John Ney Rieber

John Ney Rieber's first professional work in comics was scripting over the finished pages of the graphic novel Tell Me, Dark, conceived by his late friend and mentor Karl Edward Wagner and artist Kent Williams. Initially, Williams approached Wagner with five pages of art asking him to write a story around that. Wagner agreed, and the pair signed a contract with DC Comics to release an 80-page hardcover graphic novel.

Rieber's next major project was a Captain America relaunch for the Marvel Comics' Marvel Knights imprint, first announced in August 2001. In addition to the ongoing Captain America series, Rieber was supposed to write two mini-series starring the character: the out-of-continuity Captain America: Ice, which was announced in February 2002 by the artist Jae Lee.