John McCrea

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

John McCrea
John McCrea at F.A.C.T.S. 2008
Born	1966 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality	Northern Irish
Area(s)	Penciller, Inker
Notable works	Hitman
Official website

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

Career

In 1988, 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 a limited series spun off from Garth Ennis' The Boys.

On April 9, 2011 McCrea was one of 62 comics creators who appeared at the IGN stage at the Kapow! convenntion in London to set two Guinness World Records, the Fastest Production of a Comic Book, and Most Contributors to a Comic Book. With Guinness officials on hand to monitor their progress, writer Mark Millar began work at 9am scripting a 20-page black and white Superior comic book, with McCrea and the other artists appearing on stage throughout the day to work on the pencils, inks, and lettering, including Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, John Romita Jr., Jock, Doug Braithwaite, Ian Churchill, Olivier Coipel, Duncan Fegredo, Simon Furman, David Lafuente, Sean Phillips and Liam Sharp, who all drew a panel each, with regular Superior artist Leinil Yu creating the book's front cover. The book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and 38 seconds, and was published through Icon on November 23, 2011, with all royalties being donated to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.

Bibliography

Comics work includes:

• "Fast Forward" (with Hilary Robinson, in 2000 AD #615, 1989)
• Troubled Souls (with Garth Ennis, in Crisis #15-27, 40 & 46, 1989–1990)
• "Wyrmwood" (with Malachy Coney, in Crisis #29, 1989)
• "Her parents" (with Mark Millar, in Crisis #31, 1989)
• Chopper: "Earth, Wind and Fire" (with Garth Ennis, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.01-1.06, 1990)
• Judge Death: "Masque of the Judge, Death" (with Si Spencer, in Judge Dredd Mega-Special #4, 1991)
• Middenface McNulty: "Wan Man an' His Dug" (with Alan Grant and Tony Luke, in Judge Dredd Megazine #1.15-1.20, 1991-1992)

• Judge Dredd:
  • "The Craftsman" (with Garth Ennis, in 2000 AD #817, 1993)
  • "Last Respects" (with Gordon Rennie, in 2000 AD #1389, 2004)
  • "Placebo" (with Rufus Dog, in 2000 AD #1405, 2004)

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

• Hitman (with Garth Ennis, 60 issues, DC, specials: Annual #1, issue #1,000,000, 1996–2001)
  • Hitman (tpb collects #1-3 + The Demon Annual #2 + Batman Chronicles #4, 1997 ISBN 1-56389-314-2)
  • 10,000 Bullets (tpb collects #4-8, 1998 ISBN 1-56389-404-1)
  • Local Heroes (tpb collects #9-14 + Annual #1, 1999 ISBN 1-56389-509-9)
  • Ace of Killers (tpb collects #15-22, 2000 ISBN 1-56389-614-1)
  • Who Dares Wins (tpb collects #23-28, 2001 ISBN 1-56389-718-0)
  • uncollected: 29-33, 1,000,0000, 34-60
  • Hitman/Lobo: That Stupid Bastich! (one-shot, 1999)
  • JLA/Hitman (2-issue mini-series, DC, 2007, ongoing)

• Dicks (with Garth Ennis, 1997–2005)
• Preacher Special; Tall in the Saddle (with Steve Dillon, one-shot, DC/Vertigo 1999)
• Cruel and Unusual (pencils, with authors Jamie Delano/Tom Peyer and inks by Andrew Chiu, Vertigo, 4-issue mini-series, 1999)
• Wonder Woman Annual vol. 2 #154-155 (with Doselle Young, DC, 2000)
• Superman 80-Page Giant: "How To Be A Super-Hero" (with Garth Ennis, DC, 1999)
• Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority (with Mark Millar, 5-issue mini-series, Wildstorm, 2000, ISBN 1-56389-769-5)
• Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #7: "In Springfield, No-One Can Hear You Scream" (with Garth Ennis, 2001)
• "Trooper" (with Garth Ennis & Jimmy Palmiotti, in Star Wars Tales #10, 2001, collected in Star Wars Tales, Volume Three, Dark Horse Comics, 2003, ISBN 1569718369)
• The Monarchy (with Doselle Young, 12 issues, Wildstorm, 2001–2002)
• Superboy #92-100
• Spider Man's Tangled Web #1-3: "The Coming of the Thousand" (with Garth Ennis, 2001, tpb, 2002 ISBN 0-7851-0803-3)
• Spider-Man: "Get Kraven" (pencils with Ron Zimmerman, and inks by James Hodgkins, 5 issues, Marvel, 2002)
• Hulk Smash! (with Garth Ennis, Marvel, 2 issues, 2001, collected in tpb Incredible Hulk Vol. 7: Dead Like Me, August 2004, ISBN 0785113991)
• Sinister Dexter "Vircade" (with Dan Abnett, in 2000 AD #1431, 2005)
• The Atheist (with Phil Hester, Image Comics, 2005)
• The 99 (with Fabian Nicieza, Teshkeel Comics, 2007-ongoing)
• Theseus battling the Minotaur (one-shot, Lerner Publishing Group)
• The Boys: Herogasm (with Garth Ennis, mini-series, Dynamite Entertainment, 2009)

References

• John McCrea at the Grand Comics Database
• John McCrea at the Comic Book DB
• John McCrea at 2000 AD online
• John McCrea on Marvel.com
• John McCrea at Lambiek's Comiclopedia

External links

• Official website

Interviews

• John McCrea interview by PJ Holden and Richmond Clments, 2000 AD Review, May 11, 2005
• John McCrea, hitman and madman, Broken Frontier, November 7, 2008