“I grew up on a diet of the Beano, Whizzer and Chips, Tom and Jerry, the Beatles, England winning a World Cup, Slade, Morecambe and Wise, Tootie Frooties and Cresta (it was frothy man). I was just a defenseless kid, unable to prevent this riot of pretty colours, humour and popular culture from working its way into my fledgling psyche.
Most of my family worked in the print industry. Watford was a print town and my grandfather worked at Odhams Press where they printed “Power Comics” called Pow, Smash and Wham. They used to find their way into our family home in Chipperfield. I read these comics and an idea slowly formed that I might like to draw comics as a job when I was a grown up. That led me to Art School to try and learn how. Just around this time Hippies were being phased out and replaced with Punks, and a Punk Rock band called the Sex Pistols released their first LP. The cover looked like a torn up copy of the News of the World floating in a puddle of Cresta. Right away that imagery struck a chord. I understood where that was coming from.
It was at Watford School of Art at the end of the 70’s that they endeavoured to teach me how to draw and paint. But I also learned something else. I learned about Pop Art. There were actual artists painting pictures from comic books on canvas and they were hanging in proper art galleries …‘