SPOOKS SIGNING:
On February 26th at 7 p.m.
Ryan Schifrin (director of Abominable) signing his new graphic novel based on a story by R.A. Salvatore, Spooks #1 (of 4). >>>more

SPOOKS SELLS OUT:
February 21, 2008

Chicago, IL. (Feb. 20, 2008) - The first issue of Devil's Due's new
monster-packed, military action series Spooks sold out from Diamond a week after hitting comic book racks, and issue #4 added yet another huge creator to its ranks..>>>more

DOSD MISSION STATEMENT:
The United States Department of Supernatural Defense (DOSD) recruits, trains, arms, and deploys specially trained forces based within the nation’s borders in support of national security and defense strategies. To accomplish this, they provide relevant and ready support to commanders whose mission is to keep the country free of supernatural enemies, whether their origins are domestic, international, or otherworldly. >>>more
The CRITICS LOVE SPOOKS:

The first issue of SPOOKS, the explosive military horror comic by Ryan Schifrin, Larry Hama, and Adam Archer, hit stores February 13, and already the reviews are dynamite. >>>more

Click on a name for that team members bio.

Ryan Schifrin

Larry Hama

Adam Archer

Jonny Rench

R.A. Salvatore

Bryan Salvatore

Geno Anthony Salvatore 

Daniel Alter

Lalo Schifrin

Steve Saffel

Andy Garfield  

Ryan Schifrin (top)
ABC Nightline News touted Ryan Schifrin as the “future of horror” after the feature film Abominable, his critically acclaimed and award-winning directing debut opened in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News called the movie, “scary, freaky and a helluvalot of fun.” Abominable’s world television premiere on cable’s SCI-FI Channel was the #1 rated broadcast on the network the week it aired, and the film was subsequently released on DVD through Anchor Bay.

A graduate of the prestigious University of Southern California School of Cinema, Schifrin received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Production. Upon viewing one of his short films, made while he was in high school, filmmaker George Lucas was impressed enough that he wrote a letter of recommendation on Schifrin’s behalf to USC’s School of Cinema. His short film Evil Hill was selected as one of the “Best of the Fest” at the US Comedy Arts Festival. His screenplay Wimpy was sold to the Warner Bros.-based Alcon Pictures for Neal Moritz (I Am Legend, Prison Break) to produce.

Schifrin was a music consultant for the major motion pictures Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3, working with his father Lalo Schifrin and director Brett Ratner. He co-produced the soundtrack for Rush Hour 3, for which he co-wrote and produced the Rush Hour Theme Remix, working with Ruy Folguera. In 2006 Schifrin contributed to the Halloween tradition of making an instant short film for no money, and the result was King in the Box, co-written and co-directed with Adam Green (Hatchet). And available at  http://www.ariescope.com/KingWeb/KingBox.html. Their 2007 contribution, The Tiffany Problem, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x74_3zrMMR8

He studied karate with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. While in high school, he competed in the Junior Olympics in fencing (saber), then was a semi-finalist at the Southern California Sectionals in men's tennis in 2004. His team made it to the third round at the Anaheim Halo Major League Gaming tournament in 2006.

Schifrin is a native of Southern California, where he lives with his wife, Theresa. He has written 14 screenplays, two teleplays, and a novel, and has numerous film projects in progress. He is currently developing his screenplay SPOOKS for adaptation as a four-issue comic book limited series (and graphic novel) for Devil’s Due.


Larry Hama (top)
Larry Hama has been an editor, writer, artist, and musician since the 1970s. At Marvel Comics, he was responsible for writing the G.I.Joe comic book of the 1980s, and developing many of the G.I. Joe characters for the toy company Hasbro. He has also written for the comic book series Wolverine, The Nth Man, and Elektra, and created Bucky O'Hare, which became a comic book, toy line, and animated cartoon.

Born in New York City in June 1949, he was raised in Queens. As a child he played Kodokan Judo and studied Kyudo (Zen Archery). He served in the U.S. Army Engineers from 1969 to 1971. As an actor during the 1970s, he appeared on the popular television shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live, and created two roles in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures.  Hama is also an avid guitarist and vocalist, performing with the band The K-Otics.

He began in comics as an illustrator, selling his first work to Castle of Frankenstein magazine when he was sixteen, then working with comics legend Wally Wood, lettering, writing, and illustrating backgrounds for the Sally Forth and Cannon comic strips. He had desk space at Neal Adam’s Continuity Associates studio where he did work for National Lampoon, Children's Television Workshop, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. In 1978 he became an editor at DC Comics, where he oversaw Wonder Woman, Super Friends and other titles.

Hama became an editor at Marvel Comics, where he launched the groundbreaking comic book series The ‘Nam, written by Vietnam veteran Doug Murray and illustrated by Bucky O’Hare artist Michael Golden. Hama also illustrated some of the earliest adventures of the character Iron Fist. He noted that he was given the writing assignment for G.I. Joe after every other writer at Marvel had turned it down. Because it was a children's toy tie-in, the series wasn’t expected to last more than two years, yet it ran from 1982 until 1994, and Hama ended up writing the series for twelve years at Marvel.

His G.I. Joe exhibited an awareness of genuine military terms and strategies, Asian themes and historical references which he used to instill a sense of realism in the series. His writing led to work for Hasbro, the toys’ manufacturer, and in 1990 he became the writer for the bestselling X-Men offshoot title Wolverine. He returned to G.I. Joe for Devil’s Due publishing, where he is also writing SPOOKS (with series creator Ryan Schifrin).

Hama is married and has a daughter. In addition to his comics writing, he works with filmmakers on developing independent features, television pilots, and screenplays.


Adam Archer (top)
A relative newcomer to the comic book industry, Archer has established himself quickly. He has done pencils and/or inks for DC Comics and Wildstorm on titles such as Friday the 13th, Supergirl, The Batman Strikes and Teen Titans Go! He’s illustrated cards for the “VS System” collectible card game (CCG), and has done pencils and inks for the exciting new SPOOKS series at Devil’s Due. Also for SPOOKS, he illustrated the dossiers of military personnel and the “most wanted” creatures.

He has also been an artist for one of the most prominent projects of the decade, the Heroes graphic novel, based on the immensely popular television series. Archer illustrated chapters of the “War Buddies” storyline which appeared online, then was collected in the DC Comics graphic novel.

Archer lives in California.


Jonny Rench (top)
Colorist Jonny Rench launched his career with Jim Lee’s DC Comics division Wildstorm Productions, where he contributed the rich hues to such high-profile projects as Captain Atom: Armageddon, Friday the 13th, The Highwaymen, The Programme, Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct, and the seminal Wildstorm series Gen 13 and Wetworks. He was also the cover illustrator for Claw the Unonquered, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Red Menace.

Based in Southern California, Rench is the colorist for the four-issue SPOOKS limited series from Devil’s Due.


R.A. Salvatore (top)
With more than twelve million books sold in the U.S. alone, and nearly four dozen novels to his credit— many of them bestsellers—R.A. Salvatore has become one of the most important figures in modern epic fantasy. He is best known as the creator of the dark elf Drizzt, one of the fantasy genre's most beloved characters.

A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, R.A. Salvatore, began writing shortly after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State College. He penned his first manuscript in 1982, in a spiral notebook, writing by candlelight while listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album.

His first break came in 1987 when TSR, publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, offered him a contract based on a proposal for the “Forgotten Realms” shared-world setting. His first published novel, The Crystal Shard, was released in February 1988 and climbed to #2 on the Waldenbooks bestseller list. By 1990 his third book, The Halfling’s Gem, had made the New York Times bestseller list. With a contract for three more TSR books, and with his first original novel and its sequel sold to Penguin, Salvatore remembers that “it seemed like a good time to quit my day job.” In a 2003 article, USA Today named The Thousand Orcs, the first book in the “Hunter’s Blade” trilogy, as one of the top 100 best fantasy novels of all time.

He and his sons, Bryan Salvatore and Geno Salvatore, worked with Ryan Schifrin to craft the fantasy underpinnings of the SPOOKS world, and to fashion the outline that would become the four-issue limited series from Devil’s Due Publishing. He is currently working with 38 Studios, LLC as “Creator of Worlds” for their first game project.

Salvatore frequently speaks to school and library groups. With the zeal of a religious convert, he tells people—especially young people—about the virtues of reading and the ultimate appeal: “it’s fun.” He recounts his return to reading when he was in college: “The blizzard of 1978 shut down my college for a week. My sister Susan had given me a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which I read while house-bound. When I got back to school, I changed my major from math to communications.”

He makes his home in Leominister, Massachusetts, with his wife and children, their dogs Oliver, Artemis and Ivan, and three elderly cats, including a black tortoise shell named Guenhwyvar. His gaming group of 26 years still meets on Sundays to play everything from MMORG’s to Dungeons & Dragons. His hobbies include softball, hockey, and music, particularly a good blast of Jimmy Buffett while tooling along the highways. In the fall of 1997, Salvatore’s letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers were donated to the R.A. Salvatore Library at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.


Bryan Salvatore (top)
Bryan Salvatore is an avid gamer with considerable experience writing, editing and designing game products. He worked on the Fast Forward Games R.A. Salvatore’s The DemonWars Campaign Setting and R.A. Salvatore’s The DemonWars Player’s Guide. He has worked as a copyeditor/ proofreader of novels and game products for nearly a decade, and co-wrote the treatment for SPOOKS with Geno Salvatore, R.A. Salvatore and Ryan Schifrin. He currently works for 38 Studios as a game designer. 

Salvatore was born on August 13, 1984 in Leominster, MA. He graduated from Lawrence Academy in 2004. He earned a degree in philosophy from Tufts University in May 2007.

He is a long time online game player with extensive experience in MMOGs, including DAoC, EQ (1 and 2), WoW, and real-time strategy games of all types. When he isn’t playing games, Salvatore spends his time playing his guitar, reading, writing, hiking and traveling to exotic places like Hawaii, Great Britain, Scotland, Switzerland, Cuba, Italy, France, Germany, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.


Geno Anthony Salvatore  (top)
Geno Salvatore has worked on Fast Forward Games R.A. Salvatore's The DemonWars Campaign Setting and R.A. Salvatore’s The DemonWars Player's Guide. He co-authored R.A. Salvatore's DemonWars Prologue, a DemonWars short story that appeared in the comic book published by Devil's Due Publishing.

He worked closely with Bryan Salvatore, R.A. Salvatore, and Ryan Schifrin on the Spooks treatment and he has continued to work with Schifrin, creating new fiction for the series slated for release by Devil's Due Publishing in 2008.

Salvatore was born on November 5, 1985 in Leominster, MA. He graduated from the Groton School in the Groton, MA form of 2004,and will receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Boston University in May of 2008.

One of his loves is travel, and he has been to Hawaii, Great Britain, Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands. Pursuing a quest to embrace new languages, he's learned to read French and is working on Italian. In addition to reading and writing, he plays a variety of games, the drums, softball and hockey, when he can find the time.


Daniel Alter (top)
Starting in the entertainment industry as a literary manager with Energy Entertainment, which at the time had a first-look deal with producer Neal Mortiz (Fast and the Furious, XXX, SWAT), Alter went on to launch his Alter Ego Entertainment banner. At age 25, his first film is Hitman.

He worked with Ryan Schifrin to develop the concept of SPOOKS. Other projects he has in development include films based on Devil's Due Publishing's Hack/Slash and Lost Squad, both set-up at Universal's genre arm, Rogue Pictures. Hack/Slash is about a young girl who travels the country hunting "slashers" a’la Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Vorhees, With Hack/Slash, Daniel’s hope is to re-invent the horror genre he loves so much, the same way Scream did back in '96.

Lost Squad is about a unit during World War II, sent behind enemy lines to match wits with Hitler's agents who were obsessed with the occult. The intent is to film the period piece movie in a similar over-stylized manner as 2007’s break-out hit 300. Daniel’s other projects include a feature adaptation of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, the new video-game from the same creators as Hitman, set-up at Lions Gate, and a live-action update of the famous Hanna Barbara cartoon series Jonny Quest at Warner Bros.


Lalo Schifrin (top)
As a pianist, composer and conductor, Lalo Schifrin is equally at home conducting a symphony orchestra, performing at an international jazz festival, scoring a film or television show, or creating works for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and even The Sultan of Oman.

As a young man in his native Argentina, Lalo Schifrin received classical training in music, and studied law. He came from a musical family, and his father, Luis Schifrin, was the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon. Continuing his formal music education at the Paris Conservatory during the early 1950’s, he became a professional jazz pianist, composer and arranger, playing and recording in Europe.

Dizzy Gillespie heard Schifrin play and asked him to become his pianist and arranger. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States and began a remarkable career. He has written more than 100 scores for films and television, including Mission Impossible, Mannix, The Fox, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, The Cincinnati Kid, and Amityville Horror. Recent film scores include Tango, Rush Hour, Bringing Down The House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and After the Sunset.Working with his son Ryan, he wrote the music for the film Abominable and now SPOOKS.

Lalo Schifrin has won four Grammy Awards (with twenty-one nominations), one Cable ACE Award, and received six Oscar nominations. In 1987, he became Musical Director of the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra for the purpose of recording music for films, performing concerts and participating in television shows and their inaugural concert took place at the Theatre des Champs Elysees on January 26, 1988. Other conducting credits are the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Saint Luke (New York City), and the National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina.

As a jazz musician he has performed and recorded with great personalities such as Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, and Count Basie. His longtime involvement in both the jazz and symphonic worlds came together beginning in 1993 when he was featured as pianist and conductor for his on-going series of Jazz Meets the Symphony recordings, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and such notable jazz stars as Ray Brown, Grady Tate, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera and James Morrison.

In addition to current commissions and film scoring activities, Schifrin tours extensively conducting symphony orchestras particularly featuring his repertoire of Jazz Meets the Symphony. He is a recipient of the 1988 BMI Lifetime Achievement Award. BMI also honored Schifrin in 2001 with a special composer’s award for his theme to Mission Impossible. He was most recently honored in 2004 by French performing rights organization SACEM, along with the 57th Annual Cannes Film Festival, in recognition of his significant contribution to music, film and culture, and also in 2004 by the American Society of Music Arrangers & Composers (ASMAC) with the 65th Annual Golden Score Award. In 1988, Schifrin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Lalo Schifrin has been appointed “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres,” one of the highest distinctions granted by France’s Minister of Culture.

Schifrin has been married to his wife, Donna, for more than 30 years. His three children include William, who is a writer for films and television; Frances, who is an art director/designer; and Ryan, who is a film writer/director.


Steve Saffel (top)
Writer, editor, and publishing consultant Steve Saffel is the author of Spider-Man: The Icon, the definitive illustrated history of the web-slinging character in all media. He is an independent editor for several major publishers including Titan Books, Random House, and Perseus Books, and a creative consultant for film developer Red Circle Productions.

As an Executive Editor at Random House, Saffel developed and nurtured books that landed on bestseller lists at The New York Times, The Times of London, and the Los Angeles Times. Some of those projects were recommended by Time magazine, earned top grades from Entertainment Weekly, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, and were lauded in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and on NPR’s Fresh Air.

He’s had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented authors in publishing, including fantasists David Gemmell, Greg Keyes, and R.A. Salvatore, science fiction icons Greg Bear and Robert Silverberg, alternate history master Harry Turtledove, Star Wars expert Steve Sansweet, thriller writers John Birmingham and David Morrell, comics icons Stan Lee and Joe Simon, actress Amber Benson, filmmaker Ryan Schifrin, and popular culture guru Mark Cotta Vaz.

He forged aggressive tie-in programs and established publishing relationships with Artisan Entertainment, DC Comics, Lightstorm Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. His efforts led to a groundbreaking partnership with Microsoft for books based on the Xbox games, and a breakthrough relationship with the Japanese publisher Kodansha that enabled his division to publish manga (Japanese graphic novels).

Before Random House, Saffel was an editor for Marvel Comics, where he spearheaded magazines that revealed the secrets behind the comics and the Marvel heroes as they burst onto the multi-media landscape. He lives with his wife, Dana Hayward, in Forest Hills, NY.


Andy Garfield (top)
Completing his music studies at the University of Southern California in 1996, Andy joined DreamWorks Interactive as game tester, composing music for the first DreamWorks product release, the PC game Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland, followed by Dilbert’s Desktop Games. Subsequently he composed and performed music for Disney, Fox Family (now ABC Family), Playstation 2, and X Box, and in 1999 became music director and composer of the award-winning Men in Black: Alien Attack attraction at Universal Studios Orlando. He was the primary composer, producer, and performer for the cartoon series Bad Dog and the Fox Kids Network cartoon series Mon Colle Knights.

In 2000-2001, he served as the director of audio and music for James Cameron’s EarthShip TV, working closely with the Camerons to develop concepts and procedures for previously not attempted in live internet broadcasts and content. He worked with the company Audio By The Bay on music for Universal Studios Japan, and produced, composed, music directed, and performed for a staged reading of Stalag 17–The Musical. Andy scored six episodes of The Jeff Corwin Experience for Animal Planet, completed two documentaries to air on the Travel Channel, worked on themed entertainment projects including Lara Croft–Tomb Raider: Firefall!, Survivor–THE RIDE! and the DEEPO 4D Theater at the Georgia Aquarium. He scored and provided key sound design for the cult-classic slasher film: Hatchet, woked on It’s a Mall World for MTV, and is preparing original and arranged music for The Crossroads of the World, a large themed mall in Jakarta, Indonesia. Working with Adam Green, Milo Ventimiglia, and the infamous Chiodo Brothers, Andy is providing full sound and music production service for the stop motion animated holiday shorts Winter Tales which will premier on the American Eagle website AE.com.


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