John McCrea Talks DC’s Hitman Comic Series

Raising The Bar

John McCrea has been a popular mainstay of the comic industry for many years. Yet, it is arguably his various collaborations with Garth Ennis he is best known for to comic fans. From the days of Troubled Souls and Chopper he moved onto The Demon for DC Comics and later The Boys: Herogasm. Without fail, their creative partnership has always produced distinctive and eye-catching results.

The recent news that perhaps their most critically acclaimed work together is to receive the popular hardback Omnibus edition treatment from DC Comics was music to the ears of their fans. That work would be their sixty-issue run on a very colourful character they created together: Tommy Monaghan, otherwise known as Hitman. Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul Neal took the opportunity to ask John about his time illustrating the series…

TRIPWIRE: John at the time of Hitman’s creation your partnership with Garth Ennis was well established and you were a regular artist and writer team. Hitman first appeared in The Demon Annual 2 for DC’s Bloodlines crossover that was designed to create new characters. Can you describe your memories of how Tommy was brought into this world?

JOHN McCREA: DC wanted a whole parcel of new IPs, and a big annual event. Bloodlines was there for new characters to be created. Obviously, Garth did not want to create your standard superhero character. We were both big fans of Hong Kong balletic bullet fests. We had seen John Woo’s The Killer a bunch of years back on one of our regular visits to Will Simpson’s house. We had fallen in love with the movie and seen a bunch of other films of Woo’s and many others in the genre. The idea to give him telepathy and x-ray vision was Garth’s as they were both unseen superpowers and so could be ignored when it suited, which became more regular as the series went on. This was in part due to the editors on the superhero books. They got upset with our portrayal of ‘their’ characters, until they forbid us to use them. With no superheroes to fight, Tommy’s superpowers became less relevant, as did the stupid red scarf that we had given him.

TW Hitman had a distinctive look. Did Garth offer many notes in regard to the look of Tommy or was it a team effort?

JM: Tommy was meant to be based on Gabriel Byrne’s character in Miller’s Crossing, the 1990’s Coen brother’s gangster flick. Tommy started out that way but gradually morphed into me, as do most of my characters. Otherwise, Garth said sunglasses, big trench coat, boots and lots of guns. We went from there, though not very far. I believe the red scarf was Garth’s idea as well. Yes, yes, I am going to blame that on him, though, to be fair, before issue one came out, he did say “Get rid of the stupid red scarf!”

TW: With regard to the look of Tommy, the long coat, the guns, dark hair and the funky sunglasses, where did that all come from? Issue 1 has a cover date of April 1996 while the first Matrix movie came out in 1999. At the time the Wachowskis freely admitted their movie (and the sequels) were heavily influenced by comics. Have you ever thought your art may have influenced the look of Keanu Reeves character Neo in those movies? 

JM: That never crossed my mind. I’d imagine you can find a whole lot of trenchcoat wearing, sunglasses-sporting characters in comics that pre-date Tommy.

TW: Tommy appeared in a few more issues of The Demon. Can you recall at what stage you knew there was a plan for an ongoing title dedicated to the character you and Garth created together? Was it always planned between you both to create a spin-off from The Demon?

JM: I had no idea that Tommy was going to become a character in his own comic until quite late on in The Demon. That was only when we knew it was going to be cancelled. If you look at The Demon annual where Tommy first appears, a lot of the pages that I didn’t ink were pages with Tommy on them, and a lot of the pages I did ink were pages with The Demon on them. This was because I just thought of Tommy as being some random character that we were throwing in and that The Demon was much more important as a character. This is true in the overall scheme of things, but not to my career!

TW: You mentioned in our previous interview for Tripwire Garth’s pitch for Hitman. Could you elaborate a little more on how it was decided that Hitman would be an ongoing title?

Tripwire Talks To British Comic Artist John McCrea – TRIPWIRE MAGAZINE

JM: I believe DC was spinning a whole lot of the Bloodlines characters off into their own titles:Argos, Loose Cannon, Anima and, perhaps worst of all, Gunfire. So, it came as no surprise to us that, as the Demon was being folded, they suggested that Garth and I jump onto a new book featuring Tommy. I remember thinking that, if Hitman didn’t outlast Gunfire, I might as well give up drawing comics.

TW: Garth Ennis has made his feelings pretty clear about what he thinks about superheroes. I believe The Boys is a clear reflection of this. Is it a sentiment you share?

JM: No, I am huge superhero fan. I have been a complete Marvel zombie since the age of four. Spiderman is my favourite superhero, and when I did the five issue Punisher arc Confederacy of Dunces, the way Spidey was treated in that story made me wince, but it’s just a story and was still fun to draw.

TW: Some of the most popular issues of Hitman involved Tommy having a chat with superheroes like Batman, Superman and Green Lantern. Were there any issues featuring these chats that you especially enjoyed drawing?

JM: I think I enjoyed the Catwoman storyline most of all for a myriad of reasons. The first one was that Tommy and Catwoman actually got on well (perhaps too well) and there was a nice undercurrent of sexual tension. The second was the cat signal which I think was, and still is, a work of genius. Thirdly was the first appearance of Section 8, the greatest superhero team to ever exist. Finally, I think it’s one of the best Hitman stories, with a great villain in the Mawzir, the reappearance of the Demon and all of the other factors above. There was so much packed into it and yet it still felt breezy, fun, gory and exciting.

JM: I enjoyed the Green Lantern storyline too, but it was the Kyle Rayner version of Green Lantern, and his costume is very tricky to draw. I kept getting it wrong and, to this day, I still find it awkward to draw.

JM: The Superman story is a stone-cold classic, and I am extremely fond of it because it was a tribute to the late great Archie Goodwin. It also won us an Eisner award. I have always had a hard time drawing Superman and I struggled mightily in this story. I was far from satisfied at the end of it. When JLA/ Hitman came around, I took it upon myself to learn how to draw Superman(!) and spent a good six months just practicing him and the other superheroes. Still, I don’t think I got him right. It’s only recently that I think I may have cracked the “draw Superman well” conundrum.

JM: Obviously I enjoyed drawing Batman, I always enjoy drawing Batman! Everyone enjoys drawing Batman!! He’s one of the most iconic superheroes ever. But there was a lot of editorial interference from the Bat office over Batman and his use, so that marred the process.

TW: To the best of your knowledge, has Hitman ever been optioned for a movie or a TV series? After the success of The Boys and Garth’s influence on at least one Punisher movie, and The Preacher TV series I’d be amazing if it has not been discussed. Oddly I could see Hitman working as an adult animated movie or series. Has that ever been mentioned?

JM: There have been rumblings about a Hitman TV show I believe but it has never been optioned.

TW: Over a pint with Garth, did you ever do any dream casting ideas for Hitman? I could imagine a scruffy Clive Owen at the time perhaps.

JM: No, we have never done any dream casting. I tend to find that that leads to severe disappointment if you start imagining these things. There have been quite a few that I’ve seen, or I have had sent to me via social media. For the most part, I have had no clue who any of the actors were.

TW: Do you have a favourite Hitman cover you created? For me, issue 21 just nails the character. It is just such a simple and beautiful image.

JM: I must admit I do love the cover for issue 21.  DC did a set of postcards sometime that year and they used that cover, which was cool. I guess Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium, the baby seal clubbing cover is a particular favourite. Mainly because we actually did it and got away with it! Also, if every cover of Hitman had been that cover, I would have sold them all, no problems. Sadly no one got to buy it as I gifted it to Amanda Conner. She was very keen on the cover and insisted that she have it, and I agreed once she had me in a head lock.

JM: Also, from a pure storytelling point of view, I have a real fondness for the cover of the story about Tommy’s sister: I can’t remember the exact issue, but it’s the one with the blood in the snow in the alleyway. I just think it’s quite an evocative image and tells a story without having any figures at all.

TW: Oddly, despite issue 21 being my personal favourite cover, it was an issue where you didn’t draw the interiors. At the time was a there a reason for having Steve Pugh as a guest artist?

JM: I asked Steve Pugh to do a fill-in as I was burnt out. I was pencilling and inking Hitman and it just got too much for me. I had been looking for an inker to help out as well and Garry Leach took over because we needed the break just to help us get ahead. Steve had inked the previous issue too, so he was good to go on the fill in. And that issue is all about Teagil and nobody draws beautiful women better than Steve.

TW: Glenn Fabry had an art book published that showcased all of his Preacher covers alongside his memories of each cover. Preacher: Dead or Alive was an excellent book. I personally would love to see a similar artbook of all your Hitman covers with a similar commentary. Is that something you’d enjoy?

JM: A Hitman art book? Yes, that is something I would like to see. However it would be completely down to DC and knowing the sales on Preacher and the sales on Hitman, I doubt that DC would think it was financially viable.

TW: It’d make for a lovely website. Maybe a project one day perhaps?

JM: Perhaps.

TW: By the time Hitman started, you and Garth Ennis had been working together as a writer and artist team for quite some time. Did you have a shorthand relationship as to how the scripts for Hitman were written? Were they very detailed or was there a form of artistic or creative telepathy between you both?

JM: Garth’s scripts are pretty precise. He gives you everything you need as far as the story goes. It is then up to me to choose camera angles, lighting and all that. I did have some input into ideas that might appear on occasion. For instance, the shootout in Bucket Burger using the big fat guys as shields was my idea. But in general, our roles are pretty demarcated. Garth writes the stories and I do the drawing.

TW: A huge part of the success of Hitman was the supporting cast of characters. I am thinking of Natt The Hat, Ringo Chen and Hacken amongst many others. Are you allowed to say if any of the supporting cast were based on or inspired by real people or friends of you and Garth?

JM: Well as I said, Hitman was originally inspired by Gabriel Byrne in Miller’s Crossing. Natt the Hat was Ice Cube and Ringo was based on Chow Yun-fat of course. Over time, Tommy’s looks morphed from Gabriel Byrne into an idealised version of me. This is common with artists: drawing themselves as characters. Tommy’s best friend Pat was based on a friend of mine called John Lawlor who lived in Birmingham at the time. Another one that I can remember was the SAS guy from the Tommy’s Heroes arc. He was based on a friend of mine who had also been in the SAS. This was particularly useful for getting details right: for instance how you would hold your gun when in a helicopter. In fact, one of the other SAS characters was based on a friend of my brother-in-law’s. He hadn’t been in the SAS but looked like he could have been! I can’t think of any others off hand.

TW: There were some amazing Hitman crossovers, but was there ever talk of a Hitman v Punisher project? I could see that working.

JM: I remember Garth jokingly mentioning a Punisher and Hitman crossover and how it would last about three pages. Tommy would do something wrong and then the Punisher would shoot him dead. That was about the height of it.

TW: It is not a company crossover, but rather a DC crossover issue but I’d love to ask if you have any memories of the Hitman 1million issue. Is it true do you know that Grant Morrison plotted most of the tie in issues but just said to Garth, “Just take the piss?”

JM: I have absolutely no knowledge of any of that, but it certainly seems like something Grant would say to Garth. They are both mischievous types! Two fellas separated by a couple of consonants.

TW: Do you remember much of that issue? It was rather fun.

JM: Oh yes. I remember the issue very well. If you remember, I had said that if Hitman did not last longer than Gunfire, I would quit comics. Garth and I both thought Gunfire was a particularly ridiculous character and so Gunfire One Million was born. You also get to see and experience more of Garth’s hatred of cats.

EDITORS NOTE: Hunt out a copy of Hitman 1 Million. John’s comments will make far more sense (cat lovers beware.)

TW: I know you have been to many comic conventions. Have you ever seen any Tommy Monaghan cosplays in your travels?

JM: Indeed, I’ve seen quite a lot of Tommy Monaghan cosplay. I think the first was both Tommy and Nat by my friends Rob Gibson and Patrice Delva. I have also seen a couple of Dog Welders, including a fabulous Lady Dog Welder by Kelly Kanayama and Six Pack. In fact, Section 8 seems to be quite big in Japan as I’ve seen quite a few cosplays from over there.

TW: Did you find the deadlines that DC comics gave you at the time a challenge? During your time on Hitman would you have described yourself as a fast artist?

JM: As far as I recall, we had a three or four month run-in time from when I started pencilling the first script to when it got published. After that, it was a monthly deadline and there’s no way of getting around that with a monthly book. I was pencilling and inking it and doing the covers and at that time it was 22 pages, or possibly 24. I can’t remember. Sue me but by the time I got to issue 19, I was knackered. I was looking for someone to take over the inking. I got my pal Steve Pugh to ink issue 20 and then do a fill-in issue 21 while I recovered and got ahead. By that time Garry Leach had agreed to take over the inks. Of course, that meant I had to do tighter pencils and so I was still keeping up but just about. Part of the reason was that I kept doing other things at the same time. I did a Wonder Woman story here, and a Superman story there. I remember being at the San Diego Comic Con and having to go up to my room after the convention ended to pencil or possibly ink the latest page of Hitman. I really didn’t enjoy the thought of all my friends downstairs in the bar having a great time while I slogged away over a hot drawing board! Especially when my editor Dan Raspler showed up at my hotel door, looked in and congratulated me for keeping on top of my deadlines and then cleared off, drink in hand!

TW: What was your favourite issue of Hitman?

JM: I’m not really sure I can answer that question. There were so many great issues: some of which were hilarious, some of which were exciting and some of which were brutally sad and brought me to tears. However, I guess my favourite arc was Ace of Killers. It had Catwoman, the cat signal and it introduced Section 8, the world’s greatest super team, so I feel that might be my favourite arc. It’s the last arc I inked as well and I think my inking was at its best so for that reason too, yeah, that’s it.

TW: What would you say is the lasting legacy of Hitman? Would you say it was a career high point (so far) for you? How do you look back upon it?

JM: I think Hitman has a lot of hardcore followers. Over the years, it’s won quite a few awards and come high in the list of people’s favourite comics, especially issue 34, the Superman issue. While it hasn’t had the reach and high sales that something like Preacher has had, it still stands as a very interesting moment within the DCU which I don’t think we’ll see the like of again. I certainly don’t think I’d be able to draw sixty issues of a comic on a monthly basis again.

TW: I said this would make sense earlier. A slightly daft question: with Hitman being a slightly anti superhero title, but with you being a self-confessed superhero fan yourself. can I ask, if you could have any superpower what it would be and why?

JM: It’s a tossup between flight and super strength, I think. As long as I don’t get splitting migraines when I use the powers!

TW: With the knowledge of the Hitman Omnibus coming out this summer, can Hitman fans look forward to any added behind the scenes extras? Have you rediscovered any bonus illustrations that will be unique to the book?

JM: Yes, plus scans of original art, Garth’s scripts (he didn’t keep any, but I did) and unused covers and layouts. There will be a lot of extras! It will be 2 volumes. The exact contents of both books haven’t been firmed up yet. Yes, the first appearance is included.

TW: Would it be fair to say you are excited to hold a copy of the first Hitman Omnibus in your hands?

JM: Oh yes, it’s something I had hoped would happen for years, and had almost given up thinking it would. Then, out of the blue [it is announced].  And to make it better, DC are really going out of their way to make it as good as possible!

TW: Is there even a remote chance of any new Hitman material in the future? An anniversary issue or any further crossovers? Or an exclusive new short story as an epilogue for the second Omnibus?

JM: There’s always a remote chance. If Tommy and the gang got some sort of TV/film deal, it would become less remote. The idea of a new short in the 2nd volume is a great idea.

The first Hitman Omnibus comes out this July