Josh Elder

Joshua "Josh" Elder (born May 17th, 1980) is a Chicago-based autho r, journalist, and lecturer. He,  along with illustrator  Erich Owen , is the creator of  popular OEL manga and Sunday comic serial,  Mail Order Ninja. He is also the founder of  Reading With Pictures , a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting child literacy through the use of comics and graphic novels.

Biography
According to Mail Order Ninja Vol. 1:


 * "Joshua Elder is the writer and co-creator of Mail Order Ninja.  A graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Film, Joshua spent the last several years avoiding gainful employment and generally being a huge disappointment to his friends and family.  Then he won the grand prize in Tokyopop's 5th Rising Stars of Manga competition with "Mail Order Ninja", and everything changed.  Now, he's a rich and successful OEL manga creator.  Actually, he's more like an almost-out-of-debt and kind-of-successful OEL manga creator.  But hey, it's a start."

According to Mail Order Ninja Vol. 2:


 * "Joshua Elder is the handsome and brilliant writer of Mail Order Ninja, which he's pretty sure has been acclaimed by some critic, somewhere.  A graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in film, Josh currently resides in the quaint, little Midwestern town of Chicago, Illinois."

Fun Facts:


 * Josh was once accidentally dragged behind a speeding pickup truck for two blocks while yelling at the driver to: "Stop!  Stop!  For the love of God, stop!"  Thankfully, he did.  Eventually.
 * Josh does an excellent Arnold Schwarzeneggar impersonation.
 * His Christopher Walken isn't half-bad, either.
 * Josh's favorite ice cream flavor is cookie dough.
 * Josh has been hit in the head with a baseball bat — twice!
 * Josh was a highly valued member of his high school's math and speech teams.
 * But Josh also played football, so he isn't a total dork.
 * But he also played Dungeons & Dragons.  So yeah, he kind of is a total dork.

Mail Order Ninja
Mail Order Ninja was the winner of the fifth Rising Stars of Manga, a contest held by the Tokyopop company exhibiting the works of up and coming graphic novelists.

Although the idea of Mail Order Ninja was originally conceived while Elder was still in college, many of the series' concepts were developed while he was coping with treatments for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of immune system cancer.

Since the release of Mail Order Ninja, Elder has become an advocate for children's literacy. His organization, Reading With Pictures, seeks to change the role of comic books in the classroom.

Website
Josh's Twitter

Reading With Pictures