Meet Jim Ottaviani

Jim Ottaviani writes heavily in the field of science, which is the subject matter for Fallout. This fact should come to no surprise since Ottaviani is an experienced scientist himself. He is the Chief Researcher for G.T. Labs, the company that produced Fallout, Two Fisted Science and other scientific graphic novels.

Ottaviani was born in San Francisco in 1960. His jobs included chauffering former Senator Al Gore about the Information Superhighway, worked on a couple of nuclear reactors, worked as a librarian, and even climbed Mount Fuji! Ottaviani's interest in science began as a teenager when he read an issue of National Geographic:

"I was just entering my teens, and there were these fascinating diagrams about energy, the Sun, nuclear fusion, and other next-generation technologies..."

This persuaded Ottaviani to look into nuclear engineering. He earned his B.S. at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1986. Ottaviani later acquired a master's degree at the University of Michigan. He joined United Engineers and Constructors, working on power plants. After a stressful term of trying to fix power plants, especially since the Three Mile Island Accident, Ottaviani turned to the University of Michigan's Library and Information Science Program. He enjoyed his position as a research librarian tremendously, taking interest in the comics revolution of the 1980s when spandex-clad superheroes were either becoming dated or updated with human failings (Such as Alan Moore's Watchmen).

Ottaviani teamed up and worked with artist Steve Lieber, the result creating comics about scientists such as Galileo and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The books include Dignifying Science, which is about women and science; Safecracker, about physicists; Wild Person in the Woods which depicts Biruté Galdikas studying orangutans in Borneo; and Fallout, which tells about the development of the atomic bomb.

Ottaviani is a wonderful new addition to the comics medium, especially when expanding the medium outside of the super-hero realm. Scientists and science are explored in interesting new ways with the comics medium, and we have Ottaviani to thank for it.

- Kristopher