Mark Barnard

Mark Barnard is co-creator (with artist-animator Terrie Smith) of the comic book Havoc Inc. His various credits include work as an inker or writer on over 50 anthropomorphic books from the early 1990s on. Other continuing comics projects include (inker) Katmandu and Shanda The Panda as well as inks on two back-ups for Rhudiprrt, Prince of Fur and (writer) Lark & Key, Owlhoots and Justice On High. Mark has also written an original sci-fi series for radio (Operation: Deep Space), a number of fan pieces for anime' and Elfquest publications, and recently contributed sections to a new reference book on Mexican fantasy and horror films. Following his graduation from college, he also enjoyed a brief stint in stand-up comedy, writing his own material, before moving on to graduate studies.

Other activities have included initiating the successful push which opened the local PBS market to DR. WHO and other science-fiction and fantasy programming and introducing anime' to convention video rooms in the early 1970s. He also worked for 8 years, in various capacities on the planning of the ENCOUNTER sci-fi/comics conventions, which raised funds for the MS Association. During his college years he worked as a disc jockey and a part-time paranormal investigator.

On comics writing vs. "serious" work, he sums it up as, "The fun in working on, say a film book, is the research. I'm big on digging up facts. Comics work, however, offers a lot more! For a storyteller, they offer more chances to get to print in a single year. Plus, they let me get vaguely silly with life. The whole point is for the readers (and myself) to just kick back and just have fun."

Mark divides his free time between film study (specifally low budget flicks and Chinese and German films), collecting anime' and Chinese fountain pens, and cultivating bamboo. He holds a degree in archaeology (specializing in the Aztec, Anasazi and Hohokam cultures), certification as a digital analyst tech, and currently lives with his wife Terri, and a small but fiercely dedicated collection of die cast giant robots, in the wilds of Kansas, where he freelances.