Sinister Dexter - should the gunsharks be permanently retired? No - they've many more stories to tell! Yes - to the electric chair with them!

RSS Feed   Small Press   Links   About 2000AD Review   Email us

Home ¦ Features ¦ John McCrea interview part 1

11th May 05

Onto part 2

Middenface

John McCrea first came to the world's attention with the controversial and ground breaking ‘Troubled Souls’ in Crisis. From there he has gone on to all but conquer the artistic world, drawing some of the biggest comic icons there are for both DC and Marvel.

Recent times have seen his return to 2000AD, so we figured this was as good a time as any to catch up with him and ask him about his career. John answered not only our questions, but those of his friend and fellow artist PJ Holden, who came along too!

RC: How did you get started in the comics buisness?

John McCrea: Strangely enough, it was when I started a comic shop in Belfast. The very first comic shop there in fact.

PJ Holden: Remember the poster you did for it? It was lovely, all the comic babes. None of them had any pupils, and all were darker skinned. I think John was showing a..?

JMcC: Predilection for no pupiled dark skinned honeys?

Anyway, we used to have all sorts dropping in. That's how I met Paul. And Garth (Ennis) would occasionally drop in, and he was always saying things like 'I've got an idea for a story', and I'd heard that one so many times I would just say, 'Yeah right, fair enough.'

I was sending stuff in every week to a different comic company. I would do two or three pages of Judge Dredd and send it off to Fleetway, a few pages of Batman and send it off to DC, then Marvel. Then I'd choose one of the indies and send pages off to them. And after three or four years of that...

PJ: That was very conscientious of you.

JMcC: Sending it to an indie?

PJ: No, to do that at all.

JMcC: Oh God, I was totally obsessed. There was no other option for my life.

PJ: Your first published worked didn't come from that did it?

Troubled Souls

JMcC: No. The first big thing people remember is Trouble Souls. But I did two issues of Action Force. I did Sideshow, I did Blamm. Blamm was the free comic. I got that job interestingly enough, when I was over at Comics Showcase in London. I'd just bought a page of Arthur Adams artwork. X-Men #9, the very final page. I'd opened my folder and I was putting it in, and this guy looked over my shoulder and said, 'Did you draw that?'

I said, 'No, that's Arthur Adams.'

'I know that's Arthur Adams you idiot, that page?' So I said yes, and he told me he had a job for me. So I ended up doing Blamm from buying a page of Arthur Adams. I think I'd already done Centurions before that...

PJ: You'd done Centurions before I'd met you, hadn't you?

JMcC: Yeah, I'd been working in comics for a while before the shop opened. Only very random stuff, I think I earned something like £250 in my first year.

I'm a bit vague about the order of it, but I know that I got the two and a half page Future Shock before I got the Action Force from Marvel. I did go into Marvel and they said 'No'... but then I told them I'd got a Future Shock for 2000AD, and they went, 'Okay! We'll give you a job.'

PJ: That sort of thing still happens. It was like that for me with Warhammer.

JMcC: Of course it does, it's just unimaginative editors.

JMcC: But then the big break was Garth walking in and saying, 'I'm thinking about sending this thing into Crisis.'

They were looking for stuff, they weren't doing too well, which wasn't surprising with the bollocks that Third World War was.

RC: So you and Garth were on Troubled Souls from the beginning? Will Simpson wasn't involved?

Her Parents

So I got the job. And it was one of those things where they flew us both over, took us into the office and said to Garth, 'Can you write it?' And he convinced them he could, and they asked me, 'Can you do ninety-six pages of colour artwork?' And I'd never painted in my life, so I said, 'Yeah.' And was thinking 'Jesus Christ!'

But you can see that I was basically learning on the job. With every issue there's a different style. But that's sort of the way comics where back then, with Sienkiewicz et al. Everyone was experimenting with painting, fucking around with panel lay-out. I was just copying them, I had no imagination as far as painting went.

What else can I say about Troubled Souls... we hate it?

RC: I was going to ask about that. Garth has said he never wants to see it again.

JMcC: Well, Garth hates it more than I do. I don't think you should really feel ashamed of anything you've ever done. There are plenty of panels in it I'd like to go back and redraw, but that way lies madness. But for it's time, and for our age, and the general mood of the time, it was a good strip and it hit the right notes I think.

I don't feel ashamed by it. Avatar were asking about publishing it again, and I was fine about it, but Garth wasn't keen, so that was that. Christ, let's face it: I would have made a few bob out of it! But that's the difference between writers and artists, writers can afford to say no to things!

RC: After Troubled Souls came 'For a Few Troubles More'...

JMcC: That came about because of Garth and my self's deep dislike of our pretentious past.

RC: I've always though it more realistic, because of the humour...

Dicks

JMcC: Absolutely. We got people complaining about it, maybe not For a Few Troubles More, but we got Americans complaining when DICKS came about, they said you can't set a story in Northern Ireland without addressing the Troubles. To which we said, what a load of old fucking bollocks, it's ridiculous to think that. I mean, do you think everyone goes about every minute of the day, worrying about the Troubles, the peace process or what have you?

So maybe that was out way of saying bollocks to Troubles Souls and let's have a bit of a laugh in Northern Ireland. Not that Dougie ever does. But we do.

Did you see the Christmas Special we did? It came out in March, that's what I like about our publisher. They're so on the ball! But I think you can see from the way it's written, and the way it's drawn, that we were having a lot more fun. You could see the writing on the wall with Crisis, that it was going to fold, and we were just enjoying ourselves while we still could. I mean, once Crisis went, who the hell else was going to publish stuff like this?

PJ: So do you get royalties for that stuff?

JMcC: For DICKS? Very funny. I don't go into comic shops any more. Anytime I ever talk to a comic shop they say they've sold out. I think they say that to keep me and Garth happy.

Onto part 2