Tom DeFalco

Tom DeFalco is one of the most prolific and well-known writers and editors in comic publishing today.

He began his career with Archie Comics, where he wrote for Archie and other titles including Scooby-Doo.

He later joined Marvel Comics, where he would spend the next twenty years of his career. He became one of the most popular writers for the Spider-Man comic book series and eventually rose through the editorial ranks.

DeFalco served as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel for almost eight years, making him one of the longest serving individuals to hold that post. DeFalco was a key member of the management team that took Marvel public and under his leadership, Marvel's net profits from publishing rose by over 500%. Under DeFalco's guidance, Marvel entered a phase of "glut publishing" in which many new series and limited-series were launched in the early 1990's that either sold poorly or soon lost reader interest. The result was there were far too many Marvel comics on the stands, more than the market could handle. Sales on most of Marvel's core titles sagged. DeFalco was fired as Editor-In-Chief in 1993 as the company verged on the brink of bankrupcy. Following his dismissal as EIC, DeFalco returned as regular writer of The Amazing Spider-Man, where he helped co-write the controversial and much maligned Spider-Clone saga which revealed (temporarily, at least) that Peter Parker was a clone of the original, and had been since 1975.

DeFalco is also the author of over a dozen graphic novels, several hundred comic book stories, several dozen cyber-comics, three novels and six children's books- including the best-selling Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide and Hulk: The Incredible Guide. DeFalco has personally created and developed over three dozen characters that have all been licensed for television, toys, t-shirts, posters, trading cards and other merchandise. He also worked with toymaker Hasbro on the G.I. Joe toy line and animated show and was also part of the team that introduced the Transformers to the American public.

In March 2005, DeFalco was named Editor-in-Chief once again- this time of the national humor magazine Cracked.