James A. Owen is an American

comic book illustrator A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

, publisher and writer. He is known for his

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of ...

comic book series ''Starchild'' and as the author of ''The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'' novel series, that began with ''

Here, There Be Dragons ''Here, There Be Dragons'' is a fantasy novel by James A. Owen. It is the first book in '' The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'' series. A sequel, followed by several more books, have since been released, including '' The Search for th ...

'' in 2006.

Career

Owen self-published the black-and-white

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

series ''Starchild'' under his Taliesin Press imprint in the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War ...

. Adopting the name Coppervale Press for ''Starchild: Crossroads'', he gave up self publishing in 1997 for ''Starchild: Mythopolis'', five issues of which were published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

. Owen returned to self publishing, compiling a volume of Starchild reprints via a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Later, Owen reinvented himself as a novelist, creating a fantasy series titled ''Mythworld'' for a German publishing company. The books were later reprinted in the United States by Baen. In 2003, Coppervale Press relaunched two newsstand style magazines, the

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

-oriented ''International Studio'' and the fiction periodical '' Argosy'', but both magazines ceased publication in 2004 after only a few issues. In 2009, a satirical short story by Jeff VanDermeer entitled "Errata" about ''Argosy'' and its demise was published by

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

. In 2006 his novel ''

'' was published, the first book in ''The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'' series. The book had multiple printings, and was published around the world in more than twenty languages. It was followed by '' The Search for the Red Dragon'' and ''

The Indigo King James A. Owen is an American comic book illustrator, publisher and writer. He is known for his creator-owned comic book series ''Starchild'' and as the author of ''The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'' novel series, that began with ' ...

'' in 2008, ''

The Shadow Dragons ''The Shadow Dragons'', released on October 27, 2009, is the fourth novel of '' The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'', a book series begun by ''Here, There Be Dragons''. It was preceded by ''The Indigo King'' and followed by '' The Drag ...

'' in 2009, ''

The Dragon's Apprentice James A. Owen is an American comic book illustrator, publisher and writer. He is known for his creator-owned comic book series ''Starchild'' and as the author of ''The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica'' novel series, that began with ' ...

'' 2010, ''

The Dragons of Winter ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' in 2012, and " The First Dragon" in 2013. After releasing a non-fiction ebook of personal stories, , in early 2011, Owen had a successful Kickstarter project raising funds to create a limited first edition paperback and hard cover, as well as an audio version of the ebook. Owen announced trilogy was picked up by Shadow Mountain Publishing but as of 2021, his work was out of print at the company.

Works

* .

Starchild

*0. . *1. . *2. . *3. . *4. . *5. . *6. . *7. . *8. . *9. . *10. . *11. . *12. . * (retelling of the previous ''Starchild'' books).

Starchild: Crossroads

# . # . # . # .

Starchild: Mythopolis

*0. . *1. *2. . *3. . *4. .

Starchild: Mythopolis II

* . * .

Kai Meyers Mythenwelt (DE)

# . # . # . # .

The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

# . # . # . # . # . # . # . # .

The Meditations

# . # . # .

Fool's Hollow

# .

References

;Other sources
"James A. Owen"
biography at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...

(archived 2017-07-08)

External links

* * (2018-01-01) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, James A. 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American children's writers American fantasy writers American male novelists Novelists from Arizona Living people Writers of modern Arthurian fiction 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 1969 births