John M. Burns

John M. Burns
John Burns with a copy of magazine FutureQuake
Born	John M. Burns 1938 Essex, England
Nationality	British
Area(s)	artist
Notable works	The Seekers Danielle Modesty Blaise Zetari Nikolai Dante The Bendatti Vendetta

A sample of Burns's art from his brief run on the Modesty Blaise strip, #4761 11/79, the "Eve & Adam" storyline.

Burns art from the Nikolai Dante strip

John M. Burns is an English comics artist, with a career stretching back to the mid-1960s.

Biography

His initial work was as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend.^[1] During the 1960s, Burns worked on TV Century 21 and its sister magazines, including the Space Family Robinson series in "Lady Penelope".

For a while he drew daily comics strips for newspapers The Daily Sketch, The Daily Mirror and The Sun, including The Seekers, Danielle and, for a period succeeding Enrique Romero during 1978-79, Modesty Blaise.^[1]

He moved on to illustrate TV tie-in strips for now-defunct title Look-in, always scripted by Angus P. Allan, Burns was already well known by the start of the 1980s. He also worked on the title story for Countdown.

It was when he made the crossover to 2000 AD, along with fellow Look-in alumni Jim Baikie and Arthur Ranson, that his position in British comics was cemented.

Burns began by working on Judge Dredd, a strip to which he continues to contribute to this day. By his own admission (in a 2004 interview with David Bishop in the Judge Dredd Megazine), Burns does not enjoy drawing science fiction strips, and the look of Judge Dredd is one that he finds particularly unpleasant to draw.^[2]

In 2007, Burns began working on the Nikolai Dante strip. He has also co-created (with Robbie Morrison) a contemporary adventure strip, The Bendatti Vendetta, for the Megazine, this is unique for the title in having no science fiction or fantasy elements at all.

He recently finished an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, whose script was rendered by Amy Corzine, for UK publisher Classical Comics.^[3] Having previously worked on similar adaptions of Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore and, which is more, Wuthering Heights by Brontë's sister Emily, Burns was able to bring considerable experience to the project.

Burns's recent work is fully painted, and very solidly crafted.

Bibliography

Comics work includes:

• Judge Dredd:
  • "Garbage Disposal" (with Garth Ennis, in 2000 AD #738, 1991)
  • "Twilight's Last Gleaming" (with Garth Ennis, in 2000 AD #754-756, 1991)
  • "Raider" (with Garth Ennis, in 2000 AD #810-814, 1992)
  • "Part Exchange" (with Dan Abnett, in 2000 AD #903, 1994)
  • "Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man" (with John Wagner, in 2000 AD #1342-1349, 2003)
  • "Bite Fight!" (with John Smith, in Judge Dredd Megazine #224-225, 2004)

• Black Light: "Survivor Syndrome" (with Dan Abnett/Steve White, in 2000 AD #1001-1005, 1996)

• Penthouse Comix:
  • "Abducted by Aliens" (with Eliot R. Brown/George Caragonne/Buzz Dixon, in Penthouse Comix #17-20, 1996–1997)
  • "Zheena: Deadlier Than The Male" (with Ian Edginton, in Penthouse Comix #26, 1997)

• Nikolai Dante (with Robbie Morrison):
  • "Cruel Seas" (in 2000 AD #1148-1149, 1999)
  • "Requiem for Lost Love" (in 2000 AD #1150, 1999)
  • "Rudinshtein Irregulars " (in 2000 AD #1183-1190, 2000)
  • "Love and War" (in 2000 AD #1200-1207, 2000)
  • "One Last Night in the House of Sin" (in 2000 AD prog 2001, 2000)
  • "The Romanov Empire" (in 2000 AD #1250-1262, 2001)
  • "Hell and High Water" (in 2000 AD prog 2003 & #1322-1328, 2002–2003)
  • "The Sea Falcon" (in 2000 AD prog 2004, 2003)
  • "Agent of Destruction" (in 2000 AD prog 2005 & #1420-1427, 2004–2005)
  • "How could you believe me when I said I loved you when you know I've been a liar all my life?" (in 2000 AD #1428-1431, 2005)
  • "Primal Screams" (in 2000 AD #1433-1436, 2005)
  • "Devil's Deal" (in 2000 AD prog 2006, 2005)
  • "Usurper" (in 2000 AD #1487-1489, 2006)
  • "The Depths" (in 2000 AD #1500-1501, 2006)
  • "Dragon's Island" (in 2000 AD #1502-1507, 2006)
  • "The Road of Bones" (in 2000 AD prog 2007, 2006)
  • "Deadlier than the Male" (in 2000 AD #1518-1520, 2007)
  • "The Beast of Rudinshtein" (in 2000 AD #1532-1535, 2007)
  • "The Dissenter" (in 2000 AD #1537, 2007)
  • "The Chaperone" (in 2000 AD #1560-1564, 2007)
  • "Destiny's Child" (in 2000 AD prog 2008, 2007)
  • "The Tsar's Daughter" (in 2000 AD #1578-1580, 2008)
  • "Prisoner of the Tzar" (in 2000 AD #1612-ongoing, 2008)
  • "Bring me the Head of Nikolai Dante" (in 2000 AD prog 2009)
  • "Hero of the Revolution" (in 2000 AD, 2010)

• The Scarlet Apocrypha: "Necrocultura" (with Dan Abnett, in Judge Dredd Megazine #4.12, 2002)

• The Bendatti Vendetta (with Robbie Morrison):
  • "The Bendatti Vendetta" (in Judge Dredd Megazine #4.13-18, 2002)
  • "Blooded" (in Judge Dredd Megazine #209-211, 2003)
  • "See Naples and Die" (in Judge Dredd Megazine #234-236, 2005)

• Jane Eyre (adapted by Amy Corzine, 144 pages, Classical Comics, Spring 2008, ISBN 978-1-906332-06-8, ISBN 978-1-906332-08-2)

Notes

References

• 2000 AD profile
• John Burns data FFF (Italian)