Time once again to lift a glass in honor of Avatar Press founder and editor-in-chief  William Christensen's birthday today. A comics professional for his entire 15+ year working career, Christensen has experience in a wide variety of comic book and related endeavors including publishing, trading card manufacture, action figure manufacture, retail, licensing, and comics industry journalism.

Like many industry figures, Christensen came up in the field with a thourough grounding in the history of the medium, and his love for the Silver Age in particular and an extensive knowledge of the 1980s indy scene he grew up on led to contributions to some of the few published outlets catering to such interests in those pre-net times, notably the Overstreet's Fan pre-cursor known as the Overstreet Price Update, and rival Comics Values Monthly.

Such contributions led naturally to an interest in Wizard Magazine when that publication burst onto the scene, and Christensen quickly became one of the magazine's most prolific contributors in Wizard's formative years in the early to mid 1990s. Christensen made his mark on the magazine by exposing a rapidly-expanding Image-era audience to his own unique POV, with such diverse contributions ranging from conducting Wizard's first Alan Moore interview to what sadly may have been the last Jack Kirby interview conducted for any publication before that giant of American comics' passing. Christensen participated in a unique footnote in comics history during this era when he served as a judge alongside George Perez and the late Don Thompson of CBG in the infamous Todd McFarlane / Peter David debate.

After making brief editorial and creative contributions on the indy scene to the likes of Chaos! and London Night Studios, Christensen started Avatar Press in late 1996, with the company's first publication, Pandora #1, following early the next year. Christensen himself is the co-creator of most of the Avatar company-owned stable, and has co-written nearly 50 complete issues and numerous additional shorts in various titles for his company, in addition to his publishing and editorial duties.  In recent years, he has made his mark as one of the premiere editors on the indy scene, working with the likes of Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Steven Grant, and numerous others.

William Christensen Birthday Roast Gallery

• In his element?  Spotted here at the already-legendary annual Dude Ranch gathering of industry pros hosted by Jimmy Palmiotti, Christensen is shown with some of the tools of his trade (!?) -- shotgun and cell phone.
• It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.  Christensen discusses some of the finer points of comics editing with Briana Banks of Avatar/Vivid Comix licensee Vivid Entertainment at the recent Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.