In the last few days I have have had the great honour to talk to John Ridgway. He is an artist with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Before diving head first into his illustrious career illustrating comics I was fortunate enough to get to know the gentleman a little first. He told me that he has been happily married to his wife Rita for 57 years, and that he has two sons, and three grand-daughters, adding that he prefers the countryside, the grass, trees, hills, the mountains and the clouds as opposed to the hustle and bustle of a city life.
When I enquired if he had a sports team he favoured he replied simply "I was never into sport." John went on to mention that his least favourite film is Interstellar, his favourite food is a good beef pie in a good olde British pub, and that he loves horse riding and learning to dance.... and then we dived into talking about comics.
Paul: Can I ask how you discovered comics? Was there a specific early comic strip you can recall that you really enjoyed that impressed you?
John: My parents bought me my first comics. They were delivered with the morning papers. I remember reading about Tiger Tim and Teddy Tail. I was probably around four or five at the time. Later I read the Beano but I moved on to the Eagle which came out when I was ten years old. There were a lot of comics available in my neighbourhood. There were black and white Australian publications of Superman and Batman, reprints of Dells' Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Space Cadet. A friend had The Hotspur and Adventure, L. Miller's reprints of Whizz Comics and Captain Marvel Jnr.
John: My parents bought me my first comics. They were delivered with the morning papers. I remember reading about Tiger Tim and Teddy Tail. I was probably around four or five at the time. Later I read the Beano but I moved on to the Eagle which came out when I was ten years old. There were a lot of comics available in my neighbourhood. There were black and white Australian publications of Superman and Batman, reprints of Dells' Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Space Cadet. A friend had The Hotspur and Adventure, L. Miller's reprints of Whizz Comics and Captain Marvel Jnr.
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Paul: Did comics inspire you to become a professional artist? OR were you already quite artistic from a young age before really seeing comics as a way to make a living?
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John: I wanted to draw comics from reading Tarzan Adventures which reprinted Burne Hogarth's Sunday Tarzan stories. It was seeing his name appear every 12 pictures or so that really made me appreciate that someone actually drew comics. Please remember that in those days there was nowhere to learn about comics or apparent fandoms and their fans. At junior school I showed a talent for drawing and passed the entrance exam for Salford Art College. My parents persuaded me that there was a more reliable living to be made in the north of England in engineering, so I went to technical college and trained as an engineering draughtsman, eventually becoming a design engineer.
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Paul: When did you decide to take the plunge and decide to pursue a career as a professional illustrator or comic artist?
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John: Chance and circumstance.
John: Chance and circumstance.
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Paul: Respectfully could I ask you to be a little more specific? Let me approach it a different way. Could I ask when you first saw a copy of 2000AD?
Paul: Respectfully could I ask you to be a little more specific? Let me approach it a different way. Could I ask when you first saw a copy of 2000AD?
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John: It's a rather long story. I practiced drawing newspaper-type stuff of my own with an idea that I might try to get something published sometime. Joan, my sister-in-law, saw an advert in the paper by someone to assist him as a cartoonist. He saw my stuff and started to act as an agent. He got me some illustration work at IDW Manchester and some 8 page fillers on Air Ace comics. He owed me a bit of cash so I tried Commando and started working regularly for them in my spare time.
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Paul: I am, of course aware you worked extensively for Commando comics.
John: It's a rather long story. I practiced drawing newspaper-type stuff of my own with an idea that I might try to get something published sometime. Joan, my sister-in-law, saw an advert in the paper by someone to assist him as a cartoonist. He saw my stuff and started to act as an agent. He got me some illustration work at IDW Manchester and some 8 page fillers on Air Ace comics. He owed me a bit of cash so I tried Commando and started working regularly for them in my spare time.
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Paul: I am, of course aware you worked extensively for Commando comics.
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John: I should say that I also bought Starlord which was published on better quality paper and with decent colour. It also featured work by Ian Kennedy whose work I was familiar with from his work on Commando covers.
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Paul: He certainly produced some exceptional covers.
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Paul: He certainly produced some exceptional covers.
Above: Two of the Ian Kennedy's Commando covers.
John: There is something I should like to observe. I never bought Commando comics until I started working on them and then only those drawn by Argentinian artist Jose Jorge. While I didn't buy 2000AD, I did buy Star Lord, mainly due to Ian Kennedy's work on Ro Busters. I was familiar with Ian's work from Air Ace Library where he illustrated a good number of stories in black and white. While working on Commando, editor Ian Forbes sent me several covers by Ian to study when I asked if I could try a few covers.
John: By pure chance I happened to see a copy of Warrior Magazine and got some work with Dez Skinn, Alan Moore, Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse... Steve Parkhouse got me work on Doctor Who Magazine. David Lloyd put me forward for Enid Blyton's Famous Five comic by Guttenberghus. I had an idea that I would soon be made redundant as an engineer and persuaded my wife that I had enough work to go full-time as a comic artist even though the Enid Blyton comic was not scheduled to go into production until 12 months after I started work on it. In answer to your question on 2000AD, my wife got me the first issue which launched featuring Dan Dare. I was so disappointed in what they were doing with Dan and the low quality in comparison with the Eagle comics that I didn't buy a copy of 2000 AD for a very long time.
Paul: I assume you eventually must have relented, but I must apologise... My questions may not be perfectly chroniclogical in order to reflect your career path, but I would really like to stick with 2000AD please. Can I ask what was your very first published experience in the pages of 2000AD? Who was your first Tharg?
John: Steve MacManus gave me my first Future Shock - a time travel story about a man travelling into the future, the action of which destroyed the place he left from, and also the place he came back from.
John: There is something I should like to observe. I never bought Commando comics until I started working on them and then only those drawn by Argentinian artist Jose Jorge. While I didn't buy 2000AD, I did buy Star Lord, mainly due to Ian Kennedy's work on Ro Busters. I was familiar with Ian's work from Air Ace Library where he illustrated a good number of stories in black and white. While working on Commando, editor Ian Forbes sent me several covers by Ian to study when I asked if I could try a few covers.
John: By pure chance I happened to see a copy of Warrior Magazine and got some work with Dez Skinn, Alan Moore, Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse... Steve Parkhouse got me work on Doctor Who Magazine. David Lloyd put me forward for Enid Blyton's Famous Five comic by Guttenberghus. I had an idea that I would soon be made redundant as an engineer and persuaded my wife that I had enough work to go full-time as a comic artist even though the Enid Blyton comic was not scheduled to go into production until 12 months after I started work on it. In answer to your question on 2000AD, my wife got me the first issue which launched featuring Dan Dare. I was so disappointed in what they were doing with Dan and the low quality in comparison with the Eagle comics that I didn't buy a copy of 2000 AD for a very long time.
Paul: I assume you eventually must have relented, but I must apologise... My questions may not be perfectly chroniclogical in order to reflect your career path, but I would really like to stick with 2000AD please. Can I ask what was your very first published experience in the pages of 2000AD? Who was your first Tharg?
John: Steve MacManus gave me my first Future Shock - a time travel story about a man travelling into the future, the action of which destroyed the place he left from, and also the place he came back from.
Paul: You have illustrated a handful of Judge Dredd stories. How did you approach John Wagner's scripts? Are they as artist friendly as so many have suggested to me?
John: The Babylon 5 comic was originally suspended because DC had to pay a licensing fee to Warner Brothers which financially dropped the low sales of the comic below the marketing level. When the potential of B5 was realized the comic was to be resumed with JMS writing the next story which concerned the Ranger Marcus Cole. I had just started work on this when the comic was cancelled by JMS pulling the plug. Over his career as a writer JMS had often had his scripts edited - something he had grown to hate. When Laura Hitchcock, an editor on the comic, edited his comic script slightly he felt it was too much of an interference with his project and pulled it despite the efforts of Douglas Netter....I was very sad about the cancellation. I was brought up on Dan Dare so Babylon 5 was the chance to work on something in a similar vein with well rounded characters, locations and vehicles. I was growing to love it as much as the artist Keith Watson obviously loved Dan Dare.
Paul: That brings me rather neatly to my next question. Over the last twenty or thirty years technology has fundamentally changed the way many artists produce their art. Can you describe how computers have influenced the way in which you produce your art?
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John: They were excellent scripts to work from. Some writers produce very detailed descriptions for pictures almost as if they were taken word for word from a conventional novel. The extra detail distracts the artist's mind from the main aim of the picture.
John: John's scripts were clear and to the point. They gave me everything I needed to work from and left room for me to use my imagination. Working like that makes the artist a partner with the writer rather than just a pencil in the writer's hand.
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Paul: Can you talk about working upon The Dead Man for 2000AD? It was a unique story that by stealth was a prequel for Judge Dredd's epic Necropolis storyline. Did John Wagner suggest any special directions in regard to how to illustrate Dredd's face? After all it is usually religiously hidden behind his helmet.
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John: I enjoyed drawing Dead Man. I can't remember now at what point I knew the character was Judge Dredd. I had to draw him badly disfigured by acid burns. I treated him more like Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider than Clint in Dirty Harry.
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John: I enjoyed drawing Dead Man. I can't remember now at what point I knew the character was Judge Dredd. I had to draw him badly disfigured by acid burns. I treated him more like Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider than Clint in Dirty Harry.
John: I enjoyed drawing his relationship with the young lad and the dog. I have always wanted to draw a Western and I reckon Deadman is about as close as i will ever get. It was good fun designing the two sisters of Judge Death.
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Paul: The long running stories of Luke Kirby were consistently a fan favourite I believe. I have to wonder though if it is a source of annoyance that similar stories such as the boy wizard Timothy Hunter from Vertigo or the various adventures of Harry Potter that followed were almost the same? There are surely some glaring similarities.
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John: For many years it had been assumed that anything created for a comic was copyright of the publisher, not the creator. I may be wrong on this but I gather that this had to be clarified in line with EU law, and creators were asked to acknowledge that material produced for a comic was copyright of the publisher.
John: Alan McKenzie claimed to be sole creator of Luke Kirby and never signed over the copyright. Alan had asked me to work on the third Luke Kirby but I was unable to do so having signed with Marvel Comics to draw 200 pages of Prince Valiant. I could not have started Luke Kirby and meet the Prince Valiant schedule. The story went to Steve Parkhouse. I had asked to draw the story after that, which was going to be the last story but that also went to Steve. At that time, DC Comics were planning Books of Magic, featuring Timothy Hunter as a monthly comic, and wanted me to draw that. I had to turn it down because of the Prince valiant commitment. I had previously worked with Charles Vess producing ten pages of pencils for his part of the original Books of Magic 4 part series. I see similarities between Tim Hunter and Harry Potter and both are stories about young people learning magic. But Luke Kirby was the first.
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Paul: Slightly earlier in your career you briefly illustrated the Zoids story for Marvel UK's Spiderman and Zoids comic. I believe it was working from a script by a young Grant Morrison. Did you enjoy that project and do you have any insight to offer about how the storyline may have developed if the title had not been cancelled?
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John: I enjoyed drawing the one episode of the a story I did, although I think tossing the female lead out of the top of an office block could have been a shock to younger readers. Older readers wouldn't care. I had fun with the particular Zoid I had to draw. I was sent the actual toy! Unfortunately, every time it took a step one of the back legs dropped off. I wondered whether that was generally the fate of that model of Zoid. I have no idea how I came to get that part of the story and I have no idea where the rest of the story was going. Except with Zoids running around on earth anything was possible.
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Paul: I'd like to ask about another British Icon you have illustrated rather comprehensively, namely Doctor Who. Before discussing your art working on the character can I simply ask, are you a big fan of Doctor Who? Were you a fan before you started to illustrate The Doctor? Also, for that matter, do you have a particular favourite Doctor?
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John: I've enjoyed Doctor Who from its start but, if "fan" is short for "fanatic", then I can't say I am. I particularly enjoyed Patrick Troughton's stint, plus Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. Peter Davidson seemed a bit flat to me. I of course watched Colin Baker but I didn't like the changes in format. I didn't see much of Sylvester McCoy. I've watched most of the stories since Chris Eccleston but I was disappointed in the Jodie Whitaker era. There was far too much running around waving the sonic screwdriver and too many companions. For obvious reason, of course, my favourite Doctor was Colin Baker, but for me Tom Baker is my next favourite.
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John: I've enjoyed Doctor Who from its start but, if "fan" is short for "fanatic", then I can't say I am. I particularly enjoyed Patrick Troughton's stint, plus Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. Peter Davidson seemed a bit flat to me. I of course watched Colin Baker but I didn't like the changes in format. I didn't see much of Sylvester McCoy. I've watched most of the stories since Chris Eccleston but I was disappointed in the Jodie Whitaker era. There was far too much running around waving the sonic screwdriver and too many companions. For obvious reason, of course, my favourite Doctor was Colin Baker, but for me Tom Baker is my next favourite.
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Paul: I recently had the opportunity to interview Kev Hopgood. He illustrated some of Sylvestor McCoy's Doctor and observed that one of the challenges of illustrating the Doctor is maintaining a likeness of the actor involved. Unlike many comics would you agree that trying to do so creates an extra level of difficulty on a project?
John: I think it depends on the artist's approach. Do you go for a caricatures or a likeness? In my case I was trying for a likeness. Initially, all I had to go on was a set of about 6 photos of Colin Baker in closeup looking several years younger, plus two newspaper clippings which made his coat look like it was a tartan scheme. I think the likeness I achieved was fairly reasonable, that was probably supported by Colin's mop of hair and the damned coat. I had found, while drawing Commando stories that I had a tendency to produce a generic face so I started using clippings from magazines for background characters.
John: My real difficulty with the Doctor Who strip came from the supporting characters because I felt that I should be drawing from photographs. Drawing Peri was exceptionally difficult because my style involves a considerable amount of fine-line shading. That was something that could make the face of an attractive young woman look considerably older. Later, when drawing Sylvester McCoy's likeness, and that of Ace, I resorted to using photographs extensively by means of Fairburn's photo reference books.
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Paul: In regards to Doctor Who have you ever had the opportunity to meet any of the actors or actresses you illustrated? Did they comment at all, or give you their approval of your depiction of them?
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John: I met Colin Baker on three occasions. The first time was in Bath just before he was sacked which was a great pity in my opinion. The second time was at a convention in Manchester where I talked to him about working on a comic for Defiant which was Jim Shooter's comic company after Marvel, and the third time at a convention in Germany. On all occasions he stated that he prefered the stories in Doctor Who Monthly to the television stories. I met Sylvester McCoy at a con in Liverpool but never had the opportunity to speak to him. I also met Peter Davidson in Darwin, Lancs - we shared a brief taxi ride together.
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Paul: I am guessing the Babylon 5 comics you illustrated may have presented you with a similar artistic challenge. In the interests of full disclosure it is worth admitting I am an enormous fan of Babylon 5. Can I ask how you came to illustrate the spin off comics for the fondly remembered series?
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John: I met Colin Baker on three occasions. The first time was in Bath just before he was sacked which was a great pity in my opinion. The second time was at a convention in Manchester where I talked to him about working on a comic for Defiant which was Jim Shooter's comic company after Marvel, and the third time at a convention in Germany. On all occasions he stated that he prefered the stories in Doctor Who Monthly to the television stories. I met Sylvester McCoy at a con in Liverpool but never had the opportunity to speak to him. I also met Peter Davidson in Darwin, Lancs - we shared a brief taxi ride together.
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Paul: I am guessing the Babylon 5 comics you illustrated may have presented you with a similar artistic challenge. In the interests of full disclosure it is worth admitting I am an enormous fan of Babylon 5. Can I ask how you came to illustrate the spin off comics for the fondly remembered series?
John: I love science fiction. I had drawn Hellblazer for Karen Berger and when I quit that she had me work with Tom Veitch. He gave me a choice of story and I picked My Name is Chaos which was hard science. When I saw the first issues of the Babylon 5 comic I wrote to Laura Hitchcock, the editor, and asked for work. She took me on. For the first story I drew I had to draw younger versions of Sinclair and Garibaldi which was difficult. I loved drawing Londo and G'Kar. I drew five issues and had just started a new story when JMS pulled the plug. I made a 3D computer model of the station to work and draw from and started to work on models of the other craft in the series. I loved drawing all that. I'm really disappointed that Titan didn't use me when they did their comic.
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Paul: Did you have any direct contact with Joseph Michael Straczynski during that time? Were you ever given any indication as to why the "plug was pulled" as it were? I believe the title garnered respectable some sales figures.
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John: I was introduced to JMS at a con in Manchester. He introduced me to Michael O'Hare with whom I had a long chat. I was sad that Michael was leaving the show and was entirely unaware of the health reasons behind that decision. I thought he was far better in the role of Station Commander than Bruce Boxleitner.
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John: I was introduced to JMS at a con in Manchester. He introduced me to Michael O'Hare with whom I had a long chat. I was sad that Michael was leaving the show and was entirely unaware of the health reasons behind that decision. I thought he was far better in the role of Station Commander than Bruce Boxleitner.
John: The Babylon 5 comic was originally suspended because DC had to pay a licensing fee to Warner Brothers which financially dropped the low sales of the comic below the marketing level. When the potential of B5 was realized the comic was to be resumed with JMS writing the next story which concerned the Ranger Marcus Cole. I had just started work on this when the comic was cancelled by JMS pulling the plug. Over his career as a writer JMS had often had his scripts edited - something he had grown to hate. When Laura Hitchcock, an editor on the comic, edited his comic script slightly he felt it was too much of an interference with his project and pulled it despite the efforts of Douglas Netter....I was very sad about the cancellation. I was brought up on Dan Dare so Babylon 5 was the chance to work on something in a similar vein with well rounded characters, locations and vehicles. I was growing to love it as much as the artist Keith Watson obviously loved Dan Dare.
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Paul: Sticking with Babylon 5 for a moment I have to say your covers for the series were very impressive. I am curious if you would describe yourself as a fast artist. How long would a cover on average take you to create? Or for that matter how many pages could produce in a week?
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John: My rate of producing artwork for comic books is generally a page per day which involves pencils and inks. Scenes involving the Babylon 5 station prior to producing the model would take a little longer due to the complexity of the perspective construction which the model eliminated. Here (below) is my model of the Babylon 5 station, It was made using POV-Ray which is a text-based program as opposed to a vector-based program like 3DS-Max, Blender 3D or Cinema 4D.
Paul: Sticking with Babylon 5 for a moment I have to say your covers for the series were very impressive. I am curious if you would describe yourself as a fast artist. How long would a cover on average take you to create? Or for that matter how many pages could produce in a week?
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John: My rate of producing artwork for comic books is generally a page per day which involves pencils and inks. Scenes involving the Babylon 5 station prior to producing the model would take a little longer due to the complexity of the perspective construction which the model eliminated. Here (below) is my model of the Babylon 5 station, It was made using POV-Ray which is a text-based program as opposed to a vector-based program like 3DS-Max, Blender 3D or Cinema 4D.
Paul: That brings me rather neatly to my next question. Over the last twenty or thirty years technology has fundamentally changed the way many artists produce their art. Can you describe how computers have influenced the way in which you produce your art?
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John: The quick answer is "vastly", both directly and indirectly. Also, at my age I think about comics in terms of graphic novels, along the lines of those produced in Europe rather than those produced in the USA. Do you want me to go into details?
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Paul: I would, yes, but if possible without be too overly technical with computer terminology please. Could we stay at a level that the average person can grasp?
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John: After leaving engineering college I started work as an engineering draughtsman drawing air conditioning schemes. This was all pre-CAD. Drawings were prepared on semi-transparent film in ink. The other draughtsmen drew everything in pencil first and then went over it all in ink. I found it faster just to mark the start and end of a line in pencil and then draw the straight line between the points in ink. Any errors could be scratched out with a razor blade and redrawn. When I drew comic-book art (just for pleasure) I sketched the scene very loosely, tightened bits and inked those bits. It led to a very loose sketchy style.
John: Later, while drawing professionally, I started to use Oram and Robinson Academy Line Board. This had a thin, plastic-like surface mounted on a tough board. This had three advantages. Firstly, I could scratch out mistakes and add effects. Secondly, the board prevented the surface rippling when inking which can otherwise happen due to moisture. Thirdly, the surface could be stripped off and the artwork sent by post which made it weigh less and fitted safely in a tube.... The advent of the Apple Mac led to many commercial artists working on computers. Art shops were going out of business because less and less professional illustrators were using expensive art materials and were switching to computer. Oram and Robinson sadly went out of business.
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Paul: I've never really thoroughly considered how the advent of computer technology would impact how tradional art supplies are manufactured and sold.
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John: I still have yet to find a comparable surface to work on. I had always drawn using mapping pens which have a fine crow-quill nib. Unfortunately the price of these nibs has gone up and quality has gone down. A good percentage are useless! The quality of ink also has deteriorated and, as the Bristol board surface is slightly absorbent, it takes a long time to dry and is no-longer waterproof.
John: I started experimenting using computers to produce 3D models. At one time I was going to draw the continuation of “Twin Earths” for Susor Publications and I produced models of the flying saucers and space station. At that time PC computers only operated on DOS system and had limited memory. The Babylon 5 space station model I produced took the entire available memory. Later, with an expanded system using Windows, I started experimenting with colour. The comic business imploded in the ‘90’s. All my contacts at DC and Marvel vanished and I found myself working once more on Commando comics. Various publishing schemes fell through and I taught myself to colour my work on the computer using Photoshop and later Krita. I was colouring material for Spaceship Away and Ron Turner’s Space Ace. Nowadays, I consider myself semi-retired. I have had several stories of my own I drawn up bits and pieces of, but only recently have I buckled down to writing and creating a series.
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Paul: I recently read in David Bishop's book Thrill Power Overload that you may not have been thrilled to be working on Michael Fleisher's series Junker for 2000AD. Was it not a great experience?
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Paul: That does sound a little chaotic. I'm sure a story outline would have been helpful even if all the full scripts weren't available. I would imagine arranging that sort of thing would have been one of the editor's jobs.... Could I ask please who would you say has been the best editor you've dealh with in your career? And can you say why that relationship worked?
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John: That would probably be George Low at Commando. Some of the stories I drew for him were set in Roman times or even with Vikings. He would always dig out a load of reference material. This also applied to stories set in WW2. I remember one story featuring a German tank with really enormous wheels, another story featured Japanese aircraft with a rear engine propeller which were all absolutely real! He was always on hand with information. He would help by finding reference for the right aircraft or model of tank on the internet which can be a very time consuming business.
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Paul: That sounds excellent, I'll look forward to reading it... Can I ask about your personal reading habits? Do you read comics a great deal? Do you have any favourites? Also do you prefer proper paper comics or graphic novels in your hand, or have you embraced reading comics digitally on a tablet or laptop?
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Paul: I recently read in David Bishop's book Thrill Power Overload that you may not have been thrilled to be working on Michael Fleisher's series Junker for 2000AD. Was it not a great experience?
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John: I wasn't given enough information at the start of the story to make sense of what I was drawing. It was only revealed late on in the story that the woman was the villain and that she was carrying something of great power. As I had drawn her in a skin-tight costume it presented a problem with the size of the object and where she could have hidden it. The other problem was the size of Junker's ship. As someone who was a lone operator I made his ship a size a person could afford. Later in the story it was revealed that he had sufficient space to cut up a battleship and store it. In all, things were revealed to me at the same point they were revealed to the reader. I should have had the complete story to read through before starting, rather than receiving scripts for each episode one at a time.
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Paul: That does sound a little chaotic. I'm sure a story outline would have been helpful even if all the full scripts weren't available. I would imagine arranging that sort of thing would have been one of the editor's jobs.... Could I ask please who would you say has been the best editor you've dealh with in your career? And can you say why that relationship worked?
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John: That would probably be George Low at Commando. Some of the stories I drew for him were set in Roman times or even with Vikings. He would always dig out a load of reference material. This also applied to stories set in WW2. I remember one story featuring a German tank with really enormous wheels, another story featured Japanese aircraft with a rear engine propeller which were all absolutely real! He was always on hand with information. He would help by finding reference for the right aircraft or model of tank on the internet which can be a very time consuming business.
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Paul: You illustated a few episodes of the Adventures of Middenface McNulty for the Judge Dredd Megazine. They were witten by the greatly missed comics legend Alan Grant who so sadly passed away in 2022. If you have any, can you share any anecdotes or memories of the gentleman please?
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John: Sadly I never met him or had the occasion to speak with him. I enjoyed working on his stories though.
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Paul: Looking at your career I notice that you have almost never worked with an inker going over your pencils. Has that been a quite deliberate choice on your behalf? After all you have obviously worked in the comic industry in America where that is quite unusual. Granted there are exceptions to that "rule" but it is rare. Did you ever consider working with an inker?
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John: I don't think my style works well with an inker. Certainly, if my work is inked by anyone else it does not look like my work. I asked for an inker when I quit Hellblazer (Alfredo Alcala). Even though I detailed the pencils far more than I would for me to ink myself, the inker said my pencils were too loose. I worked with Al Williamson where I stood in on a Solomon Kane story for Marvel and he made the same complaint, claiming that he had to redraw a lot of that. Oddly I'd tried to draw as close to Al's style as i could and i couldn't see any differences in the finished job. Al was the regular inker on Solomon Kane. Defiant insisted on using Dave Cockrum as inker on a Dark Dominion story I pencilled for Defiant's Dark Dominion and then they apologised because Dave was suffering with arthritis. I pencilled 10 pages of Books of magic for Charles Vess to work on which turned out very well and I would have worked with Charles on Prince Valiant for Marvel but he dropped out of inking it. I had pencilled pages for Charles on Hook but they were inked by someone else who certainly wasn't up to Charles' standard, so I inked that myself. Incidentally, as well as prefering to do my own inking, I also prefer to do my own colouring.
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Paul: Attending conventions tends to be a part of a comic artist's job. Is that a part of the job you enjoy? Meeting fans and other creators sounds like fun. If so do you have any favourites that you have attended?
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John: I've never really been big on conventions. If they are paying for me to be there and I'm to be on a panel, fine. Otherwise, the only other conventions I've been to have been in Germany, Italy and Spain, mostly organised by Echart Schott of Selleck Publications.
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Paul: Despite not being a huge fan of conventions as such do you have any fun or enjoyable convention stories you can share? Did they at least give you any opportunities to meet any of your own artistic heroes?
John: I've never really been big on conventions. If they are paying for me to be there and I'm to be on a panel, fine. Otherwise, the only other conventions I've been to have been in Germany, Italy and Spain, mostly organised by Echart Schott of Selleck Publications.
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Paul: Despite not being a huge fan of conventions as such do you have any fun or enjoyable convention stories you can share? Did they at least give you any opportunities to meet any of your own artistic heroes?
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John: I was invited to a convention in Albissola on the Italian Med coast. I was asked to give an interview. Unlike my experienes in Germany, most of the audience didn't speak English, so they arranged an interpreter. Unfortunately he had an upset tummy from the previous night's bash. So they got an elderly English lady who had married an Italian and lived in Albissola for a long time. Only she got mixed up. The audience asked questions in Italian and she passed them to me - in Italian. Fortunately the guy managing the interview translated it all to me and I answered and the lady passed it on in English to the audience. I should be clear, no offense was caused and we laughed about it afterwards and we got on well. I'd love to know if she is fit and well.
Above: The above images were very kindly provided by John and are from The Doctor Who convention that was at Kassel Germany with Colin Baker, Peter Purves, Sophie Aldred and Lisa Bowerman......and the second from a convention is Albissola, Italy.
John: I spent a long weekend with Don Lawrence in Munich and was impressed by the amount of merchandising and reprints around his Storm series. In Luxembourg I was impressed by the fact that several neighbouring towns (called a commune) got together for a comic convention as an effort to unite the towns. The town gym became a comic hall with three walls lined floor to almost ceiling with graphic novels of every type - Sci Fi, Fantasy, Western, Humour, Religion, Horror. Most noticeable was the small amount of space allocated to American superhero comics. If only a tenth of that lot got translated over here.
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Paul: I agree. I have often thought, as has been proven in the case of manga comics, it would be such an obvious business model to translate a lot of European books for the UK and other English speaking markets.
.....You mentioned earlier that you consider yourself semi-retired, but that you had only recently buckled down to writing and creating a series. Do you have a new creator owned project you are developing?
John: My own series I developed over a long period of time. But I have never been out of work. However, recently I decided to stop drawing Commando comics and thought about retiring to draw my own stuff. Curaway Comics started up and asked me to draw for them but they are a small company and the work does not occupy me full time. So I am only semi-retired but concentrating on my own stuff.
John: I've got four or five series I have done development work on over a long time of broken paid work. Last year Lovern Kindzierski suggested we work together on something and, as I had already determined to get on with my own story "Darrak", I suggested we work together on that. It's my story, but as I'm not a seasoned writer (except of technical manuals) he is going through my script and polishing it up. I have finished the first 50 pages of artwork for the first book and it is with the publisher at the moment. I'm working on the second book now.
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Paul: I agree. I have often thought, as has been proven in the case of manga comics, it would be such an obvious business model to translate a lot of European books for the UK and other English speaking markets.
.....You mentioned earlier that you consider yourself semi-retired, but that you had only recently buckled down to writing and creating a series. Do you have a new creator owned project you are developing?
John: My own series I developed over a long period of time. But I have never been out of work. However, recently I decided to stop drawing Commando comics and thought about retiring to draw my own stuff. Curaway Comics started up and asked me to draw for them but they are a small company and the work does not occupy me full time. So I am only semi-retired but concentrating on my own stuff.
John: I've got four or five series I have done development work on over a long time of broken paid work. Last year Lovern Kindzierski suggested we work together on something and, as I had already determined to get on with my own story "Darrak", I suggested we work together on that. It's my story, but as I'm not a seasoned writer (except of technical manuals) he is going through my script and polishing it up. I have finished the first 50 pages of artwork for the first book and it is with the publisher at the moment. I'm working on the second book now.
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Paul: Without any dramatic spoilers can you say what sort story Darrak is and what it is about?
John: Darrak is the name of the central character. he is the youngest son of the Guardian of the land of Westring. Westring is one of twelve lands surrounded by mountains. It is a land of mountains and trees like Austria, a place I love. It is a peaceful Mediaval type society. Weapons are limited to swords, knives, bows and spears. Men and women live alongside creatures that are a mixture of animals and men. Darrak is to find that the lands outside the Ringlands is a strange and dangerous place.
John: Darrak is the name of the central character. he is the youngest son of the Guardian of the land of Westring. Westring is one of twelve lands surrounded by mountains. It is a land of mountains and trees like Austria, a place I love. It is a peaceful Mediaval type society. Weapons are limited to swords, knives, bows and spears. Men and women live alongside creatures that are a mixture of animals and men. Darrak is to find that the lands outside the Ringlands is a strange and dangerous place.
Above: These are unlettered pages from John Ridgeway's much anticipated project Darrak
Paul: That sounds excellent, I'll look forward to reading it... Can I ask about your personal reading habits? Do you read comics a great deal? Do you have any favourites? Also do you prefer proper paper comics or graphic novels in your hand, or have you embraced reading comics digitally on a tablet or laptop?
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John: I've not bought a comic for ages, years, probably decades. I buy graphic novels or collections of old stuff - Heros the Spartan and Wulf the Britain, the Hawk versions of the old Dan Dare stories. I'm buying the Collected Toppi series and I'm following Lovern's Shame series. I collected Don Lawrence's Storm when I was abroad. I have couple of Ralph Kendall (Dan Dakota) volumes, 9 volumes of Prince Valiant in black and white from an Austrian publisher and lots more. I prefer a weighty book I can hold in my hands rather than reading something on the internet which doesn't seem to belong to me and seems insubstancial and temporary.
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Paul: I am guessing that would suggests you may not follow the UK comic scene too closely. It has become much healthier in recent years. Have you had a chance to glance at anything from SHIFT or The '77? They're both newer British titles that are inspired by the same young rebellious energy that powered the early years of 2000AD.
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John: Until now I have never heard of them. A quick search reveals the covers to the publications but nothing of the inside contents. I think I'm past being a rebellious tanager. Was it young rebellious energy that powered the early 2000AD? Or were the writers playing to the testosterone-fuelled violent imaginations of young men?
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Paul: I am guessing that would suggests you may not follow the UK comic scene too closely. It has become much healthier in recent years. Have you had a chance to glance at anything from SHIFT or The '77? They're both newer British titles that are inspired by the same young rebellious energy that powered the early years of 2000AD.
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John: Until now I have never heard of them. A quick search reveals the covers to the publications but nothing of the inside contents. I think I'm past being a rebellious tanager. Was it young rebellious energy that powered the early 2000AD? Or were the writers playing to the testosterone-fuelled violent imaginations of young men?
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If you had the ability to time travel, or post yourself a letter into the past, given all the experience and wisdom you have now as a professional artist, is there any advice you would give to your younger self? And would your younger self take that advice?
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John: My advice to anyone, not just my younger self, would be: Study the basics. You can do anything if you have a good foundation. As an artist, you need a knowledge of anatomy, particularly of hands and faces. Of how cloth folds and falls. Of perspective and colour theory. If you are to draw graphic novels, try to act your characters. Feel what they feel and how they might express themselves. Photo reference is great but you need to know how a person will act towards another person. Human expressions are very subtle. Aggressiveness by leaning into the other guys personal space. Disinterest by leaning away. You only have a few lines when drawing a face to make the difference between a smile, a grin and a smirk. I've no idea if my younger self would listen to my advice. He'd be foolish not to, but then, when you are young you have different priorities.
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Paul: John thank you for spending so much of your time on this interview. It has been wonderful. Thank you.
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Paul: John thank you for spending so much of your time on this interview. It has been wonderful. Thank you.