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

22 notches when he attended evening art classes hosted by his school. The classes were primarily intended for adults, but Sean had heard promising reports about the man running them, and decided to see for himself. The man in question was Ken Houghton, who was destined to play an instrumental role in turning the young tyro into a fully-fledged professional artist. Houghton quickly realised Sean’s potential and encouraged him to really spread his wings, trying out subject matter well beyond the comfort zone of super- heroes and science-fiction. Houghton’s professional practice was centred around producing comic strips for girls’ comics, and through his evening classes he presented the students with tasks which stemmed directly from his own experiences of working as a commercial artist. He not only introduced them to the briefs that a commercial artist would be given, but he also showed them the kind of materials that would be ABOVE: Sean’s initial forays into the world of comic strips was in the pages of his local newspaper, Haverhill Echo with two schoolboy chums. RIGHT: Photo of the three young creatives, Sean is in the middle. FACING PAGE: Another example of Sean’s work in collaboration with Pete Doree and David Holman.