James A. Owen (born November 11, 1969) is an American comic book illustrator, publisher and writer. He is known for his creator-owned comic book series Starchild and as the author of The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica novel series, that began with Here, There Be Dragons in 2006.
Owen self-published the black-and-white fantasy series Starchild under his Taliesin Press imprint in the 1990s. Adopting the name Coppervale Press for Starchild: Crossroads, he gave up self publishing in 1997 for Starchild: Mythopolis, five issues of which were published by Image Comics.[1] Owen returned to self publishing, compiling a volume of Starchild reprints via a Kickstarter campaign in 2015.[2]
Later, Owen reinvented himself as a novelist, creating a fantasy series titled Mythworld for a German publishing company. The books were later reprinted in the United States by Baen.[3]
In 2003, Coppervale Press relaunched two newsstand style magazines, the fine arts-oriented International Studio and the fiction periodical Argosy, but both magazines ceased publication in 2004 after only a few issues. In 2009, a satirical short story by Jeff VanderMeer entitled "Errata" about Argosy and its demise was published by Tor Books.[4]
After releasing a non-fiction ebook of personal stories, Drawing Out The Dragons, Coppervale Press, in early 2011, Owen had a successful Kickstarter project raising funds to create a limited first edition paperback and hard cover, as well as an audio version of the ebook.[7]
Owen announced The Meditations trilogy was picked up by Shadow Mountain Publishing[8] but as of 2021, his work was out of print at the company.
Works
Pryderi Terra, vol. Book One: Awakening, 1986.
Starchild
0. Gatherum, 1993.
1. Prologue: Markings and The Mad-Eyed Sorcerer, 1992.
2. Children of the Storm, 1992.
3. That Hideous Strength, 1993.
4. The Wild Hunt, 1993.
5. Toccata and Fugue, 1994.
6. Autumn People, 1994.
7. The Old Mill, 1994.
8. A Fine Madness, 1994.
9. Fool's Game, 1994.
10. Spirits in a Material World, 1994.
11. Tempest in a Looking Glass, 1994.
12. Awakening, 1994.
Awakenings, 1995 (retelling of the previous Starchild books).
.jpg)
