Cartoonist aims to `transform' world (From Cotswold Journal)

Cartoonist aims to `transform' world

ANDREW Wildman of Chipping Norton is an internationally-renowned comic book illustrator whose most famous work is on the Transformers' series.

But it is not only the famous "robots in disguise" Andrew is keen to transform; he also wants to change the lives of children around the world through his charity project Draw the World Together, which raises money for charity Everychild to help fund education in countries such as Cambodia.

Andrew, aged 44, who lives in Albion Street, Chipping Norton, with his wife, Lesley, 47, and three children Esther, 20, Frank, 18 and Carrie, 17, set up his charity project last year to enrol comic book artists to attend fundraising events or donate work.

"We had a big online auction on eBay last year and raised just under £5,000," said Andrew.

He is now working on extending the same principles into the animation industry.

"We are currently talking to high up people involved in The Simpsons and King of the Hill," said Andrew, who is also hopeful that Aardman Animations, Oscar-winning makers of the Wallace and Gromit films, will come on board.

Andrew has been a comic book illustrator since the mid 1980s. After training as a graphic designer at art college he took his portfolio along to publishers London Editors, who commissioned him to illustrate a comic on an animated TV series Bravestars.

Since then he has worked mainly for Marvel Comics, drawing the X-Men, Spiderman and Transformers comics. He has also done computer game design.

At the moment he is working on a British magazine called Jetix, which is published by Bath-based Future Publishing, and features the Power Rangers.

He has also moved into animation, working as a character designer for the animated TV series Legend of the Dragon, which has just finished a run on the BBC.

Other projects in the pipeline include an animated movie based on King Kong and a children's animated TV series based on a modern-day Zorro.

"I have developed, with a writer colleague of mine called Simon Jowett, one of the major writers on Bob the Builder, and my wife, Lesley, a stop-go animation series for pre-school children called Jeff the Chef. That's being looked at by a French company," said Andrew, adding that it will be at least two years before the programme reaches our TV screens.

However, he admitted that it is for his work on Transformers that he is best known, and he still attends fan conventions.

"Transformers is very much part of the culture. There is a live action movie out next year."

He still produces front covers for the Transformers comic and has persuaded the publishers to produce a limited-edition run, with a Draw the World Together logo on it, for the UK Transformer convention in Bristol in May.

"Any profits from that will go to the project," he said.

Doing works for good causes is not exclusive to Andrew.

Lesley, who worked at Chipping Norton Veterinary Hospital for five years, also has her own pet project called Paint, which aims to raise funds to save African Wild Painted Dogs, an endangered species in Zimbabwe.

"They have an amazing coat colour," said Lesley, who trained as a glass sculptor at the Royal College of Art.

She is organising a number of fundraising events, including a lecture by Greg Rasmussen, the project director, at Chipping Norton Theatre on June 20, about his incredible survival in the bush after a devastating plane crash.

She is also planning a Walk on the Wild Side sponsored walk.

Further information on Andrew's work can be found on his website at www.wildman.uk.com and on Lesley's project on her website at www.wildman.uk.com/paint.