Arthur James Ranson (born 1939) is an English comic book illustrator, known for his work on Look-in, Anderson: Psi Division, Button Man and Mazeworld. His work on Cassandra Anderson has been called "photo-realistic".
Early life
Born in 1939, Ranson's childhood and formative years included access to the influences of art and artists in a mixture of British and American comics, including "[[The Beano|[The] Beano]], Knockout, [[The Dandy|[The] Dandy]], Film Fun, Wizard, Hotspur..., The Eagle with Frank Hampson setting new standards. Wayne Boring's Superman, C.C. Beck's Captain Marvel," and others (including, "[l]ater, John Buscema's Silver Surfer and his Conan, Jack Kirby's Thor"). Trained initially as an "apprentice stamp and banknote designer" in the 1960s, learning "to translate photographs into watercolour... in stamp size."
Look-in
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. Elvis Presley (1981), The Beatles (1981-2), Haircut One Hundred (1983) and The Sex Pistols (1983). but Ranson himself dispels this myth by stating that the "first auto-biographical [sic] strip I did was ABBA." In fact that work was done in 1981.
Ranson recalls that Look-in editor Colin Shelbourne was convinced to allow Allan and Ranson to "retain... the copyright" to their Elvis and Beatles strips, which had the unfortunate side-effect of delaying complete publication, since such deals were largely unheard of.
Ranson was denied the chance to meet Sapphire & Steel star Joanna Lumley by being absent when she visited the offices. He recalls that, unfortunately, while "she was kind enough to offer to meet me and pose for more photo-reference," "someone told her that no, that would not be necessary. Stupid sods."
Danger Mouse
Ranson's other famous strip for Look-in was Danger Mouse, an unlikely children's cartoon hero based - loosely - on the Patrick McGoohan TV series Danger Man, created in cartoon mouse form by Cosgrove Hall and voiced on TV by David Jason. Ranson says that he "did enjoy it at the time," and was awarded not only the "Good Grief Oh Crikey" Award from Cosgrove Hall ("The award is a painted model of Dangermouse in heroic pose with a nervous Penfold peering from behind him" The Bionic Woman and The A-Team, and others. and the film Logan's Run. David Bishop, in the 2000 AD history volume Thrill Power Overload says that Ranson's
thumb|250px|Sample of Arthur Ranson's art on [[Judge Anderson story The Jesus Syndrome.]]
A spin-off from Judge Dredd (on which Ranson would later work), Cassandra Anderson is a Judge with psychic skills, including telepathy and precognition.
Over the next fifteen years, Ranson drew a dozen more serials featuring Judge Anderson, working with writer Alan Grant, who says that since their first collaboration