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Ron Tiner

Ron Tiner

Ronald Charles Tickner, known professionally as Ron Tiner (born 8th May 1940 at Borden, Kent, UK) is a highly skilled English illustrator of books, magazines and comics, whose work is distinguished by its bold strength of drawing, dramatic atmospheres and rich colour. He is also the author of several books on illustration art, including Figure Drawing Without a Model and Drawing from Your Imagination. He currently resides in Devon, UK and has a website at www.rontiner.com

Biography

Ron showed an early interest in drawing, encouraged and given focus by the comics he read as a child which included reprints of American Tarzan strips by Burne Hogarth, and the British and European artists featured in the digest-size monthly picture libraries and colour weekly comics of the 1950’s and 60s – Eagle, Express Weekly, Lion etc.

His family were unable to support him through art college, so on leaving school at 16, he became a telecommunications engineer, and at 21 became assistant-lecturer in telecommunications at Bletchley Park.

He began working as a graphic narrative artist, for both comics and graphic novels. He has since become a prolific book illustrator and an author of his own books on art, illustration and drawing.

Career

He turned to art teaching in comprehensive schools at age 25. During school holidays, he began illustrating comics under the pseudonym Ron Tiner to hide his identity from his employer and his students. Became full-time professional comics illustrator in 1977, working initially through Bardon Press Features, producing comics art for I.P.C., D.C.Thompson and Pikin Publications. His first job was to draw Spring-Heeled Jack for Hotspur.

He also worked on Pikin’s Powerman stories alongside Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland. Over the next few years he drew a wide range of fictions for many children’s comics, drawing westerns, science-fiction, war, romance, humour, crime, sport and school stories.

As graphic narrative artist

An incomplete list of features illustrated during this period includes:

In Powerman – (Pikin Publications)

• Jango the Black Sherriff
• Powerman

In Hotspur:: (D.C.Thompson)

• Spring-Heeled Jackson
• Black Jack the Footpad
• The Red Sands of Roga
• Slaves of Vasala
• Bad Penny Paddy
• When Your Feet Hurt, You Fly

In Judy: (D.C.Thompson)

• Mary Doon’s Diary
• The Fifth Swan Child

and others

In Suzy (D.C.Thompson)

• The House on Witch Hill
• When Time Runs Out
• Star of the Silver Pool

and others

In Bunty Picture Library (D.C.Thompson)

• Catch the Wind
• Her mother is a Star
• Funfair of Fear

and others

In Starblazer Picture Library

• Hunters of Tropicanus

In Battle Action: (I.P.C.) contributed to the following features:

• Major Eazy
• The Rat Pack
• Clash of the Guards
• Despatch Rider
• Film File
• Screaming Stukas
• The Shark
• HMS Nightshade

and others

In Tammy (I.P.C.):

• Linda’s Fox
• Rainbow Child
• Playing Truant

and others

In 2000AD (I.P.C.)

• Tharg’s Future-Shocks (3 episodes)

In Star Lord (I.P.C.) Contributions to the following features:

• Ro-Jaws & Hammer-Stein
• Time-Quake

In Tornado (I.P.C.)

• The Mind of Wolfie Smith

In Action Comic (I.P.C.)

• Kids Rule OK (first episode only)

In Roy of the Rovers (I.P.C.)

• Jimmy
• Hotshot Hamish

In Look-In

• Bionic Action

In TV Comic

• Battle of the Planets

In Match Weekly (East Midlands Allied publishers)

• Cannon

In Oink!

• King Solomon’s Swines
• Sherlock Hams and The Hog of the Baskervilles
• The Unprofessionals
• Giraffe Giraffe

In Brain Damage

• The Striker Wore Pink Knickers

In Escort Comic Strip

• Fanny Hill: The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
• The Arabian Nights

For Peretti Publications

• The Pickle at Trafalgar

He adapted six of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven stories for Gutenburghus. Among his last comics work was Hellblazer for the U.S. publisher DC Comics – a series set in Britain, about an Englishman, written by a British writer. However, his work was criticised by the publisher for being “too British”, and was reworked by a US artist before publication. It was an experience he sorely regrets and has vowed never to repeat.

With the decline of the British comic in the mid-1980’s, he turned increasingly to book and magazine illustration. For Punch magazine he produced several fiction illustrations and one cover painting, and his colour and monochrome illustrations for Tales of Robin Hood by Tony Allen (Usborne 1994) are considered classics in the field. His fantasy and science-fiction artwork was featured, alongside a substantial interview, in The Paper Tiger Fantasy Art Gallery (edited by John Grant) (Paper Tiger 2002)

As book illustrator

• Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events – Sabine Baring Gould (Smith Settle, 1990)
• Gumboot Practice – John Francis (Smith Settle, 1989)
• Dales Law – John Francis (Smith Settle, 1991)
• Beyond the Brass Plate – John Francis (Smith Settle, 1993)
• The Battle of Hastings – Jane Shuter (Heinemann, 2003)
• Mummies - Hepplewhite and Tonge (Hodder Children’s Books,1999)
• In a Monastery Garden – E. and R. Peplow (David & Charles, 1988)
• Mossyface – William Earle [ie W.E.Johns] (Trendler & Wright, 1994)
• Bible Bad-Guys – Bob Hatman (Lion, 1999)
• Clancey’s Casebook – B.Cassels and I.Lowden (Oliver & Boyd, 1989)
• Ryan of the Redcaps - ?? (Stanley Thornes, 1998)
• Mystery in London – Helen Brooke (O.U.P., 1999)
• Tales of Robin Hood – Tony Allen (Usborne, 1999)
• DR Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Intertextual drawings only) – Robert Louis Stevenson, retold by John Grant (Usborne, 1995)
• Mind Reader – Pete Johnson (Puffin)
• Mind Reader: Blackmail – Pete Johnson - (Puffin)
• Result! - Neil Arksey (Puffin)
• Forbidden Game – Malorie Blackman (Puffin)
• The Joke Shop - ?? (Puffin)
• Operation Terror – Margaret Mahey (Puffin)

And other titles published by Puffin Books

He illustrated the following language-teaching books, mostly featuring simplified texts of English-language classics.

For O.U.P.

• The 39 Steps – John Buchan
• Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
• Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
• Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
• The African Queen – C.S.Forester
• The Eagle of the Ninth – Rosemary Sutcliffe
• Mystery in London – Helen Brooke

For Penguin

• Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsythe
• Rip van Winkle – Washington Irving

Ron Tiner has produced a large quantity of illustrations for educational books including numerous fragments of the classics of English literature, but has specialised mainly in historical and biblical subjects.

He is also a well-known caricaturist, (published in The Daily Telegraph) and drawing live, off-the-cuff caricatures, working through Hartbeat Entertainments Agency, Plymouth, Devon.

As Author/illustrator

Ron Tiner has written extensively on illustration art, including articles for Artist and illustrator Magazine, and the following:

• Figure Drawing without a Model (David & Charles 1992 and later editions)
• Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques (with John Grant) (Titan 1996)
• Mass: The Art of John Harris (Paper Tiger 2000)
• Drawing from your Imagination (David & Charles 2009)

Other books

With Paul Barnett: Card Games, Conjouring Tricks, Parlour games, Juggling and Feats of Dexterity (all published by Letts 1992-3)

Ron Tiner was a contributor to the Clute-Nichols Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction (Orbit 1993) and a contributing editor on the Clute-Grant Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (Orbit 1997)

His short stories have been published in: The Mammoth Book of Arthurian Legends (ed Mike Ashley) (Carol & Graf / Robinson 1998) Shakespearean Detective Stories (ed Mike Ashley) (Carol & Graf 1999)

Ron Tiner lives and works in Exeter, Devon, UK. His website is at www.rontiner.com