Ric Meyers discovered kung fu films shortly after college, from contacts he made while working for Atlas Comics, where he was assistant editor for more than twenty comic books and magazines. Discovering no major works on the subject, he vowed to do it himself (having already written non-fiction books on such other genres as The World of Fantasy Films, The Great Science Fiction Films, TV Detectives, and For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films).

The result was Martial Arts Movies: From Bruce Lee to the Ninjas, an influential, ground-breaking volume which led to his long-running entertainment columns for Inside Kung Fu and Asian Cult Cinema magazines, as well as his instigating, consulting, and/or appearing on television specials for The Discovery Channel, A&E’s Biography, Bravo Profiles, and Starz Encore.

His expertise was also called upon by publishers, where he contributed to the best-selling, long-running Destroyer and Ninja Master paperback series, as well as home video companies, where he contributed audio commentaries, interviews, liner notes, and cover copy for more than four hundred international DVDs.

As he continued to explore the entertainment world – writing the first Incredible Hulk novel, six Dirty Harry novels, two science-fiction novels, three horror novels, and a fantasy mystery for the Dungeons and Dragons line – he also served as assistant editor of Starlog, associate editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, consulting editor of Millimeter, head writer for Fangoria, and contributed to such other publications as Vibe, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Playboy, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, The Armchair Detective, and Total Movie.

But kung fu was never far from his fingers. His original book on the genre was updated in 2001 as Great Martial Arts Movies: From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan and More. By then he was already hosting the annual San Diego Comic Con’s Superhero Kung Fu Extravaganza (now in its second decade), and went on to present seminars at DreamWorks SKG and Nickelodeon studios – not to mention serving as guest lecturer at Brigham Young University, the City College of New York, the University of Bridgeport’s Martial Arts Studies Degree Program, and the Chinese Cultural College in Taipei Taiwan.

Once in Asia, he continued to study martial arts, but also started to seriously practice as well (gaining such things as an International Chinese Martial Arts Championship Gold Medal, International Chinese Martial Arts Championship Certificate of Ranking Holder, and International Confederation of Police and Security Experts Certificate in the process).

Over the years, he has been inducted into five international Martial Art Halls of Fame for his work clarifying, illuminating, and bridging true kung fu and films, ultimately leading to his scripting Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie, and penning his magnum opus on the subject, Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book. No wonder the Boston Globe declared him “America’s leading expert on Asian action films,” and Crash Cinema dubbed him the “Martial Arts Movie Master.”