"Best Horror" American Independent Publishing Award
Antony Johnston (born 25 August 1972) is a British writer of comics, video games, and novels. He is known for thepost-apocalyptic comic seriesWasteland, the graphic novelThe Coldest City (adapted for film asAtomic Blonde), and his work on severalImage Comics series. In May 2023, Johnston publishedThe Dog Sitter Detective, the first in a series.[3]
Johnston started his career as agraphic designer.[4] He began his writing career with work for role-playing magazines, then used his graphic design skills to design graphic novels.
In May 2001, Johnston was one of the three founding editors of NinthArt.com, an attempt at taking aliterary and critical approach to the comics medium designed to act as a journal and aimed at "the discerning reader".[5] Between 2001 and 2004, he contributed a mostly-monthly editorial entitled "Cassandra Complex",[6] and for five years formed one-third of the infrequent "Triple A" discussions, including the last (on 19 June 2006).[7]
His fiction debut,Frightening Curves, was an illustratedhorror novel with artwork byAman Chaudhary, published byCyberosia Publishing in 2001. The book won the Best Horror Award in the 2002 IPPY awards atBook Expo America.[8] Johnston also produced a graphic novel –Rosemary's Backpack – and a contribution to the firstPopImage anthology for Cyberosia in 2002. (Cyberosia appears to have ceased after 2020.)
In 2002, he began his association with Oni Press by writing the five-issue miniseriesThree Days in Europe (with art byMike Hawthorne).[12] After this initial mini-series, Johnston penned a number of graphic novels for Oni Press –Spooked (withSophie Campbell),Julius (with Brett Weldele) andCloser (withMike Norton) released between February and May 2004;The Long Haul (withEduardo Barreto) andF-Stop (with Matthew Loux) released in February and April 2005.
In 2006, Johnston andChristopher Mitten launchedWasteland (2006), an ongoing post-apocalyptic series, for Oni Press.[13] It ran for 60 issues and concluded in April 2015.
In 2012, Johnston wroteThe Coldest City,[14] an original hardback graphic novel in theCold Warespionage genre, intended to be the first in a series of books all set in Berlin during the Cold War.[14] A prequel,The Coldest Winter, was released in 2016. Both titles were published byOni Press.[15]
Johnston began publishing a series of spy thriller novels about elite MI6 hacker Brigitte Sharp in 2017. The series follows her after being sidelined for years at a desk job after her first field operation went sour through conspiracies and threats to global stability.
The series currently consists ofThe Exphoria Code (2017),The Tempus Project (2020), andThe Patrios Network (2022).[17][18][19] In 2020, Red Planet Pictures optioned the first book for a TV series.[20]
Johnston signed with Allison & Busby in 2022 to deliver a series of books in thecozy mystery genre.[3] The first, the eponymousThe Dog Sitter Detective, was released in May 2023. The second,The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, was published in January 2024. The publisher extended the deal in 2023 to a third and fourth book, which are expected in January 2025 and 2026 respectively[21]
In 2013 Johnston began publishing withImage Comics,[27] starting with the "dark fantasy"Umbral in November 2013,[28] andsci-fi/crime seriesThe Fuse in February 2014.[29] In 2015, he launchedCodename Baboushka, an espionage thriller.[30]
Johnston appears regularly on podcasts onThe Incomparable network, where he producedUnjustly Maligned for 87 episodes from 2015 to 2017.[35] He independently produces the heavy-metal podcast Thrash It Out.[36] Johnston also hosts and produced Writing and Breathing, a podcast in which he to spoke to authors about their working methods, across 32 episodes in 2020 and 2021.[37]
Alan Moore's The Courtyard Companion (reprints Johnston's script forAlan Moore's The Courtyard with annotations by NG Christakos, Moore's original short story, new pinups/art by Jacen Burrows, and a new essay by Johnston, Avatar Press, 2004)
^"Cassandra Complex Editorials" by Antony Johnston at NinthArt.com (21 May 2001 – 30 April 2004). Accessed(via the Internet Archive) 7 August 2008
^"Triple A" by the Ninth Art editorial board (Johnston, Watson & Wheeler) at NinthArt.com (11 June 2001 – 19 June 2006). Accessed(via the Internet Archive) 7 August 2008
