John Reynolds

Screenprinting and comics are a great match. The one-colour-at-a-time stencil method of printing suits the stylised comic world – screenprinting can be very good at achieving bright colours and bold outlines. There's something for everyone in my work. I draw upon an extensive range of characters – from stars of The Beano and The Victor (home of Alf Tupper, the Tough Of The Track) which we Brits all grew up with, to the French icon Asterix, the US classics Olive Oyl and Popeye, and the Scandinavian Moomins (who seem to be having something of a moment).

I mostly use 100 per cent cotton paper milled in Somerset, as I love the soft, almost blotting paper, feel this has to the touch – it also soaks up the ink beautifully and means I can achieve a matte finish to the inking which I like.

Printing is not my first occupation: I used to be a news reporter and then sub-editor and learned to consider picture composition from talking to the photographers and picture editors. However, the newspaper industry isn't exactly thriving and I turned to self-imployment and printmaking as a more reliable source of income(!).

I learned to print in my thirties at the London Print Studio on the Harrow Road – I now do all my screen-creation and printing in my home studio, after the pandemic forced the closure of the LPS and I took it all in-house.