Rucka was born in San Francisco, California and raised on the Central Coast of California, in what is commonly referred to as "Steinbeck Country." He began his writing career in earnest at the age of 10 by winning a county-wide short-story contest. He graduated from Vassar College with an A.B. in English, and from the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program with an M.P.W.
His writing career began with the Atticus Kodiak series. Kodiak is a bodyguard whose jobs are rarely as uncomplicated as they at first appear. The series to date consists of: Keeper, Finder, Smoker, Shooting at Midnight, Critical Space, Patriot Acts, and Walking Dead. These works garnered Rucka much critical acclaim and comparisons to the elite writers of crime/suspense fiction. The "Atticus" novels are notable for their realism and attention to detail, which are partly a product of Rucka's fight training and experience as an EMT. He has also written three non-Atticus books: Fistful of Rain, A Gentleman's Game and Private Wars; the latter two are tie-ins to his comic book series Queen & Country.
In the 1990s, Rucka would hop onto the comic scene with his highly praised Whiteout, published through Oni Press. Whiteout focuses on a murder in an Antarctic base. It was followed by a sequel, Melt. Rucka would begin a pattern with this book: writing strong, independent female characters. Queen & Country, dealing with British spies, is his longest and most personal work (also published by Oni).
The majority of Rucka's work today is for DC Comics, where he started the most recent volume of Checkmate, and was an instrumental co-writer on the weekly series 52. Gotham Central, the series Rucka co-created with fellow scribe Ed Brubaker, was concluded by Rucka alone after Brubaker left DC to work exclusively with Marvel. Both Rucka and Brubaker had previously dealt with Batman and his supporting cast in Detective Comics, which Rucka wrote on a regular basis following the events of No Man's Land. He also penned the novelization of the year-long arc.
He also had long runs on Adventures of Superman and Wonder Woman. On the DC comic 52, Johns, Morrison and Waid were his co-writers. He has also done work for Marvel Comics, including the start of the new (and current) volume of Wolverine, Elektra and the mini-series Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra. He has also worked for Image Comics. The first volume of his series Queen and Country concluded in July 2007 with issue #32.
Rucka also wrote the screenplay for the "Crossfire" segment in the direct-to-DVD anime Gotham Knight, in which Crispus Allen, a character he created, also appears. In 2009, Rucka and artist Eddy Barrows took over Action Comics from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank as the title moved its focus from Superman to Kryptonian heroes Nightwing and Flamebird in the aftermath of the New Krypton story arc. Rucka also returned to the Batman world (albeit without Bruce Wayne due to the aftermath of Batman R.I.P., Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl) by returning to Detective Comics with artist J.H. Williams III. Rucka's new tenure on the title focused on the new Batwoman introduced by Rucka in 52.
Rucka resides in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, author Jennifer Van Meter, and his two children.
At Wondercon 2010 Rucka announced he will part ways with DC Comics to focus on his own projects.
Rucka's work, particularly in comics, has attracted critical and fan acclaim, and has also won several awards, including Eisner Awards for the "Half a Life" storyline in Gotham Central (for which he also won a Harvey Award), Whiteout: Melt and Queen and Country.
