David Pugh began drawing Sláine

Sláine (comics)

Sláine is a comic hero from the pages of 2000 AD - one of Britain's most popular comic books.Sláine is a barbarian fantasy adventure series based on Celtic myths and stories which first appeared in 1983, written by Pat Mills and initially drawn by his then wife, Angela Kincaid. Most of the early...

 for 2000 AD in 1984, helping to remould the character into his current incarnation and create the look of long time villain, Elfric

Elfric (comics)

Elfric is an antagonist of the fantasy comic series Sláine by Pat Mills. He first appeared in the story Time Killer as "Elfric Serpent-Eye", the changeling leader of a force of Norsemen in the Battle of Clontarf...

. His work on "Time Killer" and "Tomb of Terror" has been reprinted several times and is still available in various collected editions. He became one of the top artists in Boys' Adventure comics for Fleetway (now Rebellion), visualising Peter Milligan

Peter Milligan

Peter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...

 scripts for MASK comic. His personal favourite character was Loner, the black space gunslinger, especially created for him to showcase his talent in the Sci-Fi weekly, Wildcat.

When Wildcat merged with the Eagle

Eagle (comic)

Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...

 comic and became the New Eagle, Pugh handed Loner over into the experienced hands of the much underrated Eric Bradbury

Eric Bradbury

Eric Bradbury was a British comic artist who primarily worked for Amalgamated Press/IPC from the late 1940s to the 1990s....

 and took on the challenge of reinventing his own childhood hero, Dan Dare

Dan Dare

Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...

. David was fortunate to alternate with Keith Watson from the original Frank Hampson studio. Together they recreated Dare into an eighties action hero, retaining the look of the original character but heavily influenced by movies such as Alien and Predator. Work followed for AC Comics and Tekno Comix

Tekno Comix

Tekno Comix was an American publishing company that produced comic books from 1995 to 1997.-History:The company was founded by Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein as a division of their publicly traded company, Big Entertainment...

 in the USA, the most successful work being on Neil Gaiman’s Phage: Shadowdeath

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

, written by Bryan Talbot. David wrote and drew a regular sci-fi strip and designed many spacecraft for Games Workshop. Obvious Tactics the graphic novel for Black Library has been reprinted twice and is available as a free download. Until recently, he provided the colour and 3D computer effects for the Scorer football strip in the Daily Mirror.

Creative work outside comics

Pugh has also been design consultant for Holiday World International Travel and Oberland Holidays since 1979. This work helped fund his travels taking him into the homes of many deprived families and becoming long term friends with many of them.

He has created many adventure books featuring Disney and Sega characters, illustrated a series of educational books for Belitha Press. Pugh has been commissioned to work on several 3D art projects including a campaign for Renault cars and has collaborated on a 3D children’s book The Boy who Walked on the Ceiling, with his friend Jon Haward

Jon Haward

Jon Haward is a comics artist. He has illustrated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter and Biker Mice From Mars, among other strips.-Reference:...

, written and created by Doug Moench.

Doug Moench

Douglas Moench , better known as Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok.-Biography:...

Other work

He is now the founder of Bus Fare, a charity set up to help migrant workers and refugees reunite with their families. Currently living in India he is alternating between working as designer and computer graphics teacher for the LHA charitable trust, working with Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala and helping a street children project in Rishikesh. His friends, Bhuwan Chandra and Kamal Chandra are helping to put fifteen girls through full-time education and giving free daily music and yoga classes to around thirty other children. Their project is funded by giving music and yoga lessons to foreign visitors, who are encouraged to also work with the children.

Bus Fare is currently working to help a migrant worker in the Gambia keep in touch with his family in Guinea Bissau. David is helping to develop home stays in the isolated forest village of Cassalol in Guinea Bissau.

Early years

Pugh attended Art College at Brighton and Kingston upon Thames. On leaving joined the American company, Pier 1 Imports as company artist and photographer, working with the London based advertising agency Brockie, Haslam and Allen. After two years he returned to Wales to work for the Thomson Organization as a visualiser in various advertising and promotional departments. His first published comic strip was Looking Glass Library in the Thomson weekly newspaper the Merthyr Express in 1977. In 1979 he also created Captain Classified: Star Ranger for the weekly Glamorgan Star, it was this work that brought him to the attention of Pat Mills and the beginning of his professional comics career.

Writer

• Looking Glass Library (1977)
• Captain Classified (1979–81)
• 2000 AD prog 480 (1986)
• Where’s Sonic Now? (1993)
• The Last Planet (1993) co-writer Simon Davies
• Obvious Tactics: Black Library (1997)

Penciller

• Looking Glass Library (1977)
• Captain Classified (1979–81)
• 2000 AD (1984–86)
• Time Twisters (1987)
• Mask (1986–88)
• Wildcat (1989)
• Eagle (1989–1994)
• Toxic! (1991)
• Sonic Adventure Books (1992–93)
• The Last Planet (1993)
• Disney Gargoyles (1995)
• Neil Gaiman's Phage: Shadow Death (1996)
• Star Wars: Galactic Search (1997)
• Obvious Tactics: Black Library (1997)
• Warhammer Monthly (1998)
• The Worm (1999)
• Cape and Mask (2003)
• Eternal Damnation (2003)
• Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 5) (2003)
• Slaine Graphic Novel(2008)

Inker

• Looking Glass Library (1977)
• Captain Classified (1979–81)
• 2000 AD (1984/87)
• Time Twisters (1987)
• Mask(1986/88)
• Wildcat(1989)
• Eagle (1989/94)
• Toxic! (1991)
• Sonic Adventure Books (1992–93)
• The Last Planet (1993)
• Disney Gargoyles (1995)
• Star Wars: Galactic Search (1997)
• Warhammer Monthly (1998)
• Obvious Tactics: Black Library (1997)
• Eternal Damnation (2003)
• Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 5) (2003)
• Slaine Graphic Novel(2008)
• Eternal Damnation (2003)
• Judge Dredd Megazine (vol. 5) (2003)

Colourist

• Neil Gaiman's Phage: Shadow Death (1996)
• Star Wars: Galactic Search (1997)
• X-Men (2005)
• Scorer: Daily Mirror (1999–2011)

Letterer

• Deff Skwadron (2004)
• Eternal Damnation (2003)
• Kal Jerico (2000)
• Tales From The Ten-Tailed Cat (2002)
• Warhammer Monthly (1998)

Cover Artist

• Eagle (1989–1994)
• Dan Dare Annual (1991)
• Robocop Annual (1996)
• Masked Rider Annual (1997)
• Slaine (2008)

External links

• http://busfare.webs.com/ official charity website BusFare