Arthur Ranson

Arthur James Ranson (born 1939) is an English comic book illustrator, known for his work on Look-in, Anderson: Psi Division, Button Man and Mazeworld. His work on Cassandra Anderson has been called "photo-realistic".

Early life 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, 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, "ater, John Buscema's Silver Surfer and his Conan, Jack Kirby's Thor"). Trained initially as an "apprentice stamp and banknote designer" in the 1960s, learning "to translate photographs into watercolour... in stamp size."

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 artists such as John M. Burns, Martin Asbury, Harry North, Colin Wyatt, John Bolton, Jim Baikie, Phil Gascoine, Barry Mitchell, and Bill Titcombe. Elvis Presley (1981), The Beatles (1981-2), Haircut One Hundred (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983). 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 was denied the chance to meet Sapphire & Steel star Joanna Lumley by being absent when she visited the offices. He recalls that, unfortunately, while "she was kind enough to offer to meet me and pose for more photo-reference," "someone told her that no, that would not be necessary. Stupid sods."

Danger Mouse Ranson's other famous strip for Look-in was Danger Mouse, 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" The Bionic Woman and The A-Team, and others. and the film Logan's Run. David Bishop, in the 2000 AD history volume Thrill Power Overload says that Ranson's Sample of Arthur Ranson's art on Judge Anderson story The Jesus Syndrome.

A spin-off from Judge Dredd (on which Ranson would later work), 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 bquote|I've always felt Arthur was the perfect Anderson artist... Some of her best stories were the ones he and I collaborated on. Arthur told each story in a way few others could. 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.

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 and one of the first non-science fictional strips to appear in the comic's 15-year history, Button Man was one of the very few creator-owned strips to appear in 2000 AD. Then-editor Steve MacManus sums it up by saying bquote|Quality wise, it fit very well in the comic... Subject wise it wasn't a great fit. If you consider 2000 AD s premise was future fantasy. Then again, the weekly had the confidence to carry a story that was the exception to the rule. 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." 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."

He worked on a number of X-Men-related comics for Marvel. However, he says that he does not "believe my style suits ," 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. 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. Edward Berridge: Appeared in Anderson, Psi - "Half Life"