Sterling Gates (born March 1, 1981) is an American comic book and television writer.

Sterling Gates
Gates signing Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #1
at Midtown Comics in Manhattan
Born (1981-03-01) March 1, 1981 (age 43)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Area(s)Writer
Notable works
Supergirl
The Flash

Early life

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Gates, whose father owned a used book store with a large selection of comics,[1] became a comic book fan at a young age, describing himself as "the DC kid" while dubbing his brother Alex "the Marvel kid".[2] During his teenage years, Gates drifted towards the music scene, but rediscovered comics in the late 90s when his family had to inventorize the father's store before its closure.[3][4] While attending University of Oklahoma, Gates wrote, drew and self-published short autobiographical slice-of-life comics and worked part-time at his then-local comic book store, Speeding Bullet Comics. After graduating with a degree in Fine Arts and a specialization in film and television production, he moved to Los Angeles.[1]

Career

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In 2006, while attending WonderCon in San Francisco, Gates became acquainted with the comic book writer Geoff Johns.[5] Upon learning that Gates just recently moved to Los Angeles and had aspirations to work in television and film, Johns recommended him for an interview with the writing staff of Blade: The Series, where he was eventually hired as a production assistant.[1] After the series was cancelled, Johns offered Gates the position of his personal assistant, which Gates would later compare to a "writing apprenticeship".[6] Despite planning to be a television writer, he created a few short scripts inspired by then-upcoming Green Lantern storyline "Sinestro Corps War" and gave them to Johns, who in turn passed them on to the editor Eddie Berganza.[1] Soon after, Gates made his debut as a comic book writer with a back-up story in Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime, illustrated by veteran artist Jerry Ordway.[5]

After writing a few more short stories centered around the Green Lantern mythos, Gates followed Johns to the Superman family of books, taking over the Supergirl title.[7][8] Gates' run on the series began as a tie-in to the inter-title crossover storyline "New Krypton", spearheaded by Johns (as the writer of Action Comics) and James Robinson (as the writer of the Superman ongoing title).[9][10] When Johns stepped away from Action Comics and "New Krypton" to focus on other projects, Gates joined Robinson to co-write two limited series that would act as the culmination of the crossover storyline: Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton and Superman: War of the Supermen.[11][12][13] Gates' run on Supergirl ended shortly thereafter.[14][15]

In 2010, after DC Comics offered the artist Rob Liefeld to draw a new volume of the Hawk and Dove series with a writer of his choice, Liefeld hand-picked Gates due to his work on Supergirl and War of the Supermen.[16] The title, which was supposed to follow up on the plot threads from the "Brightest Day" crossover storyline, became a part of "The New 52" company-wide relaunch instead.[17] Gates left the series after five issues while Liefeld took over both writing and drawing duties for the remainder of the run.[18] Other projects of the period include a Kid Flash-centered tie-in to the "Flashpoint" crossover storyline[19][4] and a Captain Victory series for Dynamite created as part of the "Kirby: Genesis" initiative.[20][21]

In 2012, Gates was asked to help in developing a film script by Matthew Price, his former employer and owner of Speeding Bullet Comics.[22] The result, a coming-of-age story described as a "superhero movie by way of John Hughes", premiered on the festival circuit two years later under the title The Posthuman Project.[23][24] In 2013, Geoff Johns offered Gates to take over the writing duties of the recently-launched ongoing series Justice League of America's Vibe as both Johns and his co-writer Andrew Kreisberg had to leave the title due to their increased workloads.[25][26] In addition to Vibe, Gates ventured into the larger DC Universe with a number of one-off issues and a mini-series tying into the company-wide crossover storyline "Forever Evil".[27][28]

In 2016, returned to the character of Supergirl with a digital-first series set in the world of the eponymous television series.[29][30] Soon after, Gates was contacted by Andrew Kreisberg, one of the executive producers of the television series, who offered to write an episode for the show.[31] In 2017, Gates joined the writers room of another Kreisberg-produced superhero series The Flash,[32] before becoming the story editor for the show's fifth season and executive story editor for seasons six onwards. In addition to his work on live action series, Gates has also contributed scripts to the animated series Super Dinosaur and Spider-Man.

Bibliography

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DC Comics

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Other publishers

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Rogers, Vaneta (October 24, 2007). "WHO IS STERLING GATES? MEETING THE NEW DC WRITER". Newsarama. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007.
  2. ^ Davidson, Joey (July 29, 2009). "An Interview with DC's Sterling Gates". CinCity2000. Archived from the original on August 1, 2009.
  3. ^ Gleason, Matt (September 18, 2009). "Animating forces". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Phegley, Kiel (June 22, 2011). "Gates Gets "Lost" With Kid Flash". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 3, 2011.
  5. ^ a b Renaud, Jeffrey (October 24, 2007). ""FEAR IS A BABY'S CRY!" GATES TALKS "SINESTRO CORPS WAR"". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007.
  6. ^ Campbell, Josie (May 28, 2013). "Jeph Loeb And Sterling Gates On First Meetings, "Green Lantern" & Geoff Johns". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015.
  7. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (June 27, 2008). "WWC: Gates and Igle Join DC's Supergirl". Newsarama. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008.
  8. ^ Mahadeo, Kevin (June 24, 2010). "Gates Plots New Course for "Supergirl"". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on November 2, 2011.
  9. ^ Renaud, Jeffrey (October 1, 2008). "Open the Gates for "Supergirl"". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008.
  10. ^ Goguen, Rachelle (April 2, 2009). "Wednesday Interview: Sterling Gates". Living Between Wednesdays. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010.
  11. ^ Renaud, Jeffrey (March 10, 2010). "Hold the Fortress Part 1: Robinson & Gates on "Last Stand of New Krypton"". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on March 14, 2010.
  12. ^ Renaud, Jeffrey (March 11, 2010). "Hold the Fortress Part II: Robinson and Gates on "War of the Supermen"". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010.
  13. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (March 23, 2010). "Writers Gates & Robinson Wage the WAR OF THE SUPERMEN". Newsarama. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010.
  14. ^ "Interview With Sterling Gates And Jamal Igle, Part One". Supergirl Comic Box Commentary. January 26, 2011. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019.
  15. ^ "Interview With Sterling Gates And Jamal Igle, Part Two". Supergirl Comic Box Commentary. January 27, 2011. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017.
  16. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (July 7, 2011). "STERLING GATES Expands HAWK & DOVE Mythology for the DCnU". Newsarama. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011.
  17. ^ Esposito, Joey (September 9, 2011). "The New 52 Interviews: Hawk and Dove". IGN. Archived from the original on December 5, 2011.
  18. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (December 16, 2011). "Exit Interview: STERLING GATES Explains NEW 52 Departure". Newsarama. Archived from the original on January 7, 2012.
  19. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (May 6, 2011). "FLASPOINT Presentation: Sterling Gates & the KID FLASH Fix?". Newsarama. Archived from the original on May 9, 2011.
  20. ^ Siegel, Lucas (August 26, 2011). "Sterling Gates Gets Macho With KIRBY'S CAPTAIN VICTORY". Newsarama. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013.
  21. ^ Patey, Robert (December 6, 2011). "AICN COMICS Q&@: Optimous Douche talks with Dynamite's CAPTAIN VICTORY Writer Sterling Gates!". Ain't It Cool News. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012.
  22. ^ Lealos, Shawn (July 11, 2013). "Renegade Interview: Comic Book Creator Sterling Gates". Renegade Cinema. Archived from the original on July 18, 2013.
  23. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (July 21, 2014). "JOHN HUGHES Meets SUPERHEROES In Sterling Gates' THE POSTHUMAN PROJECT". Newsarama. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014.
  24. ^ Means-Shannon, Hannah (May 1, 2015). "Sterling Gates Talks Indie Superhero Film The Posthuman Project, Plus Exclusive Clip". Bleeding Cool. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015.
  25. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (April 10, 2013). "STERLING GATES Gets the DC VIBE". Newsarama. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014.
  26. ^ Phegley, Kiel (May 17, 2013). "Sterling Gates On "Vibe's" Suicide Squad Run". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013.
  27. ^ Truitt, Brian (September 23, 2013). "Gates tackles Black Adam, Steve Trevor in 'Evil' era". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013.
  28. ^ Ching, Albert (September 24, 2013). "Sterling Gates Takes Over "Forever Evil: A.R.G.U.S" From Matt Kindt". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013.
  29. ^ Sands, Rich (January 22, 2016). "Supergirl's Universe Expands With New Comic Book Adventures". TV Insider. Archived from the original on January 24, 2016.
  30. ^ Abrams, Natalie (May 9, 2016). "First Look: Supergirl TV series comes to life in comics". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016.
  31. ^ Price, Matthew (February 17, 2017). "Oklahoma native writes for TV's 'Supergirl'". NewsOK. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017.
  32. ^ Anderson, Jenna (September 5, 2017). "Sterling Gates Joins The Flash's Season 4 Writing Staff". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021.
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Preceded by Supergirl writer
2008–2011
Succeeded by