He started in the industry in the late 1970s working on the magazine 2000 AD. Before that, he had written a comic fanzine in high school titled Seminar, a fanzine that published Alan Moore's first article. After high school, he attended St. Martin's College of Art in London and got a job illustrating for 2000 AD and House of Hammer. He also worked for BBC Television illustrating the children's TV series Captain Zep. That work eventually led to his forming an advertising art company named Helicopter Studios.