John Skipp

John Skipp
Born John Mason Skipp
(1957-05-20) May 20, 1957
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Pen name Gina McQueen, Maxwell Hart
Occupation Author, Screenwriter, Editor, Songwriter, Filmmaker
Nationality American
Period 1982–
Genre Horror fiction, Fantasy, Splatterpunk, Bizarro fiction, Erotica, Porn, Satire, Social criticism, Comedy
Website
www.johnskipp.com

John Skipp is a splatterpunk horror and fantasy author and anthology editor, as well as a songwriter, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. He collaborated with Craig Spector on the 1989 anthology Book of the Dead, and has also collaborated with Marc Levinthal and Cody Goodfellow. He worked as editor-in-chief of both Fungasm Press and Ravenous Shadows.

Skipp has also been a past contributor to liner notes for cult film distributors Grindhouse Releasing/Box Office Spectaculars on the North American Blu-ray/DVD release of An American Hippie in Israel.[1][2]

Biography

Skipp's first published short story was in "The Twilight Zone Magazine" in 1982, called "The Long Ride." He co-authored with Craig Spector his first novel, The Light at the End, which was purchased by Bantam Books in 1984 and published in 1986. It sold over a million copies worldwide. He co-wrote five more original horror novels with Spector over the next six years as well as a novelization of the 1985 cult film Fright Night (based on Tom Holland's script) which managed to be published before their previously sold novel The Light at the End.

Skipp and Spector published their modern post-Romero zombie anthology, Book of the Dead, in 1989 through Bantam. The anthology featured Stephen King (the first printing of his short story "Home Delivery"), Joe R. Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Laymon, David J. Schow, Robert R. McCammon, and many other top names in the horror genre.

I Skipp and Spector moved to Hollywood where they wrote the screenplay for the 1989 A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. They separated as writing partners following that, and he stopped publishing for about nine years while working on other pursuits and attending guerilla film school.

As lead singer and songwriter, he performed and recorded with original Megadeth guitar virtuoso Chris Poland in a band called Mumbo's Brain. They recorded an unreleased album called The Book of Mumbo. Tracks from the unreleased album appear on Chris Poland’s CD Rare Trax.

Under the pseudonym Maxwell Hart, Skipp wrote the screenplay and songs for Misty Beethoven: the Musical (a musical remake of the adult film The Opening of Misty Beethoven), which won two AVN Awards for "Best Sex Comedy" and "Most Outrageous Sex Scene" (which involved a singing penis).

During this time, he edited what was originally called The Very Last Book of the Dead, which was eventually released as Mondo Zombie in 2006 from Cemetery Dance Publications. He spent four years unsuccessfully attempting to produce his first original feature film, Peekaboo and he wrote the screenplays for the 2011 collection Sick Chick Flicks, including Rose (a film he is currently working on).

He wrote the screenplay for The Long Last Call (that he would eventually novelize in the mid-2000s), and one novel: The Emerald Burrito of Oz (co-written with Marc Levinthal) released by Babbage Press in 2000, later re-released in 2010 by the bizarro fiction company Eraserhead Press.

Under the publishing house Friendly Firewalk Press, Skipp self-published Conscience (a novella) and Stupography (a non-fiction cultural critique). Cemetery Dance Publications released Mondo Zombie in May 2006 and it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology (tying with Joe R. Lansdale’s Retro-Pulp Tales).

He returned to mass market horror with the novel The Long Last Call and teamed up with Cody Goodfellow for a group of novels (Jake's Wake, The Day Before, Spore) as well as many short stories and scripts. In December 2008, Skipp released the e-novel and audiobook download, Opposite Sex, under the pen name "Gina McQueen," through publisher Ravenous Romance.

His editing career began with some mammoth anthologies for Black Dog and Leventhal (Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, Werewolves and Shape Shifters: Encounters with the Beasts Within, and Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed). He edited #4 of The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction which led to him becoming an acquiring editor at Eraserhead Press, and forming his own imprint, Fungasm Press. The first two books from Fungasm Press come out October 2011 (Haunt by Laura Lee Bahr and I Am Genghis Cum by Violet LeVoit).

In 2011, e-publisher Literary Partners Group (owners of Ravenous Romance) announced that Skipp would be the editor-in-chief of their new horror/thriller e-publishing imprint named Ravenous Shadows. He is in charge of scheduling four genre titles a month which will begin starting at the end of 2011. The innovation of Ravenous Shadows will be shorter books that can be read in the time it takes to watch a feature film.[3]

Skipp is directing a short film titled Stay at Home Dad (written by Cody Goodfellow) which he is co-directing with Andrew Kasch (Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy). He is also working on the film version of his script Rose as a 3-D puppet musical.

Written works

Novels

Anthologies

As editor:

Non-fiction

Published screenplays

Films

Music

Interviews

External links

See also

References

  1. ↑ Doc Terror "AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL: Grindhouse Releasing Brings the Most Psychedelic Blu-ray Ever to Hold the Most Psychedelic Movie Ever Made" September 21, 2013
  2. ↑ DVD Verdict An American Hippie in Israel (1972) (Blu-ray) Review by Tom Becker, November 9th, 2013
  3. ↑ Ravenous Romance Blog
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