# Pierce Askegren

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{{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](/source/Mt._Lebanon%2C_Pennsylvania), U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2006|11|29|1955|6|9}}
|death_place=[Annandale, Virginia](/source/Annandale%2C_Virginia), U.S.
|education=[Broad Run High School](/source/Broad_Run_High_School)<br>[James Madison University](/source/James_Madison_University) ([BA](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts))
}}
'''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](/source/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](/source/Social_Security_Number) 420-72-2913, which specifies a death date based on "[Death certificate](/source/Death_certificate) Observed." Death certificate issued in [Alabama](/source/Alabama)</ref> was an American author best known for his adaptations of licensed properties, particularly those of the [comic book](/source/comic_book) company [Marvel Comics](/source/Marvel_Comics).

==Biography==
Pierce Askegren was born in the [Pittsburgh](/source/Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, suburb of [Mount Lebanon](/source/Mt._Lebanon%2C_Pennsylvania),<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](/source/Science_Fiction_%26_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](/source/Lynchburg%2C_Virginia); [Montgomery, Alabama](/source/Montgomery%2C_Alabama); and [North Carolina](/source/North_Carolina) before his family in 1970 settled in northern [Virginia](/source/Virginia).<ref name =wapo /> He attended [Broad Run High School](/source/Broad_Run_High_School) in [Ashburn, Virginia](/source/Ashburn%2C_Virginia), graduating in 1973,<ref name =wapo /> and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication arts from [James Madison University](/source/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](/source/Warren_Publishing)'s black-and-white [horror-comics](/source/horror-comics) magazines ''[Creepy](/source/Creepy_(magazine))'' and ''[Vampirella](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Tysons_Corner%2C_Virginia), area.<ref name =wapo />

Askegren began his reentry into pop culture by corresponding with [Greg Theakston](/source/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](/source/short_stories) for anthologies starring [Marvel Comics](/source/Marvel_Comics) characters, beginning with "The Broken Land" in ''The Ultimate [Silver Surfer](/source/Silver_Surfer)'' (1995). He also contributed to ''The Ultimate Super-Villains'' (1996), ''Untold Tales of [Spider-Man](/source/Spider-Man)'' (1997), ''The Ultimate [Hulk](/source/Hulk)'' (1998) and ''The Chick Is in the Mail'' (2000).<ref name =wapo /> He also did novelizations, serving as the [ghost writer](/source/ghost_writer) of ''Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk: Rampage'' (1996); as co-author with [Danny Fingeroth](/source/Danny_Fingeroth) of ''Spider-Man and [Iron Man](/source/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](/source/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(TV_series))'' 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](/source/Annandale%2C_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](/source/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](/source/Avengers_(comics)) and the [Thunderbolts](/source/Thunderbolts_(comics))'' (1998)
*''[Fantastic Four](/source/Fantastic_Four): Countdown to Chaos'' (1998)
*''[Alias](/source/Alias_(TV_series))'' (with J. J. Abrams)
* ''[Angel](/source/Angel_(1999_TV_series)): The Longest Night, Volume One'' (Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, 2002)<ref name="sf=encyclopedia" />
*''Collateral Damage'' (2005)
*''[Buffy the Vampire Slayer](/source/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(TV_series))'': ''[After Image](/source/After_Image_(Buffy_novel))'' (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}}

{{Authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pierce Askegren](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_Askegren) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_Askegren?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.