Simon Bisley began drawing when he was six years old. He is self-taught, with only a short one-year stay at an art college, saying "I found it very difficult to get any kind of feedback from the art teachers. They weren't interested at all in what I was doing, so I became kind of very introverted with regard to my artwork and yeah, I was just all self-taught."[1]
Careeredit
Bisley started his career doing magazine and album covers, his first work being a T-shirt design for heavy metal magazine Kerrang![1]
Eventually, even though he had no experience in comics strip drawing at the time, he was hired by the magazine 2000 AD after they saw his interpretations of their magazine characters. According to the Comic Book Database, "while still a student, Bisley did a painting of a robot holding a baby that he sent to the offices of 2000 AD. The image was seen by Pat Mills and inspired him to relaunch the ABC Warriors strip, with Bisley as artist, in 1987".[2] He started with work on ABC Warriors in 1987, later moving to Sláine and Judge Dredd.[3]
Since 1997, Bisley has been a regular contributor to the comics magazine Heavy Metal.[4]
Bisley has done design work for several music videos, including Chippendales' "Room Service".[citation needed]
In the early 2000s, Bisley was commissioned to create artwork for the drum kit used by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, an avid comic book collector and vendor. Dolmayan commissioned Bisley to illustrate the Hulk and Thing on one drum, while the art for other drums in the kit, which depicted other characters and scenes, were produced by Kevin Eastman, Tim Vigil, and Arthur Adams.[5]
Fistful of Blood (with script and layouts by Kevin Eastman, in Heavy Metal #192-202, May 2001 - January 2003, hardcover, 64 pages, February 2003, ISBN 1-882931-86-6)
The Dead (with Alan Grant, Berserker Comics, 2008–2009)[10]
Church of Hell #1-3 (Berserker Comics, 2009, covers)[11]
^ ab"Comic Art & Graffix Gallery Artist Interviews - Simon Bisley". www.comic-art.com.
^"Simon Bisley Comic Book DB". comicbookdb.com. 2008.
^Ringgenberg, Steve (1995). "interview with Bisley, p. 1". comic-art.com. Wayback Machine.
^Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J. (2013). Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman, Volume 1. p. 332. ISBN 9780313399237.
^Collis, Clark (8 August 2006). "System of a Down's drummer on his art-covered kit". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
^Ringgenberg, Steve (1995). "interview with Bisley, p. 5". comic-art.com. Wayback Machine.