From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Hicklenton (aka John
Deadstock) is a British comic artist best known for his brutal, visceral work
on flagship 2000 AD characters like Judge Dredd (in
particular Heavy Metal Dredd) and Nemesis the
Warlock during the eighties and nineties.
Biography
Comics
Hicklenton got his first break when he realised a friend at
college was Ron Smith's daughter so he made her
a Judge Dredd Christmas card.
However, regular work remained elusive until, on the advice of
his mother, he phoned Pat
Mills directly and their working relationship developed from
there. He has done other work with Mills including a strip in the
now defunct CoolBeansWorld site. He also drew ZombieWorld
(as John Deadstock) for Dark Horse Comics, who commissioned
him because, as Mills has said "John is the ultimate horror artist
... I defy anyone to show me an artist whose monsters are more
grotesque, whose zombies have
a more ghastly look in their eye."[1]
Here's
Johnny
He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000.
Here's Johnny, a documentary about his illness produced by
Animal Monday,[2]
launched at the Science Museum on January 30
2008, followed by its world première at the South by Southwest film
festival in Austin, Texas. It got its television debut on More4 on February 17,
2009.[3] The
film took over 5 years to make and documents his brave and often
humorous battle against MS.[4][5] The
film was favourably reviewed by the British Medical Journal[6] and in
2008 won two Grierson Awards for "Best Newcomer"[7] and
"Best Arts Documentary".[8]
Current
activities
He continues to draw, working on projects like Sand for
Renegade Arts Entertainment,[9] and
also focus on bringing multiple sclerosis as a disease to the
public's attention in order to help it's sufferers fight for better
treatment and research from the medical community.
Influences
Despite gaining critical praise and success Johnny has always
lived in shadow and awe of the work of Woodrow Phoenix - an artist who Johnny
has idolised and shyed away from in equal measure. "Woodrow is the
Hendrix...he is the alpha and omega of graphic innovation. When i
saw his work, 'Pianos hanging on some string', i put down my pens
and didn't pick them up for two months. The revere i hold for him
is matched only by the fear - the fear that nothing i do will ever
match the visceral passion that is contained in his work. I can't
impress on you enough how powerful his work 'Pianos on string' is.
Every page brings with it a new picture of a piano - each one more
groundbreaking and death-defying than the one that came before.
This is the work of a true master. I'm just a pygmy holding a brush
that's too big to handle in comparison to him."
Bibliography
Comic work includes:
- Nemesis the Warlock (with Pat Mills):
- "The Two Torquemadas (Book VII)" (in 2000 AD #546-557,
1987-1988)
- "Deathbringer (Book IX)" (in 2000 AD #586-593 and
#605-608, 1988-1989)
- Third World War (with Pat Mills):
- "Here be dragons" (in Crisis #16,
1989)
- "The word according to Ryan" (with Pat Mills and Alan Mitchell,
in Crisis #25, 1989)
- "The Dark other" (in Crisis #29, 1989)
- "The rhythm of resistance" (in Crisis #30, 1989)
- "Black man's burden" (in Crisis #35, 1990)
- Mean Machine: "Visiting Time"
(with John Wagner, in Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 2) #82,
1995)
- "Trespass" (with Gordon Rennie, in Inferno! #8, 1998)
- ZombieWorld: "Tree of Death" (with Pat Mills, Dark Horse,
4-issue mini-series, 1999, collected in ZombieWorld: Winter's
Dregs, 2005 ISBN 1-59307-384-4)
Notes
References
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