It is a known fact that the comic industry is full of literary masters and artistic geniuses. Countless creators hold the title of both. One such creator has also ventured into work on video games, novels and even film adaptations. Do you know who this is?
Antony Johnston was born on August 25, 1972 in Birmingham, England. Growing up, Johnston had always expressed interest in comics and live-action roleplaying games. He began his career working as a graphic designer, before branching off into writing for roleplaying magazines. Johnston credits the Mark Salisbury-edited Writers on Comic Scriptwriting books, produced by Titan Books in 1999, for rekindling his interest in comics. Using his advanced design skills, Johnston began designing his own comics and graphic novels, which he continues to do to this day.
In 2001, Johnston was one of the three founding editors of NinthArt.com. This site was designed to act as a journal focused on taking a literary and critical approach to the comics medium. From 2001 to 2004, he contributed pieces to a monthly editorial entitled Cassandra Complex. He made his fiction debut with the horror novel, Frightening Curves, which won the Best Horror Award in the 2002 IPPY awards. He also produced the graphic novel Rosemary's Backpack, contributed to the PopImage anthology, and the miniseries Three Days in Europe. He followed this miniseries with the creation of a number of graphic novels, including Spooked, Julius, Closer, The Long Haul, and F-Stop.
Additional projects for Johnston include the ongoing post-apocalyptic series Wasteland,, the video game Dead Space and the manga Wolverine: Prodigal Son. In 2012, Johnston wrote the original hardback graphic novel, The Coldest City. This novel was adapted into the action spy thriller film, Atomic Blonde. The film – which revolves around a spy who has to find a list of double agents – stars Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, and Toby Jones.
Atomic Blonde will be released theatrically on July 28, 2017.
