Michael James 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.
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,CCI, Day 2: Keanu Sold Separately: Carey talks "Hellblazer: All His Engines" OGN, Comic Book Resources, 23 July 2004 several creator-owned endeavors, such as the six-part mini-series Faker with art by JockMike Carey'a A Faker For Vertigo , ComiconCarey's Faker: A Thriller Rooted in Paranoia, With Some Existentialism Thrown In , Comics Bulletin, 28 October 2007 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.Vertigo's 'The Unwritten': Mike Carey & Peter Gross, Newsarama, Mon, 30 March 2009Ekstrom, Steve. "Life as Fiction? Mike Carey on Vertigo's 'The Unwritten'", Newsarama, 26 March 2009
Other work for DC Comics includes the long-delayed reboot of Wildstorm's WetworksWildstorm Takes The Plunge: Mike Carey talks 'Wetworks', Comic Book Resources, 2 November 2003Take A Dive With Mike Carey Into "Wetworks: Worldstorm", Comic Book Resources, 23 June 2006 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.Confessions Of a Carey: Louise Carey talks "Blabbermouth" & Minx, Comic Book Resources, 23 May 2007 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.Mike Carey: Carrying on the X-Men Legacy , Comics Bulletin, 24 January 2008 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")Richards, Dave. "Mike Carey & Daniel Way's "Dark Deception", Comic Book Resources, 6 June 2008Ekstrom, Steve. "Sins, Destines & Legacies: Mike Carey Talks X-Men", Newsarama, 8 September 2008 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.,Mike Carey on Secret Invasion: X-Men, FCBD X-Men, Legacy and More, Newsarama, 2 April 2008Richards, Dave. "Mike Carey's 'Secret Invasion' Plans", Comic Book Resources, 7 May 2008 a retelling of Beast's origin story as part of the X-Men: Origins lineDallas, Keith. "Mike Carey: Re-Telling the Origin of The X-Men's Beast" , Comics Bulletin, 2 September 2008 and an Iceman serial in the X-Men: Manifest Destiny anthology series.Richards, Dave. Carey on "Manifest Destiny" and "X-Men Origins: Beast", Comic Book Resources, 28 August 2008 Other work for Marvel includes the comic book adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow.Ekstrom, Steve. "Enrolling in School: Carey on Ender's Shadow: Battle School", Newsarama, 2 December 2008
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.Brady, Matt. "The Virgin Days Of Mike Carey – Talking The Stranded And Voodoo Child" , Newsarama, 9 October 2007 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.Manning, Shaun. "Mike Carey talks Virgin & MySpace's Coalition Comix", Comic Book Resources, 8 May 2008"Virgin Comics Brings Director's Cut Comics to Life With Animated Trailers" PR Newswire; Accessed 13 October 2010
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 post-apocalyptic 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.
In 2017 The Boy on the Bridge was published, a novel set in the same post-apocalyptic world of The Girl with All the Gifts but featuring a different set of characters.
Bibliography Comics Early work Toxic! #30–31: "Aquarius" (with Ken Meyer, Jr., anthology, Apocalypse Ltd, 1991) Rock-It Comix: Ozzy Osbourne: "The Comeback" (with Tom Kyffin, one-shot, 1993) Pantera: "Power in the Darkness" (with Trevor Goring, one-shot, 1994) Caliber: Inferno #1–5 (with Michael Gaydos, 1995–1996) collected as Inferno (tpb, 144 pages, Titan, 2003, ) 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): Pulp Sci-Fi: "Eggs is Eggs" (with Cliff Robinson, in #1145, 1999) "Doin' Time" (with Ben McCloud, in #1147, 1999) Tharg's Future Shocks (with John Charles, in #1230 and 1287, 2001–2002) Carver Hale (with Mike Perkins, in #1236–1240 and 1247–1249, 2001) collected as Carver Hale: Twisting the Knife (hc, 44 pages, 2005, ) Tharg the Mighty: "A Night 2 Remember" (with Anthony Williams, one page in 2000 AD'''s 25th anniversary strip featuring a D. R. & Quinch cameo, in #1280, 2002)Thirteen (with Andy Clarke, in #1289–1299, 2002) collected as Thirteen (tpb, 96 pages, DC Comics, 2005, )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, )
DC ComicsThe Sandman Presents (Vertigo):The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1–3: "The Morningstar Option" (with Scott Hampton, 1999)The Sandman Presents: Petrefax #1–4: "Travels in Malegrise" (with Steve Leialoha, 2000)The Sandman Presents: The Furies (with John Bolton, graphic novel, hc, 96 pages, 2002, ; sc, 2003, )Lucifer (with Chris Weston (#1–3), Warren Pleece (#4), Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, David Hahn (#41), Ted Naifeh (#45), P. Craig Russell (#50), Marc Hempel (#55), Ronald Wimberly (#58), Colleen Doran (#62), Michael Kaluta (#66) and Zander Cannon (#70), Vertigo, 2000–2006) collected as:Book One (collects #1–13 and The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1–3, tpb, 392 pages, 2013, )Book Two (collects #14–28, tpb, 416 pages, 2013, )Book Three (collects #29–45, tpb, 400 pages, 2014, ) Includes the Lucifer: Nirvana one-shot (written by Carey, art by Jon J Muth, 2002)Book Four (collects #46–61, tpb, 392 pages, 2014, )Book Five (collects #62–75, tpb, 352 pages, 2014, )Omnibus Volume 1 (collects #1–35, The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1–3 and Lucifer: Nirvana, hc, 1,000 pages, 2019, )Omnibus Volume 2 (collects #36–75, hc, 1,040 pages, 2020, )Flinch #16: "The Wedding Breakfast" (with Craig Hamilton, anthology, Vertigo, 2001) collected in Flinch Book Two (tpb, 192 pages, 2016, ) Hellblazer:9-11 Volume 2: "Exposed" (with Marcelo Frusin, anthology graphic novel, 224 pages, 2002, ) collected in John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 25 (tpb, 352 pages, 2021, )Hellblazer (with Steve Dillon (#175–176, 200), Marcelo Frusin, Jock (#181), Lee Bermejo (#182–183), Doug Alexander (#187–188), Leonardo Manco, Chris Brunner (#196), Giuseppe Camuncoli (#206), Frazer Irving (#213) and John Paul Leon (#227), Vertigo, 2002–2007) collected as: John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 16 (collects #175–188, tpb, 328 pages, 2017, ) John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 17 (collects #189–201, tpb, 328 pages, 2017, ) John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 18 (collects #202–215, tpb, 328 pages, 2018, ) John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 19 (includes #229, tpb, 328 pages, 2018, )Hellblazer: All His Engines (with Leonardo Manco, graphic novel, hc, 128 pages, Vertigo, 2005, ; sc, 2006, ) collected in John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 20 (tpb, 328 pages, 2019, ) Batman:Batman: Gotham Knights #37: "Fear is the Key" (with Steve Mannion, co-feature, 2003) collected in Batman: Black and White Volume 3 (hc, 288 pages, 2007, ; tpb, 2008, )Detective Comics #801–804: "The Barker: When You're Strange" (with John Lucas, co-feature, 2005)My Faith in Frankie #1–4 (with Sonny Liew, Vertigo, 2004) collected as My Faith in Frankie (tpb, 112 pages, 2004, )Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #1–9 (with Glenn Fabry, Vertigo, 2005–2006) collected as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (tpb, 224 pages, 2007, )Wetworks vol. 2 (with Whilce Portacio, Peter Gross (#7–8) and Dave Taylor (#9), Wildstorm, 2006–2008) collected as:Volume 1 (collects #1–5, tpb, 136 pages, 2007, )