Jeff Rovin has been editor-in-chief of Weekly World News, an assistant editor and writer for DC Comics, [1] and an editor for Warren Publishing and Seaboard Periodicals, as well as a science and media columnist in such magazines as Analog, Omni, and Famous Monsters.
His How to Play video game books of the 1980s and 1990s detailed strategies for dozens of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy. This series was preceded by his The Complete Guide to Conquering Video Games in 1982, and followed by his Gamemaster series that lasted until the late 1990s, which began containing a violence rating for the games included in these books. His publisher at the time St. Martin’s later decided to continue the "How To Win At", series but this time written by Hank Schlesinger, covering Nintendo 64 and PlayStation games, as well as Pokemon.
Rovin has written encyclopedias about popular culture, including The Encyclopedia of Superheroes(Facts On File, 1985), The Encyclopedia of Super Villains(Facts On File, 1987) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals(Prentice Hall, 1991), and The Encyclopedia of Monsters(Checkmark Books, 1990). He has worked on biographical and film books on such performers as Kelsey Grammer, Lana Turner, Adam West, Ellen DeGeneres, Jackie Chan, Charlton Heston, Elvis Presley, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Pryor, Luke Perry, Jason Priestley, and Julio Iglesias, and on the animated series The Simpsons. Additionally, he has written quiz and joke books.
His novels are in the fields of thriller, horror, adventure, and mystery, in addition to the military field with books in the Force Five and Tom Clancy’s Op-Center series, [2] one of which, Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: War of Eagles, became a New York Times Best Seller.[3]