JOHN McCREA

Garth Ennis is best known for his over-the-top scripting on books such as PREACHER, THE PUNISHER, and THE BOYS, but for some reason his work on HITMAN remains unfairly glossed over. It's funny as hell, took place in the DC Universe and used that fact to entertaining advantage, and it featured some of the best art in John McCrea's career, with Gary Leach on inks. McCrea's a total riot of a human being and is utterly fun and hilarious to hang with, an aspect of his personality that really comes across in his work on HITMAN, plus he's one of the few artists in the biz who can actually draw black people without making us look odd. My favorite character in the book was Nat the Hat, the protagonist's best friend, and, knowing this, McCrea one day handed me a page that I consider to be the definitive portrait of Nat (as well as featuring the goofball demon Baytor, and everyone's favorite drunken barfly of a superhero, Captain Six-Pack).