Born in London, Steve MacManus joined the boys' weekly comic
Valiant as sub-editor in 1973. In 1975 he moved to Battle Picture
Weekly. While working on Battle he also freelanced on Action,
appearing as the title's mascot Action Man, who performed and wrote
up stunts and activities such as exploring London's sewers or
flying a hot air balloon, as well as writing The Running Man, and
Sport's Not For Losers.
In 1978 he was headhunted to work on a new science fiction title,
Starlord, and from there he joined 2000 AD. He wrote scripts
for the title’s M.A.C.H. 1 strip, and was the main writer for its
spin-off M.A.C.H. Zero, as well as contributing episodes of The
V.C.s.
In 1979 he was promoted to editor of 2000 AD, a job he held
until 1986. This period is widely regarded as the title's "golden
age", during which John Wagner, Alan Grant, Pat Mills and Alan
Moore produced some of their best work, and new talents like Peter
Milligan and Grant Morrison joined the line-up. MacManus had a hand
in the creation of one of the comic's most enduring characters,
Rogue Trooper, alongside writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave
Gibbons.
In 1987 MacManus became managing editor of the 2000 AD Group,
during which time he launched Crisis, a politically aware comic
that featured initial work by newcomers Garth Ennis, John Smith,
Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo, among others.
In the early 1990s MacManus edited the first twelve issues of the
Judge Dredd Megazine, and co-edited the Batman/Judge Dredd
crossover Judgement on Gotham with DC Comics' Denny O'Neil.
2016 saw the publication of his memoirs, The Mighty One: My Life
Inside the Nerve Centre. This was followed by a prequel entitled
Elmsworld, recalling his days at Dartington Hall, a progressive
school founded by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. (In 1907, at age
17, Dorothy had inherited a sum so large that it made her one of
the wealthiest women in The United States. When she met and married
Yorkshireman Leonard Elmhirst, thirteen years later, they set out
to recreate a rural community at Dartington Hall —near Totnes,
Devon.) Among their projects was the school, whose curriculum was
to flow from the children’s interests and, In Dorothy’s own words,
be “A place for adventure.” Among the five star reviews for
Elmsworld on Amazon, is one that describes the memoir as, “A
valuable document of a social experiment unlikely to be
repeated.”
In 2019, MacManus published his first novel, The SheerGlam
Conspiracy, which he plans to be the first in a series of black
comedies set in the frenetic world of British comics publishing in
the late 20th Century.
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