Episode 300: Chris Claremont

On today's episode I talk to writer Chris Claremont. Born in London, Chris' family moved to the States when he was a child, and though he originally studied acting and political theory, he eventually started writing comics after taking a job as a gofer/editorial assistant at Marvel while in college. Chris was originally given the low-selling series X-Men to write, which he did for the next 16 years, turning it into both a groundbreaking and best-selling series and revolutionizing the ways stories in comics were told. Not only did he create many beloved characters including Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Mystique, Emma Frost, Sabretooth, Strong Guy, Mister Sinister, Captain Britain, and Gambit, but he also scripted some of the most iconic stories of the X-Men's entire existence including "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past". Besides his work on the X-Men, Chris wrote the spin-offs The New Mutants and Excalibur, and has written for almost every character in the Marvel Universe. His relaunch of X-Men in 1991 is still the best-selling comic ever, and in 2015, Claremont and his X-Men collaborator John Byrne were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. And everything I've just said barely even scratches the surface of his career.

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