Christopher James Priest, born James Christopher Owsley in 1961, is a writer of comic books. In the past 25 years he has written nearly every major character currently being published by Marvel Comics and DC Comics. He was the first black man to be the editor of any comic book in North America. For several years he was the editor of the Spider-Man comic books, during which time he first hired Peter David.

In 1993, he became part of the group of writers and artists that would go on to found Milestone Media, a comic book publisher affiliated with DC Comics. He was responsible for the creation of the original Milestone story bible and the company logo design. He planned to become editor-in-chief of Milestone Media, but personal problems forced him to scale down his involvement, settling for the role of a liaison between DC Comics and Milestone Media. Shortly afterwards, he changed his name from "Jim Owsley" to "Christopher Priest". He has refused to discuss his reasons for doing so, but admits that he was completely unaware of the existence of the older British author of the same name; as an accommodation, the younger man refers to himself solely as "Priest". Ironically, he is also an ordained Baptist minister, and can thus be referred to as the Reverend Priest.

He is also a professional music producer.

External links

• Priest's web site