Creator Profile: John Watkiss

John Watkiss was British comic artist best known for his work on Sandman, Conan the Barbarian, and Detective Comics.

Watkins was born in London on July 28, 1961, and got started as a portrait painter and illustrator, while also teaching anatomy and fine art at the Royal College of Art. Watkins then went on to work for the Museum of the Moving Image in London, Steven Spielberg’s Amblimation, Derek Jarman, Saatchi and Saatchi, Ridley Scott Associates, Francis Ford Coppola, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, and Disney.

During the 1980s, Watkiss entered the world of graphic novels, beginning with Kiss of Death and The Last Kiss for ACME Press. He made his US debut at DC Comics with a pre-Vertigo issue of The Sandman, followed by Ring of Roses. The success of Ring of Roses led to two issues of Conan The Barbarian, a four-issue James Bond book, four issues of Vertigo’s Sandman Mystery Theatre, a three-issue run on Conan the Adventurer, and a three-part Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight story.

Around 1995, Watkins branched off into film development with his work on the animated feature Tarzan. His additional credits for Disney include Emperor’s New Grove, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, and Don Quixote. He also worked on several development projects for Fox Animation Studios and Nickelodeon.

Watkiss’ later credits included storyboard work for the TV series The Walking Dead and Image Comics’ Surgeon X, launched in 2016. A collected edition of those comics will be released in May 2017.