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John McCrea (comics)

John McCrea (born 1966) is a comic book artist best known for his collaborations with writer Garth Ennis.

For other people named John McCrea, see John McCrea (disambiguation).

John McCrea

1966 (age 57–58)
Belfast, Northern Ireland

Penciller, Inker

Career[edit]

In 1989, after a few years of drawing television and toy tie-ins, he illustrated Ennis's debut, the political series Troubled Souls, in Crisis, as well as its sequel, the farce For a Few Troubles More. He later illustrated the series Carla Allison in Deadline.


He broke into American comics in 1993, drawing Ennis's run on DC Comics's The Demon, followed by its spin-off, Hitman, from 1996 to 2001, on which McCrea developed a versatile drawing style equally at home with goofy humour, action, and subtle characterisation. Hitman issue 34 won the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 1999. His wilder, more exaggerated cartooning found an outlet with Dicks, a mini-series spinning off from For a Few Troubles More into more outrageous dialect, sexual and toilet humour, published by Caliber in 1997, with a sequel, Dicks II, from Avatar in 2002.


Since Hitman finished he has drawn a variety of characters for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, 2000 AD and others. Recent work includes Herogasm and Highland Laddie, limited series spun off from Garth Ennis' The Boys, and The Boys story arc Barbary Coast.[1][2]


On 9 April 2011, McCrea was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convention in London to set two Guinness World Records, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book.[3][4]


In 2012, he started work on the Mars Attacks! 50th anniversary relaunch of the ongoing comic, written by John Layman and published by IDW. He also contributed 15 new cards to the Topps MA! Heritage set and exclusive variants for the set.


While pencilling and inking the MA! comic, he has also found time to pencil and ink issue 49.1 of Deadpool for Marvel, Warpaint (written by Phil Hester) for UK based Strip Magazine and Progenitor (also written by Hester) for David Lloyd's bold new online only publishing adventure Aces Weekly.


He returned to DC briefly in 2013 through their Vertigo imprint for an 8 pager (written by Neil Kleid) for their one shot Ghosts. He returned again, this time to mainline DC Comics, for miniseries Section 8, based on supporting characters of Hitman. Section 8 also marks his reunion with Hitman writer Garth Ennis and the team's return to the series.

"Fast Forward" (with Hilary Robinson, in No. 615, 1989)

2000 AD

Troubled Souls (with , in Crisis #15–27, 40 & 46, 1989–1990)

Garth Ennis

"Wyrmwood" (with , in Crisis No. 29, 1989)

Malachy Coney

"Her parents" (with , in Crisis No. 31, 1989)

Mark Millar

: "Earth, Wind and Fire" (with Garth Ennis, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.01–1.06, 1990)

Chopper

: "Masque of the Judge, Death" (with Si Spencer, in Judge Dredd Mega-Special No. 4, 1991)

Judge Death

: "Wan Man an' His Dug" (with Alan Grant and Tony Luke, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.15–1.20, 1991–1992)

Middenface McNulty

Judge Dredd

#40,42–48,50,52–60 (with Garth Ennis, DC Comics, 1993–1995)

The Demon

Hitman

(with Garth Ennis, 1997–2005)

Dicks

(with Steve Dillon, one-shot, DC/Vertigo 1999)

Preacher Special; Tall in the Saddle

(pencils, with authors Jamie Delano/Tom Peyer and inks by Andrew Chiu, Vertigo, 4-issue mini-series, 1999)

Cruel and Unusual

Wonder Woman Annual vol. 2 #154–155 (with , DC, 2000)

Doselle Young

80-Page Giant: "How To Be A Super-Hero" (with Garth Ennis, DC, 1999)

Superman

(with Mark Millar, 5-issue mini-series, Wildstorm, 2000, ISBN 1-56389-769-5)

Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority

#7: "In Springfield, No-One Can Hear You Scream" (with Garth Ennis, 2001)

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror

"" (with Garth Ennis & Jimmy Palmiotti, in Star Wars Tales #10, 2001, collected in Star Wars Tales, Volume Three, Dark Horse Comics, 2003, ISBN 1-56971-836-9)

Trooper

(with Doselle Young, 12 issues, Wildstorm, 2001–2002)

The Monarchy

#92–100

Superboy

#1–3: "The Coming of the Thousand" (with Garth Ennis, 2001, tpb, 2002 ISBN 0-7851-0803-3)

Spider-Man's Tangled Web

: "Get Kraven" (pencils with Ron Zimmerman, and inks by James Hodgkins, 5 issues, Marvel, 2002)

Spider-Man

(with Garth Ennis, Marvel, 2 issues, 2001, collected in tpb Incredible Hulk Vol. 7: Dead Like Me, August 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1399-1)

Hulk Smash!

"Vircade" (with Dan Abnett, in 2000 AD #1431, 2005)

Sinister Dexter

(with Phil Hester, Image Comics, 2005)

The Atheist

(with Fabian Nicieza, Teshkeel Comics, 2007-ongoing)

The 99

(one-shot, Lerner Publishing Group)

Theseus battling the Minotaur

: Herogasm, Highland Laddie, and Barbary Coast (with Garth Ennis, mini-series, Dynamite Entertainment, 2009-2011)

The Boys

1998 for Best Single Issue (for Hitman#34: Of Thee I Sing)

Eisner Award

Trivia[edit]

John McCrea also had a drawing of Toyah Willcox as a Judge printed in 2000AD for a Dredd readers' art page in prog 310.

at the Grand Comics Database

John McCrea

at 2000 AD online

John McCrea

on Marvel.com

John McCrea

at Lambiek's Comiclopedia

John McCrea

Official website

Old site

at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

John McCrea