Matt Fritchman (born December 1, 1975), better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an Eisner Award-winning American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of The Invincible Iron Man, FF, The Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men, and Hawkeye for Marvel Comics; Casanova and Sex Criminals for Image Comics; and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen for DC Comics.

Early life

Matt Fraction was born December 1, 1975, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. As a child, he developed an affinity for telling stories, and he enjoyed reading comic books and strips. The first comic he remembers buying was Batman #316 (Oct. 1979), and he liked newspaper comics Peanuts and Doonesbury. He became a regular weekly comic-book reader around the time that the 1985–86 DC Comics storyline "Crisis on Infinite Earths" ended, but he found that storyline bizarre and impenetrable and gravitated toward Marvel Comics instead. Spider-Man became his favorite character, and he read other Marvel publications such as Star Wars and G.I. Joe. In the late 1990s Fraction worked as an employee at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based comics retailer Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, and participated in the Warren Ellis Forum under the username "Matt Fraction".

Career

Fraction started in the comics industry by working for smaller publishers including AiT/Planet Lar and IDW Publishing, many of which employed people that he had met on the Warren Ellis Forum; as such, he continued using the "Fraction" name as it was the one under which he had built a reputation. He became known early in his career for his creator-owned work on The Five Fists of Science and Casanova, before taking on a number of assignments for Marvel Comics. Fraction wrote two columns for Comic Book Resources: "Poplife" and "The Basement Tapes", the latter with Joe Casey. Fraction teamed with Ed Brubaker for a run on Marvel's The Immortal Iron Fist. The pair re-teamed on Uncanny X-Men for a short time, after which Fraction wrote the series solo until leaving it in 2011. He wrote The Mighty Thor and The Invincible Iron Man, the latter of which led to his consulting work on the set of the film Iron Man 2 and writing the Iron Man 2 video game that tied into that film sequel. In 2011, Fraction wrote the Fear Itself limited series, which was the central part of the crossover storyline of the same name. In December 2011, he revived the series The Defenders with artist Terry Dodson and, in August 2012, he started a new Hawkeye series with David Aja. As part of Marvel NOW!, Fantastic Four was relaunched in November 2012 with the creative team of Fraction and artist Mark Bagley. Its spinoff series FF was produced by Fraction and artist Mike Allred. Fraction left both series due to other work commitments. In February 2013, he was named on IGN's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", which described him as "the premier comics Twitter personality." In 2013, Fraction and Chip Zdarsky co-created the Sex Criminals series for Image Comics. He and illustrator Christian Ward created the ODY-C series in 2014, a science-fiction retelling of the Odyssey with the characters' genders changed to female. In 2015, Fraction and Fabio Moon returned to Casanova with a new eight-issue mini-series, Acedia. The series featured backup stories written by Michael Chabon with art by Casanova co-creator Gabriel Bá. Also in 2015, Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick's company, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, signed a two-year deal with Universal Television to adapt some of their comic books, as well as original TV series concepts. They also planned to use Milkfed Criminal Masterminds as a TV launchpad for other comic creators' properties. In 2018, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds signed another two-year overall deal, this time with Legendary TV to adapt several of their creator-owned comics, as well as produce exclusive, original projects developed by the duo for television across traditional and non-traditional platforms. In 2019, Fraction and Elsa Charretier co-created the graphic novella crime series, November, for Image Comics. Meanwhile, Fraction wrote his first series for DC Comics, the twelve-issue series Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen which was drawn by Steve Lieber. In 2020, Sex Criminals concluded with issue #69, volumes 2 and 3 of November were released, and Adventureman, the long-anticipated series from Fraction and Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson began releasing from Image Comics, and his and Lieber's run on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen concluded, with a collected trade paperback entitled Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? being released in October. Fraction served as a consultant for the Hawkeye television miniseries, which was heavily inspired by his 2012 comic run. He also planned to make a cameo appearance as a member of the Tracksuit Mafia, but was unable to commit to this, due to complications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2022, Fraction has been working on the Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, on which he is a co-creator with Chris Black. The series debuted in November 2023 and Fraction wrote episode 9, "Axis Mundi".

Personal life

Fraction is married to Kelly Sue DeConnick, a comic book writer and adapter of manga into English, whom he met when they were both participants on the Warren Ellis Forum. They have two children, Henry and Tallulah.

Awards

Nominations

Early work

Image Comics

Marvel Comics

Other publishers

Other work

Fraction served as a consulting producer for the Disney+ series Hawkeye, which is heavily influenced by his stint writing for the Hawkeye comic. Fraction also serves as the co-creator, writer, and executive producer of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters alongside Chris Black.