Arthur James Ranson (born 1939; Essex, UK)
Arthur Ranson is an English illustrator and comic strip co-creator whose fine line penwork and attention to visual detail has led to the misapplied epithet 'photo-realistic'.

Ranson attended the South West Essex Technical College and School of Art in Walthamstow, Essex, where he studied painting and printmaking. Trained initially as an "apprentice stamp and banknote designer" in the 1960s, learning "to translate photographs into watercolour... in stamp size." A "rare ability at the time," he would later use this skill as a "selling point" when pursuing a career "as an illustrator in advertising and publishing."

Ranson first brought the precise techniques he had evolved through his apprenticeship to the UK TV comic Look-in, working first on portrait covers, and later alongside other major comics artists such as John M. Burns, Martin Asbury, Harry North, Colin Wyatt, John Bolton, Jim Baikie, Phil Gascoine, Barry Mitchell, and Bill Titcombe.

After some time drawing "funnies", Ranson drew on his skill in translating pictures across mediums (generally using a Grant Projector, which "projects an image up onto a glass plate, on which one places tracing paper"), and brought his talents to bear for Look-in by creating strips based on such popular TV series as Sapphire and Steel and Danger Mouse, all written by Angus Allan. Since these works were based on specific TV shows, he says that "it seemed important that the characters looked as much like the actors as possible", and thus "used the methods I knew" to achieve the accurate likenesses that typify his work.

Ranson has been appearing in British comics since the early 1970s. Amongst many accomplishments, his works include Anderson: Psi Division, Button Man, Mazeworld and other 2000AD strips.

Ranson also produced a series of comic-strip biographies of well-known music stars and bands, including ABBA (1977), Elvis Presley (1981), The Beatles (1981-2), Haircut 100 (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983).

Arthur has also contributed to Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and X-Men and TV-based strips such as Sapphire and Steel, Dangermouse, Worzel Gummidge, Michael Bentine's Potty Time and Duckula.

Aside from his Look-in and (later) 2000AD comics work, Ranson also produced illustrations for Fiesta and some "advertising work through an agent, including some All-Bran adverts." He produced some assorted work for various other IPC magazines in addition to 2000AD, and was glad of the "more challenging" work to be found in comics, branding himself "too sensitive a plant to get on in advertising despite the high fees."

Ranson stresses the influence of his peers - particularly Brian Bolland - on his own evolution as an artist, moving from being burdened by the "British way of drawing adventure comics... dependable, professional, craftsmanlike and worthy," to seeing and being influenced by work that "looked as though the artist, particularly Bolland, really cared about it."

In 1989, Ranson followed in Bolland—and others'—footsteps, and moved to major British sci-fi comic 2000 AD, where he has remained ever since, with rare forays into the world of American comics, including Batman and the X-Men. He counts himself lucky that this career path has, in his decades-long comics career seen him work primarily with just three writers.

Ranson has a son, Jonas, who is also an artist, and daughter, Cassandra.