At this point in time we might as well switch the title of this article around, since Straczynski may well be better known as a comic book writer than a screenwriter these days. Well, except to people who've seen more than one episode of Babylon 5, anyway. J. Michael Straczynski started out writing anything and everything from plays, newspaper articles, a book on scriptwriting, radio plays and spec scripts for He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, which he ended up on the staff of. He quickly graduated to live-action television and feature films in the late '80s and early '90, around which time he also started writing comics for various publishers which included Twilight Zone and Star Trek adaptations. He'd later write comics adapted from his own beloved sci-fi series Babylon 5 and started his own - relatively short-lived - line of comics with Top Cow, somewhat narcissistically named Joe's Comics, which was recently revived by Image with the books Ten Grand (with artist Ben Templesmith) and Sidekick (with artist Tom Mandrake). Straczynski has been in demand as a writer of superhero comics in recent years, working for DC on such small titles as The Brave and the Bold, Superman and not one but two Watchmen prequels, Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl; and for Marvel on a host of A-list characters like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and is possibly most justly revered for his 2007 revival of Thor. Though he left all of his Marvel books abruptly due to creative differences (and, conveniently, the end of his exclusive contract) and is outspoken about his issues with the industry, he certainly managed to get a lot of his stories told in his time there.
