Here’s a selection of stuff by me over the years and a bit of info about what they were for.

MAGAZINES

Anime UK

I guess this is, sort of, where it all started. After working for a few years as a designer in 1991/92 I helped Helen McCarthy and Steve Kyte transform A-UK from its ‘Newsletter’ form to Anime UK Magazine. Not that any of us really knew how to produce a proper magazine but that didn’t stop us trying. Apart from all the inside layout, I did the front covers whilst super artist – Steve – did the backs (although I managed to bag some of those, too). Amazingly, Anime UK (and its later incarnation – Anime FX) actually got onto the UK newsstands, which isn’t bad for what was, essentially, a fanzine.

Super Play

During the time I was working on Anime UK Magazine I was asked to do a cover for a new UK video games magazine for the 16bit Super Famicom/Super Nintendo called Super Play. SP’s hook was basically Japanese pop culture, mixing the usual news and reviews with tales of games never destined to hit the Western market along with regulars about living in Tokyo and, of course, a liberal sprinkling of anime & manga. In the end I illustrated the covers of all 47 issues of Super Play and, eventually, ended up working full-time on the magazine until its demise in 1996. I helped layout the pages, provided the covers as well as any other illos (like the ill-fated Neko who would be threatened with a more terrible fate each month unless more readers subscribed) and even did a spot of writing.

N64 Magazine

The successor to Super Play was a very different magazine. Out went the Japanese angle in favour of a more fun and irreverent look at Nintendo’s 64bit machine. This time I was Art Editor and responsible for the whole design of the magazine (I think I managed to get in not only the largest logo of any Future magazine to that date, but also the first time it would feature multiple times on the cover) which meant less time for drawing covers. I still managed to get a few in, though, whenever we were hard up for official artwork or just fancied something that wouldn’t be seen in every other magazine. I did, however, get to illustrate the covers for the tips books that were given away with many issues. Each one featured the mag’s mascot Worldy Bloke (I’d drawn him as a test idea and when asked who he was said “oh, some worldy bloke”. He was still there 40 issues later when I left the mag) themed to the games in that particular guide.

Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer (it’s not too hard to work out what the subject matter is, is it?) is a great little magazine from Imagine Publishing in the UK. I was more than happy to do some covers for them when they asked, although it can sometimes be tough gig drawing existing characters; even more so when they’re steeped in a bit of nostalgia.

NGamer

NGamer is the latest Nintendo title from Super Play publishers – Future. The idea here was to create a set of characters, right from the offset, that could be dotted around the magazine’s different sections. Alas, they didn’t really push the idea that they were NGamer’s mascots (I basically thought of them as the Scooby Gang) and only the Robot (who heads up the Wii Virtual Console section) has got any real presence in the mag.

GAMES CONCEPT ART

Perfect Dark Zero

The sequel to 2000’s N64 hit Perfect Dark was my first taste of video game development and a bit of a shock after just doing one-off illustrations and designing magazines. Lots more people have input into what you do and the long development times mean that it’s that much harder to follow through a coherent vision for everything. Then, of course, there’s always the problem of translating a 2D illustration to a 3D model. Some things worked and some didn’t.

Perfect Dark Zero pictures ©Microsoft Games Studios – All Rights Reserved

Jetpac Refuelled

JetPac Refuelled was a great project to work on. It was an Xbox Live Arcade re-imagining of the first ever release for UK software house – Ultimate – Play The Game (who would later morph into Rare) way back in 1983. I handled all the graphics design, artwork and animation except for Jetman, himself (although I did change his face to the ‘eyes in a black void’ style as a nod back to the way Ultimate did characters back then).

JetPac Refuelled pictures ©Microsoft Games Studios – All Rights Reserved