Chris’s initial unbroken 17-year run on Marvel Comics The Uncanny X-Men is the stuff of industry legend. During that tenure he took a lackluster series and transformed it into the dominant, best-selling title in the industry. His run culminated with the launch of the new title, X-Men. The first issue sold over 7.6 million copies. No one has come close to breaking this record. It is a conservative estimate Chris has sold in excess of 750,000,000 comics, world-wide.
Chris’s work on the X-Men has brought resounding creative success. The story arc “Dark Phoenix,” with its radical treatment of the story’s central character, paved the way for the reinterpretation of superhero mythos throughout the comics industry. The graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills examines morality in all its guises, adding a sophistication to comics theory, and is the subject of academic papers. He has made Wolverine a household name.
Chris is well known for his progressive treatment of women in a genre that oftentimes relies on stereotype. Active, intelligent, courageous women characters such as Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Mystique, Rogue, and Storm have made Chris’s X-Men as popular with women readers as men, a rarity in the comics field.
Chris is equally well-known for his ground-breaking stories that fight prejudice and speak out for inclusivity for all, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. These themes are highlighted in the “Genosha” story arcs in The Uncanny X-Men, and the “Mekanixs” and “Intifada” story arcs in X-Treme X-Men. Chris embraced mutants as a metaphor for all who are viewed as outsiders by the majority. Such daring real-word topics are rarely tackled in the conservative mainstream comics industry. Chris took this on at personal and professional risk.
The Summer of 2000 saw the release of the feature film X-Men, based largely on material created by Chris. The second Wolverine movie is based largely on the graphic novel Wolverine by Chris and Frank Miller. The X-Men movie Days of Future Past hews to his story arc. Chris (with artist Bill Sienkiewicz) created the title character of the Fox TV series Legion. Chris has written the treatment for the Gambit movie project. Chris’s stories are responsible for billions in net movie and TV profits.
Chris is especially proud of his creator-owed work, which includes the historic fantasies The Black Dragon and Marada, the She-Wolf (artist: John Bolton) and the comic book series Sovereign 7. Chris’s prose novels include the science fiction High Frontier series First Flight, Grounded!, Sundowner; the fantasy series Shadow Moon, Shadow Dawn, Shadow Star (co-authored with George Lucas;) and the dark fantasy Dragon Moon. Chris is hard at work on new projects for comics, prose and film.
Chris’s stories are trend-setters for the industry. Although best known for his work on Marvel Comic’s X-Men series, where he created the characters of Legion, The New Mutants, Rogue, Gambit, Sabretooth, Kitty Pryde, and the White Queen amongst many others, he has also written seminal characters such as Batman and Superman; originated The New Mutants and Captain Britain for Marvel and several creator-owned series. Chris is published throughout the world in many different languages. He has authored nine novels. He has spoken at Princeton, MIT, U Penn and Columbia University, appeared on television in the US and abroad. His work has touched millions.
About Chris
Writer Chris Claremont has encountered more success than most writers ever dream of. He is a NY Times best-selling author, been awarded the prestigious Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters by Bard College, inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards Hall of Fame. His work has won multiple awards in France, Spain, England. His papers are collected in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University, New York.
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