Cowboys & Aliens: Creator Bios

Writers:
Fred Van Lente
Andrew Foley

Pencils:
Luciano Lima

Inks:
Luciano Kars & J. Wilson
Silvio Spotti

Colour:
Andy Elder

Created by:
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Writer: Fred Van Lente

In comics, Fred Van Lente is the writer and co-creator, along with artist Steve Ellis, of the SF thriller Tranquility (winner of a 1998 Spectrum Award for Best Science Fiction Art) and the critically acclaimed "super-crime" series The Silencers from Moonstone Books. He designed the hilarious "First-Class Roleplaying Game for Third-Rate Heroes,” Stuper Powers!, currently in its second edition.

In 2002 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Van Lente a quarter-finalist for the Don & Marie Nicholl Screenplay Fellowship for his comedy/adventure Knightlife. His short comedy The Fan Club took Honorable Mention at the Society of Film and Television Engineers Student Film Festival.

Currently, Van Lente is penning the romantic comedy When You Dance for Mainline Films and the horror thriller Phobia for Sub-Rosa Entertainment.

Writer: Andrew Foley

Andrew Foley drew his first comic book in crayon, on the wall of his family's living room. Rather than doing something sensible, like spanking him, sending him to bed without his supper, or throwing him out with the bathwater, his parents instead supported him in his artistic endeavors. This support enabled him to attend the Alberta College of Art (which he eventually got out of) in Calgary, Alberta (from which he's yet to escape).

To this day, Andrew isn't sure why he decided to try his hand at writing comic books, but he's pretty sure the flushing sound he heard as he made the decision was the comics industry going down the toilet. Andrew is writing a variety of other comics and graphic novels for Platinum Studios, including Conviction, Age of Kings, Threads (with Scott O. Brown), Return of the Wraith, and Jeremiah: The Last Empire, the authorized sequel to the Showtime television series. His other comics work includes Parting Ways, a 142-page graphic novel illustrated by Scott Mooney and Nick Craine, and the recently released Done to Death, with Fiona Staples. Buying any of these books will have an appreciable effect on lowering the crime rate in Andrew's neighborhood.

Pencils: Luciano Lima

Luciano Lima is a comics artist living in São Paolo, Brazil, where he is part of Fabricio Grellet’s Magic Eye Studios. He has worked for Dark Horse on Grifter and The Mask, for Marvel on Wolverine and X-Force, and for the French publisher Semic.

Inks: Luciano Kars & J. Wilson

Kars and Wilson are both staff artists at Brazil’s Magic Eye Studios, a comics art and script studio managed by Fabrício Grellet that has produced work for comic book and graphic novel publishers around the world.

Inks: Silvio Spotti

Silvio Spotti was born in São Paulo, where he still lives and works. He has a degree in arts from the FMU/FAAM university, and began his career in 1992 as a penciller for the small press in Brazil. In 1996 he started working as an inker, working on a Brazilian version of the Street Fighter comic book, through the Arthur Garcia Studio. In 2003 he did his first U.S. work through Magic Eye Studios, inking IDW’s Wynonna Earp. Since then, he has inked Stargate SG1, Robocop, and Stargate Atlantis for Avatar Press, as well as Daniel Prophet of Dreams for Alias Comics. As a penciller/inker, Spotti has also done work for Disney (USA/Europe), drawing stories for Donald Duck, Kim Possible, Toy Story, Little Mermaid, and others.

Colour: Andy Elder

Andy Elder began working professionally in comics in 2005. His other credits include inking and coloring Warhead from AIT/Planet Lar, assisting colourists Jamie Grant and Jim Devlin on Testament for DC, and assisting Ian Richardson on 2000A.D.'s Sinister Dexter. His inks and colours will also be featured in Platinum's upcoming graphic novel Final Orbit. He's currently writing three creator-owned series, to be unveiled in 2007.

He lives on the west coast of Scotland.

Created by: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Scott Mitchell Rosenberg is chairman of Platinum Studios, an entertainment company that controls the world's largest independent library of comic book characters and adapts them for film, television and all other media. As chairman, Scott has played an integral role in creating the largest independent library of titles in comic book history. The Platinum Studios Library includes thousands of characters that have been published in millions of books all over the world, including anchor titles such as Cowboys & Aliens and Unique.

Scott established Platinum Studios in 1997, following a successful, high-profile career as the founder of Malibu Comics, a leading independent comic book company that was sold to Marvel Comics in 1994. During his time at Malibu, Scott led many successful comic spin offs into toys, television, and feature films, including the billion-dollar film and television phenomenon Men in Black.

Scott began his career in the comic book industry at age 13 when he started a mail order company. Scott became known for picking early hits, as many of the writers, stories and characters he selected were not originally chart toppers. Based on his retail success, Scott began publishing his own independent comic book titles, which led to the creation of Malibu Comics in 1986. His first launch, Ex-Mutants, was an instant hit.

Since that time, Scott has been recognized as a pioneer and a leader in the comic book industry. He recognized that comics were on the verge of one of many revolutions that would allow openings for new, smaller publishers, and that the advent of the Macintosh computer (circa 1986) and other technological advances of that time would soon allow those smaller companies to look bigger, minimizing their costs and maximizing the quality of their output. He then brokered an industry-changing deal in 1992, when the seven top-selling artists defected from Marvel Comics to form Image Studios. Scott signed the artists to a label deal at Malibu to distribute Image Studios comics until their new company was up and running. In addition, Scott worked with Adobe and their Photoshop software to develop the leading standard system for the computer coloring of comic books.

Today, Scott produces and develops comic book properties for all media, including a slate of high-profile, live-action feature films, television series for major networks, direct to DVD features, direct to web content and many, many other avenues. His vision has allowed Platinum to develop the business model of the future where properties are developed simultaneously for multiple distribution models, maximizing profitability, visibility and availability for everyone involved, from the creator to the consumer.

Scott has been happily married since 1992, and lives in California with his wife and two daughters.