EXTRACTS: Illustrators Crime Comics Special © 2020 Book Palace Books (144 pages in full edition)

21 it is never far from the surface. He is, in common with all great artists, compulsive in his desire to keep creating. As he says; “I never see myself retiring, it’s not like a regular job where you can switch off at the end of the day. I sometimes wish I could, but it’s what I do and I feel very lucky to be able to make a living doing what I enjoy.” Born in 1965, Sean’s talent manifested itself from an early age. According to family legend he was drawing Superman at the age of two. Although he does remain slightly sceptical as to whether it was Superman he was actually decorating the walls with, there is no doubt that he was happily wielding pencils, markers and biros, and any other drawing implement he could grab hold of from way before his first day at nursery school. Growing up in Haverhill, a small town some 45 miles north of London, he soon found other boys who shared his passion for the US superhero comics that were beginning to appear in local newsagents. A couple of them, Pete Doree and David Holman, worked with him to create their own comics, and it led to David and Sean combining their talents in making a successful pitch to their local newspaper to produce a weekly comic strip. Bearing in mind that Sean was all of twelve and David was forteen, this was an even more remarkable achievement. The three of them continued to generate strips over the next few years, hunkered down over a drawing table, while their contemporaries were out in the sun playing football. It was in 1978, when Sean was 13 years old, that his career as a comic strip artist really ratcheted up several FACING PAGE: Art for the October 2018 Blu-Ray release of Nightstalker , commissioned by Kino Lorber. ABOVE: Painting of James Cagney from Angels With Dirty Faces for a feature written by Kim Morgan for Criminal Number 2, published February 2019. © Basement Gang, Inc. 2020