Description:
He was born in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The DeFalco family were owners of a supermarket. Tom was introduced to comic books at the age of five. An older cousin read to him an issue of Batman.
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 whilst at the same time rising through the editorial ranks.
DeFalco succeeded Jim Shooter as the tenth Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. He serv
He was born in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The DeFalco family were owners of a supermarket. Tom was introduced to comic books at the age of five. An older cousin read to him an issue of Batman.
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 whilst at the same time rising through the editorial ranks.
DeFalco succeeded Jim Shooter as the tenth Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. He served from 1987 to 1994, making him one of the longest serving individuals to hold that post. The only Editors-in-Chief with longer service than him were Stan Lee (1941 - 1942, 1944 - 1972) and Shooter (1978-1987).
As with several others who held the post, DeFalco became one of the public faces identified with a number of controversial decisions taken by Marvel in the period, and sometimes held responsible for them in fan circles. He 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 1990s 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 and at the same time the company's finances entered a crisis point amidst accusations that owner Ronald Perelman had strip-mined the company for his own gain. DeFalco was fired as Editor-In-Chief in 1994 as the company verged on the brink of bankruptcy. Initially the position of overall Editor-in-Chief was scrapped in favour of breaking the line into five sub-sections with their own group editors. In late 1995 the post was restored and filled by Bob Harras.
During his tenure as Editor-in-Chief, DeFalco had continued to write as well, with noted runs on Thor and the spin-off Thunderstrike and Fantastic Four. His dismissal coincided with a run on The Spectacular Spider-Man which he subsequently swapped for The Amazing Spider-Man. During this time 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 that had been active since 1975. Peter would be replaced by the original Spider-Man under the alias "Ben Reilly". However following several changes of creators and fan reaction this was soon reversed.
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. Defalco also created Spider-Girl, who currently has an ongoing monthly series with good, and climbing sales.
In March 2005, DeFalco was named Editor-in-Chief once again- this time of the national humor magazine Cracked.
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