About the Artist

Allan Bednar was born in the United States and moved over to the UK at the age of 15, and has lived here happily ever since.

In Doctor Who circles, you might know his work from BBCi's e-book The Dying Days (written by Lance Parkin), and the comic Miranda (also written by Lance Parkin) for Comeuppance Comics.

He's worked for several games companies (Revolution, Infogrames) as a concept artist and 3D modeller, as well as having a number of freelance illustration commissions, including a number of strips for 2000AD under various pseudonyms.

He and his family live outside York.

Allan on Doctor Who:

"Doctor Who first captured my imagination as a child of about 11 or 12, and part of it's appeal was that it was so alien.

"I was encountering it in the States, and the English culture which formed the background to it was an utter blank to me. As such, it was almost surreal, and all the more appealing for that fact. Almost similar to the distancing effect you can get from Manga, where the information which the creators expect you to have as an audience member isn't there, and the characters' motivations and thinking become all the more interesting for it.

"Doctor Who seemed a bizarre mix of the extremely comforting and the extremely horrific, where mundane relationships or situations were blown up onto a cosmic scale.

"It all left your imagination reeling, and it was a universe you wanted to be part of, a universe as well were you felt your imagination could validly build on and expand as well.

"It sounds over the top, but in blowing trivial life on to a cosmic scale, it was celebrating that life, rather than being baseless, like most popular SF. Space is only worth looking at with a normal person beside you!"

Find out about Allan's work on the Miranda comics at www.comeuppancecomics.co.uk