Geoff Johns - Early Life

Early Life

Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, son of Barbara and Fred Johns of Clarkston, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston. He is of half Lebanese ancestry. As a child, Johns and his brother first discovered comics through an old box of comics they found in their grandmother's attic, which included copies of Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman from the 1960s and 1970s. Johns eventually began to patronize a comics shop in Traverse City, recalling that the first new comics he bought were Crisis on Infinite Earth #3 or 4 and Flash #348 or 349, as the latter was his favorite character. As Johns continued collecting comics, he gravitated toward DC Comics and later Vertigo Comics, and also drew comics. After graduating from Clarkston High School in 1991, he studied media arts, screenwriting, film production and film theory at Michigan State University. After graduating from Michigan State in 1995, Johns moved to Los Angeles, California.