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P Craig Russell Talks About Unscheduled Adaptation Of Neil Gaiman’s Story Only The End of The World Again

Published

6 months ago

February 12, 2026

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A Project Which May Never See The Light Of Day

In recent weeks, artist P Craig Russell has been sharing some beautiful art on his social media. It all connects back to a story called Only The End of The World Again, originally written by Neil Gaiman.

After a little cursory research, Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul N Neal found himself a little more confused than when he began, and so he decided the best course of action was to contact the artist himself for some helpful clarification.…

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TRIPWIRE: You have recently been sharing some wonderful pages of art on social media for a story titled, Only the End of The World Again that was written by Neil Gaiman. The history of the story seems a little complex. For the uninitiated, can you explain the basics and the background of the story at all please?

P CRAIG RUSSELL: Some 26 years ago, back in 2000, I was asked by Dark Horse Comics to work on an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Only the End of the World Again. I agreed to do script and layouts and chose Troy Nixey to do the finished artwork. My choice of Troy sprung from my curiosity of what another artist whose work was so dissimilar to mine would look like on my page design. The only way I can describe the difference between us is that I’m neat and he’s funky.

TW: As I understand it there was a new published version of the story some time ago.

PCR: In May of 2021 Dark Horse published the third volume of the Neil Gaiman Library. In it they reprinted and included the 48 page Only the End of the World Again in full colour. As a bonus they reprinted my layouts, each page across from Troy’s black and white artwork.

Up till then I had never compared my layouts to the finished book and so for the first time I noticed all the changes made to my layouts. As I still had the original boards, I asked Dark Horse if I could do my own finished version. Normally I’d never do my own version of layouts I’d sent to another artist, but I felt all the changes made to the original layouts justified my own version. They said yes.

TW: Is your version of the story in question an example of one of those unfinished projects that fans might never see published?

PCR: This new retelling is completed down to the colouring of all 48 pages. The book, along with three new short stories was complete down to the book design, endpapers and all.

Then everything hit the fan. So, it’s complete but who knows if it will ever see print. That explains why I’ve been running the black and white pages on social media.

TW: There is no easy way to ask this. Have the various accusations of sexual harassment against writer Neil Gaiman complicated your efforts to complete this story?

PCR: I haven’t done anything for the past 18 months. The whole brouhaha seems to have knocked me off the beam. Still have a few things on my bucket list, mostly the oversized art boards of poems and songs that I’ve worked on sporadically over the years.

TW: I suspect from your answers you are keen to avoid being involved with any of the current controversy surrounding your frequent creative partner, writer Neil Gaiman. All I have to ask is simple. Do you have any thoughts at all you wish to share on the subject? Tripwire entirely understands if you prefer to simply respond with a “No Comment” but this is an opportunity to comment if you wish to do so.

PCR: I’ve decided to simply avoid commenting on the Neil Gaiman third rail controversy.

TW: I totally respect your desire to avoid controversy. I suspect that is the wisest course of action, but would you be willing to comment in a different way? Without referencing the writer or any scandals directly, would you be willing to say if it has been upsetting to you personally or financially? Or even if you have lost any publishing opportunities? As an artist, I think it would be fair to be a little upset?

PCR: Personally, the fallout I’ve experienced is one I’m sure I share with the dozens of other artists and theatre people. A cancellation of this enormity leaves so many with their work unseen or discarded. In my case my adaptation, script and art, was complete to the point of book design right down to the end papers. It also included two unrelated short stories, poems by De La Mare and Poe, that fit into the package quite neatly. I was paid in full by that point, but It was still quite the disappointment for it not to see print. I’ve been scanning the original art and running the black and white art serially on my Facebook page so that it at least gets seen.

TW: Are you optimistic about the future? Can comic fans hopefully look forward to more of you art on other projects?

PCR: Well, I still have a short list of stories I want to do. I haven’t really done anything except a couple of single illustrations since the cancellation of Only the End of the World Again. That really knocked me off the beam. But I do hope to get back to the drawing board sometime in the hopefully not too distant future.

TW: You have shared a number of pages online on social media. Would it be okay for Tripwire to share some of them here together and in order?

PCR: We can run a suite of pages from the story but not all 48. That would constitute publication of the entire story and would involve contracts, etc.

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TRIPWIRE NOTE: Below are the pages of art (with page numbers) the artist and Tripwire decided we could share. Plus, a few other associated images the artist was kind enough to share.

Below: Page 18.