{{Short description|American writer (1955–2006)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}} {{infobox writer |name=Pierce Askegren |birth_name=John Pierce Askegren |birth_date={{birth date|1955|6|9}} |birth_place=Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|2006|11|29|1955|6|9}} |death_place=Annandale, Virginia, U.S. |education=Broad Run High School<br>James Madison University (BA) }} '''John Pierce Askegren'''<ref name=wapo>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010502438.html| work=The Washington Post|title=A Technical Writer's Alter Ego: Engaging Comic Book Novelist|first=Louie |last=Estrada|date=January 7, 2007 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150610225644/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010502438.html|archivedate=June 10, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> (June 9, 1955 – November 29, 2006)<ref name=ssdi>[http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi Social Security Death Index] for Askegren, John P., Social Security Number 420-72-2913, which specifies a death date based on "Death certificate Observed." Death certificate issued in Alabama</ref> was an American author best known for his adaptations of licensed properties, particularly those of the comic book company Marvel Comics.
==Biography== Pierce Askegren was born in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suburb of Mount Lebanon,<ref name=wapo /> and had two brothers, James W. and Robert, and a sister, Margaret.<ref name=sfwa>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfwa.org/2007/01/pierce-askegren-1955-2006/|title=RIP: Pierce Askegren (1955–2006)|publisher=Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (official site)|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203173013/http://www.sfwa.org/2007/01/pierce-askegren-1955-2006/| archivedate=December 3, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> They grew up with their parents, Kenneth and Jacqueline Askegren,<ref name=sfwa /> in Lynchburg, Virginia; Montgomery, Alabama; and North Carolina before his family in 1970 settled in northern Virginia.<ref name =wapo /> He attended Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, graduating in 1973,<ref name =wapo /> and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication arts from James Madison University in 1978.<ref name=sfwa />
Askegren got his start in the comics industry with three short stories published in 1979 and 1980 in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazines ''Creepy'' and ''Vampirella'', beginning with the eight-page "Hell's Playground", illustrated by Leo Duranona, in ''Creepy'' No. 108 (June 1979).<ref name=gcd>[http://www.comics.org/credit/name/Pierce%20Askegren/sort/chrono/ Pierce Askegren] at the Grand Comics Database</ref> His regular employment, however, came as a manager at Crown Book Stores in the Washington, D.C., area, and later as a technical writer first at ACS Corporation<ref name=sfwa /> and then at C2 Corporation<ref name=sfwa /> in the Tysons Corner, Virginia, area.<ref name =wapo />
Askegren began his reentry into pop culture by corresponding with Greg Theakston in the early 1990s. Askegren eventually became the copy editor for Theakston's ''Bettie Pages'' while submitting his prose to publishing houses.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} By the mid-1990s, he was writing prose short stories for anthologies starring Marvel Comics characters, beginning with "The Broken Land" in ''The Ultimate Silver Surfer'' (1995). He also contributed to ''The Ultimate Super-Villains'' (1996), ''Untold Tales of Spider-Man'' (1997), ''The Ultimate Hulk'' (1998) and ''The Chick Is in the Mail'' (2000).<ref name =wapo /> He also did novelizations, serving as the ghost writer of ''Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk: Rampage'' (1996); as co-author with Danny Fingeroth of ''Spider-Man and Iron Man: Sabotage'' (1997); as co-author with Eric Fein of ''Spider-Man and Fantastic Four: Wreckage'' (1997); and as author of ''Marc Miller's Traveller: Gateway to the Stars'' (1998), ''Fantastic Four: Countdown to Chaos'' (1998) and ''The Avengers and the Thunderbolts'' (1999).<ref name =wapo />
Outside the realm of licensed properties, he wrote the "Inconstant Moon" trilogy of science-fiction novels, about corporate colonies on the moon: ''Human Resource'' (2005), ''Fall Girl'' (2005) and ''Exit Strategy'' (2006).<ref name =wapo />
His last short story, "Try and Try Again," appeared in the anthology ''Time Twisters'', released posthumously in January 2007.<ref name =wapo /> In 2010, his ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' novelization, ''After Image'' (2006), was rereleased, along with two other Buffy books.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
Askegren was found dead in his Annandale, Virginia, apartment on November 29, 2006, after suffering a heart attack on an unreported date.<ref name =wapo />
==Books== Source:<ref name="fantasticfiction">{{cite web|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/pierce-askegren/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629021332/http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/pierce-askegren/ | archivedate= June 29, 2011|url-status=live|title=Pierce Askegren (John Pierce Askegren), USA (1955–2006)|publisher=FantasticFiction.co.uk}}</ref> ===Franchise novels=== *Spider-Man: Doom's Day<ref name="sf=encyclopedia">[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/askegren_pierce "Askegren, Pierce"], ''SF Encyclopedia,'' Feb. 23, 2017. Accessed 28 April 2017.</ref> **''Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk: Doom's Day 1: Rampage'' (Berkley Boulevard, 1996) uncredited (with Danny Fingeroth) **''Spider-Man and Iron Man: Doom's Day 2: Sabotage'' (Berkley Boulevard, 1997) (with Danny Fingeroth) **''Spider-Man and Fantastic Four: Doom's Day 3: Wreckage'' (Berkley Boulevard, 1997) (with Eric Fein) *''Gateway to the Stars: Marc Miller's Traveller'' (1998) *''The Avengers and the Thunderbolts'' (1998) *''Fantastic Four: Countdown to Chaos'' (1998) *''Alias'' (with J. J. Abrams) * ''Angel: The Longest Night, Volume One'' (Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, 2002)<ref name="sf=encyclopedia" /> *''Collateral Damage'' (2005) *''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'': ''After Image'' (Simon and Schuster/Spotlight Entertainment, 2006)<ref name="sf=encyclopedia" />
===Series=== *'''Inconstant Moon''': **''Human Resource'' (2005) **''Fall Girl'' (2005) **''Exit Strategy'' (2006)
===Short stories=== Source:<ref>ISFDB bibliography, [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Pierce_Askegren Pierce Askegren]</ref> *"Horse Laugh "(1979) *"The Broken Land" (1995) *"Private Exhibition" (1996) *"Better Looting Through Modern Chemistry" (with John Garcia) (1997) *"Pitfall" (1998) *"Foxy Boxer Gal Fights Giant Monster King!" (2000) *"Where the Bodies Are Buried" (2001) *"Try and Try Again" (2007)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{isfdb name|id=Pierce_Askegren|name=Pierce Askegren}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Askegren, Pierce}} Category:1955 births Category:2006 deaths Category:James Madison University alumni Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:21st-century American male writers