Black Coat Press

Jean-Marc Lofficier (; born June 22, 1954) is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comics and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier (born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 3, 1953), and the reason why credits sometimes read "R.J.M. Lofficier", after the initials of both spouses.

Biography

Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France, in 1954. The son of a serviceman, he moved several times during his formative years, spending "a goodly part of my childhood in Bordeaux, and my teenage years in Fontainebleau."Christian Cawley
"Jean-Marc Lofficier Interview"
for Kasterborous, March 13, 2005. Retrieved December 29, 2008 A budding writer from an early age, Lofficier also "drew my own little comic strips when I was 13, 14, and began being published in French 'zines at 16." Recalling in 2005 that "writing wasn't deemed a respectable, economically sound way of making a living," he got an MBA and a law degree, then went to work in international banking.

Graduating from the Paris_1_Panthéon-Sorbonne_University and from ESCP Europe business school in 1978, Jean-Marc Lofficier worked for Barclays Bank in Paris for a year before being hired by Credit Lyonnais and moving to Los Angeles, California, where he met Randy. Jean-Marc and Randy were married the following year. Jean-Marc recalled in 2005 that their writing partnership developed alongside their personal relationship; "Randy always wanted to write... oit evolved organically in a mutually complementary working relationship.".

Jean-Marc left Credit Lyonnais in 1985 to join Starwatcher Graphics, a new company set up by French artist Moebius and his wife Claudine, then living in Santa Monica. After Moebius returned to France, and Starwatcher Graphics was disbanded in 2000, the Lofficiers started their own company, Hollywood Comics, which advises and counsels comic book professionals in their dealings with Hollywood. Jean-Marc and Randy moved to Chalabre, in the South of France, in 2005.

Magazines and Hollywood

In 1979, the Lofficiers built on Jean-Marc's earlier work for fanzines and French magazines – including '' Lunatique'' and '' L'Ecran Fantastique'', for which he wrote a combination of articles, reviews and short stories – and began working as "film journalists" for a variety of "cinema/ sf pro magazines." Covering the Hollywood-based film industry (and particularly those aspects with a Sci-Fi or Fantasy bent), the Lofficiers wrote for a number of magazines created both for American and overseas audiences.

Their work appeared in such mainstream U.S. publications as '' Starlog'', ''Cinefex'', '' Heavy Metal'' and ''American Cinematographer'', as well as more focused publications including T. E. D. Klein's ''The Twilight Zone Magazine''. Overseas, the Lofficiers' work appeared in United Kingdom magazines including Dez Skinn's '' Starburst'' (the magazine of "Science Fantasy in Television, Cinema and Comix") and ''House of Hammer'', while in France, they continued to contribute to ''L'Ecran Fantastique''.

Guides, books and novels

The Lofficiers' magazine work, which included short stories, retrospectives and TV program guides alongside journalistic articles, led naturally to them co-authoring a number of non-fiction books about film and television programs. Their first – ''The Doctor Who Programme Guide'', published by W. H. Allen in 1981 – arose from their work for French magazine ''L'Ecran Fantastique''. The pair produced
:"a series of dossiers on SF TV series for L'Ecran Fantastique: ''The Prisoner'', ''Star Trek'', '' Twilight Zone'' and... ''Doctor Who''. For that 'Who''dossier ean-Marc Lofficierinterviewed Terrance Dicks and Graham Williams. Then I sent them a courtesy copy. Terrance passed it on to Christine Donougher at W. H. Allen who saw an opportunity to publish it as a book."

This title in turn led to the Lofficiers producing several novelizations and editing various anthologies of science fiction and fantasy short stories.

Animation and comics

In 1985, Randy Lofficier completed Harry Love's Animation Writing Seminar at Hanna-Barbera, which led the Lofficiers to write a number of animation scripts for television series such as ''The Real Ghostbusters'' and ''Duck Tales''. They also began to write numerous scripts for a variety of comic books, often in collaboration with other writers, notably Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman, for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Their best-known works include a trilogy of DC '' Elseworlds'' based on German Expressionism cinema incorporating characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the ''Book of the Vishanti'' back-up feature for '' Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme'', two stories for Clive Barker’s ''Hellraiser'', and the '' Tongue*Lash'' series for Dark Horse Comics.

From 2000 to 2003, Jean-Marc Lofficier was editor and senior writer of a line of French comic books published by Semic Comics, redeveloping old French characters from the 1960s such as ''Wampus'', ''Kabur'', ''Phenix'', ''Homicron'', ''Dragut'' and ''Dick Demon'' into more modern versions, even gathering a number of them in the mini-series '' Strangers'' published by Image Comics in 2003. This universe of characters is now gathered as Hexagon Comics. The Lofficiers also wrote "Blood Oath" a crossover between Phenix and Top Cow's Witchblade. Starting in 2010, the Lofficiers started to reprint the "classic" stories from the 1960s and 1970s in a series of black & white trade paperbacks, as well as write new stories, mostly by relaunching the comic-book ''Strangers''. Since that date, Jean-Marc has been editor-in-chief of Hexagon Comics.

Also for the French comic market, the Lofficiers wrote a trilogy of graphic novels based on the character of Robur created by Jules Verne. Illustrated by Gil Formosa, the first two volumes were nominated for the 2005 Jules Verne Award for Bandes Dessinees. There were published in English in ''Heavy Metal''.

Translation

In 1985, the Lofficiers were hired by French artist Moebius to translate and arrange for the publication of his works in English. This led to a series of 30+ graphic novels published mostly by Epic Comics until 1995. During that time, the Lofficiers also translated numerous French comics for Dark Horse Comics, co-editing their comic '' Cheval Noir'', and for Renegade Press, co-editing their comic '' French Ice'', featuring the series '' Carmen Cru'' by French artist Jean-Marc Lelong. In 1990, in recognition of their career as writers, translators and editors, the Lofficiers were presented with the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts.

Pulps and science-fiction

In 2003, the Lofficiers created their own small press, Black Coat Press, to translate and publish classics of French pulp literature into English, relying in part on the output of British writer/translator Brian Stableford.

In 2005, the Lofficiers started another small press, Rivière Blanche, to publish French science fiction novels in the nostalgic style of the long-defunct ''Anticipation'' imprint of Editions Fleuve Noir.

Lofficier's official website includes a section entitled "Illustrated History of the French Saint Novels", a guide to French-language novels based upon the character of Simon Templar (alias "The Saint"), created by Leslie Charteris

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