Fabian Nicieza, the co-creator of the Deadpool comic book character, traces his love of comics back to the age of four, when his family moved to the United States from Argentina. Growing up in New Jersey, he and his brother would often browse comic books, begging their parents to buy them. From there, Nicieza’s passion for the genre grew.
“We both started school without knowing the language here,” Nicieza says. “We figured out the language as we went along (reading comics).”
After attending Rutgers University, he landed a job at Marvel, where he co-created the antihero Deadpool with artist Rob Liefeld. Nicieza is the one who came up with the character’s signature obnoxious, erratic personality and his background.
“I decided while I was scripting that I wanted it to go against norms,” Nicieza says. “Instead of having a silent, deadly, dangerous Clint Eastwood-voiced mercenary, I’d have a loudmouthed pain in the ass.”
Deadpool’s humor and outlandish behavior quickly turned him into a fan favorite, which led to the blockbuster Deadpool film in 2016 starring Ryan Reynolds and a sequel in 2018. The movies were extremely successful at the box office.
Last year, Nicieza, who lives in Princeton Junction, published his first novel, Suburban Dicks, a satirical mystery about an ex-FBI agent turned New Jersey mom who teams up with a disgraced journalist to help solve a local murder. The book was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
A new sequel, The Self-Made Widow, just came out this month and focuses on the mundane side of suburban life.
“I think there are things in the novel that will resonate with everyone,” Nicieza says about the book’s suburban spirit. “New Jerseyans will certainly see specific things, but anyone who lives or has lived in the suburbs will see aspects of themselves in both novels.”
For more summer reading options, check out our guide to summer books that are bursting with Jersey pride.