As one of the more prolific 2000 AD writers, Abnett was responsible for the creation of one of the comic's better known and longest-running strips, Sinister Dexter. Other original stories include Black Light, Badlands, Atavar, Downlode Tales, Sancho Panzer, Roadkill, Wardog based on the game of the same name, Kingdom and Brink.[9] Abnett has also contributed to some of the comic's major ongoing series, including Judge Dredd, Durham Red and Rogue Trooper.
Abnett's First & Only was one of the first novels published by Games Workshop's Black Library.[16] His other novels set in Games Workshop's Military science fiction-themed Warhammer 40,000 universe include the Gaunt's Ghosts series, the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies, and more recently, as part of the Horus Heresy series, the SF best-sellers Horus Rising, Legion, Prospero Burns, Know No Fear and The End and the Death Volumes I, II & III. He has also authored four comic strip series, collected as graphic novels, for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint in the volumes Damnation Crusade, Lone Wolves, Inquisitor Ascendant and Titan.
In addition, Abnett has done a lot of work on Marvel's "cosmic" characters. They expanded on their work in Annihilation: Nova[19] and Nova,[20][21] and piloted the next big event Annihilation: Conquest. They said "we were approached by Andy Schmidt, who edited the first 'Annihilation' event, and asked to pilot the next event, which Bill Rosemann is editing." They ended up writing the Prologue, the Nova series crossover and the main Annihilation: Conquestlimited series.[22] The characters then became the core of a new Guardians of the Galaxy.[23]
In June 2008, Abnett and Lanning signed an exclusive deal with Marvel, which they hoped would give them time to work on the "cosmic" characters they have been dealing with, as well as more earth-based ones. The contract allowed them to finish existing commitments, so they will be able to finish their fifteen issue run on The Authority.[24] In addition Marvel has allowed the contract to include "a couple of exceptions that are not direct competition, for example, Dan's 2000AD work in the UK and his Games Workshop novels."[25] The first major work to emerge after this deal will be War of Kings, a crossover storyline, emerging from Secret Invasion, that pitches Black Bolt (and the Inhumans) against Gabriel Summers (and the Shi’ar Empire) but also draws in other teams and characters, including Nova, the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Starjammers.[26][27] This then led straight into "Realm of Kings" which deals with how the different groups deal with the fallout from the events in War of Kings[28][29][30] and this, in turn, was followed by The Thanos Imperative.[31][32][33][34][35] DnA have also written an Iron Man/Thor limited series.[36]
He and Lanning have also written Fusion, a crossover series between Marvel and Top Cow.[37]
He also started Insurrection, a series in Judge Dredd Megazine that aimed "to bring to the Dredd Universe something of the epic war-in-space scale of the stuff I write for Warhammer 40K."[38]
Abnett concluded Insurrection and began a new series in the same milieu, Lawless, also in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Meanwhile, in 2000 AD he has continued Kingdom, contributed Grey Area and began another new series, Brink. He also began writing both the Aquaman and Titans titles for the DC Rebirth branding, including the crossover storyline "The Lazarus Contract", which he coauthored with Christopher Priest and Benjamin Percy.
Original fiction
On 19 March 2009, HarperCollins' science fiction, fantasy and horror imprint, Angry Robot, announced the acquisition of three original novels by Abnett. They were Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero, a story set in the alternative history reign of Elizabeth XXX and Embedded, a near future war story with a journalist protagonist, which would have a follow-up set in the same setting. Only two novels were published.[41]
^Manning, Matthew K.; Dolan, Hannah (2010). "1990s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 279. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. The writing team of Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett alongside the art of Jackson "Butch" Guice introduced readers to a new kind of hero in Resurrection Man.
