Mike Collins

Mike Collins is an English comic book artist and writer who has worked in the comics industry since the mid-1980s. He's worked on projects by major comic book studios such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics.

Biography Collins moved to Wales from London in 1985, switching career from law, to illustrate comics full time. He married Karen Collins and they have three daughters, and a granddaughter. Collins currently lives in Cardiff. He is the grandson of Military Medal-winning World War I soldier Thomas Guinane.

UK comics In the mid-to-late 1980s, Collins wrote and drew strips for Marvel Comics United Kingdom division, amongst them; Spider-Man, Transformers, Doctor Who, and Zoids. He also worked on the celebrated UK weekly comic 2000 AD drawing Judge Dredd, Sláine and Rogue Trooper, as well as writing various Future Shocks. Collins illustrated the six-issue limited series Laser Eraser and Pressbutton for Eclipse Comics, illustrating the work of Pedro Henry (aka Steve Moore). He also did the art for a number of Axel Pressbutton stories which ran in Eclipse's Miracleman series.

US comics He was hired in the 'Second Wave' of British artists lured to the United States in the late 1980s. Through the 1990s, he worked primarily for DC Comics on their key titles – Batman, Superman, Flash, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League.

He also drew a series of licensed comics for the company, using various TSR, Inc./Dungeons & Dragons characters. A brief spell at Marvel saw Collins working on Uncanny X-Men (Key issue: #266, the first appearance of Gambit).

Collins also wrote and drew a strip for the Weekly World News, as well as co-creating the series American Gothic with Ian Edginton for 2000 AD.

Outside of comics Collins has painted covers to a monthly series of downloadable Star Trek novels, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, and works as a storyboard artist for both animation and live-action TV and movies.

Major work recently published is a 135-page adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for Classical Comics. His regular Doctor Who collaborators, inker David Roach and colour artist James Offredi, worked with him on the book, with the script writer being Sean Michael Wilson. The graphic novel was chosen as one of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of the year by The Sunday Times and has gone on to sell well across by the UK and US, with several foreign language versions also coming out.

For BBC Books he illustrated The Only Good Dalek — the first graphic novel from the publisher, written by longtime Doctor Who author Justin Richards, and a sequel/prequel to the TV episode "Victory of the Daleks," The Dalek Project.

Unusual and unique work He wrote and designed the first Welsh language graphic novel – Mabinogi in association with Cartwyn Cymru in 2001, and is the first UK artist to produce a series of graphic novels for Norway with Gunnar Staalesen, featuring his celebrated private eye, Varg Veum.

He works as a key illustrator for Welsh language school books using the comic strip medium, aimed at reluctant learners.

He supplied art for a number of cards in the Harry Potter Trading Card Game.

Film and TV As well as comics work, Collins is a storyboard artist for children's TV shows, primarily the BAFTA winning Hana's Helpline, and live-action film. He also storyboarded on the film Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie and on the television shows Doctor Who, The Witcher and Sex Education.