Michael David Aloisi

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Michael David Aloisi (born 1980) is an American fiction writer, biographer, screenplay writer, and producer. He has penned two biographies, three short story collections, a collection of essays and two novels of long fiction and has collaborated with a number of celebrities and newly emerging writers to develop and produce their memoirs, books, and film projects.

Early life and education

Aloisi was born in the summer of 1980 in Springfield, Massachusetts and grew up in the neighboring suburb of Agawam. His father, Alan, was a factory worker at the time of Michael’s birth but later became a facilities manager. His mother, Jean, was a secretary and worked for a local high school.

An introverted child with a vivid imagination, Aloisi had few friends his own age but loved to watch movies. His other favorite pastime was observing and helping his father, an accomplished cook, at home in the kitchen. It was there that Michael fell in love with food and began to develop his culinary ability, a skill he’d soon shape into his main hobby throughout adolescence: cooking. The joy he received at watching others’ reactions when they tasted his edible creations prompted him to plan for a career as a professional chef, and he worked from age fourteen to age nineteen in a local town restaurant prepping, preparing, and serving dishes. However, when he realized the profession would require him to spend holidays away from his family, the people to whom he was closest, he decided it was not the career path for him.

After graduating from Agawam High, Aloisi completed an associate’s degree in Television Production and immediately transferred to New York City’s School of Visual Arts where he received his B.F.A. in Film Directing. He fell in love with the city and stayed for several years and while he completed his M.F.A. in Creative Writing.

Early career in entertainment

In the summer before he relocated to New York City, Aloisi began working for Six Flags New England. He auditioned to play Batman in the theme park’s Stunt Spectacular but did not know how to ride a motorcycle, an essential skill for the role, so the park hired him to work as a tech while he trained and perfected the stunts. That fall, he took over the lead role as Batman in the show, and he returned the following two summers to resume the performance.

Soon after moving to the city in 2000, Aloisi was introduced to representatives from Marvel Character Appearances. The company hired him to take over the role of their official Spiderman, and while completing his education, he traveled to more than a dozen countries as a Marvel character on behalf of the entertainment giant for nearly a decade. During that time, he appeared at Mets' baseball games, performed shows at NASA, visited the Pentagon, made two appearances at the US Senate, cameoed on MTV, The CBS Morning Show, FOX News, E!, and Entertainment Tonight, and opened as Spiderman and closed as the Incredible Hulk the New York Stock Exchange. He appeared in costume most often as Spiderman, but occasionally inhabited the role of the Hulk or Captain America when needed, until hanging up his spandex in 2009.

File:Michael Aloisi shooting an appearance on ComicBook Men July 2017.jpg

Michael Aloisi filming an episode of Comic Book Men in July 2017, presenting the coin he received from the New York Stock Exchange as Spiderman

Writing and publishing

Aloisi had pursued a degree in filmmaking because he had loved movies since he was a young child, but he soon realized that he did not enjoy the technical aspects of filming. It was the stories he enjoyed. Soon after receiving his bachelor’s degree, he started the production company Aloe/Rice Films with classmate Shawn Rice with whom he would later collaborate on The Killer and I. Although the company was successful, Michael was not happy: he wanted to write and create, not simply manage. He tried his hand at screenwriting, but frustrated with how his plot was developing, he rewrote the concept into a narrative piece of fiction. The story evolved into his first novel, Fifty Handfuls, and Michael returned to school to complete a master’s degree at the Wroxton campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in creative writing.

In 2010, after encountering a number of bad experiences with publishing agents and hearing stories from fellow writers about their own frustrations with the literary business, Aloisi decided to start his own publishing company, AM Ink. His goal was to create a company “by authors, for authors” where a writer could have a voice in the publishing process. The company’s first release, White Ash, Michael’s first collection of short stories, was followed by the children’s book I Want to Go Green, But What Does That Mean? by Jill Dunn and Bodhi Hill and a book on preventing cybercrime titled Virtual Chaos by Shawn Rohrbach. The following year, Aloisi expanded the company to include a number of genre-specific imprints, including horror-themed Dark Ink, Spooky Ink for scary children’s books, Dirty Ink for adult-themed titles, and Ink Audio.

With the growth of AM Ink, Michael’s own writing proliferated, and he released a second novel, Mr. Bluestick, as well as collaborated with celebrity escort Christopher Gaida to pen the memoir Arm Candy. The book became a best-seller on Amazon, inspiring Aloisi to form other collaborations. He worked closely with Tom Savini for many years on the special effects artist’s personal journal, set to be released in 2019, as well as with Barry Lubin (Grandma the Clown) on the entertainer’s biography Tall Tales of a Short Clown.

In 2012, in order to create a distance between his earlier work and horror fiction, Aloisi began releasing his darker-themed writing under the pseudonym Michael Gore; he believed some of the more graphic stories in the short story collection Tales from a Mortician might offend fans of his previous books. Michael continues to release all of his horror-centered fiction under the Gore pen name, including Skeletons in the Attic (2018) and the short story “Alone on Halloween,” which appeared in the anthology Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, and Madness: Twenty Tales of Halloween (2018). Michael appeared in the documentary Something Wicked This Way Comes (2018), an examination of horror culture and film-making in New England.

Collaboration with Kane Hodder

Aloisi had been a fan of Kane Hodder for many years, and in 2010, sent the horror icon a proposal to write his biography. When Hodder agreed, Michael spent the following year accompanying him on conventions, movie sets, and ghost hunts; Aloisi documented the experience in his blog The Killer & I, which evolved into a book released by AM Ink at the same time as Michael’s penned biography of Hodder, Unmasked: The True Story of The World's Most Prolific Cinematic Killer. Upon release of the pairing in 2011, the two teamed up for a book tour that spanned five countries and thirty cities. They filmed their encounters and edited the anecdotes into a twelve-episode reality series released on DVD in 2015. Unmasked later inspired the documentary film by Derek Dennis Herbert, To Hell and Back: the Kane Hodder Story, released in 2017, which features Aloisi alongside Friday the 13th film series creator Sean Cunningham and horror icons Robert Englund and Bruce Campbell as well as Hatchet director Adam Green. Aloisi and Hodder remain close friends to this day and often collaborate at conventions and on projects together.

File:Michael Aloisi and Kane Hodder at Providence, Rhode Island convention with crocodile.jpg

Michael Aloisi and Kane Hodder pose with a crocodile at the Providence, Rhode Island TerrorCon convention (February 2016)

References

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