Paul Neary, a longtime DC and Marvel comic book artist, perhaps best known for his collaborations with iconic fellow British artists like Alan Davis and Bryan Hitch, and also the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel UK on two separate occasions (including a legendary boom period in the early 1990s), has passed away at the age of 74 from a long illness.
Neary first broke into comics in the early 1970s at Warren Publishing’s famous black and white horror comic book magazines, Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella. Working primarily on Eerie, Neary drew stories for the series regularly for about four years from 1972-76. In the late 1970s, Dez Skinn became the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel UK, and while the company was mostly known for reprinting American comics at the time, Skinn was given the freedom to do a lot more brand-new material using British creators (previous Editors-in-Chief, most notably Neil Tennant, had slowly begun to work in original material, as well, like the original Captain Britian series, but this was still a major shift). Neary was one of the key artists at this new version of Marvel UK, drawing the Hulk weekly series that launched to tie-in with the then-popular Incredible Hulk TV series.
When Skinn left the company in 1980, Neary became the Editor-in-Chief. Neary began writing original Doctor Who stories for Marvel UK, but by far the most memorable aspect of his initial stint as Editor-in-Chief came when he hired Alan Davis to revamp Captain Britian, including designing a brand-new costume for the superhero…
Neary would then hire Alan Moore to write Captain Britain, giving Moore one of his earliest regular comic book writing assignments. Neary drew an awesome cover for the launch of Daredevils, the series that Moore and Davis would work together on Captain Britain (the series was meant to tie-in with reprints of Frank Miller’s iconic Daredevil run, hence Neary using a Miller-esque style for the cover)…
Neary was not long for editorial, though, as the early 1980s saw Marvel and DC recruiting British comic book artists, and so Neary left Marvel UK to start a long stint as the artist on Captain America in 1984, working with writers J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Gruenwald. During this period, Neary helped co-creat Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, plus a number of major new characters, like the anarchist Flag-Smasher…
a number of members of the Serpent Society (including Diamondback, who would later reform and become a longtime love interest for Captain America)…
as well as the super-villain killer known as The Scourge…
Neary’s old hire, Alan Davis, though, had been wooed to American comics, as well, working on Batman and the Outsiders. Davis initially inked himself, but eventually he asked Neary to join him as his inker, and so Neary became Davis’ inker on Batman and the Outsiders, but then Davis’ iconic run on Detective Comics with Outsiders writer, Mike W. Barr…
Davis and Neary became an iconic art team. They then moved to Marvel, where they launched Excalibur with writer Chris Claremont…
Davis and Neary won the 1989 Eisner Award for Best Art Team for their work on Excalibur.
In 1990, Neary returned to Marvel UK as Editor-in-Chief, and his second stint as the head editor coincided with a major superhero comic book sales boom, with the interconnected series of Marvel UK titles by creators Neary hired like Dan Abnett, Liam Sharp, Carlos Pacheco, Salvador Larroca, Gary Frank (Neary gave Pacheco, Larroca and Frank their first major mainstream superhero comic book work), and Bryan Hitch all selling like gangbusters. Neary directed a revamp of Death’s Head, Death’s Head II, whose first issue sold roughly a million copies!
Sadly, as is so often the case, the boom was followed by a bust, and Marvel UK went under in 1995.
Neary returned to inking, working with Davis again, but also Bryan Hitch, including the legendary original Authority run in 1999 by Warren Ellis, Hitch and Neary…
He then moved with Hitch and Laura Martin to JLA, including the classic JLA: Heaven’s Ladder over-sized one-shot…
In 2002, Hitch joined Hitch on the back-half of his historic run with Mark Millar on Ultimates for Marvel…
Neary has inked a number of projects for Hitch in recent years, including an Authority story for The Wildstorm 30th Anniversary Special in 2022.
Our condolences to Neary’s family and friends.
Jeff Anderson drew the portrait of Paul Neary used for the header image
