David Quinn Background
80s: Music and Theater
During college years at Amherst College and CUNY David Quinn performed with a series of rock bands. Best known was Dolce Vita, which recorded an unreleased EP (CBS 1983) and an EP produced by Chris Spedding (Braineater Records 1984). Dolce Vita headlined at NY, Boston and Washington clubs and opened for international acts including Billy Idol, Thompson Twins, Lene Lovich and Klaus Nomi. Quinn also penned original plays during this period, with productions and workshops in New York and Boston.
“The life of a downtown musician was colorful, but it was frustrating to reach a level where we could play professionally but still not pay the rent. This is a valuable lesson for a creative person to learn, but a hard one. You have to evolve, break down walls. So I pulled back from music and focused on learning to be a business writer and teaching writing at CUNY. And with business clients like Swiss Bank Corporation to write for, I could finally be a full-time professional. And that gave me time to start shifting energy from writing for the theater into writing for comics. A friend introduced me to an artist that was gaining acclaim in independent adult comics, Tim Vigil, and we collaborated.”
90s: Comic Books and Film
With their Nightvision and Faust horror comic franchises, Quinn and Vigil joined Michigan-based creator James O’Barr’s The Crow as leaders of two late 80s/early 90s comics evolutions: comics for adults and creator-owned publishing. Influences reverberate across comics and media today.
David went on to script the edgy black comedy This Year’s Girl and the drama “Arona” for DC/Piranha’s Phobiasanthology, launching a prolific “comics for all ages” career:
- Phobias, This Year’s Girl, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (DC)
- Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Midnight Sons, Carnage, Exiles, Codename: Firearm, Nightman/Gambit (Marvel)
- Ascension, Man Against Time (image)
- Cain, Vampirella (Harris)
- Gargoyles (Disney)
- Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie (Chaos)
- Aliens/Predator/Witchblade/Darkness (Dark Horse)
- Magic: The Gathering (Acclaim)
- The Amazin’ Mets, Cosmic Slam, The Battery (Ultimate Sports)
Quinn also created film treatments for Razor (Full Metal Films) and Cowboys And Aliens (Platinum) and the screenplay for Brian Yuzna’s Faust: Love of the Damned (2000, Lions Gate). His short fiction appeared Queer Fear, Queer Fear II and Sons of Darkness.
Update: Faust, based on Quinn’s horror comic book co-created by artist Tim Vigil is in development at Sony Pictures Television, under writer/producer Matteo (Godkiller) Pizzolo.
00s: Corporate Storytelling
A seismic shift from print to digital radically downsized work for hire opportunities in all print media, so Quinn once again evolved his storytelling craft in the service of corporate branded media consulting.
“Whether they know it or not, businesses need to tell a straight, engaging story to get results, both with clients and employees. Powerpoint and Data Points are Death. Stories inspire and engage.”
David’s delivered branded content for the financial, health care, marketing and energy industries, clients like Citi, J.P. Morgan, MVP Health Care, UBS, Integrated Marketing, PNT Marketing, Something Different After School, EDS and Rennergy.
It’s possible that a life as a corporate storyteller inspired his “Not for Children Children’s Book,” The Littlest Bitch, co-created with Michael Davis and Devon Devereaux ( Sellers Publishing, 2010)
Little Isabel is a deliciously funny cross between the mischievous Eloise and The Bad Seed – and she’s tapped into her inner CEO to become the 5-year-old tyrant readers love to hate.
“Inspired by Mad and Charles Addams, I couldn’t resist the comic tension between appropriate and inappropriate. The comic story also has a serious heart, learned from corporate life, one all of my female colleagues understood: women are branded with curses for behavior that would be forgiven, even praised, from men.”
Go to Sleep, Little Creep (2018)
Shhhh… it’s dawn, time for all the baby monsters to go to sleep.
Go to sleep, little creep… The sun is rising, Mummy’s beat…
From the Tiniest Troll to Dracula’s Daughter, from Lil Godzilla to Little Foot, from Frankenstein Jr. to Wolf Girl, it’s time for every little creep to tuck into a cozy spot for just one more lullaby.
We’ve had a wild and wooly night, Now give Daddy one more bite.
Published by Crown Books for Young Readers
Awards
A three-time Bram Stoker Award finalist, David also received a MacArthur Foundation Scholarship and a Denis Johnson award for playwriting.
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