Like the ‘Sid’s Snake’ cartoonist, Mike Lacey, Stephen was born and grew up in Southend-On-Sea, Essex. Early influences include Asterix The Gaul, Andy Capp and IPC humour comics throughout the ’70’s. A budding cartoonist from the age of 5, he eventually won the ‘Daily Star Young Cartoonist Of The Year’ in 1985. It opened doors for him, and he worked for a short-lived comic titled called ‘Triffik’. He moved onto IPC comics in the 90’s, where he wrote and ghosted. He also moved to Glasgow during this time. Buster printed 2 pilot strips titled ‘Money Tree’ and ‘Billy’s Genie’ but financial problems prevented them from being developed. Buster eventually went to re-prints before going bust at the end of 2000 and Stephen was out of a job.
In the ‘noughties’ he moved with his job to the West Midlands and contributed to a strip titled ‘Oscar & Wild’ for a local paper titled ‘The Black Country Bugle’. He retired the strip when he was made redundant from his 17 year manufacturing job and he moved back to Glasgow where he currently resides. These days Stephen produces the ‘lnsanity’ strip for ‘lnfinity’ magazine sending up classic movies and tv shows and next year he’s bringing ‘Oscar & Wild’ out of retirement for a new tabloid sized comic titled ‘Falcon’. There’ll appear in colour for the first time.
