John McCrea (born 1966 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a comics artist best known for his collaborations with writer Garth Ennis. He is the older brother of Jasper McCrea.

He and Fred Collier founded Belfast's first comic shop, Dark Horizons, in the back of Terri Hooley's record shop Good Vibes in about 1985.

His earliest work was influenced by John Byrne and Alan Davis. 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, in a realistic style, using acrylic paints and mixed media, but its sequel, the farce For a Few Troubles More, showed him moving a more cartoony direction, a trend which continued with his occasional series Carla Allison in Deadline and Negative Burn.

He broke into American comics in 1993, drawing Ennis's run on DC Comics' 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 miniseries spinning off from For a Few Troubles More into more outrageous dialect, sexual and toilet humour, published by Caliber Comics in 1997, with a sequel, Dicks II, from Avatar Press in 2002.

Since Hitman finished he has drawn a variety of characters for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, 2000AD and others. In 2005 he co-created The Atheist with writer Phil Hester for Image Comics. He has contributed art to Garth Ennis' series The Boys, and drawn original superhero strips for Marvel UK's Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Heroes, and is working on "Warpaint", with writer Phil Hester, for the forthcoming UK-based anthology Strip Magazine.

BibliographyEdit

• "On Earth, as it is", written by Dick Foreman, Blaam! #1, 1988
• GI Joe European Missions, Marvel UK:
  • "Mark of the Assassin", written by Ian Rimmer, #7, 1988
  • "The Mission", written by Ian Rimmer, #15, 1989
• "Fast Forward", written by Hilary Robinson, 2000AD #615, 1989
• Troubled Souls, written by Garth Ennis, Crisis #15-21, 23-27, 1989-1990
• For a Few Troubles More, written by Garth Ennis, colour assist by Wendy Simpson, Crisis #40-43, 45-46
• "Her Parents", written by Mark Millar, Crisis #31, 1989
• "Carla Allison", Deadline #18-19, 1990; Negative Burn #37, 39, 41-42, 44, Caliber Comics, 1996-1997
• Chopper: "Earth, Wind and Fire", written by Garth Ennis, Judge Dredd Megazine #1.01-1.06, 1990
• Judge Death: "Masque of the Judge, Death", written by Si Spencer, Judge Dredd Mega-Special #4, 1991
• "Wyrmwood", written by Malachy Coney, Toxic! #24, 1991
• Middenface McNulty: "Wan Man an' His Dug", written by Alan Grant and Tony Luke, Judge Dredd Megazine #1.15-1.20, 1991-1992
• "Succession", written by Dan Abnett and Steve White, Epic #4, Marvel Comics, 1992
• "Paper Rain", written by James Hudnall, Streets #3, DC Comics, 1993
• Judge Dredd:
  • "The Craftsman", written by Garth Ennis, 2000AD #817, 1993
  • "Last Respects", written by Gordon Rennie, 2000AD #1389, 2004
  • "Placebo", written by Gordon Rennie, 2000AD #1405, 2004
• The Demon #40, Annual #2, #42-48,50,52-60, written by Garth Ennis, DC Comics, 1993-1995
• Batman, DC Comics:
  • "Hitman", written by Garth Ennis, Batman Chronicles #4, 1996
  • "Infected", written by Warren Ellis, Legends of the Dark Knight #83-84, 1996
• Hitman, written by Garth Ennis, 60 issues plus specials, DC Comics, 1996-2001
  • JLA/Hitman, written by 2 issues, DC Comics, 2007
• Dicks, written by Garth Ennis, 1997-2005
  • Dicks, 4 issues, Caliber Comics, 1997
  • Bigger Dicks, 4 issues, Avatar Press, 2002
  • Dicks II, 4 issues, Avatar Press, 2002-2003
  • Dicks X-Mas Special, Avatar Press, 2003
  • Dicks Winter Special, Avatar Press, 2005

• Preacher Special: Tall in the Saddle, 1 issue, inks only, written by Garth Ennis and pencilled by Steve Dillon, DC/Vertigo 1999
• Wonder Woman Annual vol. 2 #8, #154-155, written by Doselle Young, DC, 1999-2000
• Superman 80-Page Giant: "How To Be A Super-Hero", written by Garth Ennis, DC, 1999
• Cruel and Unusual, written by Jamie Delano and Tom Peyer, 4 issues, DC/Vertigo, 1999
• Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority, written by Mark Millar, 5-issue mini-series, Wildstorm, 2000
• Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #7: "In Springfield, No-One Can Hear You Scream", written by Garth Ennis, 2001
• Hulk Smash!, written by Garth Ennis and inked by Klaus Janson, Marvel, 2 issues, 2001
• Star Wars Tales, Dark Horse Comics:
  • "Trooper", written by Garth Ennis and inked by Jimmy Palmiotti, #10, 2001
  • "The Duty", written by Christian Read and inked by Jimmy Palmiotti, #12, 2002
  • "The Other", written by Jason Hall, #16, 2003
• The Monarchy, written by Doselle Young, 12 issues, Wildstorm, 2001-2002
• Superboy #92-100, written by Dan Didio and Jimmy Palmiotti, 2002
• Spider-Man, Marvel Comics
  • "The Coming of the Thousand", Spider Man's Tangled Web #1-3, written by Garth Ennis, 2001
  • Spider-Man: "Get Kraven", writtenby Ron Zimmerman and inked by James Hodgkins, 5 issues, 2002
• The Punisher #33-37, "Confederacy of Dunces", written by Garth Ennis, Marvel Comics, 2003-2004
• Sinister Dexter: "Vircade" (with Dan Abnett, in 2000 AD #1431, 2005)
• The Atheist #1-3, written by Phil Hester, Image Comics, 2005
• The 99 #1-7, written by Fabian Nicieza, Teshkeel Comics, 2007-2008
• Theseus Battling the Minotaur, one-shot, written by Jeff Limke, Lerner Publishing Group, 2009
• The Boys: Herogasm, 5 issues, written by Garth Ennis, co-artist with Keith Burns, Dynamite Entertainment, 2009

External linksEdit

• John McCrea's website
• Blog

PressEdit

• McCrea interviewed by P. J. Holden at 2000AD Review
• Quick Questions With, Irish Comic News, 25 June 2011

Online referenceEdit

• John McCrea on Wikipedia
• John McCrea on Lambiek
• John McCrea - 2000AD profile
• John McCrea at the Comic Book DB

• John McCrea on DC Comics Wikia
• John McCrea on Marvel Comics Wikia
• John McCrea on Star Wars Wikia
• John McCrea on GI Joe Wikia
• John McCrea on Transformers Wikia
• ComicVine