John Stokes (born 1943; UK and India)
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.

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 way 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 titles.

John Stokes has been active in the British comics field since the 1960s. He drew 'Fishboy' with text by Scott Goodall in Buster from 1968 to 1975. He worked for Marvel UK in the late 1970s and the 1980s. There, he drew 'Black Knight' for Hulk Weekly and for the UK line of the 'Transformers' comics. He has contributed to 2000AD and to such books as 'American Century: Hollywood Babylon' and 'The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales' at Vertigo. He worked as an inker on various titles, and pencilled 'Warrior of Waverly Street'.

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.

Then, in the late seventies, he was recruited by Dez Skinn to go and work for Marvel UK, initially on The House of Hammer and then on to Black Knight and Doctor Who. In the early to mid-eighties he also worked for other British comics like 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-nineties. 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.
Source: Illustration Art Gallery, Lambiek Comiclopedia & Wikipedia