Micah Wright

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Micah Ian Wright is an American author who has worked in film, animation, video games, and comic books (Stormwatch: Team Achilles).

Biography

Wright graduated from the University of Arizona with degrees in political science and creative writing. While at school, he was involved in a weekly sketch comedy show named "Comedy Corner" where he started as a writer and eventually became a performer. After graduating and moving to Los Angeles, he got a job at Nickelodeon Animation and was soon hired to write on The Angry Beavers. Episodes that Wright wrote were nominated for a Daytime Emmy in Sound Mixing and for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Animated Television Program[link]. After Wright finished work on The Angry Beavers, he created Nickelodeon's first action-adventure show, Constant Payne[link], an anime-inspired Steampunk science-fiction show. Constant Payne was shelved due to network fears of violent programming in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Wright has written several video games, including ', ', ', Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, ', The Sopranos, and Huxley.

Controversy

Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Micah published an anti-war protest book, You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want! (ISBN 1583225846). The book, a satirical collection of World War II propaganda posters modified to feature modern anti-war messages, featured an introduction where he falsely claimed to have been a former U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant, who experienced combat in Operation Just Cause in Panama. In actuality, he had only ever served in ROTC. In the book's introduction, Wright claimed that his anti-war sentiment began with the experience of seeing several Panamanian civilians killed and some 80,000 others [link] in the El Chorillo district of Panama City made homeless by U.S. bombings [link][link]. In other interviews, he claimed to have taken part in covert operations in Central and South America[link] [link].

He spoke about his military experience and anti-war sentiments at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and at a public forum about anti-war art, the 'Hell No: Designers and The War' at the New School University.[link] He also gave a radio interview on "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman among others.[link] When a comic book fan criticized Wright's stand against America's invasion of Iraq, and suggested that Wright was profiting from a war he opposed while simultaneously "dismissing any good which may come of it"[link], Wright challenged him on the basis of his bogus military service and insinuated that the blogger was a chickenhawk."[link].

Wright's false claims of military service were first questioned by real Rangers online. Some time later, Richard Leiby wrote an exposé for The Washington Post [link], correcting its original misleading story[link]. Before the article was published, Wright confessed and apologized online [link][link]. Following his exposure, Seven Stories Press, the publisher of You Back The Attack, cancelled Wright's second book of "remixed propaganda." It was later published elsewhere. Additionally, Wright's comic book , (already scheduled to be cancelled with issue #24), was instead cancelled at #23, leaving one issue unprinted by publisher DC/Wildstorm. Several fans of the series bitterly complained that killing the book without printing the final chapter punished them instead of the author.

External links

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