Johnny Red was the creation of veteran comic writer Tom Tully, who wrote the strip for nearly 10 years. Popular opinion has it that Tully was able to drag a story out far longer than needed, as in those days, writers were paid by the page. This pace of story telling, coupled with the strip's obvious popularity, is probably why Johnny Red ran for so long. For some unknown reason, Tully was replaced on the final five episodes by another writer, James Nicholas, who had contributed a variety of stories to Battle and Storm Force, and also wrote the 23rd August and 6th September 1986 issues. Perhaps it was Tully's reluctance to end the story, even though the war was nearly over. Whatever the reasons, the conclusion to ten years' worth of work was a lacklustre round-up which paved the way for a series of reprints as Battle faded from the comics market and was incorporated into Eagle.

Only three artists drew Johnny Red. They were Joe Colquhoun, John Cooper and Carlos Pino. Joe Colquhoun created the characters and the feel of the strip, drawing nearly a hundred episodes in the first two years. His gritty realism lifted the story to a different level, giving the reader an insight into the horror of war on the Eastern Front. As issue 200 approached, David Hunt, the editor of Battle, decided it was time for a change, and moved Joe on to the new Charley's War strip being written by Pat Mills. This was a risky decision by Hunt, but fortunately it worked out extremely well for all concerned.

Colquhoun's replacement, John Cooper, is probably the artist most associated with the strip. He drew Johnny Red for almost six years, making the strip his own. His style was close enough in overall feel to what had gone before, but was sufficiently different to make its own mark. Cooper's unwarranted removal and subsequent replacement by Carlos Pino is one of the mysteries of comics publishing. Pino was already working on Battle Action Force, drawing SIS - The Hunters. Cooper was moved onto the franchised Action Force material without any notice, leaving Pino to try and ape his style as the strip entered its final years.

Pino made a good fist of the artwork, but by now the strip and the comic were in decline. His Johnny Red is probably the least remembered era of the strip, but shows some good flourishes here and there. Pino carried on working with Tom Tully after Johnny Red concluded, as a somewhat unlikely artist on Roy of the Rovers, another of John Cooper's former titles.