Johnston grew up in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, studied politics at University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was an advertising copywriter until 2009; he currently lives in Kingston Vale, London, with his wife, Janice Hodgson, and their young daughters, Eve and Alice Johnston.
Gossip columnist
Johnston began writing as a gossip columnist for the USENETnewsgroups in 1994 as Rich's Ramblings. The Comics Journal declared Johnston as having claim to being "the oldest extant comics news reporter on the Internet."
He then took the column onto the burgeoning World Wide Web, with Rich's Revelations on the now-defunct Twist And Shout Comics website. After a few years, he was headhunted by Marvel Comics's David Bogart to write for NextPlanetOver as The Gutter Press. However, when DC Comics threatened to withdraw advertising, the column was dropped.
Instead, Johnston started a new comics gossip column, All The Rage for Silver Bullet Comic Books', now Comics Bulletin.
Lying in the Gutters
Johnston was then headhunted by Jonah Weiland to write a new column Lying in the Gutters at the Comic Book Resources website, posting rumours and gossip, with a traffic light icon imparting advisory caution as to the possible credibility of each rumour: a red light denoting the least likelihood of accuracy, a green light for the most credible reports, and a yellow light for those that fall somewhere in between.
Scoops included the first visual of Two-Face from The Dark Knight movie, Alan Moore's decision to pull The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen from DC Comics to Top Shelf Comics as well as his engagement to Melinda Gebbie, and the existence of DC Comics titles 52 and its various spinoffs, Countdown, Final Crisis, "One Year Later",and "Batman RIP". He also first publicly revealed payment problems from the now defunct CrossGen, Dreamwave, and Dream Engine. The column ultimately came to an end after 211 installments.
Bleeding Cool
On 27 March 2009, Johnston announced that he would be starting a new blogsite, Bleeding Cool, funded by, but independent of, Avatar Press, which he described as "Lying In The Gutters, four times a day, seven days a week."
He recruited the likes of Warren Ellis, Si Spurrier, Adi Tantimedh, Josh Adams, Irene Adler, Alex De Campi and Denny O'Neil to provide regular content for the site, and continues many of his themes from Lying In The Gutters but with more British content - creator control, swipe files, non-paying publishers and scoops of upcoming content, but adding reviews, roundups and commentary into the mix. Scoops have included Marvel Comics on the Apple iPhone, Neil Gaiman writing for Doctor Who, Terminator 5 set in London, the appointment of Diane Nelson to head up DC Comics, the Michael Jackson-written comic book Fated, the resignation of Paul Levitz and the signing of the Cla$$war movie. The site also heavily promoted the a pricing glitch at Amazon.com which saw large hardcover volumes distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors, like the Marvel Omnibus editions, priced at or below their printing cost, although some of the reporting drew criticism.
Johnston's writing does not often impart sources. Johnston notes, "I often obfuscate sources to hide their identity...even deny that a story has sources on many occasions." However, his column reported first on many topics of note regarding the comic book industry, something The Comics Journal attributes in part to "Johnston's discerning intelligence and an attitude that sometimes approaches iconoclasm." Johnston sees himself as part of a tradition established by the "British tabloid press, one that seeks to entertain rather than inform..."
Johnston has written a number of comics, mainly consisting of one-shots and graphic novella. The first consists of parodies, such as Watchmensch and Civil Wardrobe (alluding to Marvel's 2006 story Civil War). The second include his original work, both creator-owned and those based on licensed properties, like A Room With A Deja View, The Flying Friar (based on the life of Joseph of Cupertino) and Chase Variant which started life at Mam Tor's Event Horizon.
In 2007, he wrote the IDW trading card set "George W. Bush and the Weapons of Mass Distraction."
He wrote and drew a number of pages for the Popbitch book and curated the Harrods Comic Timing exhibition of original comic book artwork.
For 2009, he has a story scheduled for the Spearmint anthology from Image Comics with Sleaze Castle writer/artist Terry Wiley.
Johnston writes and draws weekly cartoons for the UK blogger Guido Fawkes, appearing each Monday and collected at RichAndMark.com.
Performance work
Johnston contributed to the British Channel 4 sketch show Smack the Pony as well as for BBC Radio 4's satirical sketch show Week Ending and the stage/TV show The Sitcom Trials.
He appeared as an interviewee in After the Chalk Dust Settled, a documentary included on the DVD release of Steven Moffat's sitcom Chalk.
He was a zombie extra in Shaun of the Dead and a congregation member in the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Journalism
Johnston wrote briefly for newspapers like The Guardian and magazines like Playstation World The now-closed publication Punch Magazine named him Young Writer of the Year Award in 2001.
In 2006, he appeared as a character in the comic book Dying in the Gutters as a source of "inside joke" humour by featuring him as the victim in a murder mystery set at a comic book convention and using other notable real-world comics creators as suspects in the crime. He also appeared as a character in the Jodie Picoult novel, The Tenth Circle.
His poster campaign for the Churches Advertising Network in December 2006 generated coverage, including a leader in the Times Newspaper.
His comics and gossip work has also been referenced in the media, as a comics commentator, a gossip reporter, or a comics creator.
