John Wagner

John Wagner is a comics writer who, alongside Pat Mills, helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be a leading light in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. He is best known as the co-creator, with artist Carlos Ezquerra, of the character Judge Dredd.

Born in the United States and brought up in Scotland, he started his career in editorial with D. C. Thomson & Co. in the late 1960s, before becoming a freelance writer and a staff editor at IPC in the 1970s. He has worked in children's humour and girls' adventure comics, but is most notable for his work in boys' adventure comics, including helping to launch Battle Picture Weekly (1975), for which he wrote "Darkie's Mob", and 2000 AD (1977), for which he created numerous characters, including "Judge Dredd", "Strontium Dog", "Robo-Hunter" and "Button Man". In the 1980s, he and co-writer Alan Grant wrote prolifically for IPC's boys' comics, including 2000 AD, Battle, Eagle, Scream! and Roy of the Rovers, and also wrote Batman for DC Comics in the USA, a series of Batman/Judge Dredd team-up comics, and the British independent comic The Bogie Man. His 1997 graphic novel A History of Violence was made into a film by David Cronenberg. He continues to write for 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine, including "Judge Dredd" and "Strontium Dog".