John Layman


John Steele Layman is an American comic book writer and letterer. Layman is most known for his writing published by Image Comics: Chew, its spin-off/midquel series Chu, the stand-alone Outer Darkness, and the crossover series Outer Darkness/Chew, as well as the Marvel Comics series Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, Gambit, and Cyclops: A Pirate's Life for Me.

Career

Once an editor for Wildstorm, a branch of DC Comics, Layman turned to writing comics full-time in 2002, mainly for Marvel Comics.
He also worked on several comic books based on licensed properties, such as Xena: Warrior Princess and ThunderCats, as well as crossovers like Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness.
From 2007–2010 he worked as a writer for Cryptic Studios, a video game developer in Los Gatos, California.
Layman has written a number of creator-owned titles at Image Comics, such as the graphic novel Puffed, and Chew, with artist Rob Guillory. Chew has gone on to achieve much success, being nominated for two Harvey Awards, two Eagle Awards, and winning an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2010.
In April 2022, Layman was reported among the more than three dozen comics creators who contributed to Operation USA's benefit anthology book, Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier, whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Layman and Rob Guillory teamed up to contribute a new Chew story to the anthology.

AfterShock Comics

  • ''Eleanor and the Egret''

    Image Comics

  • Puffed
  • Stay Puffed
  • Chew #1–60
  • * Volume 1: Tasters Choice #1–5
  • * Volume 2: International Flavor #6–10
  • * Volume 3: Just Desserts #11–15
  • * Volume 4: Flambé #16–20
  • * Volume 5: Major League Chew #21–25
  • * Volume 6: Space Cakes #26–30, Chew: Secret Agent Poyo one-shot
  • * Volume 7: Bad Apples #31–35
  • * Volume 8: Family Recipes #36–40
  • * Volume 9: Chicken Tenders #41–45, Chew: Warrior Chicken Poyo one-shot
  • * Volume 10: Blood Puddin' #46–50
  • * Volume 11: The Last Suppers #51–55, Chew / Revival one-shot
  • * Volume 12: Sour Grapes Chew #56–60, Chew: Demon Chicken Poyo one-shot
  • Leviathan #1–3
  • Outer Darkness #1–12
  • * Volume 1: Each Other's Throats #1–6
  • * Volume 2: Castrophany of Hate #7–12
  • Outer Darkness/Chew #1–3
  • * Outer Darkness/Chew: Fusion Cuisine
  • Chu #1–present
  • * Volume 1: First Course #1–5
  • * Volume 2: Drunk History #1–5

    Wildstorm

  • Gen13 vol. 2:
  • * "When Bedbugs Bite"
  • * "Over My Dead Body"
  • * "Meanwhile"
  • Wildstorm Thunderbook, anthology, "Down and Out with the Deviants"
  • Bay City Jive :
  • * "The Demon-Gate Freak Out!"
  • Thundercats: Dogs of War :
  • * Thundercats: Dogs of War collects:
  • ** "Bone of Contention"
  • ** "Hounded"
  • ** "Pack of Lies"
  • ** "Hand That Feeds You"
  • ** "Dog Gone"
  • Thundercats: Enemy's Pride
  • * Thundercats: Enemy's Pride collects:
  • ** "Lie of The Beholder"
  • ** "Best Served Cold"
  • ** "Eye of The Tiger"
  • ** "The King and I"
  • ** "Animas Acme"
  • Red Sonja/Claw
  • * Red Sonja/Claw The Unconquered: Devil's Hands collects:
  • ** "The Accursed"
  • ** "Soul Corruption"
  • ** "Divide & Conquered"
  • ** "Severed Alliance"

    Marvel Comics

  • X-Men Unlimited #47, "Strange Harvest"
  • Marvel Age: Fantastic Four
  • * Volume 2: Doom Digest collects:
  • ** "Invaders from Planet X"
  • ** "Prisoners of the Puppet Master"
  • Gambit vol. 4 #1–12
  • * Volume 1: House of Cards collects:
  • ** "The Prodigal Sinner"
  • ** "Player's Club"
  • ** "Slight of Hand"
  • ** "Bet Your Life"
  • ** "Celebrity Poker"
  • ** "Backstabber's Rhapsody"
  • * Volume 2: Hath No Fury collects:
  • ** "Voodoo Economics"
  • ** "X, Lies and Videotape"
  • ** "Thieves' World"
  • The Pulse: House of M and The Pulse Special Edition #1
  • Fantastic Four: House of M :
  • * House of M: Fantastic Four/Iron Man collects:
  • ** "A Doctor in the House"
  • ** "Four the Hard Way"
  • ** "King For A Day"
  • Sentinel Squad O*N*E
  • * Decimation: Sentinel Squad O.N.E collects:
  • ** "Tin Can Heroes"
  • Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness
  • * Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness collects:
  • ** "Earth's Mightiest Zero"
  • ** "Marvel Team-Ups"
  • ** "Night of the Livid Dead"
  • ** "The Book of Dooms"
  • ** "The Stalking Dead"
  • Shadowland: Bullseye, one-shot, "Bullseye: Dead on a Rival" collected in Street Heroes
  • Women of Marvel #1, "Love & Illusion"
  • Identity Wars collects:
  • * The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38, "Part 1"
  • * Deadpool Annual #1, "Part 2"
  • * The Incredible Hulks Annual #1, "Part 3"
  • Cyclops vol. 3 #6–12
  • * Volume 2: A Pirate's Life for Me #6–12
  • Guardians Team-Up #4

    [Oni Press]

  • Armageddon & Son
  • Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen
  • * Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen collects:
  • ** "Invasion of the Optiklons!"
  • ** "Return to Space Academy!; Danger Express To Doom"
  • ** "Evil Has 1000 Eyes; Depth & The Maidens"
  • ** "Too Many Jansens; Born To Be Hyperwild"
  • ** "The Army of Doom at the Nebula of Death!"

    [Dynamite Entertainment]

  • Xena Warrior Princess: Contest of Pantheons
  • * Xena Warrior Princess Volume 1: Contest of Pantheons collects:
  • ** "Holy Arcrimony"
  • ** "Pantheon Pandemonium"
  • ** "Stalk Like an Egyptian"
  • ** "Undead Reckoning"
  • Xena Warrior Princess: Dark Xena
  • * Xena Warrior Princess Volume 2: Dark Xena collects:
  • ** "The Way We Were"
  • ** "Born Bad"
  • ** "Partners in Crime"
  • ** "Unwritten History"
  • Army of Darkness/Xena: Warrior Princess
  • * Volume 1: Why not? collects:
  • ** "Battered & Bruced, Part One: The Grimmest Fairy Tale"
  • ** "Battered & Bruced, Part Two: Autolykness Adventures"
  • ** "Battered & Bruced, Part Three: From These Ashes"
  • ** "Battered & Bruced, Part Four: The Best Laid Plans…"

    [IDW Publishing]

  • Scarface: Scarred for Life
  • * Scarface: Scarred For Life collects:
  • ** "City of Zeroes"
  • ** "The Scum Also Rises"
  • ** "Everybody Angles"
  • ** "Mutually Assured Destruction"
  • ** "Top O' The Heap, End O' The Line"
  • Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths
  • * Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths collects:
  • ** "Among The Monsters"
  • ** "The Wronged Man"
  • ** "Moth and Flame"
  • ** "While Tokyo Burns"
  • ** "Makoto Sato's Last Stand"
  • Mars Attacks
  • * Mars Attacks Deluxe Edition, #1–10

    [DC Comics]

  • Detective Comics vol. 2 #13–29
  • * Volume 3: Emperor Penguin collects:
  • ** "IQ Test"
  • ** "Seeds & Dirt"
  • ** "Love in Bloom"
  • ** "Pecking Order"
  • ** "Doctor's Orders"
  • ** "A Cut Above"
  • * Volume 4: The Wrath collects:
  • ** "Birth of a Family"
  • ** "Birdwatching"
  • ** "Through A Blue Lens"
  • ** "Empire of the Son"
  • ** "Territorial"
  • ** "My Better Half"
  • ** "Marital Abyss"
  • ** "State of Shock"
  • ** "Face in the Crowd"
  • ** "Contained Multitudes"
  • ** "Harvey Bullock, This is Your Life"
  • * Volume 5: Gothtopia collects:
  • ** "Whistleblower's Blues"
  • ** "Troubled Waters"
  • ** "Crown of Fear"
  • ** "Gothtopia, Part One: The Perfect Crime"
  • ** "Welcome to... Gothtopia, Part Two: The Maddening Crowd"
  • ** "The Truth And Nothing But"
  • Batman: The Dark Knight vol. 2 #23.3: Clayface, "Not Just Another Pretty Face"
  • Catwoman vol. 4 #25, "Before the Claws Come Out" collected in Race of Thieves
  • Batman Eternal :
  • * Volume 1 collects:
  • ** "Batman Eternal"
  • ** "Injustice For All"
  • ** "Disinfect"
  • ** "The Denied"
  • ** "The Sinking Of An Empire!"
  • ** "Guided by Darkness"
  • ** "The Unburied Past"
  • ** "When Animals Attack"
  • ** "Day of the Dads"
  • ** "The Good Man"
  • ** "Infernal Relations"
  • ** "Natural Order"
  • ** "The Common Limit"
  • ** "The Monster Machine"
  • ** "The Savior"
  • ** "A Night on Earth"
  • ** "Breaking Bat"
  • ** "Wild Animals"
  • ** "Ten Forty-Eight"
  • * Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #1-5 collected in tpb October 2024,

    Dark Horse Comics

  • ''Aliens: Inhuman Condition''