline by Stephen King. American
Vampire won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best New Series, as well as the 2011
Harvey Award for Best New Series. His run as writer of Detective Comics
began with issue No. 871 of that title, which marked the beginning of his
exclusive contract with DC Comics. He and Kyle Higgins wrote the Batman: Gates
of Gotham miniseries which debuted in May 2011.
Beginning in September 2011, Snyder became the writer of both Batman and a
new Swamp Thing ongoing series as part of The New 52, DC Comics' company-wide
relaunch of all of its titles. Snyder later became the co-writer of Talon, a
spin-off of the "Court of Owls" storyline in Batman, which focused on a
rogue Talon from the Court. It was announced at the 2012 New York
Comic Con that Snyder would be writing a new Superman ongoing series, titled
Superman Unchained, with art by Jim Lee. The series began publication in June
2013. Snyder left the Swamp Thing series as of
issue #18 and began writing The Wake, a 10-issue, ocean-based horror miniseries
drawn by Snyder's American Vampire: Survival Of The Fittest collaborator
Sean Murphy. The series follows marine biologist Lee Archer, who along with the
Department of Homeland Security, discovers a potential threat to humanity
that may involve strange, humanoid creatures that inhabit the ocean depths.
The story shifts between three time periods: the near future, two centuries
in the future and the distant past. The covers of the first five issues form a
mural when placed side by side. The same month, DC published a Free
Comic Book Day sneak preview of Superman Unchained, an ongoing series written by
Snyder and illustrated by Jim Lee, which was later published on June 12, 2013,
and intended to coincide with the feature film Man of Steel, which opened
two days later. Snyder explained his approach to the series: "The way to
approach a character as iconic as him is you just come at it from a standpoint of
what you love the most about the character, and then write a story that
explores that, tear it down and build it back up."
Snyder is one of the co-writers of the Batman Eternal series which launched in
April 2014. The second run of Batman Eternal, retitled as Batman & Robin
Eternal will launch on October 7, 2015. Personal life
Snyder is married, with two children. Bibliography
= DC Comics/Vertigo= American Vampire:
Volume 1 collects: "Big Break"
"Morning Star" "Rough Cut"
"Double Exposure" "Curtain Call"
Volume 2 collects: "Devil in the Sand"
"The Way Out" Volume 3 collects:
"Strange Frontier" "Ghost War"
Survival of the Fittest #1–5 Volume 4 collects:
"The Beast in the Cave" "Death Race"
"The Nocturnes" Volume 5
Volume 6 Volume 7
Batman: Detective Comics:
The Black Mirror collects: "The Black Mirror"
"Skeleton Cases" "Lost Boys"
"Hungry City" "Skeleton Key"
"My Dark Architect" "The Face in the Glass"
Gates of Gotham #1–5 collected as Batman: GoG
Batman collected as: The Court of Owls
The City of Owls Death of the Family
Zero Year: Secret City Zero Year: Dark City
Graveyard Shift Endgame
Batman Eternal collected as: Volume 1
Volume 2 Volume 3
Flashpoint: Project Superman #1–3 collected in Flashpoint: The World of
Flashpoint Featuring Superman Swamp Thing collected as:
Raise Them Bones Family Tree
Rotworld: The Green Kingdom Talon collected as:
Scourge of the Owls Superman Unchained #1-9 collected in
Superman Unchained: The Deluxe Edition The Wake #1-10, collected in The Wake
= Other publishers= Marvel:
Human Torch Comics 70th Anniversary Special No. 1 collected in Timely 70th
Anniversary Collection Nation X #1: "Testament" collected in
Nation X Iron Man Noir #1–4 collected as Iron Man
Noir Image Comics:
Severed #1–7 collected as Severed Wytches #1-6 collected as Wytches
Awards 2011 Eisner Award for Best New Series
2011 Harvey Award for Best New Series 2012 Eagle Award for Best Writer
2012 Stan Lee Award for Best Ongoing Series
2012 Stan Lee Award for Best Writer 2012 Stan Lee Award for Man of the Year
2014 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series
= Nominations= 2011 Eagle Award for Favourite Newcomer
Writer 2011 Eagle Award for Favourite New Comic
Book 2011 Harvey Award for Most Promising New
Talent 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best
Graphic Novels & Comics 2013 Harvey Award for Best Writer
2014 Eisner Award for Best Writer; American Vampire, The Wake)
References External links
Scott Snyder at the Comic Book DB Scott Snyder at Mike's Amazing World of
Comics Scott Snyder at the Unofficial Handbook
of Marvel Comics Creators