Walter Simonson (born September 2, 1946) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men, and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica, and Robocop vs. Terminator. Simonson has won numerous awards for his work and has influenced artists such as Arthur Adams and Todd McFarlane. He is married to comics writer Louise Simonson, with whom he collaborated as a penciller on X-Factor from 1986 to 1989. Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Simonson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.