Biography
Brendan McCarthy, of Irish descent, was born in London and drifted through the early part of his life as a floating member of The Hanwell Dream Gang, a gathering of like-minded teenagers who had decided they would become artists and writers of world-renown. Brendan soon began painting and drawing his own home-made comics
After leaving Chelsea art college in London, where he studied film and Fine Art, Brendan decided to become a full-time artist. He created the indy comic book Sometime Stories with art college pal Brett Ewins. His first paid commercial work was a one page strip Electrick Hoax in the British weekly music paper Sounds with another art school escapee, writer Peter Milligan in 1978. After this he started working for 2000 AD including Judge Dredd.
At the same time he was working on designs for his first television show - the unmade Dan Dare live-action television series for Lew Grade's ATV in the 1970s. It was to have been a stylish retro 50's take on the classic Eagle hero.
In 1980, inspired by the book The Razor's Edge, McCarthy decided to travel the globe on a futile and nonsensical metaphysical pilgrimage, ending up, via Egypt, India and the Himalayas, in Sydney, Australia. Deeply inspired by George Miller's punk masterwork, Mad Max 2, Brendan mulled over a post-apocalyptic surfing movie story, later written with Peter Milligan and called Freakwave. The film was never made but it was adapted into comics form by Milligan and McCarthy (the Hollywood movie Waterworld bore a striking resemblance to their story, a fact which was picked up on by US media and lawyers at the time).[citation needed]
In 1983 Brendan McCarthy returned to the UK and to drawing comics, working on Strange Days, an anthology title published by Eclipse Comics, once again collaborating with his friends Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins. He also drew a two issue series featuring his alternative media-brat superhero Paradax from Strange Days. Around this time, one of his best-loved characters was created with Pete Milligan: Mirkin The Mystic was a kind of laconic, psychedelic Ditko-esque, Oscar Wildean, inter-dimensional traveller.
Returning to the pages of 2000AD, he again drew Judge Dredd, redefining the look of the character in the process and creating the classic storylines featuring the Judda and Brit-Cit Judges.
1986 saw Milligan and McCarthy produce Sooner or Later for 2000 AD, a surreal, psychedelic strip which split fan opinion but was critically well received.
Around this time, Brendan designed and storyboarded the Arabian cel-animated TV series, New Babylon and also The Storyteller for Jim Henson's company.
Brendan designed the characters in Grant Morrison's Zenith strip which started in 1987 and on Morrison and Mark Millar's Marvel series Skrull Kill Krew. He also produced covers and character designs for Pete Milligan's revamp of Shade, the Changing Man. To this day McCarthy remains a huge Steve Ditko fan.
By now McCarthy was an influential figure in British comics. Over the next few years he worked for the 2000 AD spin off titles Crisis and Revolver.
Cover of the Rogan Gosh collected edition.
For Revolver McCarthy drew Rogan Gosh (later compiled into a single edition by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics), and for Crisis he drew Skin, the tale of a thalidomide skinhead in 1970s London , both books created with and written by Peter Milligan. Skin proved to be highly controversial, with Crisis refusing to release the story and their printers refusing to print it due to claims of it being "morbidly obscene". The story remained in legal limbo before eventually being released by Kevin Eastman's Tundra Publishing in 1992.
Brendan worked as designer on the films Highlander, the first live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, Lost In Space and The Borrowers. He also designed and contributed visual gags to the film Coneheads, working alongside SNL comedians like Dan Aykroyd, Adam Sandler, David Spade and Phil Hartman.
McCarthy spent much of the remainder of the 1990s working in film and television. Most notably as the designer of the CGI animated Sci-Fi TV series ReBoot and character creator for War Planets. ReBoot was a worldwide success, and was the world's first long-form computer animated piece, predating both Pixar and Dreamworks' later movies. Computer games, toys and motion rides were developed from the series.
In 2003 he was asked to co-write and design Mad Max 4: Fury Road with director George Miller. Brendan also created, co-wrote and designed a surreal CGI animated feature, also for George Miller.
Brendan McCarthy in 2004 took a year sabbatical and hired Steve Cook to help him design Swimini Purpose, an illustrated visual autobiography of his original art and design work. This was released in 2005 in the UK, as a limited artist's edition, and sold out within weeks. This very rare book has become a serious collectors' holy grail.
Recently, McCarthy featured in the final issue of DC Comics' Solo. His comic had new takes on characters such as The Flash, Batman, and Johnny Sorrow, as well as introducing a new comics' cavalcade of homeless, insane and transgendered social outcasts.
He remains active as an artist and writer, working around the world in film, TV and animation and developing his own strange and wonderful ideas.
Recently, Brendan was commissioned by Marvel Comics to create a new take on Doctor Strange. The finished mini-series, Spider-Man: Fever, appears in April 2010.
Bibliography
Comics work includes:
Judge Dredd: "Bring Me The Head of Judge Dredd!" (pencils, with John Wagner, as "John Howard", and inks by Brett Ewins, in 2000 AD #88, 1978)
ABC Warriors (with Pat Mills):
"The Retreat From Volgow" (in 2000 AD #120, 1979)
"Steelhorn" (in 2000 AD #127-128, 1979)
Tharg's Future Shocks:
"The English/Phlondrutian Phrase Book" (with Alan Moore, in 2000 AD #214, 1981)
"Sixty Hours that Shook the World" (with Peter Milligan, in 2000 AD #391, 1984)
"Bad Maxwell" (with Peter Milligan, in 2000 AD #402, 1985)
Sooner or Later: "Sooner or Later" (with Peter Milligan, in 2000 AD #468-499, 1986)
Skin (with Peter Milligan, Tundra Publishing, 1992)
Rogan Gosh (with Peter Milligan, Revolver, 1990, DC Vertigo, 1992)
Solo #12 (DC Comics, 2006)
Spider-Man: Fever (script and art, 4-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics, 2010, forthcoming)
Awards
1992 - nominated for Eisner Award for "Best Cover Artist", for Shade, the Changing Man
1993 - nominated for Eisner Award for "Best Cover Artist", for Shade, the Changing Man
Notes
^ Bishop, 2007, page 120
^ Brevoort, Tom. Formative Crisis, Marvel.com, January 29, 2009
^ Review of Swimini Purpose: Life in Pictures
^ Hudson, Laura (January 21, 2010). "Preview of 'Spider-Man: Fever' by Brendan McCarthy -- EXCLUSIVE". Comics Alliance. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/01/21/spider-man-fever-preview-brendan-mccarthy-exclusive/. Retrieved January 22, 2010.
^ Mautner, Chris (February 3, 2010). "High Fever: An interview with Brendan McCarthy". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/02/high-fever-an-interview-with-brendan-mccarthy/. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
References
Brendan McCarthy at the Grand Comics Database
Brendan McCarthy at the Comic Book DB
Brendan McCarthy at Barney
Bishop, David (2007) Thrill-Power Overload. Rebellion, 260 pages, ISBN 1-905437-22-6
External links
Brendan McCarthy homepage
The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy (the official fansite)
Brendan McCarthy Showreel on YouTube
Brendan McCarthy at the Internet Movie Database
Interviews
This section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (January 2010)
Brendan McCarthy interviewed by 2000adreview.co.uk
Brendan McCarthy interviewed for Dogmatika about SOLO #12
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