He grew up in Ira war torn Ireland and unlike us didn't have capeshit to read as a boy even when it wasn't shit. Garth has openly admitted he was raised on reprints of gold and silver age War comics and stuff like 2000 ad. Which I'm surprised he created gunpowder in the boys to mock judge dredd. I figured mick like him raised on two fisted war and fighting men stories, both in real life and as his only means of entertaining himself in a place as dreary as Ireland would mean he'd have some respect for the likes of judge dredd and other stories like it. The edgy and dystopian comics the brits liked making for so long.
Conversely, as much as Lewis mocked and continues to mock 90s comic writers and artists who tried to ape the brirish edgelords of the 80s like Moore, Morrison, Ennis and gibbons. I'd at least belive guys like liefeild, McFarlane, Larsen, and (jim) Lee grew up reading the works of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, ditko and romitia Sr. Amd tried to mix the classic hero stories they read as kids with the attitude of the era they peaked in.