Kevin O'Neill

Kevin O'Neill was born in 1953, and began working for IPC as an office boy on Buster comic at the age of 16. By the mid 1970's he had moved up to working as a colourist on Disney reprints and children's humour titles such as Whizzer and Chips and Monster Fun. He then applied to editor Pat Mills to work on a new science fiction title, 2000AD. Beginning with covers and pin-ups, O'Neill soon moved on to drawing short stories for 2000AD before getting his first maor continuing story with Ro-Busters. From there, he went on to draw numerous strips including ABC Warriors and Nemesis the Warlock (which he co-created, with Mills) as well as Judge Dredd. His short story 'Shok!' from the 1981 Judge Dredd Annual (see below) was the basis of a court case when it was found to be the basis for Richard Stanley's 1990 film 'Hardware'. Stanley lost the case, O'Neill and co-writer Steve MacManus were given writing credits on the film, and it is now regarded as the first 2000AD story to be adapted into a movie.

In the early 1980's O'Neill worked for a time for American publishers DC on titles such as Green Lantern but his art style caused controversy as the Comics Code Authority considered it 'objectionable'. His association with the company was short, though he and Pat Mills did create Metalzoic, one of the first creator owned graphic novels, at DC (it was later reprinted in 2000AD). They also created Marshal Law, initially for Epic Comics, though it later went to several different publishers. Since 1999, O'Neill has been collaborating with Alan Moore on the hugely successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series.