Beginning as a sub-editor in the mid 1960s while still a teenager, Grant quickly found himself fulfilling whatever task the editor above him needed, including horoscope writing. Various failed endeavors in banking and accounting led him to answer an ad placed by Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson. 2008).īorn in 1949 in Bristol, but moving early on to Scotland with his family, Grant was seemingly unhappy with any other career but writing. Young Alan Grant, taken from an interview in Judge Dredd Megazine #266 (Jan. Alan Grant was made for comics, and comics was made for Alan Grant. It’s not that he couldn’t write other things–he had some scripting credits in television and movies–but his work only ever felt fully expressive when combining words and pictures. “I became a writer by default, because I couldn’t draw.” Perhaps this explains how perfectly fitted he was to the medium of comics. “Rather than being a successful writer, I’m a failed artist.” That’s how Grant described himself in a 2008 recollection with David Bishop for the Judge Dredd Megazine (#266-268). When he died, aged 73, he left behind a towering legacy as a comics writer.

He wrote so many stories that the people in charge had to demand he write under several assumed names so the readers wouldn’t know so many of their favorite works came from him. He wrote 'em straightforward and esoteric. He wrote stories that were bad, stories that were good, and stories that were great. He wrote science fiction, fantasy, comedy, mystery, superheroes, historical drama and even a bit of romance.

He wrote them solo or (often) with longtime creative partner John Wagner. He wrote comics for American and British publications. He wrote Judge Dredd Anderson, Psi Division Batman Lobo Outcasts Robo-Hunter Blackhawk (the British one from the '70s) Tharg's Future Shocks Doomlord Mazeworld The Bogie Man Doctor Who and many more.

Lobo/Judge Dredd by Alan Grant