William Messner-Loebs was born in
Ferndale, Michigan. His right arm was amputated above the shoulder in infancy because of a cancerous tumor; he writes and draws with his left hand. Loebs was a friend of
Kevin Siembieda, and played in Siembieda's role-playing group in Detroit; in 1981, his mother Frances (Schepeler) Loebs loaned Siembieda the money to start publishing role-playing books for his company
Palladium Books. His first comics work was for Power Comics Company and on
Noble Comics'
Justice Machine with
Mike Gustovich. His first ongoing series was
Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, about 19th-century Michigan frontier life, which he both wrote and illustrated. and collaborated with artist
Adam Kubert on the
Jezebel Jade limited series, a spin-off from the
Jonny Quest series. In 1988, he began writing
The Flash with issue #15 and continued through #61. He and artist
Greg LaRocque introduced
Linda Park as a supporting character in the series in
The Flash vol. 2 #28 (July 1989). He also reintroduced the
Pied Piper as a reformed villain and established the character as gay, in issue #53 (Aug. 1991). Meanwhile, he wrote
Dr. Fate #25-41 and the
Jaguar series for DC's
Impact Comics imprint. He wrote
Epicurus the Sage which was illustrated by
Sam Kieth, and scripted
The Maxx which was illustrated and co-written by Kieth. In 1990, Messner-Loebs became the writer of the
Batman newspaper comic strip and wrote the strip until its cancellation the following year. In 1992 Loebs took over writing the
Wonder Woman series, with pencils by
Mike Deodato. for whom he wrote the mini-series
Artemis: Requiem. Meanwhile, he wrote
Hawkman #9-27, penciled primarily by
Steve Lieber. In 1996 he had a brief run writing
Marvel Comics'
Thor. From 1997 to 1999 he wrote
Impulse #29-49, penciled by
Craig Rousseau. In 1999 he wrote the "V2K" mini-series
Brave Old World for
Vertigo, penciled by
Guy Davis. Author
Clifford Meth teamed up with artist
Neal Adams to create a benefit auction to help Messner-Loebs. The two also created an art tribute book entitled
Heroes & Villains with all proceeds aiding Messner-Loebs. and stories for
Zombie Tales. He has done illustration work for the 2007 humor book ''Chicken Wings for the Beer Drinker's Soul
and a monthly cartoon for the Livingston [County, MI] Parent Journal
. In 2008, he discussed additional, more substantial new works with various publishers. In 2011, he wrote the DC Retroactive: The Flash – The '80s
and DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman – The '90s'' one-shots. As of early 2018, William Messner-Loebs and his wife have continued to struggle financially, with Messner-Loebs working two part-time positions in Michigan. In 2019, he co-wrote, with Amy Chu, issues #3–5 of the limited series
Kiss: The End for
Dynamite Entertainment, and contributed to an independent comic book anthology called
YEET Presents. In September 2020, William Messner-Loebs was named Project Editor for Resurgence Comics. ==Awards==