John Ridgway

Career

John Ridgway initially became involved in the comic book industry as a hobbyist, illustrating issues of Commando War Stories in the 1970s while maintaining a full-time job as a design engineer. As the 1970s drew to a close he took on more work, providing art for Warrior Magazine, Doctor Who, and Enid Blyton's Famous Five. He made the jump into full-time professional comic booking in 1984. During this time he worked for Marvel UK, producing art for their Transformers comics, as well as CYRIL, which was tied to their Star Wars properties. It was also at this time that he did his first work for 2000 AD. He made his first appearances in American comics in Eclipse Comics, where he illustrated a few short stories. His first work for DC came in 1987 when he illustrated an issue of Swamp Thing, however his major break in American comics came in 1988 when he began working on Hellblazer. He remained with the title for only nine issues, however, choosing to leave because of what he believed to be objectionable material in the comic, and his belief that he should not be forced to draw scenes that he found objectionable (particularly works that feature graphic violence or profanity). After his profile had been raised by his contributions to Hellblazer, he was sought out for artwork by a number of British publications, including 2000 AD. For them he illustrated a number of strips from the late 1980s and well into the 2000s, including Judge Dredd, Vector 13 and The Journal of Luke Kirby among many others.  Between 1989 and 1990 he illustrated the Judge Dredd-related strip The Dead Man, in which he was the first and only artist in the comics nearly 30-year history to depict the character's face without a helmet. In 2010 he returned to Doctor Who comics, as well as the spin-off Torchwood series, and Commando comics. He has also begun experimenting with the use of computer graphics in conjunction with traditional art. He has expressed interest in retiring from mainstream comics and working on creator-owned comics; in late 2011 he became involved in the production of STRIP Magazine, a comic magazine featuring mostly creator-owned art. He is currently the artist for the strip Age of Heroes.  

Personal Life

Ridgway lives in northwestern England with his wife Rita, who he married in 1975. They have two sons, Martin and Ian. His favourite Doctor is the Sixth, who was portrayed by Colin Baker. He has expressed approval for the Comics Code Authority.