Born in Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, Van Allen Plexico graduated from Auburn University with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in 1990 and 1994, doing additional graduate work at Georgetown University and at Emory University. From 1995 through 2006 he lived and worked in the Atlanta, Georgia metro area, teaching at Georgia Perimeter College and at Shorter University. In 2006 he became Assistant Professor of Political Science and History at Southwestern Illinois College, near St. Louis, Missouri.
Plexico has lectured, written, and spoken professionally on space science, alternate history, and the historical roots of contemporary comic books and science fiction and fantasy 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 / 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-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.
In September 2010 Plexico became a contributing columnist for the Auburn University sports and popular culture commentary site, The War Eagle Reader.
Writer Kurt Busiek introduced the character of Detective Plexico to the pages of Marvel's Iron Man comic book series in 1999 as a reference to Van Plexico and the Avengers Assemble! Web site. In 2001, writer Keith R. A. DeCandido included a reference to the name Plexico in his Farscape novel, House of Cards, as a nod to Plexico.
Beginning in 2006, Plexico began writing a multi-volume series of Superhero fiction novels and anthologies. The books are set in the modern day, but include major elements of space opera. 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 2010, the series stands at six volumes.
Assembled! Five Decades of Earth’s Mightiest (Editor, 2007), ISBN 978-0-6151-5444-2
Sentinels: Widescreen Special Edition (Author and Editor, limited edition deluxe hardcover, 2007)
Sentinels: The Grand Design (Author and Editor, limited edition omnibus paperback, 2007)
"The Spearhead of Invasion" in A Thousand Faces magazine, issue 3 (2008)
"Conspiracy of Terror" (A Griffon novella) in Thrilling Tales magazine, issue 1 (2008)
"Future Shocked" in A Thousand Faces magazine, issue 7 (2009)
Sentinels: Alternate Visions (Editor, anthology, 2009), ISBN 978-0-578-01120-2
The John Carter of Mars Trilogy of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Reprint Editor for White Rocket Books, 2009)
Introduction to The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (White Rocket Books edition, 2009)
Super Comics Trivia! (Editor, 2009), ISBN 978-1-442-11091-5
"The Problem at Stamford Bridge" and "The Adventure of the Tuvan Delegate" in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Vol. 1 (Airship 27 Productions/Cornerstone Books; anthology, 2009), ISBN 978-1-934935-50-7
Lucian: Dark God's Homecoming (Airship 27 Productions/Cornerstone Books; novel, 2009), ISBN 978-1-934935-44-6
Assembled! 2 (White Rocket Books, editor, 2009) ISBN 978-0-9841392-0-0
Sentinels: The Shiva Advent (White Rocket Books, 2009) ISBN 978-0-9841392-1-7
"Conspiracy of Terror" in Lance Star - Sky Ranger, Vol. 2 (Airship 27 Productions/ Cornerstone Books; anthology, 2009) ISBN 978-1-9349356-1-3
Sentinels: Worldmind (White Rocket Books, 2010) ISBN 978-0-9841392-2-4
Introduction to The Boston Bombers graphic novel by Ron Fortier (Red Bud Studios, 2010)
