Frank Lovece (/lɒˈvɛə/)[4] is an American journalist, author, and a comic book writer primarily for Marvel Comics, where he and artist Mike Okamoto created the miniseries Atomic Age. His longest affiliation has been with the New York metropolitan area newspaper Newsday, where he has worked as a feature writer and film critic.

Frank Lovece
Lovece at the East Coast Comiccon
Born1957 (age 66–67)[1][2]
Buenos Aires, Argentina
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Writer
Notable works
Atomic Age
Spouse(s)Maitland McDonagh[3]

Early life

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Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the son of Italian immigrants, Frank Lovece moved to the U.S as a toddler and was raised in Keyser and Morgantown, West Virginia.[1] There his family ran Italian restaurants.[2] He attended St. Francis High School and West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he was the arts/entertainment editor of the college newspaper, the Daily Athenaeum. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.[1]

Career

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Early work

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Together with the editors of Consumer Guide, Lovece wrote TV Trivia: Thirty Years of Television, published in 1984.[5] This was followed by Hailing 'Taxi': The Official Book of the Show (1988) and similar books on topic including the TV series The Brady Bunch and The X-Files.[6] By 1990, Lovece had become a writer and film critic for Newsday.[7][8] In the 1990s, he wrote for Entertainment Weekly.[9][10] He produced the first home video (footage of his own child) in 1991 to obtain an MPAA rating for an Entertainment Weekly article on how to have home movies rated.[11][9] He also wrote an unofficial book guide for Godzilla, but after Godzilla franchise owner Toho filed a lawsuit, a district court judge in 1998 issued a preliminary injunction blocking the book from release in the United States due to alleged trademark violation.[12] The book was published in Europe with no issues.[13]

Comic books

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Lovece and artist Mike Okamoto created the four-issue miniseries Atomic Age (Nov. 1990 – Feb. 1991) for Marvel Comics' creator-owned Epic Comics imprint.[14][15]

Lovece wrote for Nightstalkers, Hokum & Hex and other Marvel titles, and his and artist Bill Koeb's story "For My Son" in the anthology series Clive Barker's Hellraiser appears in the Checker Publishing book Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best.[16][17]

 
Lovece receiving an award for editing Stan Lee's God Woke at the Independent Publisher Book Awards

Lovece edited the graphic novel Stan Lee's God Woke, which was written by Stan Lee and Fabian Nicieza. It won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards' Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.[18]

Later career

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Lovece has created websites for magazines and television shows[8][better source needed] and written articles for, among others, Habitat,[19] Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Yahoo!/MSN.

In 2005, Lovece and photographer Matthew Jordan Smith collaborated on the book Lost and Found, a photojournalistic record of families of abducted children and the work of The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.[20][better source needed]

Lovece has been a movie critic for Film Journal International,[21] the TV Guide website,[22] and the northern New Jersey newspaper The Record.[23][24]

Bibliography

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  • Lovece, Frank. TV Trivia: Thirty Years of Television (1984) New York: Beekman House / Publications International. ISBN 0-517-46367-9
  • Lovece, Frank, with Jules Franco. Hailing Taxi: The Official Book of the Show (1988) New York: Prentice Hall Press ISBN 0-13-372103-5, ISBN 978-0-13-372103-4
  • Edelstein, Andrew J., and Frank Lovece. The Brady Bunch Book (1990) New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-39137-9
  • Lovece, Frank (1992). The Television Yearbook. New York: Perigee Books / Putnam Publishing. ISBN 0-399-51702-2, ISBN 978-0-399-51702-0
  • Lovece, Frank. The X-Files Declassified (1996) New York: Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-1745-X, ISBN 978-0-8065-1745-2
  • Lovece, Frank. Godzilla: The Complete Guide to Moviedom's Mightiest Monster. Originally scheduled 1998 by William Morrow / Quill. ISBN 0-688-15603-7; ISBN 978-0-688-15603-9. Subjected to prior restraint in U.S.; released overseas.
  • Smith, Michael Jordan (photographer), and Frank Lovece. Lost and Found (2006) New York: Filipacchi Publishing. ISBN 1-59975-611-0, ISBN 978-1-59975-611-0

References

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  1. ^ a b c Abrams, Nancy (September 10, 1989). "Frank Lovece Makes a Living Writing About TV". The Dominion Post. Morgantown, West Virginia. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Seitz, Matt Zoller (October 4, 1996). "Declassified Information, By the Book". The Star-Ledger. Newark, New Jersey. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  3. ^ Meyer, Ken (March 15, 2010). "Ink Stains 14: Nimbus 3". Ink Stains. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  4. ^ Thompson, Maggie (November 2, 1990). "Epic Comics Goes Back to the '50s with 'Atomic Age'". Comics Buyer's Guide. No. 885. ...Lovece (pronounced 'lah VETcha')...
  5. ^ Lovece, Frank (1984). TV Trivia: Thirty Years of Television. New York: Beekman House. ISBN 9780517463673 OCLC 11896508
  6. ^ "Frank Lovece". WorldCat.
  7. ^ For example, Lovece, Frank (September 12, 1990). "Red Skelton: Old Jokes Never Die". Newsday.
  8. ^ a b "FrankLovece.com". (Official site). Archived from the original on August 16, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2014.Additional, August 16, 2011.
  9. ^ a b Lovece, Frank (August 9, 1991). "Get your own film rating". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  10. ^ Lovece, Frank (November 22, 1996). "Video Reviews: Superhero Films". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  11. ^ Pond, Steve (August 9, 1991). "The Irish Sweepstakes". The Washington Post. Style section, p. D6.
  12. ^ Jacobs, Alexandra; Flamm, Matthew (April 24, 1998). "The inside scoop on the book world". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  13. ^ Godzilla: alles über den König der Monster. Germany: Econ-und-List-Taschenbuch-Verlag. 1998. ISBN 978-3612265968.
  14. ^ Thompson, Maggie (November 2, 1990). "Epic Comics Goes Back to the '50s with Atomic Age". Comics Buyer's Guide. No. 885.
  15. ^ "Atomic Age (Marvel, 1990 series)". Grand Comics Database.
  16. ^ "Clive Barker's Hellraiser Summer Special #1". Marvel Comics. 1992.
  17. ^ Gage, Christos N. "Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best - 2002". FeoAmante.com.
  18. ^ Wiebe, Sheldon (July 18, 2016). "Comic-Con 2016: POW! Entertainment and Shatner Singularity Introduce Stan Lee's God Woke!". Eclipse Magazine. Shatner Singularity. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  19. ^ Frank Lovece at Habitat
  20. ^ "Lost and Found". National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 2006. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011.
  21. ^ Frank Lovece at Film Journal International. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015.
  22. ^ Frank Lovece at Rotten Tomatoes
  23. ^ Lovece, Frank (June 1, 1990). "'Recall': In Space, No One Can Hear You Grunt". (Total Recall film review) The Record.
  24. ^ Lovece, Frank (December 22, 1990). "'Rainman' Takes a Snooze". (Awakenings film review) The Record.
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  • "Lovece, Frank". The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  • Meyer, Ken Jr. (March 15, 2010). "Nimbus 3 (Sept. 1977)". Ink Stains (column) 14, ComicAttack.net. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
  • Lovece, Frank, ed. (September 1977). "Nimbus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2012.