Background

The son of a renowned professor of Italian literature, Arcudi grew up in Buffalo, New York during the 1970s. He attended Columbia University, where he majored in English and devoured the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and William Faulkner with equal enthusiasm.

After serving various apprenticeships on the fringes of the comic industry, including a stint at the New York branch of Forbidden Planet and the United Features comic syndicate, Arcudi joined Malibu Comics upon its founding in 1986, working on its Eternity line. At the same time he started writing for comics, making his first sales to Savage Tales and Savage Sword of Conan in 1986, and becoming a regular contributor to the humor magazine Cracked.

Early work

Arcudi’s work on The Mask was preceded by a number of effective graphic novels based on films, including RoboCop, Terminator, Predator, Alien, and The Thing. Two of these graphic works were subsequently adapted as full-length novels published by Bantam Books. His most recent work in this line, Aliens: Alchemy, was illustrated by Richard Corben. Arcudi’s series Barb Wire, featuring bounty hunter and bartendress Barbara Kopetski, was adapted into a film starring Pamela Anderson.

A lifelong aficionado of hardboiled crime novels, Arcudi also scripted several highly effective stories published in Dark Horse Presents, a series called “The Creep,” and a police procedural called “Homicide”. The protagonist of the latter, Detective Will Ford, was named in homage to one of Arcudi’s literary heroes, Charles Willeford. He has returned to the form recently with several scripts for The Dark Knight and Black and White.

The Mask

Arcudi joined the stable of writers at Dark Horse Comics. He worked on developing the character The Mask first in Mayhem #1-4, and then in a highly successful series of books illustrated by Doug Mahnke. Arcudi’s work formed the basis of the feature film starring Jim Carrey.

Major Bummer

Arcudi and Mahnke teamed up for several projects besides the Mask. Most notable among these was the series Major Bummer published by DC Comics. The series focuses on a defective band of superheros, including a slightly senile time traveler, an incompetent super vocalist, a man who can stick to things and the main character, a slacker who doesn't care about his super-genius and strength. The title was canceled after only 15 issues.

Arcudi also did a stint on Gen13, illustrated by Gary Frank and Cam Smith, and wrote a run on Doom Patrol, illustrated by Tan Eng Huat.

B.P.R.D.

Arcudi invented the character Captain Daimio for the series B.P.R.D., which he writes with Mike Mignola. Arcudi had contributed a B.P.R.D. story to the Hellboy comic issued in conjunction with the film as a premium from Wizard Entertainment. As B.P.R.D. developed into a separate series, Mignola tapped Arcudi to write the scripts. Three complexly plotted tales have been published to date, with a fourth (Killing Ground) currently in production.

Later work

Arcudi contributed the Superman story to Wednesday Comics with art by Lee Bermejo. He also created a graphic novel called A God Somewhere with Peter Snejbjerg providing the art.

Comics

• Aliens: Alchemy #1-3
• Aliens: Genocide #1-4
• Aliens: Stronghold #1-4
• Aquaman #25-39
• Gotham Nights #4, 7
• Legends of the Dark Knight #162-63
• B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame #1-6 (with Mike Mignola)
• B.P.R.D.: The Dead #1-5 (with Mike Mignola)
• B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine #1-5 (with Mike Mignola)
• B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground #1-5 (with Mike Mignola)
• Barb Wire #1-8
• Baseball Greats #1: The Jimmy Piersall Story
• Brass #1-6
• Dark Horse Comics #1-7, 19
• Dark Horse Presents #19, 23-24, 46, 48-49, 53-58, 60-61, 63-64, 115, 122-23, 147-49
• Dark Horse Presents Annual 1997
• Dark Horse Presents: Aliens #1
• Doom Patrol, vol. 3, #1-22
• Excalibur #104, 105
• Flinch #12
• Gen 13, #25-40
• Gen 13: Carny Folk #1
• The Goon: Noir #2
• Hellboy: Premiere Edition #1 (with Mike Mignola)
• Weird Tales #4
• Homicide #1
• Justice League of America: Destiny #1-4
• Justice League of America: Superpower #1
• Lobo/Mask #1-2 (with Alan Grant)
• The Machine #1-4
• Major Bummer #1-15
• Martian Manhunter, vol. 2 #5
• Mayhem #1-4
• The Mask #0-4
• The Mask Returns #1-4
• The Mask Strikes Back #1-5
• Motorhead #1
• Predator: Big Game #1-4
• RoboCop: Prime Suspect #1-4
• RoboCop: Roulette #1-4
• Savage Sword of Conan #150-52, 158, 165, 182
• Savage Tales, second series, #5, 7-8
• Silver Sable #26
• Solo #2, 6
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #38 (cover image only)
• Terminator #1-4
• The Thing from Another World: Climate of Fear #1-4
• Thunderbolts #76-81
• Total Carnage #1-4, 6-10
• Walter: Campaign of Terror #1-4
• Warlock and the Infinity Watch #34-35, 37-40, 42
• What if...? Vol. 2, #50
• Wednesday Comics #1-12 - Superman (writer), with art by Lee Bermejo. (2009)

Graphic novels

Graphic novels include:

• Terminator: Tempest (Dark Horse, 1991)
• Predator: Big Game (Dark Horse, 1991)
• Aliens: Genocide (Dark Horse, 1992)
• The Thing from Another World: Climate of fear (Dark Horse, 1992)
• RoboCop: Prime Suspect (Dark Horse, 1993)
• RoboCop: Roulette (Dark Horse, 1993)
• The Mask (Dark Horse, 1993)
• The Mask Returns (Dark Horse, 1994)
• The Mask Strikes Back (Dark Horse, 1996)
• Barb Wire (Dark Horse, 1996)
• Gen 13: I Love New York (Wildstorm/DC Comics, 1996)
• Aliens: Stronghold (Dark Horse, 1996)
• Justice League of America: Destiny (DC Comics, 2002)
• Thunderbolts: How to Lose (Marvel Comics, 2003)
• B.P.R.D.: The Dead (Dark Horse, 2005)
• B.P.R.D.: The Black Flame (Dark Horse, 2006)
• B.P.R.D.: The Universal Machine (Dark Horse 2007)
• A God Somewhere (with Peter Snejbjerg, graphic novel, 200 pages, Wildstorm, June 2010, ISBN 1-4012-2683-3)

Collections

• Best of Dark Horse Presents, volume 1 (Dark Horse, 1990)
• Best of Dark Horse Presents, volume 2 (Dark Horse, 1993)
• Decade #1 (Dark Horse, 1996)
• Decade of Dark Horse #3 (Dark Horse, 1996)
• Hellboy: Weird Tales (Dark Horse, 2003)
• Black and White, volume 2 (DC Comics, 2003)
• The Goon: Noir (Dark Horse, 2007)
• Wednesday Comics #1-12 - Superman (2009)

Magazines

• Cracked (1987)
• Monsters Attack! (1989)
• The Comics Journal (Winter 2003 Special Edition)