36 Facts About Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis 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.

Garth Ennis's 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.

Garth 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.

In 1987, Garth 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.

Garth Ennis began his comic-writing career on his nineteenth birthday in 1989, with the series Troubled Souls in the British anthology Crisis.

Shortly after, Garth 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.

Garth Ennis 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, Garth Ennis briefly returned to UK comics to write the Judge Dredd story "Helter Skelter".

Garth Ennis said afterward there was "not a hope" to his returning to writing Dredd as he was generally not happy with his run.

In 1991, Garth Ennis took over the horror series Hellblazer, from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.

Garth Ennis 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 Hellblazers secondary characters.

Years afterward, Garth Ennis briefly returned to Hellblazer for the five-part "Son of Man" story with artist John Higgins.

From 1993 to 1995, Garth Ennis worked with artist John McCrea on another DC title, The Demon, during which the duo introduced superpowered contract killer Tommy Monaghan, a character Garth Ennis and McCrea would go on to do in the character's own title, Hitman.

Garth Ennis noted that he quit writing for Marvel afterwards, as the dialogue in this comic had been altered without his consultation.

Garth Ennis's 60-issue run was released concurrently with several Ennis-penned Punisher miniseries such as Born and Barracuda, and the one-shots The End, The Cell, and The Tyger.

In 2008, Garth Ennis ended his five-year run on the MAX imprint's Punisher series to write the Marvel miniseries War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.

Garth Ennis has written a 2008 Dan Dare miniseries published by Virgin Comics, and origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadow Man for Valiant Comics.

Original comics Garth Ennis has created include the 5-issue mini-series Seven Brothers for Virgin Comics, on which Garth Ennis collaborated with film director John Woo, a vulgar superhero satire entitled The Pro for Image Comics, the post-apocalyptic Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and War Stories for DC and later Avatar Press.

In 2011, Avatar commissioned Garth Ennis to write and direct an original short film, Stitched, produced to drum up support for a possible feature.

Garth Ennis was the initial writer for the Stitched comic book tie-in, published by Avatar.

Garth Ennis has done both creator-owned and commissioned work for Dynamite Entertainment, most notably The Boys.

Mainly illustrated by co-creator Darick Robertson, who Garth Ennis previously worked with on the Marvel series Fury: Peacemaker and Punisher: Born, The Boys ran for 72 issues before concluding in 2012.

Garth Ennis later explained that this was because DC Comics were uneasy with the anti-superhero tone of the work.

In terms of commissioned material, Garth Ennis wrote the pulp character The Shadow for Dynamite.

Garth Ennis wrote Sara in October 2018 for TKO Studios, a war story following a team of female Russian snipers as they beat back the Nazi invaders during a brutal winter campaign on the WWII Eastern Front.

Garth Ennis wrote Stringbags in 2020 for the US Naval Institute.

Garth Ennis has explained that as an avid reader of British war comics during his formative years, he did not read superhero comics until his late teens, at which point he found them ridiculous, although he frequently cites mid-eighties superhero material among his influences.

Garth Ennis said he was "blown away" by Miller, as The Dark Knight Returns was the first time he encountered a comic writer who approached his work like a novelist.

For example, in the 1995 one-shot special Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, Garth Ennis has the Punisher kill every single superhero and supervillain on Earth.

Garth Ennis has since explained that his issue with superhero comics is not over the genre in and of itself, but more over its dominance in the comic book industry and the constraints imposed on superhero stories by publishers.

Garth Ennis has remarked that in terms of Marvel and DC characters, he prefers the ones he describes as more grounded, such as the Punisher, John Constantine, and Nick Fury.

In particular, Garth Ennis describes the Punisher as resembling the British comics characters he loved as a child more than Marvel and DC superheroes, which provided him with a way to the character.

Garth Ennis had become a citizen of the United States by July 2016.

Garth Ennis is an atheist, and said he feels disdain toward religion.

Garth Ennis blamed growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles for influencing this attitude.

Garth Ennis has maintained an interest in military history since childhood, inspired by the war comics from his youth.