Van Allen Plexico
Encyclopedia
Van Allen Plexico is an American professor of Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 and History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 and a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 author.

Biography

Born in Sylacauga, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Van Allen Plexico graduated from Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...

 with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in 1990 and 1994, doing additional graduate work at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 and at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

. From 1995 through 2006 he lived and worked in the Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 metro area, teaching at Georgia Perimeter College
Georgia Perimeter College
Georgia Perimeter College is a two-year associate degree-granting unit of the University System of Georgia. In May 2011, the state Board of Regents approved two bachelor's programs: a Bachelor of Arts in Sign Language Interpreting and a Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics...

 and at Shorter University. In 2006 he became Assistant Professor of Political Science and History at Southwestern Illinois College
Southwestern Illinois College
Southwestern Illinois College is the sixth largest community college in Illinois with campuses in Belleville, Granite City, and Red Bud, plus 20 off-campus sites throughout the district, including Scott Air Force Base and East St. Louis Community College Center...

, near St. Louis, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

.

Career

Plexico has lectured, written, and spoken professionally on space science
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....

, alternate history, and the historical roots of contemporary comic books and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 literature. He has been published in print and online in the areas of book, television, film, and comics criticism and commentary (often by RevolutionSF.com), and has moderated discussion panels and emceed trivia tournaments at science fiction conventions around the US, beginning in 1998.

He is the author of the Sentinels series of Superhero fiction
Superhero fiction
Superhero fiction is a form originating in and most common to American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works....

 / pulp adventure novels and stories, published (volumes one-three) by Swarm Press and (beginning with volume four) by White Rocket Books. Artist Chris Kohler has provided five full-page interior illustrations for each volume. Sentinels short stories also have been published in A Thousand Faces magazine.

A member of the Pulp Factory writers' and artists' group, Plexico's classic pulp revival novels and novellas are being published by Airship 27 Productions. His Kerry Keen/The Griffon novella, "Conspiracy of Terror," was published by Adamant Entertainment in Thrilling Tales #1 and reprinted in Airship 27's Lance Star - Sky Ranger, Vol. 2. His science fiction novel, Lucian: Dark God's Homecoming, was published by Airship 27 in summer 2009. Additionally, two of his short stories were featured in Airship 27's bestselling and multiple award winning anthology, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol. 1, also in 2009 (Winner of the 2010 Pulp Factory Awards for Best Pulp Cover Art, Best Pulp Interior Art, and Pulp Short Story of the Year for Andrew Salmon's "Mystery of the Locked Room.") Plexico also serves as an editor for White Rocket Books and has served as assistant editor on multiple projects for Airship 27.

An inductee of the Heroes Magazine Hall of Fame for his early work in the comics fandom community, he was founder (in 1995) and is executive editor of the Avengers
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...

-related comic book archives and reference site, AvengersAssemble. He has also contributed to the Wizard Magazine archives and was chosen by the Rittenhouse Archives to write the text for the backs of Upper Deck's commemorative The Complete Avengers, 1963-Present trading card set, chronicling the year-by-year history of the team. In 2007 he edited ASSEMBLED!, a critically acclaimed collection of essays analyzing and commenting upon Marvel's Avengers comics, with profits going to the HERO Initiative. A sequel, ASSEMBLED! 2, was published in July 2009.

As a member of the Spectacled Seven, Plexico is a founding editor of All-Pulp, a pulp fiction-themed online magazine and blog.

In September 2010 Plexico became a contributing columnist for the Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...

 sports and popular culture commentary site, The War Eagle Reader. His columns, written with John Ringer, were collected in a single volume, Season of Our Dreams, published in January 2011. In July 2011, that book made Amazon.com's Top 20 Bestsellers list for books about American football.

In early 2011 Plexico was nominated for the "Writer of the Year" Award by the membership of PulpArk, an Arkansas-based pulp convention, and for "Story of the Year" (for his story, "The Red Flame of Death," in Gideon Cain - Demon Hunter, Vol. 1) by the members of the Pulp Factory, awarded at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention in Chicago each spring.

Writer Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...

 introduced the character of Detective Plexico to the pages of Marvel
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...

's 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,...

 comic book series in 1999 as a reference to Van Plexico and the Avengers Assemble! Web site. In 2001, writer Keith R. A. DeCandido
Keith R. A. DeCandido
Keith Robert Andreassi DeCandido is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and musician, who works on comic books, novels, role-playing games and video games, including numerous media tie-in books for properties such as Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Supernatural,...

 included a reference to the name Plexico in his Farscape
Farscape
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...

 novel, House of Cards, as a nod to Plexico.

The Sentinels Series

Beginning in 2006, Plexico began writing a multi-volume series of Superhero fiction
Superhero fiction
Superhero fiction is a form originating in and most common to American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works....

 novels and anthologies. The books are set in the modern day, but include major elements of space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...

. The central character of the series is a teen-aged Asian-American woman who discovers she possesses electromagnetic powers and becomes involved with a US government-run organization known as Project: Sentinel. Each volume of the series stands alone as a single adventure but the books can be read together as an ongoing, continuous narrative in which the characters grow and change. As of 2011, the series stands at seven volumes (six novels and one anthology). The most recent volume, the novel Stellarax, was published by White Rocket Books in late June 2011.

External links

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