Brendan McCarthy

For the football player, see Brendan McCarthy (American football). For the film producer, see Brendan McCarthy (producer). For the baseball pitcher, see Brandon McCarthy.
Brendan McCarthy
Born London
Nationality British
Area(s) Writer, Penciller, Artist, Colourist
Notable works
Shade, the Changing Man
Highlander
Rogan Gosh
Mad Max: Fury Road

Brendan McCarthy is a British artist and designer who has worked for comic books, film and television.[1][2]

Biography

Brendan McCarthy was born in London. As a boy McCarthy soon began drawing his own home-made comics.

After leaving Chelsea Art College in London, where he studied film and Fine Art Painting, McCarthy decided to become a full-time artist. He created the independent comic book Sometime Stories with art college pal Brett Ewins.[3][4] 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. McCarthy held a solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and collages at Car Breaker Gallery in London, a squat in Ladbroke Grove's Republic of Frestonia.[5]

McCarthy started working for 2000 AD including Judge Dredd and 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 late 1970s. It was to have been a stylish retro 50's take on the classic Eagle hero with James Fox as Dan Dare.

Inspired by George Miller's Mad Max 2, McCarthy mulled over a post-apocalyptic surfing story, later written with Peter Milligan and called Freakwave.

In 1983 McCarthy collaborated with Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins on Strange Days, an anthology title published by Eclipse Comics. He also drew a two issue series featuring his alternative media-brat superhero Paradax from Strange Days.

Returning to the pages of 2000 AD, he again drew Judge Dredd, depicting the Judda and Brit-Cit Judges. In 1986, McCarthy and Milligan produced Sooner or Later for 2000 AD.

Around this time, McCarthy designed and storyboarded the Arabian cel-animated TV series, New Babylon and also The Storyteller for Jim Henson's company.

McCarthy designed the characters in Grant Morrison's Zenith strip which started in 1987,[6] Doom Patrol (creating Danny The Street) and on Morrison and Mark Millar's Marvel series Skrull Kill Krew.[7] He also produced covers and character designs for Pete Milligan's revamp of Shade, the Changing Man.

Cover of the Rogan Gosh collected edition.

Over the next few years he worked for the 2000 AD spin off titles Crisis and Revolver. For Revolver, McCarthy drew Rogan Gosh (later compiled into a single edition by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics). For Crisis, he drew Skin. Both books were 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 was eventually being released by Kevin Eastman's Tundra Publishing in 1992.

McCarthy worked as designer on the films Highlander, the first live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, Lost in Space and The Borrowers. He was also hired by Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to write and design visual gags to the film Coneheads.

McCarthy spent much of the remainder of the 1990s working in film and television, most notably as the production designer of the international hit CGI animated science fiction TV series ReBoot and as the character creator for War Planets.

He was then asked to co-write and design Mad Max: Fury Road with director George Miller after meeting Miller in Hollywood and pitching a storyline which would go on to become the seed of the new story. Also with Miller, McCarthy created, co-wrote and designed a new CGI animated feature called Fur Brigade which awaits production.

In 2004 McCarthy created an illustrated visual autobiography of his original art and design work titled Swimini Purpose. This was released in 2005 in the UK, as a limited artist's edition.[8]

In 2006, McCarthy was featured in the final issue of DC Comics' Solo.[9] His comic had new takes on characters such as The Flash, Batman, and Johnny Sorrow and he considers the single issue to be one of his best works.

In 2009, Brendan was commissioned by Marvel Comics to create a new take on Doctor Strange. The bizarre mini-series, Spider-Man: Fever, appeared in April 2010.[10][11]

Brendan returned to 2000 AD in 2010 on a Judge Dredd story with Al Ewing spoofing the Dr Who TV series, and with whom he would go on to create a popular new story, The Zaucer of Zilk,[12][13] which he has described as a cross between Harry Potter and Aladdin Sane: "A glammatronic phantasmagoria."[14] The series debuted in March 2012. It was rapidly reprinted by IDW in a new format with both issues quickly selling out. The Zaucer of Zilk comic appeared in many 'best of the year' lists.

In 2012, McCarthy traveled to Namibia in Africa, to visit the set of Mad Max: Fury Road, which featured his script and designs.[15] He also finished the design and editorial chores for The Best of Milligan & McCarthy, a brand new collection of his most famous comic works co-created with Peter Milligan. Dark Horse released the edition in September 2013.

A new comics project, The Deleted, described as 'The Matrix meets The Prisoner', was serialised in 'Dark horse Presents' in 2014. It was written with screenwriter Darrin Grimwood.

"Mad Max Fury Road" was finally released in May 2015 to massive acclaim and a strong box office. Brendan attended the Hollywood premiere. The wave of industry accolades for Mad Max Fury Road was astonishing, with the film sweeping up many 'Best of the Year' awards and going on to win 6 Oscars.

McCarthy completed writing and illustrating his new graphic novel "Dream Gang" for Dark Horse Comics which was released in July 2016 and the comic is already considered a modern psychedelic classic.

Bibliography

Interior comic work includes:

Covers only

Awards

References

  1. Brendan McCarthy
  2. Bishop, David (2007) Thrill-Power Overload. Rebellion, 260 pages, ISBN 1-905437-22-6
  3. "Sometime Stories". Archived from the original on 5 November 2013.
  4. "Sometime Stories number 2". The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy.
  5. The Republic of Frestonia. Car Breakers Gallery
  6. Bishop, 2007, page 120
  7. Brevoort, Tom. Formative Crisis, Marvel.com, 29 January 2009
  8. "Review of Swimini Purpose: Life in Pictures". 2000AD Review.
  9. Cardwell, Mark. "Interview: Brendan McCarthy". Dogmatika. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  10. Hudson, Laura (21 January 2010). "Preview of 'Spider-Man: Fever' by Brendan McCarthy – EXCLUSIVE". Comics Alliance. Retrieved 22 January 2010.
  11. Mautner, Chris (3 February 2010). "High Fever: An interview with Brendan McCarthy". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  12. Keily, Karl (2 December 2011). "Brendan McCarthy Brings "The Zaucer of Zilk" TO "2000AD"". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  13. Byrne, Carol (5 April 2012). "West Clare goes graphic for Zaucer of Zilk". The Clare Champion. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  14. Wells, Pete (7 April 2012). "Brendan McCarthy – Digidelic Zaucery!". 2000AD Covers Uncovered. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  15. http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2015/05/27/brendan-mccarthy-goes-full-throttle-for-mad-max-fury-road/
  16. "1992 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  17. "1993 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved 26 April 2012.

External links

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