Rich Johnston

Early life

Johnston grew up in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. He subsequently moved to London.

Career

Comics journalism/gossip

Rich's Revelations was originally a simple relisting of British magazine comics news. Johnston began writing gossip on USENET newsgroups in 1994 as Rich's Ramblings. He then took the column, around onto the burgeoning World Wide Web, with "Rich's Revelations" on the now-defunct Twist And Shout Comics website. He later started the comics gossip column "All The Rage" for Silver Bullet Comic Books, later Comics Bulletin.

Johnston wrote the column "Lying in the Gutters" for Comic Book Resources, posting rumours and gossip, with a traffic light icon imparting advisory caution as to the possible credibility of each rumour: a red light denoting the least likelihood of accuracy, a green light for the most credible reports, and a yellow light for those that fall somewhere in between.

Johnston's writing does not often impart sources. About that, Johnston said, "I often obfuscate sources to hide their identity—even deny that a story has sources on many occasions." Johnston sees himself as part of a tradition established by the "British tabloid press, one that seeks to entertain rather than inform."

''Bleeding Cool''

On 27 March 2009, Johnston announced his launch of the website BleedingCool.com.

Bleeding Cool was nominated for the "Favourite Comics Related Website" Eagle Award in 2010 and 2011 and won in 2012. It was named as one of PC Magazines top blogs of 2010. and Technorati gave it a perfect 1000 score for influence in the comics category. Johnston was awarded the Shel Dorf Award for Best Comics Blogger for his work on Bleeding Cool in 2012. He was also nominated in 2011 and 2013.

Comics creator

Johnston has written a number of comics, mainly consisting of one-shots and graphic novella. The first consists of parodies, such as Watchmensch and Civil Wardrobe (alluding to Marvel's 2006 story Civil War). The second include his original work, both creator-owned and those based on licensed properties, like Doctor Who: A Room With A Deja View, The Flying Friar (based on the life of Joseph of Cupertino) and Chase Variant which started life at Mam Tor Publishing's Event Horizon.

In 2007, he wrote the IDW trading card set George W. Bush and the Weapons of Mass Distraction.

He wrote and drew a number of pages for the Popbitch book and curated the Harrods Comic Timing exhibition of original comic book artwork.

In 2009, he had a story scheduled for the Spearmint anthology from Image Comics with Sleaze Castle writer-artist Terry Wiley. He wrote a short story, "Rustlin Up Business," for the second volume of Outlaw Territory, published in February 2011.

He has also written Kate and William: A Very Public Love Story, a comic commemorating the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, published by Markosia.

In 2012, he wrote a comic serialised in Dark Horse Presents entitled The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne, with art from Simon Rohrmüller. He also wrote a series of parody comics for Boom! Studios, taking on Marvel Studios films, with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers reinterpreted as "Iron Muslim", "Scienthorlogy," "Captain American Idol," and "The Avengefuls," respectively.

Johnston writes and draws weekly cartoons for the UK blogger Paul Staines, appearing each Monday and collected at RichAndMark.com.

Non-comics writing

Johnston wrote briefly for newspapers like The Guardian and magazines like PlayStation World. The now-closed publication Punch magazine named him Young Writer of the Year Award in 2001.

His poster campaign for the Churches Advertising Network in December 2006 generated coverage, including a leader in the Times Newspaper and an appearance on BBC's The One Show.

He was an advertising copywriter until 2009.

Media appearances

Johnston contributed to the British Channel 4 sketch show Smack the Pony as well as for BBC Radio 4's satirical sketch show Week Ending and the stage/TV show The Sitcom Trials.

He appeared as an interviewee in After the Chalk Dust Settled, a documentary included on the DVD release of Steven Moffat's sitcom Chalk.

He was a zombie extra in Shaun of the Dead and a congregation member in the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

He wrote and directed a series of radio advertisements for telecommunications company TalkTalk starring Mark Heap.

Parodies

In 2006, he appeared as a character in the comic book CSI: Dying in the Gutters as a source of "inside joke" humour by featuring him as the victim in a murder mystery set at a comic book convention and using other notable real-world comics creators as suspects in the crime. He also appeared as a character in the Jodie Picoult novel, The Tenth Circle and made a more major appearance in the Leverage novel The Con Job.

Personal life

Johnston has two daughters. His brother is the comedian Edi Johnston https://x.com/richjohnston/status/1980405409396756687. His cousins include composer Julian Wagstaff, and Jonathan Hellyer Jones https://bleedingcool.com/tv/charlie-cox-cosplay-bluey-new-york-comic-con/.

Bibliography

• Dirtbag (Twist and Shout Comics, 1995)
• The X-Files (Twist and Shout Comics, 1997)
• Rich Johnston's Holed Up (Avatar Pres, 2004)
• The Flying Friar (with Thomas Paul Nachlik, Speakeasy Comics, 2005)
• Civil Wardrobe (with various artists, including Darick Robertson, Ashley Wood and Frazer Irving, Brain Scan Studios, 2006)
• Watchmensch (with Simon Rohrmüller, Brian Scan Studios, 2009)
• Doctor Who: A Room With A Deja View (with Eric J., IDW, 2009)
• "A Trip into Space" (with Terry Wiley, in This Is a Souvenir: The Songs of Spearmint & Shirley Lee, Image Comics, 2009)
• Chase Variant (with Saverio Tenuta and Edmund Bagwell, Image Comics, February 2010, forthcoming)
• Kate and William: A Very Public Love Story (Markosia, April 2011, ) collects:
  • William Windsor: A Very Public Prince (with art by Gary Erskine, 36 pages, Markosia, April 2011, )
  • Kate Middleton: A Very Private Princess (with art by Mike Collins, 36 pages, Markosia, April 2011, )
• The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne, with Simon Rohrmuller, Dark Horse Presents (Dark Horse Comics, 2012)
• The Avengefuls (Boom! Studios, 2012)

References

References

1. Singer, Matt. (14 March 2006). "Pulp Friction". [[The Village Voice]].
2. Dean, Michael. (2005). "Online Comics Journalism: Does It Exist? Part 3: Rich Johnston's Honest ''Lying''". [[The Comics Journal]].
3. Johnston, Rich (4 July 2013). [http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/04/adi-granov-man-of-ilkley-yorkshire/ "Adi Granov: Man Of Ilkley, Yorkshire"] {{webarchive. link. (22 March 2014 . Bleeding Cool.)
4. (2 December 1998). "What is Ramblings 98?".
5. (1 July 2002). "Lying in the Gutters". [[Comic Book Resources]].
6. Johnston, Rich. (31 July 2000). "It Lives!". [[Silver Bullet Comic Books]].
7. link. (12 April 2008 . Accessed 18 January 2008)
8. (24 May 2010). "2010 Eagle Awards nominations". [[Comics Beat.
9. Griffith, Eric. (11 November 2010). "Our Favorite Blogs: 2010". [[PC Magazine]].
10. (21 September 2011). "Bleeding cool".
11. (27 October 2012). "Bleeding Cool Wins Shel Dorf Award For Best Comic Blogger (Other People Win Things Too) - Bleeding Cool News And Rumors".
12. MacDonald, Heidi. (August 10, 2011). "Shel Dorf Award nominees announced".
13. Armitage, Hugh. (September 17, 2013). "2013 Shel Dorf Awards announce shortlist".
14. Ekstrom, Steve. (5 March 2009). "Who Skewers the Watchmen? Rich Johnston on Watchmensch". [[Newsarama]].
15. Singh, Arune. (14 August 2006). "Rich Johnston Changes Minds In "Civil Wardrobe"". [[Comic Book Resources]].
16. Marshall, Rick. (17 April 2009). "EXCLUSIVE: 'Doctor Who: Room With A Deja View' Writer Rich Johnston Talks TARDIS And Time Lords". MTV.
17. Dowling, Tim. (3 December 2007). "A saint with the powers of Superman". [[The Guardian]].
18. Wigler, Josh. (10 December 2009). "Johnston Pursues His "Chase Variant"". [[Comic Book Resources]].
19. [http://www.idwpublishing.com/titles/bushcards.shtml Weapons of Mass Distraction] {{webarchive. link. (21 May 2008 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
20. Maev Kennedy. (21 June 2007). "Report on George W Bush cards". Guardian.
21. [http://londonist.com/2008/10/review_comic_timing_at_harrods.php Harrods Comic Timing Exhibition 2008] {{webarchive. link. (20 October 2008 . Accessed 17 October 2008)
22. link. (18 October 2008 . Accessed 17 October 2008)
23. Good, Oliver. (16 January 2011). "Wills'n'Kate: the comic book". [[The Guardian]].
24. [http://www.richandmark.com RichAndMark.com site] {{webarchive. link. (8 June 2010 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
25. [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/feb/28/internetnews.g2 The Guardian, Feb 28th, 2001] {{webarchive. link. (11 May 2017 Accessed 27 January 2008)
26. [http://www.gamesradar.com/ps2/f/all-the-write-moves/a-2007071911468272068/g-20060313151238825080 PlayStation World UK] {{webarchive. link. (9 July 2008 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
27. link. (4 April 2008 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
28. [https://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=times+churches+advertising+network+beer&um=1&sa=N&cid=8616803907404920 Google News Cache]. Accessed 27 January 2008
29. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article639683.ece Times newspaper, September 15th 2006]{{dead link. (September 2024)
30. ''After the Chalk Dust Settled'', featurette on ''Chalk'' Series 1 DVD, ReplayDVD.co.uk, prod. and dir. [[Craig Robins (producer). Craig Robins]]
31. {{IMDb name
32. Johnston, Rich. (18 June 2024). "Terry's Story, a series of radio ads for TalkTalk, starring Mark Heap, written by Rich Johnston". [[YouTube]].
33. [http://www.idwpublishing.com/dyinggut.shtml IDW's Dying In the Gutters' site] {{webarchive. link. (4 August 2008 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
34. [http://filmick.blogspot.co.uk/2006/03/jodi-picoults-tenth-circle-hidden.html Film Ick] {{webarchive. link. (11 November 2013 . Accessed 2 April 2013.)
35. [http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/15/getting-more-leverage/ Bleeding Cool] {{webarchive. link. (18 February 2013 . Accessed 2 April 2013.)
36. Johnston, Rich. (7 June 2005). "Lying In The Gutters". [[ComicBookResources.com]].
37. Johnston, Rich. (March 23, 2019). "Joyce Chin Admitted to Chicago Hospital With Arthur Adams, Not at C2E2".
38. [http://www.twistandshoutcomics.com/titles/dirtbag.html Official Dirtbag site] {{webarchive. link. (28 October 2007 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
39. [http://www.twistandshoutcomics.com/titles/xflies.html Official X Flies site] {{webarchive. link. (28 October 2007 . Accessed 27 January 2008)
40. [http://www.holedup.net Official Holed Up site] {{webarchive. link. (20 February 2008)
41. "Official Flying Friar site". Flyingfriarcomic.com.
42. link. (6 March 2008 . Accessed 27 January 2008)