# Andy Diggle

Andrew Diggle is a British comic book writer and former editor of the weekly anthology series 2000 AD. He is best known for his work on Adam Strange and Green Arrow for DC Comics as well as his creator-owned series The Losers and a run on Hellblazer for DC's Vertigo imprint, and for his stints on Thunderbolts and Daredevil at Marvel. Other credits include Gamekeeper for Virgin Comics, written by Diggle on the basis of a concept created by Guy Ritchie, a three-year run on Robert Kirkman's Thief of Thieves at Image, several short arcs written for IDW Publishing's Doctor Who series and two James Bond mini-series for Dynamite.

## Early life

Diggle was born in London, England. He became a regular reader of 2000 AD at the age of ten and started reading American comics after picking up an issue of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore. Diggle graduated from De Montfort University with a degree in Media Studies, where he later returned to teach a part-time module on comics. For a few years, he worked as an administrator at University College London's Department of Town Planning while maintaining his own comics webzine.

## Career

Diggle began his career in comics as an assistant editor on Judge Dredd Megazine in 1997 and, after brief stints as the editor of Megazine and Sonic the Comic, took over the editorial duties of 2000 AD in 2000. Staying with the magazine for two years, Diggle has been credited (most frequently by David Bishop, who originally hired him for Judge Dredd Megazine) for spearheading a return to the "old school" values of 2000 AD. In 2001, Diggle won the Eagle Award in the "Favourite Editor" category. Around the same time, he began contributing to 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine as a writer, creating Snow/Tiger with artist Andy Clarke and the Judge Dredd spin-off Lenny Zero in the first of numerous collaborations with artist Jock, and co-writing the crossover between Judge Dredd and the Aliens franchise with veteran 2000 AD creator John Wagner. In 2002, Diggle left his editorial position to become a full-time writer.
In 2003, Diggle entered the American comic book industry with a Hellblazer spin-off mini-series Lady Constantine for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. That same year, Diggle and Jock both signed an exclusive 2-year contract with DC and launched the Eagle Award-winning and Eisner Award-nominated series The Losers that was later adapted into a feature film of the same name. In 2004, Diggle wrote the first six issues of a relaunched Swamp Thing ongoing series at Vertigo and made his DC Universe debut with an 8-issue limited series Adam Strange, following up with a creator-owned series Silent Dragon, drawn by Leinil Francis Yu and published via DC's Wildstorm imprint. In 2007, Diggle wrote the inaugural arc for Batman Confidential, an ongoing series set in the early years of Batman's crime-fighting career, reteamed with Jock for Green Arrow: Year One, a mini-series updating the origin of Green Arrow, and took over the writing duties of Vertigo's longest-running ongoing series Hellblazer.
Outside of DC, Diggle wrote Gamekeeper for Virgin Comics, based on a concept by Guy Ritchie, and the webcomic prequel to the Bionic Commando video game after having been hired to script a playable test level during the game's development.
In 2009, Diggle became the writer of Marvel's Thunderbolts, seeing the titular team through the company-wide storyline "Dark Reign" and a crossover with Deadpool. As part of "Dark Reign", Diggle also penned the 5-issue miniseries featuring the villain character Bullseye in the guise of the Avenger Hawkeye. In early 2009, Diggle signed an exclusive contract with Marvel and became the writer of Daredevil following the departure of Ed Brubaker. Diggle's storyline, which began in the Dark Reign: The List—Daredevil one-shot and continued with issue #501 of Daredevil, was initially planned to be told in the ongoing series, but Marvel offered to expand it into a small-scale crossover event for the company's "street-level" characters. The crossover event, titled "Shadowland", ran for three months, with Diggle writing the core 5-issue mini-series and co-writing the tie-in storyline in Daredevil with Antony Johnston. Diggle followed up on "Shadowland" with a 4-issue epilogue mini-series Daredevil: Reborn, drawn by Davide Gianfelice, with whom he subsequently reunited for the western mini-series Six Guns, his last work for Marvel to date.
2010 saw the release of Diggle's first work in the graphic novel format, Rat Catcher, published as part of Vertigo's then-recently launched line of crime books. The following year, he was hired to develop a Volkswagen Scirocco promotional campaign for the Chinese market. In 2012, Diggle returned to British comics with the first fully creator-owned collaboration between himself and Jock, Snapshot, originally serialized in Judge Dredd Megazine and subsequently reprinted for the American market, and a new installment of Lenny Zero, illustrated by Ben Willsher. That same year, he became the "series architect" for IDW Publishing's Doctor Who featuring the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor and joined the "writer's room" of Robert Kirkman's Thief of Thieves series at Image. Later in the year, Diggle and artist Tony Daniel were announced as the new creative team for The New 52 iteration of Action Comics following the departure of writer Grant Morrison and artist Rags Morales. Discussing his plans for the series, Diggle stated that he wanted to put "action" back into Action Comics and bring the character of Superman closer to the "wholesome Christopher Reeve version" as opposed to the more aggressive, hot-headed version introduced during The New 52 initiative. Diggle announced his exit from the title shortly thereafter, one month before the release of his first issue, citing "professional reasons", with Tony Daniel taking over the writing duties.
In 2013, Diggle began writing for Dynamite, starting with the paranormal crime series Uncanny with artist Aaron Campbell. Later in the year, Diggle announced his second creator-owned title at Dynamite, Control, to be drawn by Ben Oliver. The series, described as a "hard-hitting crime comic", was eventually released in 2016 with Oliver-drawn covers and interior art by Andrea Mutti. In addition to his creator-owned work, Diggle has also made several contributions to Dynamite's line of James Bond comics, starting with the 6-issue mini-series James Bond: Hammerhead, illustrated by Luca Casalanguida. In 2018, Diggle penned a one-off tale for DC Comics' Green Lanterns series and launched a new volume of Shadowman at Valiant.

## Personal life

Diggle is married to Angela Cruickshank, with whom he co-wrote the crime mini-series Control.
The character of John Diggle, created for The CW series Arrow and later introduced to comics, was named after Andy Diggle in acknowledgement of the influence of Green Arrow: Year One on the TV series' tone and writing. The series' fourth season would later introduce the character of Andy Diggle as John's younger brother.