Micah Wright

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox comics creator Micah Ian War Dog Wright<ref name=deadline>Template:Cite web</ref> (born 1969) is a Native American writer<ref name="deadline" /> who has worked in film, television, animation, video games and comic books. Wright started his career at Nickelodeon where he was an intern, script supervisor, and also a staff writer on The Angry Beavers. It was at Nickelodeon that he became friends with Jay Lender, with whom he would collaborate as a writing partner on numerous projects across various media. Wright got his start in comics with the short lived Stormwatch: Team Achilles. He came to public attention with his anti-war satire posters, which were later compiled into the bookYou Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want. After setbacks, Wright shifted his focus to video games. He co-wrote the titles Destroy All Humans! and Robocalypse with Jay Lender. A member of Writers Guild of America West, he chaired the Video Game Writers Caucus and helped establish the WGA’s first Video Game Writing Award in 2007. He also co-founded the WGA's Native American and World Indigenous Writers Committee. In 2015, he published Duster, a WWII-themed graphic novel crowdfunded on Kickstarter. He also consulted on virtual reality project TheBlu, which lead to a teaching role in virtual reality filmmaking. He co-directed They’re Watching (2016), a horror comedy, and served as Chief Content Manager (2017–2019) for the TV network First Nations Experience, overseeing its first original programming.

Early life

Wright was born in Lubbock, Texas. He graduated from the University of Arizona with degrees in political science and creative writing.<ref name="now">Template:Cite web</ref> While in college, Wright was involved in a weekly sketch comedy show where he started out as a writer and eventually became a performer.<ref name="seqtart1">Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Animation and comics

After graduating and moving to Los Angeles, Wright started interning at Nickelodeon,<ref name="seqtart1"/> before becoming script supervisor and eventually a staff writer on The Angry Beavers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="seqtart1"/> In early 2000, a number of writers working on Nickelodeon cartoons contacted the Writers Guild of America to renegotiate the contracts on their behalf and organize a union.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the time, Wright, who also took part in the union drive, was writing and producing the pilot for his own show, Constant Payne, a steampunk science fiction series following a family of adventurers co-produced with Madhouse, with an aesthetic inspired by anime, pulp magazines and early Soviet propaganda posters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="thepulp" /> The show, which would have been Nickelodeon's first action adventure offering, was not ordered to series due to the network's fears of violent programming in the wake of the September 11 attacks as well as Nickelodeon's suspicions that Wright was one of the figureheads in the union organizing effort.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wright has since tried pitching Constant Payne to Warner Bros. Animation<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and to foreign studios as an animated feature-length film<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but the project remains uncompleted.<ref name="thepulp">Template:Cite web</ref> During his time at Nickelodeon, Wright became friends with Jay Lender, with whom he would collaborate as a writing partner on numerous projects across various media.<ref name=comicsbulletin>Template:Cite web</ref>

At San Diego Comic Con in 2001, Wright, who has been a fan of comics since childhood,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was introduced to some of the editors of DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint through his friend, artist John Cassaday.<ref name="seqtart1"/> Wright pitched his idea for a creator-owned G.I. Joe-type series, hoping to publish it through the Homage sub-imprint.<ref name="cbr1">Template:Cite web</ref> The editors liked the concept but asked Wright to rework it to fit into the Wildstorm Universe,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the project was eventually developed into a new version of one of the imprint's founding titles, Stormwatch.<ref name="cbr1"/> Stormwatch: Team Achilles with art by Whilce Portacio,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> debuting in July 2002 under the "mature readers" sub-imprint Eye of the Storm,<ref name="rama1">Template:Cite web</ref> featured a UN-sanctioned team consisting primarily of human soldiers, created in response to the growing superhuman presence in the political areas of the Wildstorm Universe, particularly the events depicted in Mark Millar's run on The Authority.<ref name="sbcb1">Template:Cite web</ref> Despite consistent critical acclaim throughout its run,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Stormwatch, like other Eye of the Storm titles, suffered from low sales<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was ultimately cancelled few issues shy of Wright's planned 26-issue storyline.<ref name="rama2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="swta">Template:Cite web</ref> Shortly before the cancellation, the series took part in the line-wide crossover "Coup d'Etat" which saw The Authority take over the United States, forcing Team Achilles to go on the run.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Soon after the launch of Stormwatch: Team Achilles, Wright and artist Mark Robinson created a pitch for the revival of another Wildstorm property, DV8, which was rejected due to the low sales of the series' previous iteration and the creators' relatively unknown status.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003, Wright teamed up with artist Rick Remender to pitch a series focusing on the exploits of a low-ranking member of Advanced Idea Mechanics, a villainous organization operating within the Marvel Universe. The proposal, titled Joe A.I.M. and submitted for publication under Marvel's briefly revived Epic imprint, was rejected, prompting Wright to share his dissatisfaction with the Epic editorial on his Delphi message board,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which resulted in a public dispute between him and Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an interview later that year, Wright expressed regret for making the issue public.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other unproduced projects include American Cross with artist Niko Henrichon, a revenge story that takes place during the American Revolution,<ref name="cbr1"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lifer with artist Steve Pugh, a four-issue military sci-fi series described by Wright as "Starship Troopers meets Catch-22",<ref name="cbr1"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Los Diablos with art by Taesoo Kim, a rejected weird western anime pitch repurposed into a comic book series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Thunderhead!, an adult-oriented animated series co-created by Wright and Jay Lender.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Controversy and fallout

Outside of his work in animation and comics, Wright gained online popularity with a series of satirical military propaganda posters that combined the imagery of the World War II-era propaganda posters and the modern anti-war messages as slogans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, some of the posters were collected into a book, You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want, with a foreword by Kurt Vonnegut and an introduction by Howard Zinn.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Early printings of the book featured another introduction, where Wright described his experiences as a sergeant in the United States Army Rangers who had seen active combat in the 1989 invasion of Panama, a claim he had previously made discussing his military-themed series Stormwatch: Team Achilles in various interviews<ref name="cbr1"/><ref name="rama1"/><ref name="sbcb1"/><ref name="seqtart1"/> as well as responding to the criticism of his poster work online,<ref name=parrott>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and further elaborated upon while promoting You Back the Attack with a radio interview on Democracy Now!<ref name="now"/> and a profile in The Washington Post.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wright's credentials were then questioned by actual Rangers, prompting them to contact The Post profile's author Richard Leiby, who began researching Wright's background.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In April 2004, after Wright learned that Leiby was writing an exposé questioning his military service,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he confessed that he had never been a Ranger, having only participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and apologized online.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The revelation resonated across the comic book industry, attracting responses from a number of industry figures including writers Steven Grant,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jeff Parker,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kurt Busiek<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=comicsbulletin/> and Mark Millar,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as journalists Tom Spurgeon<ref name=repoter>Template:Cite web</ref> and Rich Johnston.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to Johnston, the mini-series Vigilante, which was supposed to be Wright's writing debut in the DC Universe,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was already causing internal concern at the company due to the direction and tone of the title, as the titular character eschewed taking down street criminals or organized crime in favor of corporate criminals, and the controversy made it easier to take Wright off the book.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=sw24>Template:Cite web</ref> Wright responded by stating that the quality of his work was not an issue.<ref name=repoter/> Meanwhile, Seven Stories Press, the publisher of You Back the Attack, removed Wright's introduction from the subsequent printings of the book<ref name=parrott/> and cancelled its follow-up volume, If You're Not a Terrorist... Then Stop Asking Questions,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but eventually published the third collection of his poster work in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> That same year, the Vigilante mini-series, which was never officially confirmed as cancelled,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was published with a new creative team and plotline.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a 2012 interview, Wright stated that following the controversy, he was privately told by the representatives of Marvel and DC that he has been blacklisted at both companies.<ref name=comicsbulletin/>

Video games and WGA

Since 2004, Wright has worked primarily in the field of video game writing, often with his long-time writing partner Jay Lender.<ref name="seqtart1"/> The pair's shared credits include Looney Tunes: Back in Action for Electronic Arts, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee for Ubisoft, Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon and its sequel for THQ, as well as Robocalypse for Vogster.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wright is a member of the Writers Guild of America West, where he is the chair of the Video Game Writers Caucus. In 2007, Wright and Lender were cited as being "instrumental" in creating the WGA's first ever Video Game Writing Award as part of the traditional film and television Writers Guild Awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, the Video Game Writing Award attracted criticism from various video game websites for being too exclusive,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> prompting Wright to address the issue online.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition to his work at WGA's Video Game Writers Caucus, Wright co-founded the Native American and World Indigenous Writers Committee<ref name=deadline/> and was elected to be a part of the Guild Negotiating Committee for 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2010s

In 2012, Wright returned to comics with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for Duster, a graphic novel he co-created with Jay Lender.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The story, initially developed as a film script,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> depicts the life of a recently widowed female cropduster pilot at the end of World War II and her battle against a group of Nazi soldiers who crash-landed near her farm in West Texas.<ref name=comicsbulletin/> The graphic novel was eventually published in 2015. That same year, Wright worked as a consultant on HTC Vive's virtual reality game TheBlu, which led to his interest in VR technology and eventually a position as a teacher of the virtual reality filmmaking course at the Los Angeles branch of Emerson College.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, Wright and Lender made their directorial debut with the feature film They're Watching, a found footage horror comedy distributed by Amplify.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Between 2017 and 2019, Wright served as the Chief Content Manager of the Native American broadcast television network First Nations Experience, overseeing the creation of first original programming in the network's history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Wright is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation.<ref name="deadline" />

Filmography

Television

Film

Bibliography

Comics

Poster books

Work in video games

References

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