Arthur Ranson exhibition opens at Orbital

Tonight (Thursday 14th January) sees the opening of an exhibition of art by 2000AD contributor Arthur Ranson at London's Orbital Comics.

The exhibition spans his 30-year comic career: Arthur's credits are numerous, including, of course, "Button Man", "Judge Anderson" and "Mazeworld" for 2000AD; but also strips such as "Sapphire and Steel" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" for the Junior TV Times title Look-In (sadly, no longer published). His first ever strip appeared in that title - "Les Dawson - Superflop" but other credits on that comic include "CHiPs", "The Beatles", Dangermouse" and "Michael Bentine's Potty Time".

As well as his work for 2000AD, he's drawn issues of Batman - Dark Legends for DC Comics; and X-Factor and Xtreme X-Men for Marvel Comics.

Arthur recently launched his own web site and is currently on the hunt for examples of his work for Look-In.

"For completeness I would like the Look-in section to have an example of every strip I did for them," he says, but "Due to not having access to some of the work this is presently not possible."

If any one out here has examples of unrepresented strips - The missing titles are "Doctor on the Go", "The A-Team", "Logan's Run", and "CHiPs" - they could be emailed to the contact address on the web site.

"A "Worzel Gummidge" and a "Just William" pic with the eponymous hero in would be nice too," says Arthur.

In December, Arthur posted a sort update on the much-rumoured Button Man movie, based on the 2000AD strip created by John Wagner. "Despite what you might see on the internet, there is not as yet a Button Man movie, not even one starring Leonardo di Caprio," he noted.

"Dreamworks have a few months to decide whether to either go ahead, pay for more time to decide, or drop it. You will be informed."

• Arthur Ranson's Official web site: www.arthurranson.com

• Orbital Comics is at 8 Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JA. Tel: 02072400591. Web: www.orbitalcomics.com. It's open every day from 10.30 - 7.00pm except Sundays, when it's 11.30-5.00pm