Duane Louis Swierczynski is an American crime writer known for his work in non-fiction books, novels and comic books.
Early life
Duane Swierczynski was born and raised in Frankford, a neighborhood in lower Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After leaving in the late 1990s and making several stops elsewhere, he moved to another neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia from 2002 until 2016. He currently resides with his family in the Los Angeles area. Swierczynski's surname loosely translates as "dweller near a fir tree." He and his brother Gregg were named after the Allman Brothers.
Career
Swierczynski has written six non-fiction books, including This Here’s A Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book Of American Bank Robbery and The Big Book O’ Beer. He has worked as an editor at Men’s Health and Details as well as Philadelphia magazines including the Philadelphia City Paper, which he left in February 2008. Secret Dead Men, Swierczynski’s crime fiction debut, was published in 2005 by PointBlank and has since written nine further novels. His fiction draws heavily on crime noir themes, making frequent use of femmes fatale. In 2008, Swierczynski signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics, where he penned Moon Knight Annual #1, a Punisher one-shot, and the second volume of Cable, which lasted 24 issues. He also assumed writing duties on The Immortal Iron Fist from issue #18 until the title's cancellation. His other planned projects with Marvel included a revival of Werewolf By Night, a story starring Bishop, and contributing to the X-Men-related event Messiah War. He has also written the 2012 rebooted Bloodshot rebooted series from Valiant Comics. Lion's Gate Entertainment picked up Swierczynski's novel Severance Package for film treatment and hired Brett Simon to direct the film and co-write the script with Swierczynski. Swierczynski is known for using a variety of social media tools, including Twitter and Blogspot. In September 2011, DC Comics relaunched Birds of Prey with issue #1 as part of their The New 52 publishing initiative. Swierczynski replaced Marc Andreyko as the writer, with Jesus Saiz handling the art. Batgirl and Poison Ivy will later be joining the team. In November 2017 Chris Morgan Productions announced that Swierczynski will be co-writing and co-executive producing a TV Drama called Darwin's Blade, based upon the Dan Simmons novel.
Personal life
Duane Swierczynski is married and has two children. His first-born son, Parker, is named in honor of the Richard Stark character as well as Spider-Man's secret identity, Peter Parker. He also has a daughter, Evelyn, or Evie for short.
Works
Non-fiction
This Here’s A Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book Of American Bank Robbery
