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Road to Perdition and Doctor Who artist Richard Piers Rayner interviewed

By John Freeman on December 20, 2015

Character studies of Matt Smith by Richard Piers Rayner, tests to see if he could capture his Doctor Who likeness. “It’s from a few years ago but there are elements here that I’ve never bettered,” he feels. Art © Richard Piers Rayner

The latest episode of Jeremy Bement’s Doctor Who Panel to Panel podcast features an interview with Road to Perdition and Doctor Who artist Richard Piers Rayner, along with its usual selection of news items and a review of Titan Comics 2015 Doctor Who Holiday Special, a story also available in newsagents in Tales from the TARDIS #1.

Born in Middlesbrough, Richard, who I commissioned to draw Doctor Who and covers for some Marvel UK titles back in the 1990s and whose work for DC Comics includes Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days, found international success as the artist on The Road to Perdition, which was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster by Sam Mendes starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman and is the artist in residence at Middlesbrough Football Club.

Richard Piers Rayner’s very first drawing as Artist in Residence at the Boro: the early season crowd at the Riverside in 2000. Art © Richard Piers Rayner

(He’s also been involved in other local Middlesbrough projects, contributing illustrations to a book on the city’s iconic transporter bridge).

The original art for the fist page of Doctor Who: Evening’s Empire. Note the amends to the lettering balloons. The strip appeared in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 180 and Richard happily acknowledges the first panel is a tribute to one of his all-time favourite artists, Don Lawrence.

A page from Evening’s Empire, written by Andrew Cartmel, drawn by Richard Piers Rayner

For Doctor Who, he drew Marvel UK’s Evening’s Empire, written by Andrew Cartmel, which began in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 180 but hit production problems and was eventually published as the 1993 Doctor Who Classic Comics Autumn Special. He was later one of three artists on part one of IDW Publishing’s Ripper’s Curse.

Art for the Eleventh Doctor story The Ripper’s Curse, published by IDW.

• Older episodes of Doctor Who: Panel to Panel are archived on the Internet Archive

Doctor Who © BBC

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.