Arthur Ranson

Infobox comics creator
name = Arthur Ranson

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imagesize = 150
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = 1939
location = Essex, UK
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = English
area = Comics artist
alias =


notable works = Various for Look-in,
""
"Button Man"
awards =
website =

Arthur James Ranson (1939 - ) 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.

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 Beano| [The] Beano] , Knockout, [The Dandy| [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. [http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(dchcf2455lf41lfj0ghcb555))/bio.aspx?Name=RANSON%2c+ARTHUR Jerry Bails' "Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999": Arthur Ranson] . Accessed September 3, 2008] 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." [http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/features/interviews/2004/ranson/ranson1.shtml James Mackay Interview Arthur Ranson for 2000AD Review, September 4, 2004] . Accessed September 3, 2008] 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-in", 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.

Musical strips

Ranson also produced a series of comic-strip biographies of well-known music stars and bands, including ABBA (1977) [Published January 14, 1978. Reprinted in 2007 by Prion Books in "Look-in: The best of Look-in * Junior TVTimes * The Seventies" (Prion, 2007) (ISBN ISBN 978-1-85375-622-1), pp. 98-99] , Elvis Presley (1981), The Beatles (1981-2), Haircut 100 (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983). Most biographical articles on Ranson date his Beatles work to "the 1960s," [ [http://lambiek.net/artists/r/ranson_arthur.htm Arthur Ranson at Lambiek.net] . Accessed September 3, 2008] but Ranson himself dispels this myth by stating that the "first auto-biographical [sic] strip I did was ABBA." [ABBA not existing before the 1970s clearly indicates that Ranson was not drawing the Beatles a decade earlier..] In fact that work was done in 1981 [ Confirmed by the artist himself 28 September 2008.]

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.

TV strips

apphire & Steel

Ranson's best-known work for "Look-in" consisted largely of adaptations of two strips based upon totally different British television programmmes. The first of these was a strip based on P. J. Hammond's "Sapphire & Steel", which Ranson was "the first and only one to draw" between 1979 and 1981. Scripted by Angus Allan ("Look-in"s 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. ["Look-in: The best of Look-in * Junior TVTimes * The Seventies" (Prion, 2007) (ISBN ISBN 978-1-85375-622-1)]

Dangermouse

Ranson's other famous strip for "Look-in" was Dangermouse, 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."

Other

Between 1977 and 1990, Ranson also produced strips based on such TV properties as "Worzel Gummidge", "Michael Bentine's Potty Time", "Duckula" (another Cosgrove Hall character whose comics adventures began in "Look-in", but also spun-off into its own title [ [http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/chamb/comics.html Cosgrove Hall characters in comics] . Accessed September 4, 2008] ), "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 [ [http://www.lookinarchive.com/homepages/buckrogers/buckrogers_stripindex.html "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" strip archive at the "Look-in Archive"] . Accessed September 5, 2008] 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.

Advertising

Aside from his "Look-in" and (later) "2000AD" comics work, Ranson also produced (in his own words) some " [i] llustration [s] for mucky men's magazines," 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."

2000AD

Ranson stresses the importance of 2000AD legend Brian Bolland, 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.

Judge Anderson: Psi Division

Ranson's first work for 2000AD was the ten-part "Anderson: Psi Division - "Triad" storyline, which started in Prog #635 (15th of July, 1989). [ [http://www.2000ad.nu/termight/artists.html 2000AD Art-Droids (Progs #1-1100 + Megazines Vol 1/1 - Vol 3/50) compiled by Julia Hayden: Arthur Ranson] . Accessed September 4, 2008] David Bishop, in the 2000AD history volume "Thrill Power Overload" says that Ranson's
[
Judge Anderson" story "The Jesus Syndrome"] cquote|"photo-realistic style brought a new vitality to psi-judge Cassandra Anderson... [and] was the start of a fruitful creative partnership between Ranson and Grant."Bishop, David, "Thrill-Power Overload": The Official History of 2000AD (Rebellion, June 2007), ISBN 1-905437-22-6, p. 128] 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 collaborationAsked 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 1990, 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.Bishop, "T-P O", pp. 142-143] 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.Bishop, "T-P O", pp. 144]

In the spring of 1992, as part of a promotion called "the Mega-Blast," "Button Man" was resurrected and launched in Prog 780.Bishop, "T-P O", pp. 153-154] 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 gensis make it one of the very few creator-owned strips to appear in "2000AD". Then-editor Steve MacManus sums it up by sayingRanson 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.Bishop, "T-P O", pp. 216-217] Writer John Wagner candidly stated that he belives::"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 it's initial debut in "2000 AD" Prog 1014.Bishop, "T-P O", pp. 191] Ranson remembers that 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 thatGrant 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.]

Other comics work

In 1993, Grant and Ranson contributed the two-part story "Tao" to DC Comics' "" 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." [ [http://comics.org/details.lasso?id=256152 "Batman/Phantom Stranger" (1997) info at the Grand Comics Database] . Accessed September 2, 2008] 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.

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 Skinn: Appeared in "Button Man".
*Peter Hogan: Appeared in "Button Man".

Bibliography

Comics work includes:

*"Sapphire & Steel" (in "Look-In", 1979)

*" (with Alan Grant):
** "Triad" (in "2000 AD" #635-644, 1989)
** "Shamballa" (in "2000 AD" #700-711, 1990)
** "Reasons to Be Cheerful" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #2.10, 1992)
** "The Witch?" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #2.14, 1992)
** "Jesus Syndrome" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" vol.2 #22-24, 1993)
** "Satan" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #3.01-3.07, 1995)
** "The Protest" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" vol.3 #14, 1996)
** "R*Evolution" (in "2000 AD" #1263-1272, 2001)
** "Half-Life" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #214-217, 2004)
** "WMD " (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #221-226, 2004)
** "Lock-in " (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #227-230, 2005)
** "City Of Dead" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #231-236, 2005)
** "Lucid" (in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #238-241, 2005)

* "Fellow Travellers" (with Andrew Cartmel, in "Doctor Who Magazine" #164-166, 1990)

*"Button Man" (with John Wagner):
** "Book I: The Killing Game" (in "2000 AD" #780-791, 1992, tpb, 88 pages, Kitchen Sink Press, May 1994, ISBN 0-87816-276-3, Rebellion, hardcover, August 2003, ISBN 1-904265-05-7, softcover, January 2007, ISBN 1-905437-19-6)
** "Book II: The Confession of Harry Exton" (in "2000 AD" #904-919, 1994, tpb, 112 pages, Rebellion, August 2003, ISBN 1-905437-70-6)
** "Book III: Killer Killer" (in "2000 AD" prog 2001 & #1223-1233, 2001)

*"Mazeworld" (with Alan Grant):
** "Book One" (in "2000 AD" #1014-1023, 1996)
** "Book Two" (in "2000 AD" #1101-1110, 1998)
** "Book Three" (in "2000 AD" #1151-1160, 1999)

*"Batman/Phantom Stranger" (with Alan Grant, one-shot, DC Comics, 1997)
*"X-Factor" (with Jeff Jensen, 4-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics, 2002)
*"X-Treme X-Posé" (with Chris Claremont, 2-issue mini-series, 2003)
*"Soldier X" #9-10 (with Karl Bollers, Marvel, 2003)

Notes

References

*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=2322|title=Arthur Ranson