John M. Burns. In Memoriam

Picture Source: Downthetubes.

Renowned British comics artist John M. Burns (1938-2013) has died at age 85. Over his prolific six-decade career, Burns lent his extraordinary talents to titles like Judge Dredd, Nikolai Dante, The Order, and countless more- With his richly detailed painted artwork, he brought vibrancy and drama to everything he illustrated.

Born in 1938, Essex native Burns began working professionally in 1958. In 1963, he illustrated Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights for the comic Diana for Girls [1]. Some of the pages can be seen here. Through the '60s and '70s, he contributed painted art to British comics like Champion The Wonder Horse, Eagle, Countdown, and Look-In, inspiring generations of young readers.

In the 90s, Burns began working with legendary sci-fi comics anthology 2000 AD, quickly becoming a revered name. Alongside his long runs on Nikolai Dante and The Order, Burns co-created the paranoid thriller series Black Light. 

In 2008, Burns created a graphic novel adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre for Classical Comics  which we reviewed:

The watercolours by John M. Burns are completely in keeping with the script adaptation. His artwork is beautiful, clear and always illustrative. His choice of colours and general style evoke even a period-look not at all unrelated to the traditional kind of drawing and colouring used by Mr Burns as opposed to other more modern techniques, such as the one used by Dame Darcy in her illustrations of Jane Eyre. As Bear Alley has noticed in his review, Burns's work tries to bring to life not only the main events but also the imagery of fairies and green men with which Jane is associated by Rochester or the many bird metaphorical allusions of the novel as well as Jane's drawings or dreams.

He also later returned to adapt Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights once more with the same publisher  We also reviewed it here:

Apart from recognising the merit of Seán M. Wilson's work, it's nevertheless a matter of justice to notice that what makes this adaptation memorable is the extraordinary work of John M. Burns. Talking about John M. Burns is talking about living history of the British comic industry. He has been working since the sixties and most notably he was the illustrator of the previous Jane Eyre adaptation (...).
Many of the adjectives can be used again. John M. Burns's vivid, highly-detailed illustrations (illustrate is a verb that doesn't make justice to his work, he doesn't illustrate, he recreates) helped by the concise, true-to-the-novel adaptation by Seán M. Wilson, make the story leap from the page. His works excels in many points but his vision of the death of Linton with an almost cinematographical dolly-up shot towards Edgar, ending in a extreme close up of his eyes is at the same time terrifying, moving and disturbing. The meticulous choosing of the palette of colours, the careful creation of the psychological profiles of characters (Catherine vs Cathy are a perfect example) shows the impressive work of John M. Burns.

Sadly, much of Burns' seminal 60-year comics career now risks being lost to history. As little has been preserved or reprinted, his vast legacy remains tragically untapped Easier access to Burns' brilliantly composed art would enrich his rightful place amongst Britain's greatest artists.

We cannot help ourselves from quoting Tom Shapira in The Gutten Review:

What is it that makes Burns’ art so special? What is it that makes our loss of his long history so great? After all, Burns never seems to think of himself like an auteur. The final words he gave to that Illustrators special were “It’s only a job, after all.” Appropriate for an ethos of someone who grew up when comics was just a job and as something there on the stands one week and then gone another – years before the rise of graphic novels and the notion of the ninth art as, well, proper art to be preserved.