Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish comics writer. He is best known for his acclaimed run on the Vertigo series Hellblazer, his own Vertigo creation Preacher with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise, and The Boys with artist Darick Robertson. He has collaborated with artists such as Dillon and Glenn Fabry on Preacher, John McCrea on Hitman, Marc Silvestri on The Darkness, and Carlos Ezquerra on both Preacher and Hitman. His work has won him recognition in the comics industry, including nominations for the Comics Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. He has received numerous awards and recognition from specialised British and American publications and organisations, such as the UK Comic Art Award and the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards.
Early life Ennis was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland.Zitty (2000). Vol 23, p. 140
Raised with no religion, Ennis's first exposure to the idea of God was as a six-year-old in primary school. Ennis's teacher told the class that God was a being who could see inside their hearts, was always around them, and would ultimately reward or punish them. Ennis described the idea as bewildering, strange and terrifying. He later used this experience in his comic book series Preacher, whose protagonist is slapped after telling his grandmother that he finds the concept of God "scary". Although the fictional violence in that story was not reflected in Ennis's real-life upbringing, his classmates later reassured each other that they all loved God, though Ennis said, "I think I hate him." Ennis later asked his mother about God, and when she asked him what he thought about the idea, Ennis responded, "It sounds kind of stupid," a statement the adult Ennis clarified was meant to mask his fear. His mother's response was, "Well, there you are, then." In 1980, Ennis won second place in the Young Ornithologist's Club's Young Ornithologist of the Year competition in the 10-12 age bracket.
In 1987, Ennis befriended artist John McCrea while shopping at the first comic book specialty shop in Belfast, which had been opened by McCrea and another friend. Ennis later asked McCrea to illustrate his first professional comics project. It was here that Ennis first met comics writer Alan Moore, who advised him to focus on creator-owned work rather than letting comic companies take ownership of his intellectual property.
Career UK work Ennis began his comic-writing career on his nineteenth birthday, in 1989, with the series "Troubled Souls" in the British anthology Crisis. Illustrated by Ennis's friend John McCrea, living in Northern Ireland meant he did not require reference material for the Belfast-based series. "Troubled Souls" tells the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Troubles. It spawned a sequel, "For a Few Troubles More", a broad comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor. In 1997, American publisher Caliber released Dicks, serving as another Dougie and Ivor adventure. Several follow-ups featuring these characters were subsequently published by Avatar Press.
As to why Ennis chose to write "Troubled Souls" as his debut comics work, he explained "It was the kind of thing that was doing well at the time. I ought to be completely clear and say that, 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."
Another series for Crisis was "True Faith", a religious satire inspired by his school days, drawn by Warren Pleece. A collected edition was issued in 1990 but a series of complaints from churches and religious groups led to it being quickly withdrawn from sale."Mature Comics Struggle to Survive in Britain", The Comics Journal issue 141, April 1991, p. 21 It was republished in 1997 by the U.S. DC Comics imprint Vertigo. The plot follows an atheist teenager attending Christian school. After publicly insulting his classmates' religion to get back at a girl he was interested in who did not return his romantic feelings, the boy attracts the attention of a maltheist and is coerced into helping him murder clergy and bomb churches. Following the death of the maltheist, the book ends with the atheistic hero willingly carrying out a shooting at his Christian school. In the introduction to the Vertigo edition, Ennis described this as wish-fulfillment. Shortly after, Ennis began to write for the UK comics series 2000 AD, and later wrote stories for the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from creator John Wagner for several years. Ennis's Dredd stories include "Muzak Killer", a satirical attack on mainstream pop music; "Emerald Isle", a tongue-in-cheek story set in Ennis's native Ireland; and the 20-part "Judgment Day". Ennis also contributed the story "Time Flies", with artist Philip Bond, dealing with time-travel paradoxes and Nazis.
In 2001, following much work in the United States, Ennis briefly returned to UK comics to write the Judge Dredd story "Helter Skelter". Ennis said afterward there was "not a hope" to his returning 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".
DC Comics
In 1991, Ennis took over the horror series Hellblazer which was published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. He wrote the series through 1994, with Steve Dillon becoming the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run; Ennis and Dillon later became regular collaborators on other comics, including the one-shot Heartland which explored one of Hellblazers secondary characters. Years afterward, Ennis briefly returned to Hellblazer for the five-part "Son of Man" story with artist John Higgins.
Ennis and Dillon went on to create the 66-issue Vertigo series Preacher. Running from 1995 to 2000, Preacher has been cited as Ennis's landmark work. Its plot concerns a preacher with supernatural powers who literally searches for the Christian God who had abandoned His creation. Mixing influences from Western and horror films with twisted humor and religious satire, Preacher 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." The AMC television series Preacher, adapted from the comic, premiered in 2016. From 1993 to 1995, Ennis worked with artist John McCrea on another DC title, The Demon, during which the duo introduced superpowered contract killer Tommy Monaghan, a character Ennis and McCrea launched into his own title, Hitman. With the exception of a reverent depiction of Superman, Ennis's writing on Hitman was known for portraying superheroes as ridiculous, a characteristic commonly found in Ennis' material involving such characters. Hitman ran 60 issues from 1996 to 2001 with several specials and spinoffs. Following the main title's cancellation, Ennis and McCrea returned to the world of Hitman for a Justice League crossover and later a comedic miniseries, following the supporting characters from Hitman, entitled Section Eight.
Other DC comics projects Ennis wrote include Bloody Mary for the Helix imprint; a run on The Authority for the Wildstorm imprint; and the first arc of the Authority spin-off series Midnighter, as well as a story for the series Unknown Soldier and the original creations Goddess and Pride & Joy, all for the Vertigo imprint.
Marvel Comics Ennis's first work for Marvel was Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe in 1995. Ennis quit writing for Marvel after completing this work, as the dialogue in the comic had been altered without his consultation; however, following the end of Hitman, Ennis was once again offered the chance to write The Punisher at Marvel. The initial 12-issue miniseries was illustrated by Steve Dillon, who also illustrated much of Ennis's subsequent 37-issue run of the Marvel Knights Punisher series. No longer finding violence comedic in light of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Ennis relaunched The Punisher under Marvel's MAX imprint, allowing for darker stories. His 60-issue run was released concurrently with several Ennis-penned Punisher miniseries, such as Born and Barracuda, and the one-shots The End, The Cell, and The Tyger. The creators of Punisher: War Zone have declared Ennis's The Punisher MAX run to have been one of the major influences on the film, and Ennis and Dillon reunited for a Punisher: War Zone miniseries to tie-in with the film.
In 2008, Ennis ended his five-year run on the MAX imprint's Punisher series to write the Marvel miniseries War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. Illustrated by Howard Chaykin, it featured the little-used character Phantom Eagle, a World War I pilot.Nick Lowe on Marvel Max's War is Hell series , Newsarama, 7 January 2008Laura Hudson, Ennis Moves from Punisher to Phantom Eagle, Publishers Weekly, 19 February 2008 Other series Ennis wrote for Marvel include Where Monsters Dwell, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Thor, and a series of Goran Parlov-illustrated Nick Fury stories under the MAX imprint. These stories stripped superspy Fury of his science-fiction trappings in favor of military and CIA situations, including a focus on the First Indochina War in one storyline.
Independent publishers and creator-owned work Ennis has written a 2008 Dan Dare miniseries, published by Virgin Comics, and origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadow Man for Valiant Comics. Ennis' original comics creations include the five-issue mini-series Seven Brothers for Virgin Comics, on which Ennis collaborated with film director John Woo;Garth Ennis on Seven Brothers, interview with Newsarama a vulgar superhero satire entitled The Pro for Image Comics; the post-apocalyptic Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press; and War Stories for DC and later Avatar Press.
Avatar has published the bulk of Ennis's creator-owned material, which includes the post-9/11 war story 303; a western entitled Streets of Glory;Interview with Ennis about Streets of Glory , Comics Bulletin the extreme horror comic Crossed;Double-Crossed: Ennis & Burrows talk "Crossed", Comic Book Resources. 12 June 2008, Newsarama, 1 June 2008 Back to Brooklyn, a crime limited series co-written with Jimmy Palmiotti for Image Comics;Ennis & Palmiotti Go "Back to Brooklyn". Comic Book Resources. 15 July 2008 Caliban, a science fiction horror series inspired by the movie Prometheus; and Chronicles of Wormwood, which dealt with the friendship between an African-American Jesus Christ and a benign Antichrist. In 2011, Avatar commissioned Ennis to write and direct an original short film, Stitched, produced to drum up support for a possible feature. Ennis was also the initial writer for the Stitched comic book tie-in, also published by Avatar.