Paul Jenkins (born 6 December 1965) is a British comic book writer. He has had much success crossing over into the American comic book market. Primarily working for Marvel Comics, he has had a big part shaping the characters of the company over the past decade.
Paul Jenkins earned an English degree in in his native United Kingdom. After moving to the US, he joined Mirage Studios in 1988, where he worked as editor/production manager. He edited Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's books, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and even negotiated their licensing deals.
Leaving Mirage, Jenkins followed Eastman to Tundra, another Eastman publishing venture. He once again took up editing duties, and also headed licensing and promotions.
Tired of editing, Jenkins pitched to several companies as a writer. It was during this process that he landed a gig for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. In 1994, he took over as writer of Hellblazer, and began what would go on to be a four year long stint. His work on this title gained him attention in the American comic industry, but has yet to be republished in trade paperback form. This makes his run the longest on the series not to be reprinted.
Paul's Marvel Comics career began in 1998, when he worked on reviving some of the companies horror-themed properties. He relaunched the psychological horror title Werewolf By Night, writing six issues, until the title was canceled to start the anthology title Strange Tales. The rest of his remaining Werewolf By Night story was published in the first two issues.
Later in the year, he and artist Jae Lee were responsible launching the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Marvel Knights series Inhumans. The limited series ran twelve issues between November 1998 and October 1999, and earned Jenkins an Eisner Award.
In 2000, Jenkins and Lee followed up their collaboration with another five issue Marvel Knights limited series, this time concerning The Sentry. Although the mentally tortured hero was an original creation of Jenkins and Lee's, Marvel ran a marketing hoax claiming that the character was a long-lost Silver Age creation of Stan Lee himself, even pre-dating the Fantastic Four. After a long period of non-use, The Sentry became a member of the New Avengers (which occurred in a storyline with a cameo by Jenkins himself).
The year 2000 also included writing assignments in the regular Marvel Universe. In March, Jenkins was made the regular writer on the The Incredible Hulk. Like in much of his earlier work, Jenkins conducted a psychiatric examination of Bruce Banner, including a look at Banner's multiple Hulk personas. His 20 issue run on the Hulk ran until November 2001, and received great acclaim.
On top of the Hulk ongoing, Jenkins became the regular writer of Peter Parker: Spider-Man. Taking over the title from issue 20, in August 2000, he wrote it until its end in August 2003. Marvel placed him on the brand new The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol.2, and Jenkins went on to write the book for most of its three year run. His artistic collaborator for most of the Spectacular run was fan-favorite Humberto Ramos.
In 2001 he collaborated with penciller Andy Kubert on the 6-issue limited series Origin which for the first time revealed Wolverine's beginnings. The title was one of the biggest sales successes of that year for Marvel, and Jenkins has written The End, a story dealing with loose ends from the story, although it is not a direct sequel, as Marvel's The End stories are not canon. There is to be one more sequel to Origin.
He would also go on to write Wolverine for Marvel, and The Darkness for Top Cow. Another project undertaken by Jenkins for Marvel was the Mythos series of one-shots where Jenkins, with Paolo Rivera's painted artwork, would retell the origin stories of Marvel's movie adapted characters to bridge the gap between the Movies and the comic based characters.
Recently, Jenkins wrote the Dark Horse Comics limited series Revelations with comic book artist and penciller Humberto Ramos and Marvel's The Sentry with artist John Romita Jr.. He has also written his own independent comic, Sidekick, published by Image Comics.
Jenkins wrote the Civil War tie-in Front Line and one of the stories, the transformation of Robbie Baldwin from Speedball to Penance, was expanded on in the limited series Penance: Relentless. It also led to World War Hulk: Front Line. He also took over the writing on Son of Hulk when it lost its focus on Skaar, the series ran from #13 to 17.
Jenkins is also a prolific creator in the video game medium, having worked on several top-tier titles including the Legacy of Kain, Twisted Metal Black and God of War series. Most recently, Paul is credited as writer on Ultimate Destruction, created with Radical Entertainment and The Darkness, created by Starbreeze Studios.
Inhumans (vol. 2) (with Jae Lee, 12-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, 1998—1999, tpb, October 2000, ISBN 0-7851-0753-3)
Spawn: The Undead (with pencils by Dwayne Turner and inks by Chance Wolf, 9-issue limited series, Image Comics, June 1999-February 2000, tpb, July 2008, ISBN 1582409390)
Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #10-12 (with pencils by Sean Phillips and J. G. Jones, Marvel Comics, October—December 1999)
The Incredible Hulk (vol. 3) #12-32 (Marvel Comics, March 2000-November 2001) collected in:
The Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War (with pencils by Ron Garney and inks by Sal Buscema, collects #12-20, June 2001, 224 pages, ISBN 0-7851-0790-8)
Spider-Man (vol. 2) #20-41 and #44-50 (with pencils by Mark Buckingham, Marvel Comics, August 2000-January 2003) collected in:
Volume 1: A Day in the Life (collects #20-22 and #26, June 2001, ISBN 0-7851-0777-0)
Volume 2: One Small Break (collects #27-28 and #30-34, July 2002, ISBN 0-7851-0824-6)
Volume 3: Return of the Goblin (collects #44-47, January 2003, ISBN 0-7851-1019-4)
Volume 4: Trials and Tribulations (collects #35-37 and #49-50, June 2003, ISBN 0-7851-1150-6)
Sentry (240 pages, Marvel Comics, January 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2124-2) collects:
"Sentry & the Fantastic Four" (with Phil Winslade, February 2001)
"Sentry & the Hulk" (with Bill Sienkiewicz, February 2001)
"Sentry & Spider-Man" (with pencils by Rick Leonardi and inks by Terry Austin, February 2001)
"Sentry & the X-Men" (with Mark Texeira, February 2001)
"Sentry vs. the Void" (with Jae Lee, February 2001)
Origin (with Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Richard Isanove, 6-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, November 2001-April 2002, collected in Wolverine: Origin, hardcover, November 2002, ISBN 0785108661)
Witchblade #40-53 (with pencils by Keu Cha and inks by D-Tron, Top Cow, June 2000-February 2002, tpb, collected as:
Witchblade Compendium: Volume 1 (includes #40-50, June 2008, ISBN 1582407983)
The Agency (with pencils by Kyle Hotz, 6-issue limited series, Top Cow, August 2001-January 2002, tpb, July 2007, ISBN 1582407762)
Universe (with pencils by Clayton Crain and inks by Jonathan Glapion, 8-issue limited series, Top Cow, August 2001-July 2002, tpb, Tom Judge: The Rapture, collects #1-8 and Tom Judge: End of Days, October 2004, ISBN 1582403899)
The Darkness (Top Cow, 2001, 2002—2004, 2006) collected as:
Resurrection (176 pages, collects The Darkness vol. 1 #40 and vol. 2 #1-6, 2004, ISBN 158240349X)
Demon Inside (272 pages, includes The Darkness vol. 2 #7-9, January 2007, ISBN 1582406464)
Levels (5-issue mini-series, computer game tie-in, 2006—2007, tpb June 2007, ISBN 1582407975)
Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1-22, #27 (with pencils by Humberto Ramos and Mark Buckingham, Marvel Comics, 2003—2005) collected as:
Volume 1: The Hunger (collects #1-5, March 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1169-7)
Volume 2: Countdown (collects #6-10, May 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1313-4)
Volume 3: Here There Be Monsters (collects #11-14, October 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1333-9)
Volume 4: Disassembled (collects #15-20, December 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1626-5)
Volume 5: Sins Remembered (collects #23-26, May 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1628-1)
Volume 6: The Final Curtain (collects #21-22 and #27, November 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1950-7)
The End (with pencils by Claudio Castellini and inks by Paul Mounts, 6-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, January 2004-December 2004, tpb, March 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1349-5)
Batman: Jekyll & Hyde (with pencils by Jae Lee and Sean Phillips, 6-issue limited series, DC Comics, June 2005-October 2005, tpb, July 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1797-4)
Revelations (with Humberto Ramos, 6-issue limited series, Dark Horse Comics, 2005—2006, tpb, ISBN 1-59307-239-2)
Sentry (vol. 2) (with pencils by John Romita Jr. and inks by Mark Morales, 8-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, 2005—2006, tpb, Sentry: Reborn, 192 pages, September 2006, ISBN 0-7851-1707-5)
Generation M (with pencils by Ramon F. Bachs and inks by John Lucas, 5-issue limited series, Marvel Comics January—May 2006, tpb, Decimation: Generation M, July 2006, ISBN 0-7851-1958-2)
Mythos (with artist Paolo Rivera, one-shot metaseries, Marvel Comics, hardcover, 152 pages, December 2008, ISBN 0-7851-1597-8) includes:
X-Men #1 (March 2006)
Hulk #1 (October 2006)
Ghost Rider #1 (March 2007)
Spider-Man #1 (July 2007)
Fantastic Four #1 (December 2007)
Captain America #1 (August 2008)
Front Line (with pencils by Ramon F. Bachs and inks by John Lucas, 11-issue limited series, Marvel comics, August 2006-February 2007) collected as:
Civil War: Front Line, Book 1 (collects #1-6, May 2007, 208 pages, ISBN 0-7851-2312-1)
Civil War: Front Line, Book 2 (collects #7-11, June 2007, 160 pages, ISBN 0-7851-2469-1)
Civil War: The Return (with pencils by Tom Raney and inks by Scott Hanna, one-shot, Marvel Comics, March 2007, collected in Captain Marvel: Secret Invasion, hardcover, 136 pages, August 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3303-8, Captain Marvel: The Rising, softcover, August 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2422-5)
Front Line (with pencils by Ramon F. Bachs, 5-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, June—October 2007, tpb, June 2008, ISBN 078512666X)
Penance: Relentless (with pencils by Paul Gulacy and inks by Rain Beredo, 5-issue limited series, Marvel Comics, November 2007-March 2008, tpb, July 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2857-3)
Captain America: Theater of War (Marvel Comics, 152 pages, hardcover, February 2010, ISBN 0-7851-3990-7, softcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4035-2):
"America the Beautiful" (with pencils by Gary Erskine, one-shot, Marvel Comics, March 2009)
"A Brother In Arms" (with pencils by John McCrea, one-shot, Marvel Comics, June 2009)
"To Soldier On" (with pencils by Fernando Blanco, one-shot, Marvel Comics, October 2009)
The Darkness/Pitt #1 (with pencils by Dale Keown, Top Cow, August 2009)
Son of Hulk #13-17 (with pencils by Andres Guinaldo, Marvel Comics, 2009, hardcover, February 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4544-3, softcover, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4055-7)
