About the Author

Mark Ellis is a novelist who resides in Newport, RI with his wife, best-selling author Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer. In the mid-to-late 1980s he worked as the primary writer for Adventure Publications' line of comic magazines, scripting such diverse titles as Ninja Elite, Warriors, and Star Rangers, working with legendary comics artist Jim Mooney on the latter title. Ellis created and scripted the Death Hawk series that featured the first published full-length work of Adam Hughes. For other comics publishers he wrote The Justice Machine as well as short stories for the occasional anthology, such as the highly-regarded "A Trip To Necropolis", penciled and inked by Jim Mooney. In the early 1990s, Ellis served as the editor of Millennium Publications, interfacing with Anne Rice, Doug Wildey and other well known members of the science-fiction/fantasy creative community. In his editorial capacity, Ellis gave now-established comics artists such as Mike Wieringo and Darryl Banks their first steady exposure. He also worked with comics legends Jim Mooney and Don Heck on a number of projects, including H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness, which featured the first appearance of The Miskatonic Project. He conceived and scripted the critically-acclaimed Nosferatu: Plague of Terror, a series which provided a complete story of the title character's origin apart from the Dracula legend. Teamed with Darryl Banks, Ellis scripted a four-part series based on The Wild Wild West TV series, the plot of which was optioned for feature film development, and Doc Savage: The Monarch of Armageddon, which is considered to be the best and most faithful of the many comic adaptations of that classic character. The Comics Buyer's Guide Catalog of Comic Books refers to the Ellis/Banks treatment as the one "to come closest to the original, capturing all the action, humanity and humor of the original novels." Ellis also adapted The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the cult-classic horror film It! The Terror from Beyond Space into comics. Under the pen-name of James Axler, Ellis created the popular Outlanders series for Harlequin Enterprises's Gold Eagle imprint. Now in its 17th consecutive year of publication, Outlanders has sold over a million books, making it the most successful mass-market paperback series of the last 25 years.