After a career producing graphics for the aerospace and advertising industries - the latter as a freelancer - I began producing colour covers for the Transformers (Marvel UK) weekly comic. After about a year, I was given the opportunity to illustrate a short comic strip story for the 1988/9 Annual. I then regularly produced strips for the weekly title from issues 160 through to to the early 200s. These in turn led to my work on Doctor Who Magazine (Marvel UK) and RoboCop (Marvel US). Although not the first Transformers work of mine to be published - printing schedules dictate that annuals have to be produced a lot further in advance than regular comics - this is the first comic strip page I ever produced.
Recently, the Transformers have started to generate conventions in their honour, and I've been fortunate enough to be invited to attend along with many colleagues from that time. It's interesting to finally meet the audience we were working for a decade ago, although it's an unwelcome reminder of the passage of time! Fortunately, we're all much more glamorous these days :O)
As a matter of trivia, my version of the character 'Galvatron' is based on the actor Jack Nicholson.
The collapsed crane in panel 2 is a reference to the one which crashed into Marvel UK's offices, nearly ending the career (and everything else) of editor & writer Simon Furman.
Also, the store front 'Mackay's Music' turns up in nearly all my work where city backgrounds are required. Andy Mackay, the saxophone/oboe player of the mighty Roxy Music group is one of my heroes - see my 'Thunderbirds' page for more examples of this.
In-jokes help the hours fly by!
TO SEE MORE . . . of my Transformers art both as seen in the comic and pages available to purchase, go:
