Portrait © David O'Connell
I graduated from Harrow College (University of Westminster) with a degree in Illustration in 1992. After discovering the hidden world of small press comics, I took the plunge with my own comics in 1999, creating various titles such as "Great!", "Little Box of Comics" and "Stupidmonsters".
2002 - 2007 - I acquired the position of in-house illustrator at Eaglemoss Publications, where I worked on magazines such as Horrible Histories, Horrible Science and The Magical World Of Roald Dahl.
2004 - my strip Derek The Sheep started appearing regularly in the Beano. Derek is the Beano's first creator-owned property. In 2008 a collection of early Derek the Sheep stories was published by Bloomsbury and in France as Norbert Le Mouton, by L'edition de L'an 2. Derek also appears in the Beanomax and the Beano Annual.
2008 - Derek the Sheep story exhibited in the University of Gloucester's Cheltenham Illustration Awards as part of the Invited Professional category.
2008 - Original Derek the Sheep artwork exhibited in the 70th Anniversary Exhibition of The Beano curated by the Cartoon Museum of London and also University of Dundee's Beano's 70th Anniversary exhibition, later acquired for their archives.
2008 - Illustrations for weekly Spider-man Tower of Power (60 issues).
2008 - Comic strip Pinky's Crackpot Circus for DC Thomson's The Dandy.
2008-2009 - New comic strip Little Cutie appears in the groundbreaking weekly children's comic The DFC.
2009 - Illustrations for Horrible Histories Annual and Horrible Science Annual
2009 - Publication of Henry VIII Has To Choose, for Franklin Watts, written by Julia Jarman and illustrated by me.
2010 - Revamp of comicstrip in National Geographic Kids and the invention of explorer Max The Mouse
Current projects
- Writing and drawing Derek the Sheep for DC Thomson's The Beano and Beanomax
- Writing and drawing Max The Mouse minicomic pullout for National Geographic Kids
- Writing and illustrating new book project to be announced soon!
- Illustrating children's book for Franklin Watts
- Illustrations for Top Secret weekly magazine