Steve Niles

Steve Niles (born June 21, 1965) is an American comic book author and novelist, known for works such as 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery, Simon Dark, Mystery Society, Batman: Gotham County Line, Kick-Ass – The New Girl, and Kick-Ass vs Hit-Girl.

He is credited among other contemporary writers as bringing horror comics back to prominence.

Niles was born in Jackson, New Jersey on June 21, 1965.

He was raised in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, developing various creative interests in music, writing, and making amateur films.

He worked in several comic book stores and played in the punk bands Gray Matter and Three, both of which released records on Dischord Records label in the 1980s and 1990s.

He often credited late night television horror host, Count Gore De Vol, who was the local horror host on Channel 20, as an early influence.

He then wrote several titles for Fantaco in the early 1990s, including Bad Moon, Fly in My Eye, and a set of lithographs for Clive Barker's Book of Blood.

He worked for a year on Disney's Toy Story Web Adventures, and later worked for Todd McFarlane Productions where he wrote several issues of Spawn, Spawn: The Dark Ages.

He also collaborated on Hellspawn with illustrator Ashley Wood after Brian Michael Bendis's departure, and did journalism work for Kiss Magazine, interviewing members of the band Kiss.

Niles attempted to shop around his screenplay for 30 Days of Night, but was met with rejection in Hollywood.

When IDW Publishing formed, Niles sent his "reject list" to Ted Adams, who selected 30 Days of Night as a concept he was interested in.

Niles and illustrator Ben Templesmith produced the first issue for free.

Niles published, edited, and adapted several comics and anthologies for Eclipse Comics, working on I Am Legend in 1991.

The book did not sell well, according to Niles, but it was then that film producers took notice of it, and optioned it to be adapted into a film in 2000 or 2001.

In 2004 Count Gore wrote the introduction to the graphic novel Aleister Arcane, which is about the horror host of the same name.

Other influences included Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend, and the works of George A. Romero, John Carpenter and Bernie Wrightson, the latter two of whom he would later work with.

He had no formal education in writing following high school, explaining that he learned to write through copious reading.

Niles' start in the comics industry began with the formation of his self publishing company, Arcane Comix.

In 2004 or 2005, Niles formed a joint venture production company, Creep International, with 1990s rocker and film director Rob Zombie.

This project has produced two works to date: The Nail (with Nat Jones) through Dark Horse Comics, and Bigfoot (with Richard Corben) through IDW Publishing.

Upon placing that venture on hiatus, he then assisted actor Thomas Jane's production company, with the intention of bringing his Criminal Macabre character Cal MacDonald to the big screen.

MGM optioned the property, but it lapsed, and is currently held by Universal Pictures.

Niles and Jane also co-wrote the six-issue comic book series Bad Planet for Image Comics with artists Lewis Larosa and Tim Bradstreet.

In 2006, Niles collaborated with artist Scott Hampton on a Batman miniseries, Gotham County Line, published by DC Comics.

That same year, he wrote another miniseries that reinvents Steve Ditko's vintage character The Creeper with DC artist Justiniano.

He is also created a new DC character with artist Scott Hampton, named Simon Dark.

Dark is a vigilante hero with elements of the Frankenstein mythos who starred in eighteen issues of his own ongoing series.

In October 2007, Steve recorded an introduction to the Washington, D.C.'s International Horror Film Festival, The Spooky Movie Film Festival, in honor of opening night host, Count Gore De Vol, who was being honored for his 35 years in Washington, D.C. Posters for 30 Days of Night were given out, including one signed by Niles.

In 2007 Niles wrote a story for the DC Infinite Halloween Special called "Strange Cargo".

Narrated by Poison Ivy, the story tells of Superman, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen uncovering zombies in a cargo tank owned by Lex Luthor.

Superman kills most of them, but takes the rest and puts them on the moon.

Niles also wrote City Of Others for Dark Horse Comics with artwork done by acclaimed artist Bernie Wrightson.

City Of others was a four issue story.

In 2008 Niles wrote a twelve part Batman miniseries entitled Batman: Gotham After Midnight with art by Kelley Jones.

He has also written a graphic novel for Zune called The Lost Ones with various artists and City of Dust for Radical Comics.

Niles is part of the Convention Monsterplaza, which is from April 9 to 11, 2010 in Marriott Burbank Convention Center.

An X-Files/30 Days of Night crossover in 2010 was co-written by Niles and Adam Jones, the guitarist for the band Tool, with art by Tom Mandrake.

Niles wrote the script for the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment produced horror first-person shooter F.E.A.R. 3.

He also appeared on Spike TV series "Deadliest Warrior", in which he represented the vampire team in the "Vampires vs Zombies" episode, as one of the Vampire experts along with Scott Bowen the author of The Vampire Survival Guide.

In December 2011, Niles spoke out against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), commenting, "SOPA does more than go after so-called 'piracy' websites...SOPA takes away all due process, shuts down any site it deems to be against the law without trial, without notification, without due process...Nobody seems to give a shit, or either they’re scared. Either way, very disappointing. I guess when it affects them they’ll get mad… I know folks are scared to speak out because a lot of us work for these companies, but we have to fight. Too much is at stake."