Arthur Ranson
Encyclopedia
Arthur James Ranson is an English illustrator, whose fine line penwork and attention to visual detail has led to the misapplied epithet 'photo-realistic'. Ranson has been appearing in British comics since the early 1970s
.
, Knockout
, [The] Dandy
, Film Fun
, Wizard, Hotspur..., The Eagle with Frank Hampson setting new standards. Wayne Boring
's Superman
, C.C. Beck's Captain Marvel
," and others (including, "[l]ater, John Buscema
's Silver Surfer
and his Conan
, Jack Kirby
's Thor
"). He says that Hampson in particular was an early influence, but that
Ranson attended the South West Essex Technical College and School of Art in Walthamstow
, Essex, where he studied painting and printmaking. Trained initially as an "apprentice stamp and banknote designer" in the 1960s, learning "to translate photographs into watercolour... [i]n stamp size." A "rare ability at the time," he would later use this skill as a "selling point" when pursuing a career "as an illustrator in advertising and publishing." After a period of time as a "[l]ettering artist for a cardboard box manufacturer", followed by teaching work, he says he "[r]an away to London." After some time in menial jobs, Ranson gained experience as a "[g]eneral patcher-up and filler-in at [a] commercial art studio," where he was encouraged to become a freelance artist by, he recalls
, working first on portrait covers, and later alongside other major comics talents such as John M. Burns
, Martin Asbury
, Harry North, Colin Wyatt
, John Bolton, Jim Baikie
, Phil Gascoine
, Barry Mitchell, and Bill Titcombe.
After some time drawing "funnies," Ranson drew on his skill in translating pictures across mediums (generally using a Grant Projector, which "projects an image up onto a glass plate, on which one places tracing paper"), and brought his talents to bear for Look-in by creating strips based on such popular TV series as Sapphire and Steel and Dangermouse
, all written by Angus Allan
. Since these works were based on specific TV shows, he says that "it seemed important that the characters looked as much like the actors as possible", and thus "used the methods I knew" to achieve the accurate likenesses that typify his work.
(1977), Elvis Presley
(1981), The Beatles
(1981-2), Haircut One Hundred (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983). Most biographical articles on Ranson date his Beatles work to "the 1960s," but Ranson himself dispels this myth by stating that the "first auto-biographical [sic] strip I did was ABBA." In fact that work was done in 1981
Ranson recalls that Look-in editor Colin Shelbourne was convinced to allow Allan and Ranson to "retain... the copyright" to their Elvis and Beatles strips, which had the unfortunate side-effect of delaying complete publication, since such deals were largely unheard of. Ranson says:
Ranson describes Shelbourne as "an adventurous editor," who went the extra mile and even allowed the writer and artist to "go to Liverpool for research" for the Beatles strip.
, which Ranson was "the first and only one to draw" between 1979 and 1981. Scripted by Angus Allan (almost Look-ins sole writer, according to Ranson), Ranson barely recalls drawing the strip, but does remember that
Ranson was denied the chance to meet Sapphire & Steel star Joanna Lumley
by being absent when she visited the offices. He recalls that, unfortunately, while "[s]he was kind enough to offer to meet me and pose for more photo-reference," "[s]omeone told her that no, that would not be necessary. Stupid sods."
In 2007, Prion Books reprinted a selection of material from Look-in, and included a three-part Sapphire & Steel story on pages 132-133, 136-137 and 140-141.
, an unlikely children's cartoon hero based - loosely - on the Patrick McGoohan
TV series Danger Man
, created in cartoon mouse form by Cosgrove Hall and voiced on TV by David Jason
. Ranson says that he "did enjoy it at the time," and was awarded not only the "Good Grief Oh Crikey" Award from Cosgrove Hall ("The award is a painted model of Dangermouse in heroic pose with a nervous Penfold peering from behind him"), but also received an award from the Society of Strip Illustration for his work on the strip.
Ranson wryly notes that "[t]he reflected glory from the highly popular TV show made me a big hit with my daughter's primary school friends too."
, Duckula
(another Cosgrove Hall character whose comics adventures began in Look-in, but also spun off into its own title), The Bionic Woman
and The A-Team
, and others. He also produced comic strips based on the TV adaptations of Richmal Crompton
's "Just William
" novels, Buck Rogers
and the film Logan's Run
.
Ranson also worked briefly for Marvel UK
in the late 1980s, and even illustrated a couple of issues of the comics adventures of Dr. Who
for Doctor Who Magazine
in 1990.
and some "[a]dvertising work through an agent, [including] some All-Bran
adverts." He produced some assorted work for various other IPC
magazines in addition to 2000AD, and was glad of the "more challenging" work to be found in comics, branding himself "too sensitive a plant to get on in advertising despite the high fees."
Ranson stresses the influence of his peers - particularly Brian Bolland
- on his own evolution as an artist, moving from being burdoned by the "British way of drawing adventure comics... dependable, professional, craftsmanlike and worthy," to seeing and being influenced by work that "looked as though [the artist, particularly Bolland] really cared about it."
, saying that
In 1989, Ranson followed in Bolland—and others'—footsteps, and moved to major British sci-fi comic 2000AD
, where he has remained ever since, with rare forays into the world of American comics
, including Batman
and the X-Men
. He counts himself lucky that this career path has, in his decades-long comics career seen him work primarily with just three writers.
). David Bishop
, in the 2000AD history volume Thrill Power Overload
says that Ranson's
A spin-off from Judge Dredd
, Cassandra Anderson is a Judge with psychic skills, including telepathy
and precognition
.
Over the next fifteen years, Ranson drew a dozen more serials featuring Judge Anderson, working with writer Alan Grant, who says that since their first collaboration
Asked about the changes Anderson had undergone during his 15-years working on her stories, Ranson believed that she had indeed changed
Ranson admits to feeling "quite possessive of her," and considers her "the most human of any comic hero I am aware of, and [one who] deals with some of the knottier problems of being human – morality, mortality, meaning." He is especially fond of working on stories in which Anderson is "aware of" her age (of "being between forty and fifty years old") while still "retain[ing her] likeness and... glamour."
, 2000AD stalwarts Kevin O'Neill
, Pat Mills
, John Wagner
, Alan Grant and Mike McMahon
were invited by Geoff Fry to begin work on a publication for Neptune Distribution
. Neptune had acquired premiere British fanzine Fantasy Advertiser
in 1988, and sold-out an issue featuring Mills & O'Neill's Marshal Law
, prompting the move towards creating a line of comics spearheaded by that character.
Having formed an imprint - Apocalypse Ltd
- the publish the new anthology title, Pat Mills found himself de facto editor of the in-preparation title, now called Toxic!
. Amid some turmoil, the initial five creators began to splinter, with Wagner in particular feeling that his "style, the way I write, had itself been deemed un-Toxic!" The strip he had spent some time working on was vetoed by Mills, who felt that it was "far too close to 2000 AD in style." It eventually fell to the new editor - Dan Abnett
, head-hunted from Marvel UK
- to inform Wagner. He recalls that "[b]y that stage Arthur Ranson had drawn an awful lot of it."
The strip - called Button Man
- was shelved half-finished. Toxic! was cancelled in October, 1991 after 31 issues.
In the spring of 1992, as part of a promotion called "the Mega-Blast," Button Man was resurrected and launched in Prog 780. Ultra-violent, as well as being one of - if not the - first non-sci-fi strips to appear in the comic's 15-year history, Button Man is particularly notable because its genesis makes it one of the very few creator-owned
strips to appear in 2000AD. Then-editor Steve MacManus
sums it up by saying
Ranson says that
The first Button Man serial was collected in 1994 by Kitchen Sink Press
, and again by Rebellion in 2003. Ranson remembers that he "[made] a small change to the end of Button Man," but praises Wagner's storytelling abilities, for being "self-contained. Complete in themselves, neat, compact and satisfying, solid." A second story followed in 1994, and the third made its debut "after an absence of six years" in 2001. Writer John Wagner candidly stated that he believes:
As of 2007, Wagner was writing a fourth series, as well pursuing prospects for a big screen adaptation of the series.
In 1996, then-2000AD-editor David Bishop, partly to challenge the status-quo, and partly in the wake of the "definite anti-Dredd
feeling within Fleetway [then publishers of 2000 AD]" after the Judge Dredd film
decided to replace fictional editor Tharg the Mighty
with 'The Man in Black from Vector 13
', and move Dredd himself from his "familiar position as the first strip in each prog." Mazeworld took Dredd's place.
A fantasy epic, it was the "first new work Grant had done in years for 2000 AD" (in part because of his work on Batman
for DC Comics
), and Grant recalls that "the strip offered a chance to experiment while collaborating with Ranson." Designed to play to Ranson's strengths - Grant remembers that Ranson even "dr[ew] a "map" of MazeWorld... [that] was so good, so right, that it basically became the template for everything that followed." - Grant is quoted in Thrill-Power Overload as saying that
Grant believes that these terms hampered the strip, calling it "a hiding to nothing," and while praising Ranson, who "turned in really nice art," he believes the story "didn't take off."
Nevertheless, Grant and Ranson produced a trilogy of Mazeworld tales between 1996 and 1999. As it was, like Button Man, creator-owned, Grant recalls that the duo "had hopes of selling it for syndication, or perhaps as a computer game." It was licenced in "the US [by] Caliber Comics
, which promptly printed the books in black and white, lost much of Arthur's artwork, failed to pay us a bean, then went bust." In the quoted interview, interviewer James Mackay notes that serendipitously Ranson had been recently contacted (August–September, 2004) by "one of the brothers who ran Caliber Comics," who talked to Ranson about returning his Mazeworld artwork. which indeed it has been. Following Daniel Clifford's Facebook campaign the complete'Mazeworld is being published by 'Rebellion' and due in November 2011. (Arthur Ranson official website. Amazon books)
' Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
series (issues #52-53). Ranson's artwork drew praise from the title's (American) readers, many of whom were unfamiliar with the artist's work in the UK.
In 1997, Ranson provided the artwork for a one-shot prestige-format single issue for DC Comics
, Batman
/Phantom Stranger
. Written by one of Ranson's frequent collaborators, Alan Grant (a mainstay at 2000AD, and also a major contributor to the Batman mythos), the story saw the two characters team-up to "solve the mystery of a missing civilization." Grant and Ranson had previously produced "an outline of a Phantom Stranger story [Ranson] wanted to draw," but were rebuffed. Indeed, Ranson recalls that Grant was asked to write in Batman/Phantom Stranger a Stranger who "must do nothing spooky."
Most recently he has worked on a number of X-Men
-related comics for Marvel
. However, he says that he does not "believe my style suits superheros," and did not enjoy working from scripts written by American writers who, he felt must have "watched too much television as children," peppering their scripts with TV/film terminology and tropes.
1970s in comics
See also:1960s in comics,other events of the 1970s,1980s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: 1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1973 - 1974 - 1975 - 1976 - 1977 - 1978 - 1979-1970:See also: 1970 in comics...
.
Biography
Born in 1939, Ranson's childhood and formative years included access to the influences of art and artists in a mixture of British and American comics, including "[The] BeanoThe Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
, Knockout
Knockout (comic)
-1939 series:The first ran from 4 March 1939 to 16 February 1963, 1251 issues, when it merged with Valiant. Magnet was discontinued in 1940; but its lead character, Billy Bunter, was thereafter granted his own cartoon strip in Knockout. Comic Cuts merged with it in 1953...
, [The] Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
, Film Fun
Film Fun
Film Fun was a British comic book that ran from 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with Buster, a total of 2225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fifties. It had been renamed Film Fun and Thrills in 1959...
, Wizard, Hotspur..., The Eagle with Frank Hampson setting new standards. Wayne Boring
Wayne Boring
Wayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon....
's Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, C.C. Beck's Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
," and others (including, "[l]ater, John Buscema
John Buscema
John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...
's Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer
The Silver Surfer is a Marvel Comics superhero created by Jack Kirby. The character first appears in Fantastic Four #48 , the first of a three-issue arc that fans call "The Galactus Trilogy"....
and his Conan
Conan (Marvel Comics)
Conan is a fictional character based on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. He was introduced to the comic book world in 1970 with Conan the Barbarian, written by Roy Thomas, illustrated by Barry Smith and published by Marvel Comics....
, Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
's Thor
Thor (Marvel Comics)
Thor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....
"). He says that Hampson in particular was an early influence, but that
Ranson attended the South West Essex Technical College and School of Art in Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
, Essex, where he studied painting and printmaking. Trained initially as an "apprentice stamp and banknote designer" in the 1960s, learning "to translate photographs into watercolour... [i]n stamp size." A "rare ability at the time," he would later use this skill as a "selling point" when pursuing a career "as an illustrator in advertising and publishing." After a period of time as a "[l]ettering artist for a cardboard box manufacturer", followed by teaching work, he says he "[r]an away to London." After some time in menial jobs, Ranson gained experience as a "[g]eneral patcher-up and filler-in at [a] commercial art studio," where he was encouraged to become a freelance artist by, he recalls
Look-in
Ranson first brought the precise techniques he had evolved through his apprenticeship to the UK TV comic Look-inLook-in
Look-in was a long running children's magazine centred around ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior TVTimes". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994...
, working first on portrait covers, and later alongside other major comics talents such as John M. Burns
John Burns (comics)
John M. Burns is an English comics artist, with a career stretching back to the mid-1960s.- Biography :His initial work was as an illustrator for Junior Express and School Friend...
, Martin Asbury
Martin Asbury
Martin Asbury is a British comic and storyboard artist, best known for drawing the Garth strip in the Daily Mirror from 1976 to 1997, and for his colour TV adaptations in Look-in....
, Harry North, Colin Wyatt
Colin Wyatt
Colin Wyatt worked from 1957 to 1980 for IPC Magazines as an illustrator of children's comics.-Biography:Concentrating mostly on the very young children's stories, he contributed to such well-known titles and Tiny Tots and Jack and Jill, as well as illustrating many Disney tie-in comics and...
, John Bolton, Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie is a British comics artist, who is best known for his work with Alan Moore on Skizz.-Biography:Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees...
, Phil Gascoine
Phil Gascoine
Phil Gascoine was a British comics artist, best-known for his work in girls' comics such as Jinty and Bunty, and in boys' comics such as Battle Action, for which he drew The Sarge.-Biography:...
, Barry Mitchell, and Bill Titcombe.
After some time drawing "funnies," Ranson drew on his skill in translating pictures across mediums (generally using a Grant Projector, which "projects an image up onto a glass plate, on which one places tracing paper"), and brought his talents to bear for Look-in by creating strips based on such popular TV series as Sapphire and Steel and Dangermouse
DangerMouse
Danger Mouse is a British animated television series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It features the eponymous Danger Mouse, an English mouse who works as a superhero/secret agent. The show is a loose parody of British spy fiction, particularly James Bond and the...
, all written by Angus Allan
Angus Allan
Angus Peter Allan was a British comic strip writer and magazine editor who worked on TV Century 21 in the 1960s and Look-in magazine during the 1970s. Most commonly known as Angus Allan and sometimes credited as Angus P...
. Since these works were based on specific TV shows, he says that "it seemed important that the characters looked as much like the actors as possible", and thus "used the methods I knew" to achieve the accurate likenesses that typify his work.
Musical strips
Ranson also produced a series of comic-strip biographies of well-known music stars and bands, including ABBAABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
(1977), Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
(1981), The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
(1981-2), Haircut One Hundred (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983). Most biographical articles on Ranson date his Beatles work to "the 1960s," but Ranson himself dispels this myth by stating that the "first auto-biographical [sic] strip I did was ABBA." In fact that work was done in 1981
Ranson recalls that Look-in editor Colin Shelbourne was convinced to allow Allan and Ranson to "retain... the copyright" to their Elvis and Beatles strips, which had the unfortunate side-effect of delaying complete publication, since such deals were largely unheard of. Ranson says:
Ranson describes Shelbourne as "an adventurous editor," who went the extra mile and even allowed the writer and artist to "go to Liverpool for research" for the Beatles strip.
Sapphire & Steel
Ranson's best-known work for Look-in consisted largely of adaptations of two strips based upon totally different British television programmes. The first of these was a strip based on P. J. Hammond's Sapphire & SteelSapphire & Steel
Sapphire & Steel is a British television science-fiction fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The...
, which Ranson was "the first and only one to draw" between 1979 and 1981. Scripted by Angus Allan (almost Look-ins sole writer, according to Ranson), Ranson barely recalls drawing the strip, but does remember that
Ranson was denied the chance to meet Sapphire & Steel star Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
by being absent when she visited the offices. He recalls that, unfortunately, while "[s]he was kind enough to offer to meet me and pose for more photo-reference," "[s]omeone told her that no, that would not be necessary. Stupid sods."
In 2007, Prion Books reprinted a selection of material from Look-in, and included a three-part Sapphire & Steel story on pages 132-133, 136-137 and 140-141.
Dangermouse
Ranson's other famous strip for Look-in was DangermouseDangerMouse
Danger Mouse is a British animated television series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It features the eponymous Danger Mouse, an English mouse who works as a superhero/secret agent. The show is a loose parody of British spy fiction, particularly James Bond and the...
, an unlikely children's cartoon hero based - loosely - on the Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
TV series Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
, created in cartoon mouse form by Cosgrove Hall and voiced on TV by David Jason
David Jason
Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...
. Ranson says that he "did enjoy it at the time," and was awarded not only the "Good Grief Oh Crikey" Award from Cosgrove Hall ("The award is a painted model of Dangermouse in heroic pose with a nervous Penfold peering from behind him"), but also received an award from the Society of Strip Illustration for his work on the strip.
Ranson wryly notes that "[t]he reflected glory from the highly popular TV show made me a big hit with my daughter's primary school friends too."
Other
Between 1977 and 1990, Ranson also produced strips based on such TV properties as Worzel Gummidge, Michael Bentine's Potty TimeMichael Bentine's Potty Time
Michael Bentine's Potty Time was a long-running British children's show, starring Michael Bentine, directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television on ITV...
, Duckula
Count Duckula
Count Duckula is a British animated television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall, and a spin-off from DangerMouse, a show in which the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. The series first aired on September 6, 1988 and was produced by Thames Television for 3 seasons and...
(another Cosgrove Hall character whose comics adventures began in Look-in, but also spun off into its own title), The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman is an American television series starring Lindsay Wagner that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1978 as a spin off from The Six Million Dollar Man. Wagner stars as tennis pro Jaime Sommers who is nearly killed in a skydiving accident. Sommers' life is saved by Oscar Goldman ...
and The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
, and others. He also produced comic strips based on the TV adaptations of Richmal Crompton
Richmal Crompton
Richmal Crompton Lamburn was a British writer, most famous for her Just William humorous short stories and books.-Life:...
's "Just William
Just William series
The William Brown series, better known as the Just William series, is a series of thirty nine books written by English author Richmal Crompton...
" novels, Buck Rogers
Buck Rogers
Anthony Rogers is a fictional character that first appeared in Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. A sequel, The Airlords of Han, was published in the March 1929 issue....
and the film Logan's Run
Logan's Run
Logan's Run is a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, it depicts a dystopic ageist future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching a particular age...
.
Ranson also worked briefly for Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
in the late 1980s, and even illustrated a couple of issues of the comics adventures of Dr. Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
for Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
in 1990.
Advertising
Aside from his Look-in and (later) 2000AD comics work, Ranson also produced illustrations for FiestaFiesta (magazine)
Fiesta magazine is a British soft-core pornographic magazine, published by Galaxy Publications. It is a sister publication of Knave.Launched in 1966, Fiesta quickly became Britain’s top selling adult magazine...
and some "[a]dvertising work through an agent, [including] some All-Bran
All-Bran
All-Bran is a very high-bran, high-fibre, wheat bran breakfast cereal manufactured by Kellogg's and marketed as an aid to digestive health.-History:It was introduced in 1916. It was sold in a red and green packet, similar to most Kellogg's cereals...
adverts." He produced some assorted work for various other IPC
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
magazines in addition to 2000AD, and was glad of the "more challenging" work to be found in comics, branding himself "too sensitive a plant to get on in advertising despite the high fees."
Ranson stresses the influence of his peers - particularly Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
- on his own evolution as an artist, moving from being burdoned by the "British way of drawing adventure comics... dependable, professional, craftsmanlike and worthy," to seeing and being influenced by work that "looked as though [the artist, particularly Bolland] really cared about it."
2000AD
Ranson stresses the importance of 2000AD legend Brian BollandBrian Bolland
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
, saying that
In 1989, Ranson followed in Bolland—and others'—footsteps, and moved to major British sci-fi comic 2000AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
, where he has remained ever since, with rare forays into the world of American comics
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
, including Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and the X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
. He counts himself lucky that this career path has, in his decades-long comics career seen him work primarily with just three writers.
Judge Anderson: Psi Division
Ranson's first work for 2000AD was a one-off Judge Dredd story "Dungeon Master" by John Wagner. It was followed by the ten-part Anderson: Psi Division - "Triad" storyline, which started in Prog #635 (15 July, 19891989 in comics
-Year overall:* "Inferno" company-wide Marvel Comics crossover continues, involving the mutant titles The Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, The New Mutants, and Excalibur, as well as the X-Terminators limited series and various other Marvel titles...
). David Bishop
David Bishop
David Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....
, in the 2000AD history volume Thrill Power Overload
Thrill Power Overload
Thrill Power Overload, or TPO is the title of a book about the history of the British comic 2000 AD written by David Bishop, one of its editors.- History :...
says that Ranson's
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
, Cassandra Anderson is a Judge with psychic skills, including telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
and precognition
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
.
Over the next fifteen years, Ranson drew a dozen more serials featuring Judge Anderson, working with writer Alan Grant, who says that since their first collaboration
Asked about the changes Anderson had undergone during his 15-years working on her stories, Ranson believed that she had indeed changed
Ranson admits to feeling "quite possessive of her," and considers her "the most human of any comic hero I am aware of, and [one who] deals with some of the knottier problems of being human – morality, mortality, meaning." He is especially fond of working on stories in which Anderson is "aware of" her age (of "being between forty and fifty years old") while still "retain[ing her] likeness and... glamour."
Button Man
In 19901990 in comics
-Year overall:Days of Future Present, the sequel to Days of Future Past, appeared in the annuals of Fantastic Four, New Mutants, X-Factor and X-Men.-January:* Dinosaurs for Hire is cancelled by Eternity Comics with issue #9....
, 2000AD stalwarts Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
, Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
, John Wagner
John Wagner
John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
, Alan Grant and Mike McMahon
Mike McMahon (comics)
Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
were invited by Geoff Fry to begin work on a publication for Neptune Distribution
Neptune Distribution
Neptune Distribution was a comic distribution company established in Leicester in 1986. It was set up to challenge Titan Distribution's monopoly on the UK comic distribution business....
. Neptune had acquired premiere British fanzine Fantasy Advertiser
Fantasy Advertiser
Fantasy Advertiser, later abbreviated to FA, was a British fanzine which discussed comic books. It was initially edited by Frank Dobson, essentially as an advertising service for comic collectors, and when Dobson emigrated to Australia in 1970 he handed it on to two contributors, Dez Skinn and Paul...
in 1988, and sold-out an issue featuring Mills & O'Neill's Marshal Law
Marshal Law (comics)
Marshal Law is an English-language superhero comic book series created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill. One of the first major creator-owned characters for a major publisher, it was first published by Epic Comics in 1987...
, prompting the move towards creating a line of comics spearheaded by that character.
Having formed an imprint - Apocalypse Ltd
Apocalypse Ltd
Apocalypse Ltd was a publishing company formed out of an alliance of Pat Mills, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Kevin O'Neill along with Neptune Distribution, who were also involved with Trident Comics....
- the publish the new anthology title, Pat Mills found himself de facto editor of the in-preparation title, now called Toxic!
Toxic!
Toxic! was a British weekly comic book published by Apocalypse Ltd. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28-October 24, 1991.-History:...
. Amid some turmoil, the initial five creators began to splinter, with Wagner in particular feeling that his "style, the way I write, had itself been deemed un-Toxic!" The strip he had spent some time working on was vetoed by Mills, who felt that it was "far too close to 2000 AD in style." It eventually fell to the new editor - Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
, head-hunted from Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
- to inform Wagner. He recalls that "[b]y that stage Arthur Ranson had drawn an awful lot of it."
The strip - called Button Man
Button Man
Button Man is a comic strip created for leading British comic 2000 AD, written by John Wagner and illustrated by Arthur Ranson.-Plot:...
- was shelved half-finished. Toxic! was cancelled in October, 1991 after 31 issues.
In the spring of 1992, as part of a promotion called "the Mega-Blast," Button Man was resurrected and launched in Prog 780. Ultra-violent, as well as being one of - if not the - first non-sci-fi strips to appear in the comic's 15-year history, Button Man is particularly notable because its genesis makes it one of the very few creator-owned
Creator ownership
Creator ownership is an arrangement in which the creator or creators of a work of fiction retain full ownership of the material, regardless of whether it is self-published or by a corporate publisher. In some fields of publishing, such as fiction writing, creator ownership is a standard arrangement...
strips to appear in 2000AD. Then-editor Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus is a British comic writer and editor, particularly known for his work at 2000 AD.Born in London and educated in Devon, MacManus joined IPC in 1973, aged 20, as a sub-editor on the boys' weekly comic Valiant, until 1975 when he moved to Battle Picture Weekly under editor David Hunt...
sums it up by saying
Ranson says that
The first Button Man serial was collected in 1994 by Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...
, and again by Rebellion in 2003. Ranson remembers that he "[made] a small change to the end of Button Man," but praises Wagner's storytelling abilities, for being "self-contained. Complete in themselves, neat, compact and satisfying, solid." A second story followed in 1994, and the third made its debut "after an absence of six years" in 2001. Writer John Wagner candidly stated that he believes:
- "My writing and Arthur's art were patchier on the third series, but I believe the plot was the best of the three."
As of 2007, Wagner was writing a fourth series, as well pursuing prospects for a big screen adaptation of the series.
Mazeworld
Mazeworld, another series initially conceived for Toxic!, was created by Alan Grant and Ranson five years before its initial debut in 2000 AD Prog 1014. Ranson remembers thatIn 1996, then-2000AD-editor David Bishop, partly to challenge the status-quo, and partly in the wake of the "definite anti-Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
feeling within Fleetway [then publishers of 2000 AD]" after the Judge Dredd film
Judge Dredd (film)
Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Danny Cannon, and starring Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante, and Max von Sydow. The film is based on the strip of the same name in the British comic 2000 AD...
decided to replace fictional editor Tharg the Mighty
Tharg the Mighty
The Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
with 'The Man in Black from Vector 13
Vector 13
Vector 13 is a 2000 AD comic strip which featured the eponymous agency setup to investigate anomalous phenomena and conspiracy theories. It was influenced by The X-Files and other events like the 1995 release of the alien autopsy film...
', and move Dredd himself from his "familiar position as the first strip in each prog." Mazeworld took Dredd's place.
A fantasy epic, it was the "first new work Grant had done in years for 2000 AD" (in part because of his work on Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
), and Grant recalls that "the strip offered a chance to experiment while collaborating with Ranson." Designed to play to Ranson's strengths - Grant remembers that Ranson even "dr[ew] a "map" of MazeWorld... [that] was so good, so right, that it basically became the template for everything that followed." - Grant is quoted in Thrill-Power Overload as saying that
Grant believes that these terms hampered the strip, calling it "a hiding to nothing," and while praising Ranson, who "turned in really nice art," he believes the story "didn't take off."
Nevertheless, Grant and Ranson produced a trilogy of Mazeworld tales between 1996 and 1999. As it was, like Button Man, creator-owned, Grant recalls that the duo "had hopes of selling it for syndication, or perhaps as a computer game." It was licenced in "the US [by] Caliber Comics
Caliber Comics
Caliber Comics or Caliber Press was an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, in the next decade Caliber published over 1300 comics and ranked as one of the America's leading independent publishers...
, which promptly printed the books in black and white, lost much of Arthur's artwork, failed to pay us a bean, then went bust." In the quoted interview, interviewer James Mackay notes that serendipitously Ranson had been recently contacted (August–September, 2004) by "one of the brothers who ran Caliber Comics," who talked to Ranson about returning his Mazeworld artwork. which indeed it has been. Following Daniel Clifford's Facebook campaign the complete'Mazeworld is being published by 'Rebellion' and due in November 2011. (Arthur Ranson official website. Amazon books)
Other comics work
In 1993, Grant and Ranson contributed the two-part story "Tao" to DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
Legends of the Dark Knight
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, commonly referred to as simply Legends of the Dark Knight is a DC comic book featuring Batman. It was launched in 1989 with the popularity of the Batman movie, following on from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One...
series (issues #52-53). Ranson's artwork drew praise from the title's (American) readers, many of whom were unfamiliar with the artist's work in the UK.
In 1997, Ranson provided the artwork for a one-shot prestige-format single issue for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
/Phantom Stranger
Phantom Stranger
The Phantom Stranger is a fictional character of unspecified paranormal origins who battles mysterious and occult forces in various titles published by DC Comics, sometimes under their Vertigo imprint.-Publication history:...
. Written by one of Ranson's frequent collaborators, Alan Grant (a mainstay at 2000AD, and also a major contributor to the Batman mythos), the story saw the two characters team-up to "solve the mystery of a missing civilization." Grant and Ranson had previously produced "an outline of a Phantom Stranger story [Ranson] wanted to draw," but were rebuffed. Indeed, Ranson recalls that Grant was asked to write in Batman/Phantom Stranger a Stranger who "must do nothing spooky."
Most recently he has worked on a number of X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
-related comics for Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. However, he says that he does not "believe my style suits superheros," and did not enjoy working from scripts written by American writers who, he felt must have "watched too much television as children," peppering their scripts with TV/film terminology and tropes.
Cameos
Due to his use of photographs as reference materials, Ranson has included cameos of friends, colleagues and family in several of his stories. Notable examples include:- Angus P Allan: The Look-in writer and Ranson collaborator on (particularly) Sapphire & Steel and Dangermouse, recalls being included in an episode of Sapphire & Steel - "One of the strips featured the 'ghost' of a French naval lieutenant of Bonaparte's time, and Arthur included drawings of me."
- Sue and Alan Grant: Ranson included their faces in Anderson: Psi Division - "Satan"...
- Arthur Ranson: ...Ranson also included his "own head... in the pile of corpses that Satan imagines," in the same story.
- Dez SkinnDez SkinnDerek "Dez" Skinn is a British comic and magazine editor, and author of a number of books on comics. As head of Marvel Comics' operations in England in the late 1970s, Skinn reformatted existing titles, launched new ones, and acquired the BBC license for Doctor Who Weekly...
: Appeared in Button Man. - Peter Hogan: Appeared in Button Man.
- Edward Berridge: Appeared in Anderson, Psi - "Half Life"