John Stokes (comics)

John Stokes is a British comics artist who has largely worked for IPC and Marvel UK and is best known for his work on Fishboy.

Biography
Stokes got into the comics industry thanks to his brother, George Stokes, who already worked for IPC. He lived in India until the age of 8 or 9, and when he came to England the first comic work he saw was that of his brother and colleagues, as well the comic Eagle, which launched around the same time. This sparked a lifelong interest in comics and he moved from drawing comics in his spare time at school and trying not to draw comics at art school (where his interest was discouraged), to doing it professionally, starting in the early 1960s.

He worked, largely uncredited (as was the practice at the time), for IPC for 16 years where, among other things, he drew all 360 installments of Fishboy as well as a number of other Buster strips. From 1964 to 1967, he also drew the strip Britain in Chains (later editions were entitled The Battle for Britain) for Lion; the strip was later reprinted (with a truncated ending) in Smash! between 1969 and 1971. For Smash! in 1969–1970, Stokes drew the adventure strip Rebbels on the Run, about three young brothers who run away from an orphanage to avoid being split up. As the strip evolved into more of a science fiction story, it was retitled The Rebbel Robot after a few months.

In the late seventies, he was recruited by Dez Skinn, initially on The House of Hammer, and then for Marvel UK, on such titles as Black Knight, The Transformers and Doctor Who. In the early to mid-eighties he also worked for other British comics such as Warrior and 2000 AD.

Following the success of the British Invasion he got more work with DC Comics and Marvel in the early-to-mid 1990s. In more recent years he has done inking work for DC's imprint Vertigo on The Invisibles with Grant Morrison, who he had worked with previously at Marvel and 2000 AD. He has also returned to 2000 AD after a 15-year hiatus to do more inking work.

Influences include Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy.