ACTION AND ADVENTURE IN A NEW PHOTOSTORY FORMAT CREATED FOR COMICBOOK PUBLISHING BY RICHARD DIXON'S TPD STUDIOS .

BEFORE LEGO ACTION FIGURE AND PLAYMOBIL ACTION FIGURE PICTURE BOOKS....WE HAD ACTION MAN PHOTOSTORIES COMING IN THE ACTION MAN SUMMER AND WINTER SPECIALS FROM MARVEL COMICS UK AND PANINI COMICS UK....CREATED AND PRODUCED AT RICHARD DIXON'S TPD STUDIOS ACROSS LANCASHIRE...

This image ....became the basis for the first cover I created for Marvel Comics / Panini UK for Action Man Comic .

IMAGES FROM RICHARD DIXON'S TPD STUDIOS / TPD STUDIOS UK

AN INTRODUCTION TO MY ACTION MAN WORK WITH MARVEL COMICS

I worked on the Action Man Comic from 1997 t0 2004 with Marvel Comics UK Team , Panini Comics Publishing UK and HASBRO TOYS UK to provide the photography on the comic with over sixty cover pictures and many full page poster images , together with competition page imagery .

All the model set design work for the photography was createrd at TPD Studios in Lancashire , England by myself over the eight years I worked on the production for the comic .

During this time I was supported with superb help with the product range from Hasbro UK , their Marketing Department and Sales Department.....also the Hasbro Creative Director Edward Catchpole .

The whole team at Marvel Comics UK and Panini UK helped me to make the imagery in Action Man Comic the best looking in one of the most successful children's Comics in the UK over the eight years when it was in production .

During this time I also created the Action Man Greetings Card Range imagery for Gemma Cards . 

Pedigree Books UK also featured my Action Man Photography and Miniature Set Design on the Covers and inside the Action Man Annual during the time I worked on the product range .

The images featured here on this web page is a small selection taken from the vast amount of photography I created for the product .

The photography was all done with film cameras during the eight years of production , no digital cameras were used .

The first two years I used two Mamiya RB67's with a 90 mm lens and a 50mm to photograph the miniature sets .

During the third year of working with the product , a Pentax 6x7 with a selection of lenses was used for the photography which covered the remaining five years I worked on the Comic .

The Pentax 67 was also used to create the imagery for the fifteen Photo Story Action Man supermation adventure movies in a comic book format which was created for the  Summer and Winter Special Editions for the Action Man Monthly Magazine Comic .

The Pentax 67 camera system I found to be the best around at that time for model animation work , quality of images with the lens system and a big film format with good portability for location wotk .

The pictures for Action Man Comic were the first realistic supermation style images that I created for a children's comic .

They would later form my step forward on to supermation digital pictures that would appear in SEASTAR 5 INVADERS FROM THE ABYSS and others created today .

Cover Poster...

" We did not just give Action Man our best shot...we gave him twelve " .......

These were the first twelve magazine comics covers created for Action Man Comic with my photography published by MARVEL COMICS UK .

ALL IMAGES ARE USED HERE WITH PERMISSION.....PLEASE NOTE THEY ARE ALL COPYWRITE MARVEL COMICS UK  - PANINI COMICS UK AND CANNOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION .

ACTION MAN IS COPYWRITE HASBRO TOYS UK ALL IMAGES HERE ARE USED BY RICHARD DIXON WITH PERMISSION .

SOME IMAGES OF THE FIRST SUPERMATION STYLE PAGES FROM MY VERY FIRST ACTION MAN PHOTOSTORY....FROM THE ACTION MAN MILLENIUM SPECIAL EDITION MAGAZINE....YEAR 2000

These items for the first story are not complete.....we are looking for the remainder of them in our archives and hope to bring you a better version to look at very soon.....

THE SPACE ADVENTURE IN SUPERMATION PHOTOART PUBLISHING WAS THE SECOND MISSION.....

The third ACTION MAN mission supermation photostory creation.....inspiration on this came from my days watching Indiana Jones and Desert action adventure movies.....THIS IS DESERT RUMBLE.....this one was a lot of fun to do...two filming stages each seven foot wide , side by side in the studio were created....one a desert area and the other for the rest of the set ups in the storyline......the Egyptian Town and Ancient Tomb .

WE MADE FIFTEEN OF THEM !!