Garth Ennis
 |
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
| Garth Ennis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Garth Ennis, February 2009 |
|
| Born | January 16, 1970 Holywood, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Nationality | Northern Irish |
| Area(s) | Writer |
| Notable works | Preacher The Boys Judge Dredd Hellblazer The Punisher Dan Dare Just a Pilgrim Hitman |
| Awards | 1998: Best Writer Eisner Award |
Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise. He has collaborated with artists such as Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry on Preacher, John McCrea on Hitman, and Carlos Ezquerra on both Preacher and Hitman.
Contents |
Career [edit]
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar. Ennis was later critical of his writing debut, which he describes as "the kind of thing that was doing well at the time. (...) With hindsight, what Troubled Souls really represented was naked ambition. It was a direct attempt to get published. And that was the road that seemed most likely to lead me to success".[1]
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Like the two Troubles stories it was collected as a graphic novel in 1990, but religious protests led to it being quickly withdrawn from sale, apparently on the orders of publisher Robert Maxwell. It was later republished in 1997 by Vertigo.
Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years. Ennis's most notable Dredd stories include Muzak Killer (a pastiche of mainstream pop music), Emerald Isle (a tongue-in-cheek story set in Ennis's native Ireland), and the twenty-part epic Judgment Day. Ennis also contributed the surreal Time Flies (with artist Philip Bond), dealing with time travel paradoxes and Nazis.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run. The creative partnership established went on to create Preacher. From 1993 to 1995 Ennis and John McCrea worked on another DC title, The Demon, during which they introduced super-powered contract killer Tommy Monaghan, also known as Hitman, whose own series would allow their creative partnership to continue when The Demon ended. Towards the end of the initial Hellblazer run, Ennis and Dillon collaborated on a one-shot called Heartland, exploring one of the secondary characters of their run. Several years after leaving, Ennis briefly returned for the five-part Son of Man story with artist John Higgins.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation. Mixing influences from western movies and religious themes, it drew plaudits for Ennis from all sections of the media; the Guardian newspaper voted one of the Preacher collections its book of the week, and film director Kevin Smith described it as "More fun than going to the movies."
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and [Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. The initial 12-issue maxi-series was illustrated by Steve Dillon, who also did a 37-issue series (even illustrating it and co-writing an issue while Ennis briefly stepped down as writer) which only ended when Ennis decided to change direction. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint. This run has inspired several limited series (such as Born and Barracuda) and one-shots (The End, The Cell, and The Tyger). The creators of Punisher: War Zone have attributed Ennis's PunisherMAX run as one of the major influences on the film.[2] While at Marvel, Ennis also wrote stories for Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Hulk, and Thor.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd - this series cannot be considered a success, with Ennis himself saying that there is "not a hope" to return to writing Dredd as he was generally not happy with his run. "I’m too close to Dredd, I like him too much. I can’t tamper with the formula; nor can I take the piss the way I do with superheroes," he said.[3]
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.[4]
His work has won him a good deal of recognition in the comics industry, including nominations for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Ennis is also known for his dislike of Superhero story and characters, the dominant style of the American comic book industry. An avid reader of British war comic during his formative years, Ennis did not read superhero comics until his late teens, at which point he found them ridiculous. As a World War II aficionado, he has stated that the found characters like Captain America “borderline offensive, because to me the reality of World War II was very human people, ordinary flesh-and-blood guys who slogged it out in miserable, flooded foxholes. So adding some fantasy superhero narrative, that has always annoyed me a little bit.” Although he has written a number of superhero stories, Ennis has tried to "subvert" the genre as well as he could. He has shown a preference for more "grounded" characters such as the Punisher or Nick Fury.[1] He does admit, however, to a certain liking of Superman and Wonder Woman.[5] In the 1995 one-shot special Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, Ennis has the Punisher kill every single superhero and supervillain on Earth.
In 2002, an interview with Ennis was published in Writers on Comic Scriptwriting.
In 2006, it was announced that Ennis would write a new creator-owned extended series titled The Boys, originally published by Wildstorm. After just six issues, The Boys was cancelled by Wildstorm. Ennis later explained that this was because DC Comics (of whom Wildstorm was an imprint before it was disbanded) were uneasy with the anti-superhero tone of the work. The series was picked up by Dynamite Entertainment, and is now ongoing. The Boys sees Ennis reunited with artist Darick Robertson, the two had previously worked together on the Marvel series Fury: Peacemaker and Punisher: Born. The Boys ran for 72 issues, and concluded in 2012.[6]
Ennis wrote the first arc of WildStorm's Midnighter (a spin-off of The Authority) and one stand alone issue before leaving the title. Ennis has also worked with John Woo on a 5-issue comic book mini-series called Seven Brothers for Virgin Comics.[7]
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on PunisherMAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. The limited series, with artist Howard Chaykin, features the little-used character Phantom Eagle, a WWI pilot who originally appeared in Marvel Comics during the 1960s.[8][9] In 2008, Ennis also wrote a new Dan Dare miniseries published by Virgin Comics.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields[10][11] from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches,[12][13] Dear Billy[14][15] and Tankies,[16][17] another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed[18] both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled The Punisher War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).[19][20] He has also worked with Jimmy Palmiotti on Back to Brooklyn, a crime-based limited series for Image Comics.[21]
On April 19, 2012, Dynamite published the The Shadow #1 written by Ennis, featuring the pulp character.[22]
Personal life [edit]
Ennis is a resolute atheist who has a marked distaste for Christianity.[23] He is an enthusiastic student of the history of World War II.[1]
Bibliography [edit]
Awards [edit]
|
|
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (February 2009) |
- 1998 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Hitman, Preacher, Unknown Soldier and Blood Mary: Lady Liberty)
- 1999 Eagle Award for Favourite Colour Comic Book (for Preacher)
Nominations [edit]
- 1993 Eisner Award for the Best Writer (for Hellblazer)
- 1994 Eisner Award for the Best Writer (for Hellblazer)
- 1996 Eisner Award for the Best Writer (for Preacher and Goddess)
- 1997 Comics Buyer's Guide Award for the Favorite Writer
- 1998 Comics Buyer's Guide Award for the Favorite Writer
- 1999 Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Writer
- 1999 Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Character (for Jesse Custer)
- 1999 Eagle Award Comics Buyer's Guide Award for the Favorite Writer
- 2000 Comics Buyer's Guide Award for the Favorite Writer
- 2001 Eisner Award for Best Writer (for Preacher)
Notes [edit]
- ^ a b c Preacher to the converted, The Irish Times, 27 August 2011
- ^ Wizard. Molino, Rachel. "'Punisher: War Zone' Q&A with Ray Stevenson." December 8, 2008.
- ^ Will Cooling, Caught in the Nexus: Garth Ennis, August 16, 2004
- ^ Interview with Ennis about Streets of Glory, Comics Bulletin
- ^ Garth Ennis Writes Heroes Without Costumes, interview, April 18, 1997
- ^ David Pepose (11 November 2010). "Garth Ennis' THE BOYS - 50 Issues of Superhuman Corruption". Newsarama. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
- ^ Garth Ennis on Seven Brothers, interview with Newsarama
- ^ Nick Lowe on Marvel Max's War is Hell series, Newsarama, January 7, 2008
- ^ Laura Hudson, Ennis Moves from Punisher to Phantom Eagle, Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2008
- ^ WW Philly: Ennis Tells Dynamite Stories of "Battlefields", Comic Book Resources, June 1, 2008
- ^ WW Philly: Garth Ennis Brings War Stories to Dynamite, Newsarama, June 1, 2008
- ^ Garth Ennis on Battlefields: Night Witches, Newsarama, August 15, 2008
- ^ Garth Ennis Takes to the "Battlefields", Comic Book Resources, August 21, 2008
- ^ Garth Ennis Writes To “Dear Billy”, Comic Book Resources, November 25, 2008
- ^ Ennis & His Editor - Talking Battlefields and War Comics, Newsarama, November 28, 2008
- ^ Garth Ennis on Battlefields: The Tankies, Newsarama, February 20, 2009
- ^ Garth Ennis Talks "Battlefields: The Tankies", Comic Book Resources, February 27, 2009
- ^ Double-Crossed: Ennis & Burrows talk “Crossed”, Comic Book Resources, June 12, 2008
- ^ WW PHILLY: THE GARTH ENNIS PANEL, Newsarama, June 1, 2008
- ^ Ma's Home! Ennis talks "Punisher: War Zone", Comic Book Resources, September 9, 2008
- ^ Ennis & Palmiotti Go "Back to Brooklyn", Comic Book Resources, July 15, 2008
- ^ Webb, Charles (January 19, 2012). "Interview: Garth Ennis and Aaron Campbell On Bringing 'The Shadow' To Dynamite". MTV Geek.
- ^ The religious affiliation of Garth Ennis; Adherents.com; January 5, 2006
References [edit]
- Garth Ennis at 2000 AD online
External links [edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Garth Ennis |
- Garth Ennis at the Comic Book DB
- A study of works by Garth Ennis at The Continuity Pages
- Garth Ennis: Preaching to the Choir, interview with Comics Bulletin, December 2006
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by Jamie Delano |
Hellblazer writer 1991-1992 |
Succeeded by John Smith |
| Preceded by John Smith |
Hellblazer writer 1992-1994 |
Succeeded by Jamie Delano |
| Preceded by Paul Jenkins |
Hellblazer writer 1998-1999 |
Succeeded by Warren Ellis |
|
