Official Press Release

Viper Comics is gearing up for some exciting times. With a slate of new projects ready for release and in development, we're also looking at ways to hit the comic market in new exciting and different directions.

To that end, we're excited to announce we've expanded our team and welcome Howard Mackie as a Contributing Editor. Bringing over twenty years of experience from his days at Marvel, Howard will be helping us with many of the publishing challenges that are before us. Working with the executive team on ways to maximize Viper's presence in the entertainment industry; with creative teams in an editorial capacity; and even writing the odd book here and there, Howard will certainly have his hands full.

ABOUT HOWARD

Howard Mackie is an American comic book editor and writer. He has worked almost exclusively for Marvel Comics. His first comics work was as an assistant editor for Mark Gruenwald in the mid-1980s. Promoted in early 1987 to Managing Editor of Special Projects, Mackie then oversaw many of Marvel's New Universe line. He also edited Avengers and Avengers West Coast while John Byrne worked on those titles. Mackie first gained attention as a writer in 1990, when he and artist Javier Saltares launched a new Ghost Rider series for Marvel, revamping the character and introducing a new host, Danny Ketch. Mackie stayed on as Ghost Rider writer until issue #69 in 1996. Mackie was also the author of the cult classic Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher team-up mini-series, Hearts Of Darkness (1991), and its follow up one-shot The Dark Design (1994). In 1992, Mackie became a regular writer of Web of Spider-Man with #85. He would remain on various Spider-Man titles through the Clone Saga and beyond, finally leaving nine years later with The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2, #29 in April 2001. Mackie also worked for the X-Men line, writing the spin-off title X-Factor from #115-149 (1995-1999) as well as its successor Mutant X title (1999). He also wrote several mini-series featuring Gambit, Wolverine, and Rogue.

In the Fall of 2009, Mackie teamed with Tom DeFalco to write a six issue miniseries entitled Spider-Man: Clone Saga, telling the story using Mackie's original notes for the 1990s crossover