How it's done Technically, the only thing all my comics work has in common is that it's been put together in Paint Shop Pro. It's not even all 3D: I've done two stories using only photographs, and one using pencil art coloured in PSP. However, nearly all my figure work is in Poser, and most sets and backgrounds are too. Atmospheres are often Bryce, Teragen, Vista Pro, Mojoworld or Vue. I may composite a photographic background, or use 2D digital elements for effects or even objects (like the stones you can see overlapping from the adjacent panel in the STARS image). As ever, it's all about getting the right result as quickly and simply as possible. Making comics isn't necessarily about making great art; it's about telling stories. That's what I've always done...

Influences Too many to mention. On the main comics page, you can see where I've tried for one image to imitate John Byrne, or Alex Ross, or Barry Windsor-Smith, but for a whole comic... While I do change styles from project to project, I'm mainly concerned, firstly, with getting away from the shiny, plastic look of much 3D output, and secondly, with making it look good to me. That's the look. Layout, though? Although I will use other ingredients in constructing a page, I've learned most from the great John Byrne. It may be unfashionable to say so, but his use of the comics page around the late 1980s, and quite recently, is unparalleled.

These two are proposed newspaper strips (hardly anybody publishes adventure strips any more). THE ACE is a schoolgirl superheroine; AHEAD OF THE GAME is a soccer strip which focuses on the personalities and the politics (and a serial killer).

BEITH is MacBeth in modern (business) dress, in a sketchy black-and-white style.

JUSTICE was, I think, my first digital comic, a webcomic collaboration entered into hastily with a Portuguese writer called Nimesh Morarji. It will never be finished. Nimesh had one vision of his story, I had another, and I rewrote it substantially as I illustrated it, which wasn't fair. The zip includes the complete prologue and first chapter.

MOST OF THESE ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT. E-MAIL ME!

DEMOPOLIS was a sample for 2000AD. I will still use the Demopolis setting, although not necessarily these characters or this story.

STARS was intended as a monthly comic for a commercial website. The deal fell through, but I will reuse some elements of the characters. The style was consciously 1970s Marvel. In the zip is the complete first issue and some pages from the second.

Most of my short stories were style experiments, too. A couple of those I've withheld, but most are available at fantasticamazing.com.

THESE THREE AND DEMOPOLIS ARE ALL IN ONE ZIP!

DEMOPOLIS IS IN THE SAME ZIP FILE AS THE ACE, AHEAD OF THE GAME AND BEITH!