Writer Mike Carey

Mike Carey (born 1959), also known by his pen name M.

R. Carey, is a British writer of comic books, novels and films, whose credits include the long-running The Sandman spin-off series Lucifer, a three-year stint on Hellblazer, as well as his creator-owned titles Crossing Midnight and The Unwritten for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, a lengthy run on Marvel's X-Men, the 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts and its 2016 film adaptation.

Mike Carey
Writer Mike Carey
Carey at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan, 10 October 2010
BornMichael James Carey
1959 (age 64–65)
Liverpool, England
NationalityBritish
Area(s)Writer
Notable works
Lucifer
Hellblazer
The Unwritten
X-Men: Legacy
The Girl with All the Gifts
AwardsInkpot Award (2012)

Early life and career

Carey was born in Liverpool, England, in 1959. He describes his young self as "one of those ominously quiet kids... [who] lived so much inside my own head I only had vestigial limbs". As a child, he maintained an interest in comics, writing and drawing primitive stories to entertain his younger brother. He studied English at St Peter's College, Oxford and, upon graduation, became a teacher. He taught for 15 years before moving on to writing comics.

Writing career

After a series of one-off jobs for independent comics companies, including a biographical Ozzy Osbourne comic and a fantasy tale starring the band Pantera, Carey became a contributor to the British comics anthology 2000 AD, where he co-created the original series Thirteen and Carver Hale, and wrote two series for The Sandman Presents line published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, Lucifer and Petrefax. Lucifer was subsequently extended into an ongoing series, which Carey wrote for its entire 75-issue run. Further work for Vertigo includes a 40-issue run on the imprint's flagship title Hellblazer as well as the spin-off graphic novel All His Engines, several creator-owned endeavors, such as the six-part mini-series Faker with art by Jock and the ongoing series Crossing Midnight with artist Jim Fern, and two more The Sandman spin-offs in the form of graphic novels, The Sandman Presents: The Furies and God Save the Queen, both created with artist John Bolton. In 2009, Carey launched his longest creator-owned series to date, The Unwritten, co-created with the Lucifer collaborator Peter Gross and featuring covers by Yuko Shimizu.

Writer Mike Carey 
Carey at the DC Comics booth at the New York Comic Con, 10 October 2010

Other work for DC Comics includes the long-delayed reboot of Wildstorm's Wetworks and two graphic novels for the Minx imprint aimed at the teenage female audience, one of which was co-written by Carey with his daughter Louise. In 2003, Carey was announced as the new writer of the Firestorm ongoing series, however, he left the project few months after the announcement as the editors wanted to take it in a different direction. The series was launched in 2004 with Dan Jolley as the writer.

In 2006, Carey took over the writing duties of Marvel's X-Men series, which was soon rebranded into X-Men: Legacy. He saw the title through a number of inter-title crossovers between the various X-Men books such as "Endangered Species", "Messiah Complex", "Original Sin" (a crossover between X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine: Origins that was tentatively titled "Dark Deception") and "Age of X". Carey wrote X-Men: Legacy for six years and contributed a number of X-Men stories to other publications, such as two tie-ins to the "Secret Invasion" crossover storyline, the four-issue mini-series Secret Invasion: X-Men and an eight-page story in the one-shot anthology Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? featuring Abigail Brand of S.W.O.R.D., a retelling of Beast's origin story as part of the X-Men: Origins line and an Iceman serial in the X-Men: Manifest Destiny anthology series. Other work for Marvel includes the comic book adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow.

Carey's first novel, The Devil You Know, was released in the UK by Orbit books in April 2006, and as a hardcover in the US in July 2007. Its sequel, Vicious Circle, was published in October 2006, and the following three novels in the series, Dead Men's Boots, Thicker Than Water, and The Naming of the Beasts, followed in September 2007, March 2009 and September 2009, respectively. What would have been Carey's first feature film, the erotic ghost story Frost Flowers, was reported to be in pre-production in June 2006, with filming to begin that September under the direction of Andrea Vecchiato. Carey was also reported to work on the TV adaptation of his comic book series The Stranded, a co-production between Virgin Comics and the Syfy network. Also for Virgin, Carey took part in the short-lived Coalition Comix project created in association with MySpace, where users could suggest ideas for a comic which then would be used during its production.

In 2014, Carey published another novel, The Girl with All the Gifts. That same year, the screenplay of the same name, written by Carey concurrently with the novel, appeared on the Brit List. Filming began in May 2015, with Colm McCarthy directing and Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close and Sennia Nanua starring. The story, depicting a dystopian future where most of humanity is wiped out by a fungal infection, focuses on the struggle of a scientist, a teacher and two soldiers who embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.

Bibliography

Comics

Early work

  • Toxic! #30–31: "Aquarius" (with Ken Meyer, Jr., anthology, Apocalypse Ltd, 1991)
  • Rock-It Comix:
  • Caliber:
    • Inferno #1–5 (with Michael Gaydos, 1995–1996) collected as Inferno (tpb, 144 pages, Titan, 2003, ISBN 1-84023-764-3)
    • Negative Burn #49: "Suicide Kings" (with P. J. Holden, anthology, 1997)
    • Dr. Faustus (with Mike Perkins, one-shot, Tome Press, 1997)
  • 2000 AD (anthology, Fleetway/Rebellion):
  • Just 1 Page (series of charity benefit anthology one-shots self-published by Adrian Brown for Comic Festival):
    • Just 1 Page: Heroes: "Little Nemo" (with Adrian Brown, one-page strip, 2001)
    • Just 1 Page: Brits: "Wham! and Smash!" (text article detailing the history of the eponymous comics magazines, 2003)
  • 9-11 Volume 1: "In the House of Light" (with Mike Collins, anthology graphic novel, 196 pages, Dark Horse, 2002, ISBN 1-563898-81-0)

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Other publishers

Poetry and short prose

Uncollected

Year Title Source Publisher Notes
2002 "In Thule with Jessica" Xconnect: Writers of the Information Age Volume 5 CrossConnect ISBN 0-9651-4504-2
2006 "Auszug" Mike Carey's One-Sided Bargains Desperado Publishing Published with an illustration by Michael Gaydos
2009 "Now! and Then!" Murky Depths #10 The House of Murky Depths ISBN 1-9065-8415-X
2016 "The Ornament" O Horrid Night FunDead ISBN 0-9894-7263-9
2019 "There Were No Birds to Fly" Wonderland: An Anthology Titan Books ISBN 1-7890-9148-9
2020 "War Crimes" London Centric: Tales of Future London NewCon Press ISBN 1-9129-5073-1
2023 "Mr. Thirteen" Twice Cursed: An Anthology Titan Books ISBN 1-8033-6121-2

Collected

Novels

Year Title Series Publisher ISBN Notes
2006 The Devil You Know Felix Castor Orbit Books 1-84149-413-5
(Paperback, 480 pages)
2006 Vicious Circle Felix Castor Orbit Books 1-8414-9414-3
(Paperback, 512 pages)
2007 Dead Men's Boots Felix Castor Orbit Books 1-841-49415-1
(Paperback, 544 pages)
2009 Thicker Than Water Felix Castor Orbit Books 1-841-49656-1
(Paperback, 512 pages)
2009 The Naming of the Beasts Felix Castor Orbit Books 1-8414-9655-3
(Paperback, 512 pages)
2011 The Dead Sea Deception Heather Kennedy Sphere Books 0-7515-4573-2
(Paperback, 400 pages)
2012 The Steel Seraglio ChiZine 1-926-85153-6
(Paperback, 400 pages)
  • Co-written by Carey with his wife Linda and daughter Louise
  • Published as The City of Silk and Steel in the UK
2012 The Demon Code Heather Kennedy Sphere Books 0-7515-4578-3
(Paperback, 576 pages)
  • Written under the pseudonym Adam Blake
2014 The Girl with All the Gifts The Hungry Plague Orbit Books 0-3565-0015-2
(Paperback, 512 pages)
2014 The House of War and Witness Gollancz 0-5751-3272-8
(Paperback, 528 pages)
  • Co-written by Carey with his wife Linda and daughter Louise
2016 Fellside Orbit Books 0-3565-0358-5
(Hardcover, 496 pages)
2017 The Boy on the Bridge The Hungry Plague Orbit Books 0-3565-0353-4
(Hardcover, 400 pages)
2018 Someone Like Me Orbit Books 0-3565-0946-X
(Hardcover, 512 pages)
2020 The Book of Koli Rampart Trilogy Orbit Books 0-356-50955-9
(Paperback, 400 pages)
2020 The Trials of Koli Rampart Trilogy Orbit Books 0-3565-1349-1
(Paperback, 480 pages)
2021 The Fall of Koli Rampart Trilogy Orbit Books 0-3565-1350-5
(Paperback, 560 pages)
2023 Infinity Gate The Pandominion Orbit Books 0-3165-0438-6
(Paperback, 544 pages)
2023 The Ghost in Bone Felix Castor Subterranean Press 1-6452-4133-5
(Hardcover, 144 pages)
2024 Echo of Worlds The Pandominion Orbit Books 0-3565-1808-6
(Paperback, 496 pages)

References

Interviews

Preceded by Hellblazer writer
2002–2006
Succeeded by
Preceded by Red Sonja writer
2005–2006
(with Michael Avon Oeming)
Succeeded by
Michael Avon Oeming
Preceded by X-Men: Legacy writer
2006–2011
Succeeded by
Preceded by Ultimate Fantastic Four writer
2006–2008
Succeeded by

Tags:

Writer Mike Carey Early life and careerWriter Mike Carey Writing careerWriter Mike Carey BibliographyWriter Mike Carey

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