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Not What You Meant?  There are 22 definitions for Ennis.  Also try: Garth or Pride & Joy.

Garth Ennis

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Garth Ennis

Born January 16 1970 (1970-01-16) (age 38)
Holywood, Northern Ireland
Nationality Northern Irish
Area(s) Writer
Notable works Preacher
Judge Dredd
John Constantine: Hellblazer
The Punisher
Awards 1998: Best Writer Eisner Award

Garth Ennis (born January 16, 1970 in Holywood, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the DC/Vertigo series Preacher, co-created with artist Steve Dillon. His work is characterised by extreme violence, black humour, profanity, an interest in male friendship, and a disdain for organised religion. Frequent artistic collaborators include Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry, Carlos Ezquerra and John McCrea.

Contents

Biography

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.

True Faith by Garth Ennis & Warren Pleece
True Faith by Garth Ennis & Warren Pleece

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the two Troubles stories it was collected as a graphic novel in 1990, but religious protests led to it being quickly withdrawn from sale, apparently on the orders of publisher Robert Maxwell.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. His 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, aka 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 a 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 goofy humour to a surprisingly tender 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 and Shadowman for Image 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" line. This is currently ongoing, approaching issue #50, and has also inspired several limited series (such as Born and Barracuda) and one-shots (The End, The Cell, and The Tyger). While at Marvel, Ennis also wrote stories for Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, The 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. [1] 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 for Avatar Press. 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. Unexpectedly, in 2006, it was announced that Ennis would write a new creator-owned extended series entitled The Boys, originally published by Wildstorm. After just six issues, The Boys was cancelled by Wildstorm, despite high sales and with no reason given. The series has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment, and is now at its twelfth issue. The Boys sees Ennis reunited with artist Darick Robertson, the two had previously worked together on the Marvel series Fury: Peacemaker and Punisher: Born. 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. Ennis's currently published titles are: Marvel's Punisher: Max (ongoing), Dynamite's The Boys (ongoing), and Avatar's Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist). He also has a western comic Streets of Glory coming in October from Avatar. On August 26, 2007, Virgin Comics announced plans to publish a new Dan Dare title, to be written by Ennis.[2]

Bibliography

Preacher by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon; cover by Glenn Fabry
Preacher by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon; cover by Glenn Fabry

Comics work includes:

Awards

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References

Footnotes

  1. ^ http://insidepulse.com/article.php?contentid=20202
  2. ^ Graser, Marc. "Virgin takes up 'Dare'", Variety.com, 2007-08-26. Retrieved on 2007-08-27. 
  3. ^ Lying in the Gutters, Rich Johnston, February 12, 2007, Comic Book Resources
  4. ^ Interview with Ennis about Streets of Glory

External links

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

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Garth Ennis from Wíkipedia. ©2006 by Wíkipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. View a list of authors or edit this article.

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