Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish–American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series 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.

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 would later ask 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.

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, as living in Northern Ireland meant he did not require reference material for the Belfast-based series, it tells 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 comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor.

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edition was issued in 1990 but a series of complaints from churches and religious groups led to it being quickly withdrawn from sale.

In 1991, Ennis took over the horror series Hellblazer, from 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 would later become regular collaborators on other comics, including the one-shot Heartland, exploring one of Hellblazer's 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, 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."

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.

Ennis is originally from Northern Ireland.

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 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.

In explaining why he chose to write Troubled Souls as his debut comics work, Ennis 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.

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".