John Smith (born 1967) is a British comic book writer best known for his work on the weekly anthology 2000 AD and its spin-off title Crisis, particularly the Indigo Prime, Devlin Waugh and New Statesmen serials.

Career

Smith's earliest published work appeared in the DC Thomson's science fiction comic Starblazer in the mid-1980s. Soon after, he became a regular contributor for 2000 AD and followed up with the political superhero serial New Statesmen for 2000 ADs spin-off title Crisis.

Many of Smith's series created for 2000 AD shared the same continuity under the umbrella of Indigo Prime, a multi-dimensional organisation that policed reality, recruiting recently dead people as its agents. The original run of Indigo Prime stories ended with "Killing Time", in which agents Winwood and Cord pursued a demon that had hitched a ride on a Victorian time machine, one of the legitimate passengers of which turned out to be Jack the Ripper. Other contributions to 2000 AD include Revere, a post-apocalyptic occult story with art by Simon Harrison, and Firekind, an anthropological science fiction story involving alien cultures and dragons, illustrated by Paul Marshall. Perhaps the best-known character created by Smith is Devlin Waugh, a flamboyantly gay exorcist, assassin, and vampire working for the Vatican of the future, co-created with artist Sean Phillips and published in 2000 ADs sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. In addition to his own creations, Smith has also contributed stories for the long-running serials Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd.

Smith has also briefly worked in the American market. For DC Comics, he wrote an issue of Hellblazer and an 8-part mini-series Scarab, which began life as a revamp of Doctor Fate.

The Smithiverse

Examples of John Smith's cross-referencing of characters throughout his oeuvre include:

  • Renegade Indigo Prime agents Fervent and Lobe originally appeared in Tyranny Rex. Although, at that point, Indigo Prime had only appeared in a single Future Shocks installment, "A Change of Scenery", Smith stated he always considered the stories taking place in the same world: