About Eric...

Eric Trautmann is a comic book writer, editor, and graphic designer.

A long-time writer and editor for West End Games' acclaimed Star Wars roleplaying game line in the 1990s, Eric then moved into videogames after being recruited into Microsoft Game Studios' nascent entertainment licensing apparatus.

While at Microsoft, Eric wrote and edited ingame dialogue, story bibles, marketing materials, and original fictional content for the web; among the titles that Eric helped develop were the smash-hit HALO: Combat Evolved (including editing chores on the first three HALO novels for Ballantine / Del Rey, as well as writing The Art of HALO, also for Del Rey); Crimson Skies (creating a strongly immersive in-universe website for the pulpy, two-fisted adventure setting; editing weekly serialized online pulp novellas; and editing and contributing to Del Rey's mass-market paperback fiction anthology based on the setting); MechWarrior 4; and Perfect Dark Zero, acting as a story consultant to the property and helping to develop a fiction publishing program in support of the game.

After leaving Microsoft, Eric was tapped to write a six-issue miniseries for Perfect Dark (titled Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears), published by Prima Games, as well as editing and lettering an original graphic novel prequel to the hyperviolent videogame Army of Two, titled Army of Two: Dirty Money (written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Brandon McKinney).

In addition, Eric has consulted on videogame properties for EPIC (including drafting a story bible for the Gears of War franchise), and story development for Radical Entertainment.

While developing Perfect Dark Zero's novel program, he edited Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front, scribed by Greg Rucka (and published by TOR). The collaboration proved fruitful, and Eric was later invited to write a fill-in issue of Greg's DC Comics superhero/espionage title, Checkmate (which led to a half-year stint as co-writer on the title, ending his run with issue #25).

Shortly after, Eric was invited to co-write (again teamed with collaborator Greg Rucka, and artists Ryan Sook and Marco Rudy) on a one-shot which tied into DC Comics "event" book for 2008-2009, Final Crisis. The one-shot, Final Crisis: Resist was a reunion of sorts for CHECKMATE fans, and was critically lauded (scoring, among other praise, a "GREAT" on IGN.com).

Eric wrote the critically-praised six-issue DC Comics miniseries, JSA Vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith (illustrated by Don Kramer and Michael Babinski), which will be released as a collected trade paperback edition in July 2010. 

Ongoing work for DC Comics includes writing the new adventures of the classic "Red Circle" / MLJ hero, The Shield, and—teamed up with long-time collaborator Greg Rucka—co-writing  Action Comics (starting with issue #883).

In fall 2010, Eric's first work for Dynamite Entertainment will hit store shelves, tackling the writing chores on Red Sonja and the lead-off arc on the relaunched Vampirella.

In addition to writing comics, Eric has also helped find interesting ways to market them, helping craft the Checkmate-themed viral marketing site, GIDEON-II (which provided an in-universe peek at Checkmate operations and "secret files") and the elaborate "Montoya Journal," where an artifact seemingly from inside the DC Universe -- a journal written by masked adventurer, "The Question" -- ended up in the hands of various comics journalists and fans. The Montoya Journal was the initial publicity salvo for Rucka's "Question" miniseries, The Five Books of Blood (to which Eric also contributed page design and lettering for the frontspiece artwork of each issue).

Additionally, Eric and co-writer Brandon Jerwa (along with artist David Messina and Mirco Pfederici) contributed a 9-page short to the second volume of Image Comics' acclaimed POPGUN anthology series. The story can be read, in its entirety and with "commentary" at Comics Waiting Room.

This story has become the basis for what will be an ongoing webcomic, Wide Awake, which launched a teaser chapter for Free Comic Book Day 2009. On the strength of the teaser, Wide Awake was recently optioned for feature film development by independent film company, Do-Over Productions. 

Eric and Brandon have completed scripting for a long-form original graphic novel, to be published by DC/Vertigo. 

Eric splits his time between Raymond, Wa (where he resides) and Lacey, WA (where his wife runs the best comic shop ever).