Van Jensen

Comic Author & Advisor: Award-winning author for DC, Top Shelf/IDW, Dark Horse and Simon & Schuster

Van Jensen was born and raised in the farm country of Western Nebraska where he wrote and drew stories as soon as he could hold a pencil. He became a newspaper crime reporter, then a magazine editor, and eventually an author of comic books and graphic novels. He has written some of the world’s biggest characters, including James Bond and The Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern Corps for DC Comics.

He also has co-created acclaimed series including Two Dead from Simon & Schuster/Gallery 13 (with National Book Award-winning artist Nate Powell), Cryptocracy from Dark Horse (with Pete Woods), and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer from Top Shelf/IDW (with Dusty Higgins).

Jensen is known for creating fiction that combines mind-bending genre concepts with deeply emotional, character-centered stories that have earned praise from fans and critics alike. His work can be thrilling, hilarious or terrifying, but it is always heartfelt. A more complete bibliography can be found here.

In 2016, Jensen was named a Comic Book Ambassador by the U.S. State Department. In that role, he has traveled internationally to work with students and refugees, teaching them to share their stories through the medium of comics. In 2018, he created a comic book biography for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. In 2019, he was awarded a grant from the Atlanta BeltLine to create “Up Hill” with artist Joshua Ray Stephens, a comic book public art installation that reimagined the myth of Sisyphus as a Looney Tunes cartoon.