Dan Abnett (born 12 October 1965) is a British writer. He is the author of many acclaimed Warhammer 40,000 tie-in novels, including such series as Gaunt's Ghosts and its spinoff Double Eagle, Eisenhorn, and Ravenor, as well as Horus Rising, Legion and Prospero Burns in the Horus Heresy series and the standalone Brothers of the Snake. He's widely considered the best author of the franchise, having been appointed to write the first and last Horus Heresy books.
Abnett and his writing partner, Andy Lanning (Fan Nickname: D'n'A), have also written many comics together, including a well-regarded run on an incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. They wrote the fourth Nova and the second Guardians Of The Galaxy series and several Space Crossovers for Marvel Comics, including Annihilation: Conquest, War of Kings and The Thanos Imperative, as well as The Authority for WildStorm. In Britain, he has contributed extensively to 2000 AD, including a large number of Judge Dredd stories, and is the creator and primary writer of Sinister Dexter and Kingdom. He's also written alone for X-Men, and published a number of unrelated novels, including the recent steampunk/modern fantasy novel Triumff - Her Majesty's Hero and the military sci-fi novel Embedded.
Abnett has also written several comics, books, and audio plays in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe (both Doctor Who and Torchwood), including the bridging part of the multi-author book The Story of Martha (set during "the year that never was" between "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords"), as well as a Primeval tie-in novel.
Recently worked with Andy Lanning on IDW Publishing's Cross Through Infestation, which involves a Zombie Apocalypse spreading through Covert Vampiric Operations, IDW's Transformers: Generation 1 and G.I. Joe (IDW) continuities, Ghostbusters and the Star Trek Expanded Universe. Abnett and Lanning are also cooperating on a new Heroes For Hire series ongoing for Marvel Comics.
He also was one of the writers for Sega and Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, wrote dialogue for the Orcs generated by the Nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was writer for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
Works where Dan Abnett serves as primary Creator:
- Brothers of the Snake
- Eisenhorn
- Embedded
- Gaunt's Ghosts
- Horus Heresy series (with others)
- The Hypernaturals
- Malus Darkblade (with Mike Lee)
- Ravenor
- Bequin
- Red Rain
- Sinister Dexter
- Titanicus
Additional works where Dan Abnett assisted in their creation:
- Annihilation (Annihilation Nova mini-series.)
- Annihilation: Conquest (main series, prologue, Nova-tie in.)
- Annihilators
- The Authority, volume 4.
- Several stories from Marvel Comics Doctor Who Magazine.
- Dark Guard
- Heroes for Hire, volume 3.
- Guardians 3000
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2008) volume 2.
- Gun Runner
- The Infestation
- Majestic
- Mys-Tech Wars
- New Mutants, volume 3.
- Nova, volume 4.
- Resurrection Man, volumes 1 and 2.
- Star Trek: Early Voyages
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2007)
- The Thanos Imperative
- The VCs
- Vector 13
- War of Kings (everything aside from X-Men: Kingbreakers, Savage World Of Skaar and the two-issue Warriors mini-series.)
- Titans Hunt (2015)
- Hercules (2015)
- Vampirella: The Dark Powers
Tropes present in Dan Abnett's work:
- Ace Pilot: In Double Eagle, every single protagonist is one of these. Oskar Viltry is a rare bomber-flying version. Though later he switches to fighters.
- Base on Wheels: The Chaos airbases in Double Eagle are over a mile long, and mobile.
- Bug War: Kingdom follows a group of genetically modified dogs as the fight giant praying mantises who have wiped out most of humanity.
- Fun with Acronyms: His Doctor Who strips feature a group called “Foreign Hazard Duty”, which drew its acronym from an old slang term for a hangover.
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: Hypernaturals is set in the year 100 AQ (Anno Quantinuum), a century after The Singularity.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Triumff has a literal Swiss Army Weapon — the couteau suisse, a hex-powered weapon which, at the touch of a (somewhat unreliable) button, will manifest a variety of fighting blades (usually a rapier, but on one occasion, a cutlass), as well as, when the mood takes it, traditional Swiss Army Knife tools, including a veg peeler.
