Alan J. Porter

Alan J. Porter (born in Sale, Greater Manchester, England in October 1959, now resident in central Illinois) is a writer on popular culture and publishing technology with articles published in numerous magazine titles in the UK, US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

He is the author of Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956–1960, a study of the events that led to the formation of The Beatles. He is also the author and main contributor for Blog, Blog Me Do selected by The Times newspaper as the top Beatles blog on the net.

Porter is an authority on The Batman and is the author of The Unauthorized Batman Collectors Guide." He also founded Gotham Gazette - the Batman magazine on the web and the long running Gotham Weekly News e-mail newsletter, which were published between 1997 and 2006.

A long time comics collector and historian, he was the past Comics Editor for the RevolutionSF website, where he remains an Editor-at-Large, and writes for several comics industry trade magazines. For several years he was a contributor to The Official Comic Book Price Guide For Great Britain, and was also a member of Comicopia - The International Comics APA.

He has also written books on the histories of James Bond, and Star Trek in comics.

He is the writer for the Virtual Man, Q-Man, and Science Squad series of promotional comic books. He was the regular writer on the Disney*Pixar CARS comic book series published by BOOM Studios between 2009 and 2010. These stories are scheduled to be reprinted in the newly announced Disney*Pixar Presents magazine from Marvel Comics due in May 2011.

Other comic book credits include God Shop, a series he developed with his eldest daughter, that was published by Tokyopop in 2008.

Alongside music and comics he has a lifelong passion for motorsport and is an occasional competitor in SCCA autocross events. As a writer he contributed to Mansell: The People's Champion and The Speed Blog. He is working on a mystery novel set in the world of motorsports, and blogs about motor sports at The Wheel Spin blog.

Porter has more than 20 years experience in corporate publishing in the UK and US. He has been involved in the development and adoption of various publishing standards and has been a regular speaker at industry conferences. He has held senior management positions at various publishing software and services companies, allied with extensive consulting experience with numerous Fortune 1000 companies and government organizations. He is the founder of 4Js Group a corporate publishing consulting and services company. He is the author of The Content Pool blog focused on digital publishing and content strategy trends, and is currently working on a book of the same title.

Books

• The Unauthorized Batman Collectors Guide, (1998) Schiffer Books, ISBN 0-7643-0683-9
• Before They Were Beatles: The Early Years 1956–1960, (2003) Xlibris, ISBN 1-4134-3056-2
• James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007, (2008) Hermes Press
• Star Trek: A Comics History, (2009) Hermes Press
• CARS: The Rookie, (2009) BOOM Studios
• CARS: Radiator Springs, (2009) BOOM Studios
• CARS: Rally Race (2010), BOOM Studios
• CARS: Route 66 Dash (2010), BOOM Studios
• WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit, (2010) XML Press, ISBN 0-9822191-2-1
• The Content Pool: Leveraging Your Company's Largest Hidden Asset (2012) XML Press

Contributor To

• The Official Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain (1992), PGP, ISBN 0-9516207-1-1
• The Official Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain, (1993), PGP, ISBN 0-9516207-2-X
• Mansell: The Peoples' Champion, (1995) HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-218497-4
• James Bond: Death Wing, (2007), Titan Books, ISBN 1-84576-517-6
• James Bond: Shark Bait, (2007), Titan Books, ISBN 1-84576-591-5
• James Bond: Paradise Plot, (2008) Titan Books
• An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett, (2008), Greenwood Press, ISBN 978-1-84645-043-3
• Batman Unauthorized (2008), BenBella Books
• The Time Tunnel (2009), Hermes Press

External links

• Alan J. Porter's Personal Homepage