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Johnny Ryan

American alternative comics creator, writer and animator (born 1970)

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
3 min read
Source updated June 9, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

John F. Ryan IV (born November 30, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American alternative comics creator, writer, and animator. He created Angry Youth Comix, a comic book published by Fantagraphics, and "Blecky Yuckerella", a comic strip which originated in the alternative newspaper the Portland Mercury and now appears on Ryan's website. He also created Pig Goat Banana Cricket, a TV show made jointly with Dave Cooper that Nickelodeon picked up. He was the story editor for Looney Tunes Cartoons. In a throwback to the days of underground comix, Ryan's oeuvre is generally an attempt to be as shocking and irreverent as possible.

01Personal life

Ryan grew up in Boston and studied English literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Ryan lives in Los Angeles. He has one daughter.

Johnny Ryan at Bigfest Lite (2018)
Johnny Ryan at Bigfest Lite (2018)

02Career

Ryan originally self-published Angry Youth Comix, producing eleven mini-comic issues from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, he began showing his work to Peter Bagge, creator of Hate comics, who introduced the material to Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics. In 2001, Fantagraphics began publishing volume 2 of the series.

Collaborating with Dave Cooper under the pen name "Hector Mumbly", Ryan's comics appeared in nearly every issue of Nickelodeon Magazine, including the May 2005 issue, where they created a comic called “Cupcake Of Time”, including which it featured a Pig, A Banana, a Robot and a Toliet, which was a precursor of Pig Goat Banana Cricket. Cooper and Ryan also collaborated on a "Wonder Woman vs. Supergirl" story for the DC Comics anthology Bizarro. Ryan collaborated with Peter Bagge in both Angry Youth Comix and Bagge's Hate Annual, in addition to penciling and inking two stories for Bagge's DC series Sweatshop. In 2006, Ryan guest-edited a special comics issue of Vice magazine, which included contributions from over thirty of Ryan's comics contemporaries.

Ryan's illustrations have appeared in MAD, LA Weekly, National Geographic Kids, Hustler Magazine, The Stranger, and elsewhere. Ryan has also done work for clients such as Nobleworks greetings cards, Rhino Records, and Fox TV. His comics have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

03Awards

Angry Youth Comix was nominated for a Best Mini Ignatz Award at the 2000 Small Press Expo. It has since been nominated for multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. "Prison Pit" won an award for "Best Lettering" at the Stumptown small press festival in Portland, OR in April 2011.

04Bibliography and filmography

  • Portajohnny: The Best of Angry Youth Comix: The Early Years (Fantagraphics, 2003) ISBN 1-56097-547-4
  • What're You Lookin' At?: Volume I of the Collected Angry Youth Comix (Fantagraphics, 2004) ISBN 1-56097-621-7
  • Blecky Yuckerella (Fantagraphics, 2005) ISBN 1-56097-674-8
  • The Comic Book Holocaust (Buenaventura Press, 2006) ISBN 0-9766848-9-6
  • Johnny Ryan's XXX Scumbag Party: Volume II of the Collected Angry Youth Comix (Fantagraphics, 2007) ISBN 1-56097-867-8
  • The Klassic Komics Klub (Buenaventura Press, 2007) ISBN 0-9800039-2-X
  • Blecky Yuckerella: Back in Bleck (Fantagraphics, 2007) ISBN 1-56097-790-6
  • Comics Are For Idiots (Fantagraphics, 2009) ISBN 1-56097-974-7, Blecky Yuckerella collection
  • Prison Pit: Book One (Fantagraphics, 2009) ISBN 1-60699-297-X
  • Prison Pit: Book Two (Fantagraphics, 2010) ISBN 1-60699-383-6
  • Prison Pit: Book Three (Fantagraphics, 2011) ISBN 1-60699-497-2
  • Prison Pit: Book Four (Fantagraphics, 2012) ISBN 1-60699-591-X
  • Prison Pit: Book Five (Fantagraphics, 2014) ISBN 1-60699-700-9
  • Prison Pit: Book Six (Fantagraphics, 2018) ISBN 978-1-68396-100-0
  • Prison Pit: The Complete Collection (Fantagraphics, 2020) ISBN 978-1-68396-313-4
  • New Character Parade (Pigeon Press, 2010) ISBN 978-1-93544-308-7
  • Blecky Yuckerella: "Fuc- --u, -ss --le" (Fantagraphics, 2011) ISBN 1-60699-415-8
  • Take A Joke: Volume III of the Collected Angry Youth Comix (Fantagraphics, 2011) ISBN 1-60699-464-6
  • Angry Youth Comix (Fantagraphics, 2015) ISBN 978-1-60699-811-3 - Complete Collection Hardcover Omnibus of all 14 issues of series.
  • A New Low (Fantagraphics, 2017) ISBN 978-1-68396-004-1 - Collection of cartoons featured on Vice News.
  • Porn Basket (Fantagraphics, 2021) ISBN 978-1-68396-501-5 - Collection of Sketchbook drawings.
  • Barely Human (Fantagraphics, 2022) ISBN 978-1-68396-559-6 - Collection of Instagram drawings.
  • Johnny Ryan's Wet Market #1 (The Mansion Press, 2023) ISBN 978-2-49264-612-6
  • Fuck My Son (The Mansion Press)
  • Johnny Ryan's Wet Market #2 (The Mansion Press, 2023) ISBN 978-2-492646-21-8
  • Maniac Army (The Mansion Press)
  • Fatcop (Fantagraphics, 2024) ISBN 9781683969228
  • Who Raped My Horse? (The Mansion Press, 2024) ISBN 978-2-492646-40-9
  • Johnny Ryan's Wet Market #3 (The Mansion Press)
  • Campground Slut (The Mansion Press)

Television and filmography (partial)

Watch videos about Johnny RyanExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Johnny Ryan”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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