A. I usually arrive at my studio in High Town, Luton, England at 06:00 and leave 18:30. Weekends are a bit more relaxed; Saturday I aim to get in from 10:00 till 17:00 and would probably go around to the Bricklayers Arms pub for a couple of beers with studio buddies, one of whom is the talented Steve Dillon (Preacher, DC / Vertigo). Sunday, again probably go in for 10:00 and leave very early about 15:00. If a deadline is close then the weekends would be normal working hours.

The work rate for black and white line tends to be a page a day for pencils, and about a page and a half of inks per day. Colour art for covers can be anything between seven days and ten days from initial pencils to finished painted art. Computer colour over line art can be about two pages a day.

Q. When you're working from a comic script, how do you go about turning it from a bunch of words into a bunch of panels? (I.e., do you do roughs or thumbnails for the whole strip first, or do you rough out each page, draw that page, then rough out the next one, and so on?)

A. After reading the script I rough out each page into general panel shapes and grids, making allowance for the more striking image description to have the most space. I then do felt-tip thumbnail drawings on single sheet pages with no panel restraints, so if it goes off and demands to become a vertical from a horizontal composition I take that into account. I then draw, in ink, the panel outlines on the art page, then pencil the page using non repro blue so there is no rubbing out at the end, which can be very irritating when you have twenty two pages to clean, and erasing pencil can fade the black line which you would then have to retouch.

Q. Do you follow the scripts rigidly, or prefer to do your own interpretation? (I ask because I'm sure that some script writers don't necessarily know how a page should best be presented!)

A. I try not to follow the script rigidly but find once the writer has written an image it does tend to stick in my mind, and to do my own personal image can sometimes be stifled by that. But the better writers - even though they cannot visualise the images the artist can - do get the better jobs out of people in my experience, because they write as a collaboration; they trust the artist and they do not overwrite and give too much detail, which can hold an artist back. They write just enough to tie down the direction and feel of the scene but give the artist space to do his own thing.

Q. When you're writing your own strips, how do you do it? Do you write the full script before you start drawing, or is it a combination of writing and drawing at the same time? Do you ever skip the pencilling process and go straight to inks?

A. I tend to start with something written down in plot form, very similar to the Marvel way of scripting, then write in more detail after key plot-point thumbnail illustrations. Then I write a more finished descriptive script, then I start the more detailed thumbnail breakdown of the whole story. I do the finished art from this and then dialogue and bridging scripting if needed. Shit! How the hell did I ever finish Razorjack?

Q. How do you go about drawing something like the Starlet Witch mini-series or a What If...? issue? Do you have to check with the editors for current costume designs, continuity, etc.?

A. It is very important to get the right references for continuity and costume design, that is the editor’s job and usually they do a great job. The Starlet Witch mini-series was done outside regular continuity and she had a new costume designed by that stalwart of 2000AD, Colin MacNeil. As it was outside of continuity it was no problem tying it in with anything else that was happening in her regular books.