Nationality American Died March 7, 1997 Role Writer | Name Kim Yale Area(s) Writer Books Deadshot: Beginnings | |
 | ||
Born November 22, 1953 ( 1953-11-22 ) Notable works GrimjackSuicide SquadManhunter | ||
Kim Yale (November 22, 1953 – March 7, 1997) was an American writer and editor of comic books for several publishers including DC Comics, Eclipse Comics, First Comics, Marvel Comics, and WaRP Graphics.
Biography
Yale was born in Evanston, Illinois, to the Reverend Richard A. Yale and Theresa Yale. Her father was a Navy chaplain which meant that for many years she and her family moved to various locations in the United States and elsewhere before resettling in Evanston during her teen years. She earned a B.A. in English from Knox College.
Yale's first published comics work appeared in 1987 in the New America limited series, a spin-off of Timothy Truman's Scout series published by Eclipse Comics. She married a fellow comics creator, and frequent collaborator, John Ostrander the same year. Yale and Ostrander developed the character of Barbara Gordon into Oracle, and wrote her origin story in the short story "Oracle: Year One" published in The Batman Chronicles #5 (Summer 1996).
The two co-wrote Manhunter, a series which DC launched in the wake of the Millennium crossover. Their collaboration on Suicide Squad included the "Janus Directive" storyline in issues #27–30 and the creation of the character Dybbuk in issue #45 (Sept. 1990). Yale served as an editor for DC from 1991–1993 and oversaw licensed titles such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
She was heavily involved with the Friends of Lulu, an organization promoting women in comics, working as a member of the board. Yale wrote an ongoing column in the Comics Buyer's Guide, in which she detailed her battle against breast cancer. The Kimberly Yale Award for Best New Talent has been named in her honor. Yale died of breast cancer in 1997 at the age of 43.