| Peter Sanderson | |
|---|---|
 Sanderson at the 2015East Coast Comicon inSecaucus, New Jersey | |
| Born | (1952-04-25)April 25, 1952 (age 73) Milton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Area(s) | Writer,historian, critic, academic |
Notable works | Marvel Saga Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe |
Peter Sanderson Jr. (born April 25, 1952)[1] is an Americancomic book critic andhistorian.[2]
He is best known for his work as aresearcher at the two main American comics companies,DC andMarvel, where he helped to catalog the various fictional characters that comprised their respectivecontinuities, includingVictor Timely.
As a teenager, and later, atColumbia University, Sanderson's first involvement in the comics field was as a "letterhack," a frequent contributor tocomic book letter columns. His missives impressedDC Comics editorJulius Schwartz enough for Schwartz expand the letter columns in some titles to a second, separate page (such as "Flash-Grams — Extra", "Letters To the Batcave — Extra", and "JLA Mailroom — Special Peter Sanderson Edition") to facilitate Sanderson's analysis.[3] In the early 1980s Sanderson wrote for comics hobbyist magazines, includingThe Comics Journal,Amazing Heroes,[4] andComics Feature.
From there, Sanderson broke into the comic book industry proper. He was first hired by DC Comics, where he was given the task of reading every comic book published by the company since 1935. His research was used byLen Wein to writeWho's Who in the DC Universe.[5] Sanderson then went to work forMarvel Comics, where he was mentored by writer/editorMark Gruenwald as Marvel's first scholar and archivist, which saw Sanderson placed in charge of Marvel's library.[6] Sanderson contributed as a researcher on the variousOfficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe series in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Sanderson was also the writer of theMarvel Saga andWolverine Sagalimited series. These titles did not follow the typical art-centered comic book format. Instead, the two series were prose chronicles of the fictional histories of comic book characters, which Sanderson culled from previous titles Marvel had published over the years. The text was supplemented by individualpanels excerpted from the comic books that served as Sanderson's sources.
Sanderson writes an online column entitledComics in Context, which (in Sanderson's own words) is "a weekly series of critical essays on comics, cartoon art, and related subjects" (those "related subjects" can run the gamut fromfilm adaptations of comic books, to other media that have been influenced by comics, such asStar Wars). The series started on July 8, 2003 on the websiteIGN, but then moved to theKevin Smith-affiliated websiteQuick Stop Entertainment on June 23, 2006; according to Sanderson, the "Powers That Be" in charge of IGN's comics section began to tamper with the titles of his columns and complain about some of the topics he covered, whereby a "change of scenery" was necessary.[7] After a seventeen-month hiatus,Comics in Context returned to the newly rebrandedA Site Called Fred on January 19, 2010.[8]
Outside of his online writings, Sanderson has also had a number of books published (includingThe Marvel Vault andThe Marvel Travel Guide to New York),[9] taught the classThe Graphic Novel as Literature atNew York University,[10]curated an exhibition onStan Lee for theMuseum of Comic and Cartoon Art,[11] and reviews the latest in comics and comics-related material forPublishers Weekly.
In April 2017, Sanderson contributed a segment of a retrospective article on his late mentorMark Gruenwald forBack Issue! magazine #103. The segment focused on the academic and scholarly nature of Sanderson and Gruenwald's working relationship.[6]
In April 2017 Sanderson was hospitalized with hip fracture resulting from a fall. This prevented him from writing a retrospective article on his mentor,Mark Gruenwald, that he had suggested to editorMichael Eury for the April 2018 issue ofBack Issue! magazine, though he did contribute a segment for that article.[6]
