Today in Comics History, August 22: Happy birthday, Kevin O'Neill!

A very happy birthday — and we wish he were here to celebrate it with us — to Kevin O'Neill, born on this day in 1953 and passed away late last year. He's written, drawn, and colored stories in 2000 AD, Toxic, Buster, Green Lantern (the infamous back-up story that resulted in him being banned by the Comics Code Authority from ever drawing a Code-approved story every again) and more! And he's the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Ro-Busters, Metalzoic, Marshal Law and,...you know where I'm going with this...one of the early twenty-first century's most important comics, his collabpration with Alan Moore on several series of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In the pentiumtulare series Ctury, he provided portraits of Moore and himself throughgout the titular century:


"Rogues in the Gallery" from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: Century: 1910 (Top Shelf/Knockabout, April 2009), pencils by Kevin O'Neill







"Love In" and "Kredit Krunch" from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: Century: 1969 and 2009 (Top Shelf/Knockabout, July 2011 and June 2012), text by Alan Moore, pencils and inks by Kevin O'Neill, colors by Benedict Dimagmaliw, letters by Todd Klein
But that's certainly not the first appearance of Mr. O'Neill in comic books! In fact he appeared fairly early within the pages of a Judge Dredd 2000 AD story (while he was working on the childrens' comci Buster, so this is before he even started drawing for 2000 AD!)


from "[Krong]" in 2000 AD prog 5 (IPC UK, 26 March 1977); script by Malcolm Shaw; pencils, inks, and colors by Carlos Ezquerra; letters by Stan Richardson
After numerous gruesome murders in the tower block, Dredd finally corners the mysterious perpetrator: it is, as you've already guessed, Kevin O'Neill. Shame on you, Kevin!


Cornered, the obsessed O'Neill creates the most terrifying monster of them all: Krong! presumably,m his first name is Kring. So dramtic is this twist in teh tale that it turns the entire story to color colour!


Sadly, this fictional death of Kevin O'Neill in 1977 was followed (not immediately ,thankfully) by his actual death in November 2022.


from DC Comics cover-dated February 2023
Happy birthday, Kevin! We miss him a lot. Remember: he definitely outlived the Comics Code.