We’re sorry to report the passing of the talented artist and author John Farrelly, who has passed after battling illness. Peter Duncan, of Sector 13, pays tribute…
All of us at Sector 13 are saddened to hear of the death of John Farrelly at the Evora Hospice in Newry, Northern Ireland.
John was a superb writer and artist, with a twinkle in his eye and a sense of humour that shone through in all of his work.
In the 1990s he was part of the teams that created Northern Ireland based anthologies NutScrewsWashersNBolts and DNA Swamp, for which he created the “Long Coat and Leather Jacket” series that he was always hoping to go back to.
His internet strip, Captain Wonder, told the story of a middle-aged man who dons a costume in order to save his beloved comic-book shop. John would eventually self-publish two issues of the adventures of the good captain himself.
It was at an exhibition of original art for Captain Wonder, arranged as part of the Belfast Comedy Festival, that I first met John and asked him to produce something for my own first comic, the original Splank! John’s response was a superb colour strip called “Beans and Tucker”, which told the story of two friends, a snail and a Tortoise, on the run through the mean streets of the city, not realizing nobody was in pursuit.
It was a brilliant idea, superbly realised in a strip that was both funny and touching avoiding the cruelty that so often seems part of strips of this type, his affection for the characters and humanity shone through as it did in all of his work. He’d go on and produce more pages, eventually collecting the strip into another self-published comic.
For our own fanzine, Sector 13, John delivered a “Flesh” strip, based on the dinosaur-wrangling cowboy story from the early years of 2000AD and, for Zarjaz, a two-part future sports story based on the fabled “Harlem’s Heroes” strip. I’ve said it before, but for us the “Flesh” story was a revelation. It was easily of professional quality, should have been in the pages of 2000AD itself, and made us set new standards for the work we published.
While never giving up on comics, John turned to different outlets. He wrote a Zombie novel, set during the American Civil War which he self-published, The Legend of Navin Holt – Zombie Hunter, and three wonderful, heavily-illustrated history books for O’Brien Press in a series called, “Deadly Irish History” covering, The Celts, The Vikings and The Normans.
Similar to the Horrible History books, they carried a distinctive and very funny style using text, illustrations and comic strips to fool kids into learning some history while enjoying a very funny book.
His next project was, Farrelly’s Field Guide to Irish Faerie Folk, published just last year, which included some of his very best illustration work, drawn sort of vintage gothic style, as part of a guide to the strange magical creatures that inhabit the Island of Ireland. It was described by Ray D’Arcy of RTE (the Irish state broadcaster) who mentioned he sees of lot of books in this field, as “One of the best” with “a sense of humour”, “an intelligence” and a “tongue-in-cheek-ness” about it. Which might have as good a description of John as you can get.
I think John always had a hankering to draw for a regular newsstand comic, and earlier this year he achieved this ambition when VIZ published his “Beverly Hills Shop” strip. Drawn with more than a nod of the head to one of his heroes. Mort Drucker of Mad magazine, he was obviously proud and excited when we had a quick chat online about it. I can’t help feeling both pleased that he achieved that target and sad that his illness means that he won’t get the chance to make more of it.
When I revived the Splank! comic as a charity book, raising money for ‘NHS Together’ as a thank you to the staff for my own, too frequent, visits to hospital, John drew a wonderful cover. To date the book has raised around £2000. It seems appropriate that we switch future donations from the various ‘Splank!’ projects to the Evora Hospice who looked after John in his final days.
I and another good friend, Bob Curran, had met with John a couple of times in the past year or so, hoping to get him involved in other comics projects with a strip based on one of Bob’s scripts certainly being discussed seriously. Sadly, nothing came of those plans in the end, but it was good to meet up in person again.
John’s comics were a reflection of the man I knew. Funny, intelligent and with compassion and thoughtfulness, which is rare in the medium. His messages from hospital and later from the hospice continued to show his sense of humour and were almost always about how uncomfortable the beds were, and what he could do to help his family in the future.
On behalf of everyone from the Northern Irish comics scene who knew John, I’d like to pass on our sympathies to his wife, Ellie and children Rachel and Emily.
John will be missed.
Peter Duncan
John Farrelly, died 31st October 2025
• If you would like to make a donation in John’s memory to Evora Hospice you can do so here
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Peter Duncan is editor of Sector 13, Belfast’s 2000AD fanzine and Splank! – an anthology of strips inspired by the Odhams titles, Wham!, Smash! and Pow! He’s also writer of Cthulhu Kids. Full details of his comics activities can be found at www.boxofrainmag.co.uk
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries
In Memoriam: Artist and Writer Ron Tiner 
In Memoriam: Comic Artist Dave Taylor 
In Memoriam: Comics Writer, Editor and Publisher Jim Shooter 
Remembering Richmond Clements: A Personal Tribute by Steve Tanner
Leave a Reply