John Freeman (editor)

John Freeman (born 18 January 1960) is a British writer/editor/designer known for his work with Marvel UK, and on Doctor Who Magazine and The Really Heavy Greatcoat.

Freeman began his media career editing the Lancaster University student newspaper SCAN in 1981.

Freeman's first professionally published comics work was The Science Service, drawn by Rian Hughes, which Knockabout reprinted in 2007 as part of a larger collection of work by Hughes titled Yesterday's Tomorrows.

After university Freeman launched On the Beat, a listings magazine for Lancaster, England, which eventually morphed into Off the Beat (not to be confused with the a cappella group at the University of Pennsylvania). After Freeman left Lancaster to work for Marvel UK in 1988, Off the Beat was run by a co-operative, until Freeman returned in 1993, where he took up the editorial reins of the title, turning it into a monthly free publication.

While working for Marvel UK between 1988 and 1993, Freeman designed and then edited Doctor Who Magazine, and comics titles such as Death's Head II, Warheads, Overkill, and others.

Freeman became group editor on Marvel UK's superhero range while Paul Neary was editor-in-chief at the company. The titles were set in the existing Marvel Universe — Marvel's U.S. editors were expected to approve submitted plotlines. The first of these, Death's Head II, written by Dan Abnett and initially drawn by Liam Sharp, was a recreation of Simon Furman's cyborg bounty hunter (who first appeared in the Transformers comic).

As well as editing some of the Marvel UK titles, Freeman also wrote issues of Warheads and Motormouth and Killpower. He also wrote Shadow Riders, with Brian Williamson, and Gene Dogs, drawn by Dave Taylor, and the mini-series G-Force (not to be confused with the animated series), as well as several Doctor Who comic stories.

Freeman left the company before the implosion in the comics market that effectively brought an end to Marvel UK.