Evan Skolnick
Encyclopedia
Evan Skolnick is an American writer, editor and producer who has created content in a wide variety of media including newspapers, magazines, comic books, books, websites, CD-ROMs, computer games and video games. He is probably best known as a former Marvel Comics
editor and writer due to his involvement in prominent series such as Doctor Strange
, Ghost Rider 2099
and New Warriors
. He is currently a Producer and Editorial Director for Vicarious Visions
, a division of video game publisher Activision
.
and grew up in several suburbs east of the city. From an early age his interest in both writing and art was apparent, and when he was 15 he began publication of Phantasy Magazine, a small fanzine devoted to the then-wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons
“paper and dice” role-playing games. The magazine’s popularity grew to the point that two local Connecticut newspapers, the Hartford Courant and the Journal Inquirer, ran stories profiling the teenaged magazine publisher.
, Skolnick initially enrolled as a journalism
major but, not wanting to be pigeonholed, decided to split his education across his multiple interests. He took advantage of the university’s progressive “individualized major” program and was approved for a major entitled English/Journalism/Graphic Design.
As if to foreshadow things to come, Skolnick juggled academics with the creation of his daily comic strip called "Askew", which ran 5 days a week in UConn's Daily Campus
newspaper for three semesters.
After completing his studies and several internships with the Hartford Advocate weekly newspapers, he graduated in 1988. He then took a job as a reporter at a local newspaper, while regularly visiting New York City in search of a career position at a magazine or – as a pipe dream – Marvel Comics
.
as an Editorial Assistant. Within 6 months he had been promoted to Assistant Editor, and over the course of the next several years worked with a succession of Marvel editors including Gregory Wright
, Sid Jacobson, and ultimately Fabian Nicieza
, on a wide variety of properties ranging from RoboCop
to Barbie
to Bill & Ted to Wonder Man
. All the while Skolnick was doggedly pitching various series concepts, including an over-pitched Turbo
limited series proposal. He was continually shot down and told to focus on pitching fill-in stories for existing series, but his driving interest at the time was the creation of new series, or pitching to write for major new planned publications. Skolnick’s behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations in trying to get a Turbo
mini-series published at Marvel Comics
were described in detail in a letters column
in New Warriors
Vol. 1 #73, the very issue in which one of the Turbo characters is killed.
Eventually Skolnick heeded the advice of his superiors at Marvel and began to pitch and land small writing jobs on existing series, such as Iron Man
, RoboCop
, and NFL Superpro
. This semi-regular writing work seemed to culminate when Skolnick was selected to be the regular writer of the Terminator 2
monthly series, timed to premiere with the release of the highly-anticipated film in 1991. Skolnick’s proposal for the monthly series was very popular within Marvel’s editorial ranks, and a talented but then-little-known penciler named Joe Quesada
was slated to be the regular penciler. However the pitch's core concept conflicted with the plans of the owners of the T2 license, Lightstorm Entertainment
, and a deadlock between the two companies over creative issues prevented the series from ever seeing the light of day.
Deflated but not defeated, Skolnick continued to grind away, honing his editorial and story-pitching skills under the mentorship of Nicieza, writing several prominent annuals for series such as Excalibur
and Deathlok
, and ultimately landing the regular writing gig on New Warriors
, which Nicieza had decided to resign as of issue #53.
Meanwhile, Skolnick’s editorial abilities had not gone unnoticed, and in 1992 he was promoted to Associate Editor under group editor Bobbie Chase, charged with revitalizing the Dr. Strange
monthly series and launching Ghost Rider 2099
. Under his guidance, both titles were critically lauded and experienced relatively strong sales, taking into account the general sagging of the comic book market at that time. He also presided over the revamp of Marvel Year in Review (’92 and ’93 editions), changing the sedate Marvel-Universe-based news magazine into a scathingly satirical publication that few could believe actually made it to print.
However, financial and political pressures forced Skolnick (and many others) to leave Marvel in 1995 as part of the first of a series of downsizings experienced by the leading comic book publisher. He persevered as a freelance writer for Marvel afterward, continuing to write New Warriors
and assorted Spider-Man
-related one-shots and fill-in stories. With the continually imploding comic books market, however, New Warriors
was cancelled and Skolnick soon found himself with less and less writing work from Marvel. He picked up several jobs from Archie Comics
but it seemed possible that his career in comic books might be ending.
, who had just been named Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief of Acclaim Comics. Nicieza hired Skolnick to be his right-hand man at the new Acclaim Comics, assigning him the title of Senior Editor and charging him with the successful launching of the high-risk Acclaim Young Readers program. The concept was to create new comic book content with high-profile licenses and package them like young reader storybooks, to be marketed and sold not in direct market
comic book stores but in bookstores.
While the launching of the massive amount of licensed content from Disney and Fox
/Saban
was a creative success, marketing and distribution were poorly executed and initial sales proved disappointing. The costly program was cancelled by Acclaim within several months of first publication.
Skolnick moved into overseeing much of the Valiant Heroes line of super hero comics, while directly editing and revamping X-O Manowar
. While the Valiant Heroes series were critically well-received and enjoyed enthusiastic cult followings, they were never competitive from a sales perspective with Marvel Comics
, DC Comics
, Image Comics
or Dark Horse Comics
, and were not profitable for parent company Acclaim Entertainment
. Eventually Acclaim decided to cut their losses, reducing the Acclaim Comics staff to a skeleton crew and relocating them from their headquarters in Manhattan to Acclaim’s central office in Glen Cove, Long Island. Nicieza left the company shortly after this move, while Skolnick stayed on for less than a year as Creative Director, overseeing development of some comic books but mostly strategy guides based on Acclaim video games. He left Acclaim over a dispute concerning a comic book creator who was denied credit in one of the company’s video games.
and website development. After “getting his feet wet” for a year at a New Jersey interactive agency for clients such as ADP and Paine Webber
, Skolnick was hired in 1999 by NYC-based CyberAction Inc., a developer of “digital trading cards” delivered via CD-ROM and the Web. The concept was unique and major licenses such as Star Trek
and Major League Baseball
made for interesting content. But when the Internet bubble burst in 2001, CyberAction lost its funding and Skolnick was forced to once again look for a new challenge. He found it, in the video game business.
limited series, based on the popular arcade game. At Acclaim, he wrote for and edited several video game strategy guides. And at Archie Comics
he plotted a back-up story starring Sonic the Hedgehog
.
Skolnick was hired in 2001 as Senior Producer at Hyperspace Cowgirls
, a small interactive studio based in Manhattan that was transitioning from developing websites and CD-ROM
s to developing video games. Here he learned more about video game development and oversaw production on THQ titles such as Britney's Dance Beat for PC, Stuart Little 2
for PC, and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron for Game Boy Advance
.
Unfortunately a combination of poor cash flow controls and a lack of bridge funding doomed Hyperspace Cowgirls in 2002, and Skolnick moved upstate to work as a Producer for prominent video game developer Vicarious Visions
, where he remains today. In addition to managing the development of titles such as Crash Bandicoot
Purple, Shrek 2
: Beg for Mercy!, Ultimate Spider-Man
GBA, Over the Hedge
DS, and Guitar Hero III Wii, Skolnick also serves as the company’s Editorial Director, providing writing and editing guidance across all Vicarious Visions titles.
Since 2006 he has lectured a number of times at the Game Developers Conferences on writing for video games. In 2008 he contributed a chapter to Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing published by A K Peters. He is credited as being a lead writer for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, set for release in Fall 2009.
Skolnick lives in upstate New York with his wife and two sons.
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
editor and writer due to his involvement in prominent series such as Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Strange Tales #110 ....
, Ghost Rider 2099
Ghost Rider 2099
Ghost Rider 2099 is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics, under the Marvel 2099 imprint, from 1994 to 1996.The series is set in the year 2099, in a dystopian possible future of the Marvel Universe, and features Kenshiro "Zero" Cochrane, a hacker who was killed but resurrected as...
and New Warriors
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a Marvel Comics superhero team, traditionally consisting of young adult heroes. They first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 .-General publication history:...
. He is currently a Producer and Editorial Director for Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...
, a division of video game publisher Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
.
Early years
Skolnick was born in 1966 in Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
and grew up in several suburbs east of the city. From an early age his interest in both writing and art was apparent, and when he was 15 he began publication of Phantasy Magazine, a small fanzine devoted to the then-wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
“paper and dice” role-playing games. The magazine’s popularity grew to the point that two local Connecticut newspapers, the Hartford Courant and the Journal Inquirer, ran stories profiling the teenaged magazine publisher.
College
When attending college at the University of ConnecticutUniversity of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
, Skolnick initially enrolled as a journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
major but, not wanting to be pigeonholed, decided to split his education across his multiple interests. He took advantage of the university’s progressive “individualized major” program and was approved for a major entitled English/Journalism/Graphic Design.
As if to foreshadow things to come, Skolnick juggled academics with the creation of his daily comic strip called "Askew", which ran 5 days a week in UConn's Daily Campus
The Daily Campus
The Daily Campus, founded in 1896, is a student-run newspaper at the University of Connecticut that has a circulation run of 8,000 copies weekdays during the school year and twice during the summer...
newspaper for three semesters.
After completing his studies and several internships with the Hartford Advocate weekly newspapers, he graduated in 1988. He then took a job as a reporter at a local newspaper, while regularly visiting New York City in search of a career position at a magazine or – as a pipe dream – Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
.
Marvel Comics
In December 1988 Skolnick was hired by Marvel ComicsMarvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
as an Editorial Assistant. Within 6 months he had been promoted to Assistant Editor, and over the course of the next several years worked with a succession of Marvel editors including Gregory Wright
Gregory Wright (comics)
Gregory Wright is an American comic book editor, writer, and colorist known for his work on such Marvel Comics characters as Spider-Man, the Defenders, the Fantastic Four, Deathlok, and Silver Sable, and such DC Comics characters as Superman and Batman.- Biography :Wright grew up in New Castle,...
, Sid Jacobson, and ultimately Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza is an American comic book writer and editor who is best known for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Cable and Deadpool, and Thunderbolts, for all of which he helped create numerous characters.-Early life:The son of Omar and Irma Riguetti Nicieza, Fabian...
, on a wide variety of properties ranging from RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
to Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
to Bill & Ted to Wonder Man
Wonder Man
Wonder Man is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in The Avengers #9 .-Publication history:Wonder Man debuted in the superhero-team title The Avengers #9 Wonder...
. All the while Skolnick was doggedly pitching various series concepts, including an over-pitched Turbo
Turbo (comics)
Turbo is the name of two fictional characters in the Marvel Comics universe. One a comic book superheroine, the other a superhero. Michiko "Mickey" Musashi debuted in New Warriors #28 and her ally Michael "Mike" Jeffries in New Warriors #33.-Torpedo Armor:The Torpedo armor was a creation of the...
limited series proposal. He was continually shot down and told to focus on pitching fill-in stories for existing series, but his driving interest at the time was the creation of new series, or pitching to write for major new planned publications. Skolnick’s behind-the-scenes trials and tribulations in trying to get a Turbo
Turbo (comics)
Turbo is the name of two fictional characters in the Marvel Comics universe. One a comic book superheroine, the other a superhero. Michiko "Mickey" Musashi debuted in New Warriors #28 and her ally Michael "Mike" Jeffries in New Warriors #33.-Torpedo Armor:The Torpedo armor was a creation of the...
mini-series published at Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
were described in detail in a letters column
Comic book letter column
A comic book letter column is a section of a comic book where readers' letters to the publisher appear. Comic book letter columns are also commonly referred to as letter columns , letter pages, letters of comment , or simply letters to the editor...
in New Warriors
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a Marvel Comics superhero team, traditionally consisting of young adult heroes. They first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 .-General publication history:...
Vol. 1 #73, the very issue in which one of the Turbo characters is killed.
Eventually Skolnick heeded the advice of his superiors at Marvel and began to pitch and land small writing jobs on existing series, such as Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
, RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
, and NFL Superpro
NFL Superpro
NFL Superpro was a short-lived comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Produced in collaboration with the NFL and written by Fabian Nicieza, the series started publication in 1991 and ended after 12 issues...
. This semi-regular writing work seemed to culminate when Skolnick was selected to be the regular writer of the Terminator 2
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr.. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong...
monthly series, timed to premiere with the release of the highly-anticipated film in 1991. Skolnick’s proposal for the monthly series was very popular within Marvel’s editorial ranks, and a talented but then-little-known penciler named Joe Quesada
Joe Quesada
Joseph "Joe" Quesada is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom...
was slated to be the regular penciler. However the pitch's core concept conflicted with the plans of the owners of the T2 license, Lightstorm Entertainment
Lightstorm Entertainment
Lightstorm Entertainment is an American film production company. The company was founded by Canadian filmmaker James Cameron and film producer Larry Kasanoff in 1990 and is best known for producing the films Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic and Cameron's latest film Avatar...
, and a deadlock between the two companies over creative issues prevented the series from ever seeing the light of day.
Deflated but not defeated, Skolnick continued to grind away, honing his editorial and story-pitching skills under the mentorship of Nicieza, writing several prominent annuals for series such as Excalibur
Excalibur (comics)
Excalibur is a Marvel Comics superhero group, an off-shoot of the X-Men, usually based in the United Kingdom. Conceived by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer Alan Davis, the original Excalibur first appeared in Excalibur Special Edition , also known as Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn.The...
and Deathlok
Deathlok
Deathlok is a fictional cyborg published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25 , and was created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench...
, and ultimately landing the regular writing gig on New Warriors
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a Marvel Comics superhero team, traditionally consisting of young adult heroes. They first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 .-General publication history:...
, which Nicieza had decided to resign as of issue #53.
Meanwhile, Skolnick’s editorial abilities had not gone unnoticed, and in 1992 he was promoted to Associate Editor under group editor Bobbie Chase, charged with revitalizing the Dr. Strange
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Strange Tales #110 ....
monthly series and launching Ghost Rider 2099
Ghost Rider 2099
Ghost Rider 2099 is a comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics, under the Marvel 2099 imprint, from 1994 to 1996.The series is set in the year 2099, in a dystopian possible future of the Marvel Universe, and features Kenshiro "Zero" Cochrane, a hacker who was killed but resurrected as...
. Under his guidance, both titles were critically lauded and experienced relatively strong sales, taking into account the general sagging of the comic book market at that time. He also presided over the revamp of Marvel Year in Review (’92 and ’93 editions), changing the sedate Marvel-Universe-based news magazine into a scathingly satirical publication that few could believe actually made it to print.
However, financial and political pressures forced Skolnick (and many others) to leave Marvel in 1995 as part of the first of a series of downsizings experienced by the leading comic book publisher. He persevered as a freelance writer for Marvel afterward, continuing to write New Warriors
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a Marvel Comics superhero team, traditionally consisting of young adult heroes. They first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 .-General publication history:...
and assorted Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
-related one-shots and fill-in stories. With the continually imploding comic books market, however, New Warriors
New Warriors
The New Warriors is a Marvel Comics superhero team, traditionally consisting of young adult heroes. They first appeared in The Mighty Thor #411 .-General publication history:...
was cancelled and Skolnick soon found himself with less and less writing work from Marvel. He picked up several jobs from Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
but it seemed possible that his career in comic books might be ending.
Acclaim Comics
Into this difficult time arrived Skolnick’s mentor and friend, Fabian NiciezaFabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza is an American comic book writer and editor who is best known for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, Cable and Deadpool, and Thunderbolts, for all of which he helped create numerous characters.-Early life:The son of Omar and Irma Riguetti Nicieza, Fabian...
, who had just been named Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief of Acclaim Comics. Nicieza hired Skolnick to be his right-hand man at the new Acclaim Comics, assigning him the title of Senior Editor and charging him with the successful launching of the high-risk Acclaim Young Readers program. The concept was to create new comic book content with high-profile licenses and package them like young reader storybooks, to be marketed and sold not in direct market
Direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for North American comic books. It consists of one dominant distributor and the majority of comics specialty stores, as well as other retailers of comic books and related merchandise...
comic book stores but in bookstores.
While the launching of the massive amount of licensed content from Disney and Fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
/Saban
Saban
Saban Entertainment , was a worldwide-served independent American television production company formed in 1984 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy as "Saban Productions", a U.S...
was a creative success, marketing and distribution were poorly executed and initial sales proved disappointing. The costly program was cancelled by Acclaim within several months of first publication.
Skolnick moved into overseeing much of the Valiant Heroes line of super hero comics, while directly editing and revamping X-O Manowar
X-O Manowar
X-O Manowar is a fictional superhero co-created by writer and former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, artist Bob Layton, and Jon Hartz. Current Marvel Comics Chief Creative Officier Joe Quesada was a key creator in the origin of X-O Manowar as seen in X-O Manowar #0...
. While the Valiant Heroes series were critically well-received and enjoyed enthusiastic cult followings, they were never competitive from a sales perspective with Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
or Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, and were not profitable for parent company Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
. Eventually Acclaim decided to cut their losses, reducing the Acclaim Comics staff to a skeleton crew and relocating them from their headquarters in Manhattan to Acclaim’s central office in Glen Cove, Long Island. Nicieza left the company shortly after this move, while Skolnick stayed on for less than a year as Creative Director, overseeing development of some comic books but mostly strategy guides based on Acclaim video games. He left Acclaim over a dispute concerning a comic book creator who was denied credit in one of the company’s video games.
Interactive Development
Disillusioned with the continually eroding comic book market, Skolnick decided to apply his years of creative project management to the rapidly growing field of CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
and website development. After “getting his feet wet” for a year at a New Jersey interactive agency for clients such as ADP and Paine Webber
Paine Webber
Paine Webber and Company was an American stock brokerage and asset management firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS AG in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with two employees, they leased premises at 48...
, Skolnick was hired in 1999 by NYC-based CyberAction Inc., a developer of “digital trading cards” delivered via CD-ROM and the Web. The concept was unique and major licenses such as Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
made for interesting content. But when the Internet bubble burst in 2001, CyberAction lost its funding and Skolnick was forced to once again look for a new challenge. He found it, in the video game business.
Video Games
Skolnick had several dalliances with the video game business well before entering it headlong. At Marvel, he was the managing editor of the Double DragonDouble Dragon
is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Kunio-kun series ....
limited series, based on the popular arcade game. At Acclaim, he wrote for and edited several video game strategy guides. And at Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
he plotted a back-up story starring Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog (character)
, trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's...
.
Skolnick was hired in 2001 as Senior Producer at Hyperspace Cowgirls
Hyperspace Cowgirls
Hyperspace Cowgirls was a small developer of websites, CD-ROMs and video games located in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Some of their better known shipped video game titles include:* Britney's Dance Beat 2002* Stuart Little 2 2002...
, a small interactive studio based in Manhattan that was transitioning from developing websites and CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s to developing video games. Here he learned more about video game development and oversaw production on THQ titles such as Britney's Dance Beat for PC, Stuart Little 2
Stuart Little 2
Stuart Little 2 is a 2002 American live action and CGI animated film, directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki and the voices of Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Melanie Griffith, James Woods and Steve Zahn. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film and includes...
for PC, and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron for Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
.
Unfortunately a combination of poor cash flow controls and a lack of bridge funding doomed Hyperspace Cowgirls in 2002, and Skolnick moved upstate to work as a Producer for prominent video game developer Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...
, where he remains today. In addition to managing the development of titles such as Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot series
Crash Bandicoot is a series of platform video games published by Activision after first being developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Initially created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin, the series was developed for its first four years by the video game company Naughty...
Purple, Shrek 2
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film, produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. It is the second installment in the Shrek film series and the sequel to 2001's Shrek...
: Beg for Mercy!, Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man was a superhero comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2009. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Spider-Man comic book franchise as part of its Ultimate Marvel imprint...
GBA, Over the Hedge
Over the Hedge
Over the Hedge is a syndicated comic strip written and drawn by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. It tells the story of a raccoon, turtle, a squirrel, and their friends who come to terms with their woodlands being taken over by suburbia, trying to survive the increasing flow of humanity and technology...
DS, and Guitar Hero III Wii, Skolnick also serves as the company’s Editorial Director, providing writing and editing guidance across all Vicarious Visions titles.
Since 2006 he has lectured a number of times at the Game Developers Conferences on writing for video games. In 2008 he contributed a chapter to Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing published by A K Peters. He is credited as being a lead writer for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, set for release in Fall 2009.
Skolnick lives in upstate New York with his wife and two sons.