Jeph Loeb coming to RCCC

Four-time Eisner Award winner Jeph Loeb—best known for Batman: Hush, Batman: The Long Halloween, Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray, and Spider-Man: Blue—is coming to Rose City Comic Con!

Don’t miss out on Portland’s premier pop culture convention event this September! Rose City Comic Con is a fun, family-friendly 3-Day celebration of comics, gaming, sci-fi, cosplay, anime, fantasy, and every fandom in between!

OREGON CONVENTION CENTER

777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Portland, OR 97232

SEPT. 22 – 24, 2023 FRIDAY: 1 PM – 8 PM

SATURDAY: 10 AM – 7 PM

SUNDAY: 10 AM – 5 PM

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III (/loʊb/) is an American film and television writer, producer and comic book writer. Loeb was a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost, writer for the films Commando and Teen Wolf, and a writer and co-executive producer on the NBC TV show Heroes from its premiere in 2006 to November 2008. From 2010 to 2019, Loeb was the Head of and Executive Vice President of Marvel Television.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner, Loeb's comic book work, which has appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list, includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale.

Jeph Loeb was raised in a Jewish family in Stamford, Connecticut. He began collecting comic books during the summer of 1970.

His stepfather was a vice-president at Brandeis University, where Jeph met one of his mentors and greatest influences in comic book writing, the writer Elliot Maggin. Jeph attended Columbia University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master's degree in Film. His instructors included Paul Schrader.

Loeb's debut in filmmaking was his collaboration with Matthew Weisman in authoring the script of Teen Wolf. The film was released on August 23, 1985 and was a notable starring role for Michael J. Fox. Loeb and Weisman then collaborated in writing the script of Commando. The film was released on October 4, 1985 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. His next screen credit was the film Burglar, released on March 20, 1987. The plot was based on the novels of Lawrence Block about fictional burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. His collaborators were Weisman and Hugh Wilson.

The film was atypical for the time, featuring a female comedic role for starring actress Whoopi Goldberg. His second film that year was Teen Wolf Too, a sequel of Teen Wolf, which was co-written by Weisman and Tim Kring. The film was released on November 20, 1987. The film featured teen idol Jason Bateman and veteran actor John Astin. Loeb would re-team with Kring almost two decades later for the TV series Heroes. Four years later, Loeb was working on a script for The Flash as a feature with Warner Bros. While the script deal fell through, Loeb met then publisher Jenette Kahn who asked Loeb to write a comic book for DC Comics.

In 2002, Jeph Loeb wrote the script for the episode of Smallville, entitled "Red", which introduced Red kryptonite into the series. He became a supervising producer and has written many episodes since then. He signed a three-year contract, and although producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough offered to keep him on for future seasons, Loeb left to care for his son, who had cancer.

Loeb later became a writer/producer on the ABC TV series Lost during that show's second season. Leaving Lost, Loeb went on to become Co-Executive Producer and writer on the NBC drama Heroes, which his colleague Tim Kring had created. Loeb wrote the teleplay for the first-season episodes "One Giant Leap" and "Unexpected". The show prominently features the artwork of Tim Sale, Loeb's longtime comics collaborator.

The series was nominated for the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, and a Writers Guild of America award for Best New Series. It won the People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama, as well the Saturn Award for Best Network Television Series. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Dramatic Television Series.

Loeb and Tim Kring were presented with the Jules Verne Award for Artistic Achievement at the Jules Verne Festival in Paris, France, on April 22, 2007, for their work on Heroes. Loeb himself was also presented with a belated 2005 Jules Verne Award for Best Writing for his work on Smallville, which he had not previously been given because his trip to the Festival that year had been cancelled due to his son's ill health.

On November 2, 2008, Daily Variety reported that Loeb and fellow Heroes co-executive producer, Jesse Alexander, were no longer employed on the series. In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Loeb stated, "As of today, Jesse Alexander and I have left Heroes. I'm incredibly proud to have been a big part of the success a show with eight Emmy nods and a win this year for NBC.com. I will miss the superb cast and writing staff and wish everyone the best." At the time, Loeb had completed writing and producing the third-season episode, "Dual".

On June 28, 2010, Marvel Entertainment, as part of its expansion into television, appointed Loeb to the position of Executive Vice President, Head of Television of the newly created Marvel Television, in which Loeb would work with publisher Dan Buckley, to create both live-action and animated shows based on Marvel's catalog of characters. During his time as the head of Marvel Television, he executive produced live-action shows within the Marvel Cinematic Universe such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Agent Carter, and Inhumans, shows on Netflix such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher, Luke Cage, and the miniseries The Defenders, along with younger adult shows like Runaways and Cloak and Dagger, and other live action or animated shows based on Marvel characters like MODOK, The Gifted, Legion, Helstrom.

In October 2019, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was promoted to Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment, which includes Marvel Television, prompting Loeb to leave the company after nearly a decade. Loeb had been planning his departure, however, before Feige's promotion.

Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13-issue American comic book limited series written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale. It was originally published by DC Comics in 1996 and 1997. It was the follow-up to three Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials (which were reprinted in Batman: Haunted Knight) by the same creative team. The series' success led to Loeb and Sale to reteam for two sequels, Batman: Dark Victory and Catwoman: When in Rome, which are set concurrently.

Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, The Long Halloween tells the story of a mysterious killer named Holiday, who murders people on holidays, one each month. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Captain James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month, while attempting to stop the crime war between two of Gotham City's most powerful families, Maroni and Falcone. This novel also acted as a re-introduction to the DC Universe for one of Batman's most elusive foes, Calendar Man, who knows the true identity of the Holiday killer but refuses to share this with Batman. He instead riddles and gives Batman hints from his Arkham Asylum cell. The story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman's enemy, Two-Face. Enemies such as Scarecrow, the Joker, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler, among others, also make appearances.

In continuity terms, The Long Halloween continues the story of Batman: Year One for the characters of Batman, Gordon, Catwoman, and Falcone, and is considered to replace the earlier effort Batman: Year Two in the character's continuity. It also revolves around the transition of Batman's rogues gallery from plainclothes, real-world style mobsters to full-fledged supervillains and tells the origin of Two-Face, incorporating elements of the story in Batman: Annual #14.

"The measure of a man is not in how he gets knocked to the mat, it is in how he gets up." Those are the words blind attorney Matthew Murdock's father lived and died by. Prizefighter Battlin' Jack Murdock's murder set in motion a chain of events that exploded with a new super-hero swinging out of New York City's Hell's Kitchen - the blind Acrobat Daredevil! Retelling of the early career of the Man Without Fear! The Eisner Award-winning team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Spider-Man: Blue, Batman: The Long Halloween) have taken an inspiring action-adventure story and blended it with a romantic comedy. The result, highlighted by Sale's dazzling ink washes, is the heartwarming and heartbreaking story of two young people in love - Matthew Murdock and Karen Page.

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner, Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Daredevil is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Daredevil #1 (April 1964). Writer/artist Frank Miller's influential tenure on the title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular and influential part of the Marvel Universe. Daredevil is commonly known by such epithets as "Hornhead", "The Man Without Fear", and "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen".

Spider-Man: Blue is a comic book limited series written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale. It ran for a total of six issues and has been reprinted in trade paperback form. Loeb and Sale had also worked on the limited series: Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray and Captain America: White which also chronicle their respective Marvel Comics characters in their formative years.

It is Valentine's Day, and Spider-Man describes himself as feeling "blue". Although Gwen Stacy, Parker's first love, died a while ago, he still feels blue for her to this day. So, Spider-Man recounts into a tape recorder how Gwen and he fell in love.

The series then recounts the events from The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 1) #40–48 and #63, though it switches time order and implies that Kraven the Hunter, who appeared in #47, is behind all of the villains who attack Spider-Man. It retells Peter standing between Gwen and Mary Jane Watson, berated by his friend Harry Osborn.

In the end, it is Valentine's Day, and Gwen asks Peter to be her valentine. Peter states how her death has scarred him. Her one-time rival Mary Jane taught Peter to love again, but he reveals how much he misses Gwen. Suddenly, he notices his wife Mary Jane listening. Instead of being angry, Mary Jane feels deep sympathy for her husband and tells Peter to say hello to Gwen for her and to tell her how much she misses her, too. On this note, the story ends.

Loeb is known for his extensive use of narration boxes as monologues to reveal the inner thoughts of characters, though the character interactions he writes are sparse in terms of dialogue.

Jeph Loeb's first comic work was Challengers of the Unknown vol. 2 #1 – #8 (March -October 1991), which was the first of many collaborations with Tim Sale. Their later collaborations included the "Year 1"-centered Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials; Batman: The Long Halloween, a 13-issue limited series; and Batman: Dark Victory, a 14-issue limited series set in the first years of the hero's career. The Long Halloween was one of three noted comics that influenced the 2005 feature film Batman Begins, the others being Batman: The Man Who Falls and Batman: Year One. Other Loeb-Sale collaborations at DC include the Superman for All Seasons limited series and Catwoman: When in Rome.

At Marvel Comics, Loeb worked on the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover storyline in 1995 and co-created the X-Man character with artist Steve Skroce. Loeb wrote the "Heroes Reborn" version of Captain America in 1996–1997 He and Tim Sale crafted several limited series for Marvel including Daredevil: Yellow Spider-Man: Blue, and Hulk: Gray.

Loeb became the writer of Superman with issue #151 (Dec. 1999). His tenure on the title, largely drawn by Ed McGuinness, included the "Emperor Joker" and "Our Worlds at War" crossovers. He left Superman with issue #183 (August 2002). At the end of 2002, Loeb teamed with artist Jim Lee to create the year-long story arc "Batman: Hush", which spawned three lines of toys, posters and calendars, and sat at the #1 spot for eleven of the twelve months it was in publication. The following year, Loeb and McGuinness launched Superman/Batman. Loeb's run on the title spawned a new ongoing Supergirl series, and an animated film adapted from Loeb's "Public Enemies" story arc.

After signing an exclusive contract with Marvel in September 2005, Loeb launched Hulk with artist Ed McGuinness, in which he introduced the Red Hulk.

In 2006, Loeb chose his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut, to be subject to superhero destruction in the first issue of the 2006–2007 Marvel miniseries Civil War, the central title of the crossover storyline of the same name. That same year, Marvel announced an untitled Spider-Man series by Loeb and J. Scott Campbell, to be released "sometime in 2007". The series was subsequently cancelled and then brought back on the schedule in 2010, with a 2011 article mentioning it's "still being worked on". In 2021, Campbell confirmed that the project has been cancelled despite having two fully penciled issues.

In 2007, Jeph wrote the miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, which used the five stages of grief as a motif to explore reactions of various characters of the Marvel Universe to the loss of the assassinated Captain America. The first issue ranked No. 1 in sales for April 2007, and the fifth and final issue, dated July 4, 2007, was the "Funeral for Captain America", which was covered by the Associated Press and The Washington Post.

Loeb wrote two miniseries for the Ultimate Marvel Universe. His work on The Ultimates 3 in 2007, with artist Joe Madureira, was panned by critics for its use of transgressive sexual and violent content for shock value "without the political relevance or epic pacing of the first two volumes." In 2008, Loeb returned to the Ultimate Universe with artist David Finch for the critically reviled five-issue miniseries Ultimatum. Described in a 2015 Vulture retrospective as "one of the biggest creative disasters in comics history", Ultimatum's gratuitous murder scenes permanently damaged sales across the entire Ultimate Universe and in the long run brought about its cancellation. "Over the course of just five issues, 34 different heroes and villains were murdered, often by gruesome means: Doctor Strange was squeezed until his head exploded; Magneto was decapitated; the Blob ate the Wasp and, while holding her half-devoured corpse, belched out, 'Tastes like chicken'; and so on." The review site Let's Be Friends Again described Ultimatum as “a base and insulting comic book.” Critic Jason Kerouac wrote, "Ultimatum #5 could quite possibly be the single worst piece of writing in recorded history."

A Captain America: White limited series was announced in 2008 but only a #0 issue was published. The long-delayed project was scheduled to finally see print in September 2015.

Loeb shares his writing studio, The Empath Magic Tree House, with Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg.

Loeb's son, Sam, died on June 17, 2005 at the age of 17, after a three-year battle with bone cancer. In June 2006, Sam had a story published in Superman/Batman #26, which was nearly completed before his death. His father finished the work with the help of 25 other writers and artists, all of whom were friends of Sam, including Geoff Johns, John Cassaday, Ed McGuinness, Joe Madureira, Rob Liefeld, and Joss Whedon. The issue also featured a tale titled "Sam's Story", dedicated to Sam, in which a boy named Sam serves as the inspiration for Clark Kent to later become Superman.

Awards and nominations

Eisner Awards

1998 Best Limited Series for Batman: The Long Halloween

1999 Best Reprint Graphic Album for Batman: The Long Halloween

2002 Best Reprint Graphic Album for Batman: Dark Victory

2007 Best Single Issue or One-Shot for Batman/The Spirit #1

Eisner Nominations

1999 Best Writer for Superman For All Seasons

1999 Best Limited Series for Superman For All Seasons

Wizard Fan Awards

1997 Favorite One Shot or Mini-Series for Batman: The Long Halloween

1998 Favorite One Shot or Mini-Series for Superman For All Seasons

2003 Favorite Ongoing Series for Batman

2003 Comics' Greatest Moment of the Year for Clayface returning as Jason Todd in Batman #617

2003 Favorite Supporting Character 2003 for Catwoman (in Batman)

Many of Loeb's books, such as Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman For All Seasons, and the Marvel "color" books (Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray) have garnered critical praise, and have been adapted into other media.

Hulk #1, in which Loeb introduced the Red Hulk, was the #1 selling comic book for January 2008. Subsequent issues sold well, but received mixed to negative reviews. Issues #7–9 of the series, along with King-Size Hulk #1, were collected into a trade paperback volume, Hulk: Red and Green, which made the New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List in May 2009 (as did Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Volume 4, on which Loeb collaborated).

The first issue of Loeb's The Ultimates 3 continued the series' history of ranking at No. 1 in sales, though the series was much less well-received critically than its predecessors.

The first issue of Ultimatum ranked No. 1 in sales for November 2008. At Weekly Comic Book Review, Andrew C. Murphy gave it a B+, praising David Finch's art, while Ben Berger gave it a C, opining that there was too much exposition, but praising Finch's art. The rest of the series, however, received more negative reviews. IGN's Jesse Schedeen gave the series' final issue a scathing review, saying, "Ultimatum is one of the worst comics I have ever read," and called it "the ultimate nightmare." Points of criticism among these reviews included the level of graphic violence, which included cannibalism, and the notion that the series was sold on the basis of its shock value, with some reviewers singling out Loeb's dialogue, characterization and storytelling, others asserting the story's lack of originality, or opining that the series would've been better suited to someone who had previously been more involved with the Ultimate line, such as Brian Michael Bendis or Mark Millar.

Screenwriting

Television

The Hitchhiker (1984)

Seven Little Monsters (2000-2001)

Buffy: The Animated Series (2002)

Smallville (2002-2005)

Heroes (2006-2008)

Teen Wolf (2011)

Films

Teen Wolf (1985)

Commando (1985)

Burglar (1987)

Teen Wolf Too (1987)

Producer

Television

Seven Little Monsters (2000)

Buffy: The Animated Series (2002)

Smallville (2002-2005)

Lost (2006)

Heroes (2006-2009)

Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers (2011)

Iron Man: Armored Adventures (2011-2012)

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2012)

Ultimate Spider-Man (2012-2016)

Avengers Assemble (2012-2018)

Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (2013-2015)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020)

Agent Carter (2015-2016)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2015-2017)

Daredevil (2015-2018)

Jessica Jones (2015-2019)

Marvel's Most Wanted (2016)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (2016)

Luke Cage (2016-2018)

The Defenders (2017)

Spider-Man (2017)

Inhumans (2017)

New Warriors (2017)

Iron Fist (2017-2018)

The Punisher (2017-2019)

The Gifted (2017-2019)

Legion (2017-2019)

Runaways (2017-2019)

Cloak & Dagger (2018-2019)

Helstrom (2020)

M.O.D.O.K. (2021)

Hit-Monkey (2021-present)

Films

Teen Wolf (1985)

Commando (1985)

Burglar (1987)

Model by Day (1994)

Firestorm (1998)

Heroes United (2013-2014)

Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Heroes Reassembled (2015)

Marvel Super Heroes Adventures: Frost Fight! (2015)

Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell (2016)