Monkton Arts, an arts hub in Ryde on the Isle of Wight has announced an upcoming exhibition of art by Look-in and Roy of the Rovers artist Barrie Mitchell.
Comic Cutz: The Art of Barrie Michell will feature a range of his art from various comics across the decades.
“I’m hoping we can display my work chronologically, from Bunty in 1961 and finishing with Wendy in 2011,” Barrie tells downthetubes, “both published by DC Thomson; and as many as we can get in the middle!”
Now retired, but still drawing, Barrie’s comics career spanned adventure, science fiction and girls comics, including strip work for 2000AD, Bunty, Doctor Who, Mandy and Roy of the Rovers.
He was the final artist on Roy of the Rovers, drawing the strip between October 1992 until its cancellation in March 1993, returning to draw the strip in 1997. His many credits also include completing the Doctor Who story “Age of Chaos”, written by Colin Baker, and drawing episodes of the Daily Mirror football strip, “Scorer”.
The exhibition will include some of Barrie’s recent art, too
“I have about a dozen illustrations of vehicles and boats, all done recently for friends in the local car club, just to have something different,” he reveals.
A special treat in the exhibition will be Barrie’s art created for “Attack of the Killer Comics”, an episode of South of Watford, an episode of the offbeat Channel 4 documentary series featuring entertainment, art and leisure around London.
The episode sees John Lloyd looks at the phenomenon of comics becoming more mainstream in 1987 and features interviews with artists Dave Gibbons, Myra Hancock, and Dave McKean, writer Neil Gaiman, comedians and collectors Alexei Sayle and Lenny Henry, plus Wendy James and Duncan McAlpine, publisher of the Comic Book Price Guide between 1989 and 1998, now online).
“I did three pages of artwork for Channel 4,” Barrie tells us. “It’s a touch weird!”
• Comic Cutz: The Art of Barrie Michell, Thursday 5th – 28th February 2026 | Monkton Arts 11 East Street, Ryde PO33 1JP | Exhibition Page
UPDATE: With thanks to Matthew Richards of British Football Comics, here are some clips and photos of Matt’s visit to the Barrie Mitchell exhibition at Mead Gallery on the Isle of Wight, “It was a great display of the great mans work, from 1961 to 2012…lots of football strips but many more such as Doctor Who, Look-In, Bunty, Wendy… it was a lovely evening and hopefully we’ll get to interview Barrie in a future show!”
About Barrie Mitchell
Barrie’s first comic strip was a three-page costume drama for DC Thomson’s Bunty title. Before then, he had completed a four-year apprenticeship with Link Studios.
Although he became freelance in 1961, he stayed with Link until 1975.
His early works were for girls comics such as Bunty, Mandy, and Diana. He also worked on annuals of the Bonanza television series for Purnell, strips in Pow, Wham and Sparky, plus “Brian’s Brain” in Smash. A lifelong car enthusiast, In 1967, he rendered three motor-racing strips in Lion — “Tales From the Tracks”, “Lightning Storm” and “Drive For Your Life”.
His first football strip was “Paxton’s Powerhouse” for IPC’s Scorcher and he moved on to Score with “Jack & Jimmy”. He later returned to Scorcher with the second strip, until it finished in 1974.
After that, Barrie began to specialise in soccer/football strips with “Skipper Willie” and “Cast Iron Bull” in DC Thomson’s Wizard title, “Twisty” for Bullet and “Play Till You Drop’ for Action. Later strips went on to include “Kid Cox” in Bullet, “Guts To Be A Goalie”, “Pickford”, “Starf,’and “Superstar” in Scoop for DC Thomson, and “Marks Brothers” in Roy of the Rovers for IPC Magazines.
His other strips include six weeks of “Day Of The Eagle” for Battle, “Harlem Heroes”, “Judge Dredd”, “Lawless Touch”, and “Flash Jordan” for IPC Magazines, and provided Judge Dredd’s first cover appearance, on Prog 5, sold at auction in 2010); and drew “Fireball” and “Speed Kings” for DC Thomson.
In addition to football strips, Barrie also drew several strips for the Junior TV Times title Look-In, including “Knight Rider”, “Worzel Gummidge”, “The A-Team” and “Streethawk”.
Barrie also completed the Marvel UK published tale, Doctor Who: The Age of Chaos, written by Colin Baker, the early pages drawn by John M. Burns.
Barrie claims that working with John Burns at the Link Studios influenced the early part of his career. He also admires Frank Bellamy and Jim Holdaway. He is currently impressed by the work of Richard Corben and Paul Gillon.
• Barrie Mitchell’s 2000AD Credits
• Comic Cutz: The Art of Barrie Michell, Thursday 5th – 28th February 2026 | Monkton Arts 11 East Street, Ryde PO33 1JP | Exhibition Page
With thanks to John Caro
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
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