John Wagner - Style and Influence

Style and Influence

Pat Mills describes Wagner's writing as "romantic but not emotional". His depictions of violent action, from "Darkie's Mob" to "Judge Dredd" to A History of Violence, are unsentimental and laced with mordant humour. Other strips, like "Robo-Hunter", "Ace Trucking Co." and "The Balls Brothers", reveal a more overt comedy side to his writing. He is well known for writing terse scripts, described by artist Dave Gibbons as "exciting telegrams". He says he doesn't think visually, but rather "in terms of plot developments dialogue", preferring to leave the visual decisions to the artist.

Described by Warren Ellis as "probably the single most influential writer in British comics", Wagner is named as an influence by writers such as Alan Grant, who says he "taught me almost all I know about comic writing", Garth Ennis, Andy Diggle and Rob Williams. Alan Moore was inspired by the work of Wagner and Pat Mills in 2000 AD to try and express his ideas in mainstream comics. Wagner's own influences include the comics of D. C. Thomson & Co. of the 60s and 70s. Outside of comics, authors he admires include John Steinbeck, Patrick O'Brian and Michael Connelly.