1. What drew you to comics?
I’ve liked them for so long I can’t remember what specifically drew me to comics, but I’ve been fascinated by them since the pre-school nursery titles my parents would buy me. I read them obsessively through childhood whether humour, adventure, war, superhero or “girls” titles, pausing only for a couple of years when I was fifteen or sixteen. Perhaps I was attracted by the narrative element as much as the drawings; as a professional that part of the craft is still really important to me.
2. Please tell us about your creative process.
Probably because of being so familiar with the UK weekly format I prefer to work in episodes of five or maybe six pages (so should I have a twenty page comic book to draw, after familiarising myself with the script as a whole I first divide that into four parts). I read and re-read an episode until I can visualise the narrative without looking at the script. I draw stamp sized roughs of just the layout of the panels on each page and once I’m happy with those move on to trading card size roughs of the story proper; nothing too detailed but establishing perspective and the set, placing the characters, working out some of the acting and placing the dialogue balloons. That completed (and with hopefully any problems worked out) I draw pages roughly 30% to 50% larger than printed size; breakdowns first and then finished pencils. I try to complete all the pages of an episode at any given stage before moving on to the next, so five pages of roughs then five pages of breakdowns then five pages of finished pencils. Pencils completed I ink the pages using Rotring pens or fine markers for the ruled lines, dip pen and brush for everything else. Inks finished, pencils erased and any tidying up with white gouache done I scan the pages and make any final changes or corrections digitally.
As a process, its analogue and traditional but I sometimes use a more “digilogue” approach and print out scans of the finished pencils in light blue, inking those before scanning the finished pages as usual. That allows me to make adjustments if I want to the pencilled pages before inking and also means I get to preserve the pencilled as well as inked pages.
3. Please tell us about Zenith and any other titles you’d like to share about.
Written by Grant Morrison, pop-star and super-brat “Zenith” was 2000AD’s foray into super-heroics. Unfolding over four series it was a story combining ancient extra-dimensional gods, super-nazis, parallel universes and mad scientists. Morrison and I had worked together previously at Marvel UK on Japanese toy tie-in title “Zoids” and following Zenith I was lucky enough to work with him again at Vertigo comics on his victorian VR character “Sebastian O" and several issues of his nightmare conspiracy “The Invisibles”.
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to draw some of the best known comics characters (Batman, Judge Dredd) at some of the best known publishers and to work with some of the best known writers: Mark Millar, James Robinson, Alan Grant, Ian Edginton, John Reppion & Leah Moore, Michael Carroll, Dan Abnett and most recently Dr Who writer Paul Cornell on his fantasy rom-com “Three Little Wishes” published by Legendary Comics. Paul’s fabulous script has pushed my artwork in directions it might not normally travel, requiring me to make the cast of characters act and emote far more. As well as being great fun to draw it’s been a valuable learning experience which I can’t wait to explore further.
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