Perhaps best known as the artist on “Johnny Red” for Battle Picture Weekly, John Cooper, who died on 22nd February 2015, is regarded by some as the British “Gil Kane”.

John first drew comic strip for TV21, drawing “Secret Agent 21” for the 1968 annual, followed by “Thunderbirds”, “Captain Scarlet” and “Joe 90” for Joe 90 comic and and “Lady Penelope” for Lady Penelope.

Most of his art credits are for IPC, working on titles such as “One Eyed Jack” for Valiant, “Johnny Red” for Battle, “Roy of the Rovers” and a limited number of strips for 2000AD. He also worked on Striker for The Sun.

Notes on Credit List

John kindly gave me a list of all his comics credits to date back in 2003, but unfortunately, I seem have lost the page covering some of  his work prior to 1976 – my apologies. John had promised to send me it again, but now that’s not going to happen. As usual, information on any omissions is most welcome.

Unless otherwise indicated, the list below details the strips he worked on and the years they were completed (“Completed”), not necessarily the year in which they were published – if it was published at all. (DC Thomson, for example, have been known to hold on to work for some years before publishing it). John’s ‘work sheets’ did not detail issue number of final publication and we have added that information where known.

It should be noted that the work was not necessarily for the weekly comics, but there is no detail in John’s notes as to where the work ended up.

• In some cases, the work John listed may have appeared in an annual rather than the regular title he listed.

• In some cases, it is entirely possible John was commissioned to do work for an internal dummy and, in the case of licensed titles, the licensor may have felt his art was not the style they wanted for their title. We simply do not know why the work never appeared. For example, no work by John was published in Marvel UK’s Blake’s 7 Magazine and in the case of Doctor Who, also for Marvel, there’s no strip by John published in the Magazine, and we don’t know what he did and neither does the editor of the time, Gary Russell.

• It’s also possible that John was commissioned to draw an ‘inventory’ strip that was never published in some cases. While it’s rare these days because of budget restraints, publishers putting out a weekly comic might well have rare instances of a strip failing to be delivered on time. While many would replace a late strip with a reprint – the cheapest option – some would have unused material on hand to drop in, perhaps on ‘young’ titles where readers would spot a reprint (most publishers assume a title has a three year ‘life’ for a reader before they move on to something new, not appreciating the staying power of fans of 2000AD, for example!)

• The titles of some strips – particularly in the case of DC Thomson – the strip title John lists may not have been the final title as published. For example, we can find no trace of the Bullet strip “Pickford” listed below.

John Cooper’s portrait of Johnny Red, drawn for the 2003 Raptus Festival program.

2000AD
M.A.C.H. 1	Appeared in #5, dated 26 March 1977; also #8, 9, 22, 34, 35, 58
Harlem Heroes Note: John did not draw the regular strip and we’re still trying to track down exactly what he did draw.	Completed 1979
Judge Dredd	John’s first Judge Dredd – “Muggers Moon” – appeared in Prog 19. This was the first commissioned Judge Dredd strip, held back for its overt violence.He also drew Judge Dredds for Progs 126, 139, 231-232, 298-299, 515
Tharg’s Future Shocks	Prog 47, 50, 85, 135
Tharg’s Terror Tales
Cold Spots	Appeared in  Prog 1494
Action
Dredger	Published in Action Annual 1978
Look out for Lefty Inventory strip? Barrie Mitchell and Tony Harding drew the strip for the weekly.	Completed 1976
Play Till You Drop No strip by John was actually published. Barrie Mitchell was the regular artist on the weekly.	Completed 1976
Spinball John drew this strip for a shortish run (18th June-20th August 1977) filling in between regular artist Costa, then Ron Turner took over from 17th September 1977 until the strip ended in 1979.	Published in 1977
Battle
Action Force John drew all the Action Force lead strips, from when he was taken off Johnny Red in September of 1984, until IPC lost the franchise in December 1987. The Fleetway Companion notes the Storm Force reprints are all by Vanyo.	1984 – 1987
Dredger John didn’t draw this strip in the weekly until the Battle Action merger, where he drew it exclusively until its conclusion
The General Dies at Dawn Written by Alan Hebden
Johnny Red
Night of the Jackal Written by Alan Hebden
The General Dies at Dawn Written by Alan Hebden
• For more on Johnny Red visit www.falconsquadron.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk
Major Eazy John did several one-off strips for Holiday Specials and Annuals
Rat Pack	Information welcome
Book House
Richard the Lionheart: The Life of a King and Crusader (Graphic Novel) by David West & Jackie Gaff	Published 2005
Bullet
Pickford Note that there is no title of this name published in the actual comic	Completed 1976
Twisty	Completed 1976
Kid Cox	Completed 1977
Captain Scarlet
Captain Scarlet	Completed 1994
Channel 4
South of Waterloo Comic	Completed 1988
Daily Mirror
Scorer	Completed 1990
Eagle (1980s) One Eyed Jack
One Eyed Jack	Published 09/07/83 -15/09/84, 8/10/84-15/12/84 • Reprinted from Valiant20/12/75-16/10/76
Gaunt	Published 22/02/84-30/03/85 • Reprinted from Battle 25/06/77-17/09/77 & 05/11/77-12/11/77
The Ultimate Warrior	Published 06/04/85-27/04/85
Computer Warrior	Published 20/07/85-24/08/85 & 28/09/85-11/01/86
M.A.C.H. 1	Published 27/09/86 (Reprinted from 2000AD prog 8); 04/10/86 (Reprinted from 2000AD prog 9); 03/01/87 (Reprinted from prog 22)
Johnny Red	Reprinted from Battle, 30/01/88-14/10/89 but not in 15/10/88, 29/10/88, 05/11/88
Mask & Venom
Jungle Rescue	Published 29/10/88-19/11/88
The Prisoner	Published 26/11/88-31/12/88
Robot on the Run	Published 07/01/89-25/03/89
The Amstor Computer
Shooting Star	Published 01/10/83
They Were Caught with Their Boots On	Published 08/10/83
Bike-Man’s Bluff	Published 05/11/83
There’s No Such Thing as Magic	Published 26/11/83
Mercenary	Published 14/01/84
The Alien Pet	Published 03/01/84
The Thief and the Computer	Published 21/04/84
Snow Beast	Published 16/06/84
Happy Families	Published 09/06/84
Grand Prix Magazine
Skid Solo	Completed 1999
Football Picture Story Monthly – DC Thomson
Football Picture Story Monthly strips and Covers
Hotshot
Playmaker	Completed 1992
Look In
Fall Guy	Completed 1981
Worzel Gummidge	Completed 1981
Chips	Completed 1981
Murphy’s Mob	Completed 1983
Norman Whiteside	Completed 1983
Streethawk	Completed 1985
Knight Rider	Completed 1986
Steve Cram	Completed 1986
Wiliam Perry	Completed 1986
The ‘A’ Team	Completed 1987
Airwolf	Completed 1987
Judge Dredd Megazine
Armitage: Dumb Blond Script: Dave Stone, Letters: Ellie De Ville	Five episodes (Megs 266 to 270), 2008
Armitage: The Mancunian Candidate Script: Patrick Goddard	Six Episodes (Megs 285 to 290), 2009
Armitage: The Unpleasantness at the Tontine Club Script: Dave Stone, Artist: John Cooper, Letters: Ellie De Ville	2 episodes (Megs 300 to 301), 2010
Look Alive
There is some John Cooper art in issue One
Marvel UK
Blake’s 7 Inventory strip of try out? No John Cooper strip was published in Blake’s 7 Magazine, which launched in October 1981 and ran for 23 regular issues and assorted specials	Completed 1981
Trakker	Completed 1993
Doctor Who There’s no strip by John in Doctor Who Magazine and editor of DWM at the time, Gary Russell, has no recollection of any work. It’s possible this was commissioned by another department	Completed 1994
Biker Mice from Mars	Completed 1995
Match of the Day Magazine
Roy of the Rovers	Completed 2001
Wonderland Figure	Completed 2001
News of the World
Camp Keeper	Completed 2002
Radio Times
Soccer and Hockey	Completed 1989
England versus France	Completed 1992
Euro Cup	Completed 1992
David Beckham	Completed 2001
Red Dwarf
Ray of the Rovers Tryout? No strip by John appears in the published editions of Red Dwarf Magazine (or the “Smegazine” as it was re-titled from Issue Three)	Completed 1992
Ring Raiders
Trackdown	Issues 1-6 (The complete run)
Road Maniax
Road Maniax	Completed 1995
Roy of the Rovers
Mars Bros	Completed 1983
Go For It	Completed 1986
United	Completed 1992
Roy of the Rovers	Completed 1993
Scoop
Guts to be a Goalie	Completed 1978
Speed Kings	Completed 1977
Stark	Completed 1981
Superstar	Completed 1980
Scream
Library of Death
Death Road	Published 28/04/84
Speed
Speed comic for 06/09/80 & 27/09/80 have centrespreads by John
The Sport
Various work	Completed 1991
Starlord
Timequake	Published 20/05/78
Stingray Comic
John’s work features in Volume 1 Issues 5-13 & 23-24. And in at least Stingray Comic (monthly) volume 2 Issues 1-3 (no copies of issues 4-8 to hand)
The Sun
Striker	Completed 1995
Swift Annual
One of John’s earliest published works, in 1962: a cartoon strip for the 1963 Swift Annual (with thanks to Steve Holland)
Humour Strip	Swift Annual 1963
Sunday Times
Lost in Space	Completed 1998
Super Naturals
Ghostling Tale	Issue 5 (Published 26/12/87-08/01/88)
	Issue 6 (Published 09/1/88-22/01/88)
Target
Kojak	Completed 1978
Tornado
Lawless Touch Partially illustrated by John. He drew it for three weeks (30/06/79 – 14/07/79).	Completed 1979
Total Football
David Beckham	Completed 1998
Billy’s Boots	Completed 2001
TV Century 21
John Cooper’s first comic strip work, a Secret Agent 21 story for the 19968 annual, which had the working title “Mission Impossible”, not featured in the published story. Secret Agent 21 © Anderson Entertainment
Secret Agent 21	1968 TV Century 21 Annual
Valiant
One Eyed Jack
Young Telegraph
Sherlock Holmes	Completed 1992
Jason and the Golden Fleece	Completed 1993
Gulliver’s Travels	Completed 1993
The Nutcracker	Completed 1993
Journey to the Centre of the Earth	Completed 1994
Wendy – DC Thomson
Wendy
Where’s Wally?
Where’s Wally	Completed 1996

Compiled with thanks to John Cooper, with additional information from Jeremy Briggs, Moose Harris and Richard Sheaf, with thanks to Calum Laird for some archival digging at DC Thomson

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies" for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, Creating Comics, Features

Tags: Battle Picture Weekly, Blake's 7, Bullet, Channel 4, Comic Artists, Eagle, John Cooper, Judge Dredd, Look-In, M.A.C.H. 1, Marvel UK, Match of the Day Magazine, One-Eyed Jack, TV Century 21, Valiant, Wendy, Worzel Gummidge, Young Telegraph