Ronald Turner (3 August 1922 – 19 December 1998) was a British illustrator and comic book artist.

Early life and career Turner was born in Norwich, England. He became interested in science fiction at an early age, with numerous works across several media: the novels of H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Jules Verne; films and film serials such as Metropolis, Things to Come, and Flash Gordon; and Alex Raymond's comic strips. He developed a keen interest in American science-fiction pulp magazines, such as Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories (now known as Analog Science Fiction), and first started to develop his talent by attempting to copy the often spectacular cover illustrations.

In 1936, at the age of 14, Turner first got work as an apprentice in Odhams, a London art studio and publishing house. By 1938, Turner was providing illustrations for the British magazine Modern Wonder. In 1940, Turner's professional art career was interrupted by the Second World War, and he was drafted into the British Army. He returned to professional illustration in the late 1940s, finding a job drawing comic strips for Scion's Big series, which were mostly centred around the crew of the Atomic Mole: a subterranean craft, that explored the theoretical "habitable spaces" beneath the Earth's crust.

Odhams eventually began publishing a line of paperback fiction, for which Turner drew numerous covers, notably the Vargo Statten series by John Russell Fearn. Turner's art raised his profile to the extent that other publishers started to send him assignments. In 1953, Turner left Odhams to try his hand at freelancing and attempt to produce a regular comic strip in the style of British cartoonist Frank Hampson, whose work he admired.

Solo comics work In 1953, Turner spoke to the publisher of Tit-Bits Science Fiction Novels (for which he was providing cover illustration) about the possibility of producing his own comic series. The publisher agreed, and began Tit-Bits Science Fiction Comics, a 64-page monthly comic book written, drawn and lettered by Turner. It quickly became apparent that the workload was too onerous for one man, and Turner brought in other artists in order to meet his deadlines. Publication was discontinued after seven issues.

Around the time of the demise of Tit-Bits Comics, Turner began to write, draw and letter the "Space Ace" strip for the Lone Star comic, which required only four pages per month. In 1954, he also started drawing for Amalgamated Press's Super-Detective Library comic, which had recently started running a science-fiction strip titled "Rick Random: Space Detective". Editor Ted Holmes commissioned Turner to provide art for the strip, leaving the chores of script-writing, lettering and cover illustration to others. Turner worked on "Rick Random" for the next five years.

1960s As the vogue for pulp science fiction dwindled, Turner found work doing cover illustrations again for numerous publications, such as the popular science journal Practical Mechanics. By the mid-1960s, Turner had mostly abandoned the world of monthly publishing, and was producing original paint-by-number paintings for the company Craftmaster.

In 1965, Turner was offered the opportunity to draw his first colour comic strip, based on the Gerry Anderson TV series Stingray, for TV Century 21 Stingray Extra (a holiday special issue of the weekly comic TV Century 21). The following year, Turner began contributing to TV Century 21 on a regular basis with his first continuing colour comic strip, "The Daleks", featuring the mechanical villains from the TV series Doctor Who.Doctor Who was copyrighted to the BBC, while the Daleks were the intellectual property of Terry Nation. Turner replaced the strip's previous artist Richard Jennings, initially for issues 50 and 51 (January 1966) and then on a regular basis from issue 59 (March 1966). He continued to illustrate The Daleks until its conclusion in issue 104 (January 1967).

Between 1965 and 1969, Turner also contributed strips based on the various Anderson series to a number of TV Century 21 holiday specials and the publisher's hardback annual books, illustrating further Stingray strips in addition to ones based on Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Joe 90. He illustrated all 80 pages of the Joe 90 Puzzle Book and the same number for the Joe 90 Dot to Dot Book (both Century 21 Publishing, 1968) as well as providing strips based on the series The Champions, Star Trek and Land of the Giants for the Joe 90 Top Secret Annual (1969). In addition, he again found work with Amalgamated Press (now called Fleetway), taking over the black-and-white "Robot Builders" strip from Carlos Cruz for Fleetway's Tiger and Hurricane comic magazine.

1970s In the 1970s, Turner began working for IPC Media (which had absorbed Fleetway), drawing strips for the Whizzer and Chips comic, such as "Wonder-car", "Archie's Angels" and "Danny Drew's Dialling Man", which were generally aimed at the young adult market. As well as contributing a regular Star Trek strip to IPC Media's TV21, he also continued his association with Gerry Anderson with Thunderbirds strips for the 1972 Thunderbirds Annual and the 1973 Countdown Annual.

In the late 1970s, Turner drew a number of "Judge Dredd" comic strips for 2000 A.D., including several episodes in the first multi-part story The Robot Wars although his style did not gain the favour of his editors, and the long-term assignment eventually fell to other artists. Instead, Turner found regular work on the re-launched version of IPC's formerly violent comic Action with "The Spinball Slaves"—a sequel to the science-fiction sport strip "Death Game 1999" (influenced by the 1975 film Rollerball) and its less violent sequel "Spinball". When Action merged with IPC's war comic Battle Picture Weekly to become Battle Action, Turner contributed a further "Spinball" sequel strip entitled "The Spinball Wars". He also worked on a revival of "Rick Random" also for 2000 A.D..

1980s Turner continued to work for Battle Action under its new title Battle Action Force, drawing many of the "Action Force" strips, which featured Action Man characters licensed from Mattel. He also began drawing a strip called "Journey to the Stars" for the new IPC Media weekly comic Speed, although publication ceased shortly afterwards. Turner found work with other IPC comics such as War and Battle Picture Library, but the shrinking comics market in 1980s Britain soon caused these publications to fold in 1984. At this time, Turner announced his retirement, although not long afterwards he was found drawing strips for an independent small press, including "Nick Hazard" and "Kalgan the Golden".

1990s and death By this point, Turner had started regularly providing book cover illustrations once again, on this occasion for Gryphon Books. He also painted a new six-part "Daleks" strip for Doctor Who Magazine.

Turner died of a stroke and a heart attack in 1998. His artwork has continued to appear posthumously on books published by Gryphon Books and Wildside Press, drawing on many previously unpublished pieces as well as re-printing his earlier book cover illustrations.

Bibliography

Books The following books are entirely or substantially illustrated by Turner:

Into Space with Ace Brave! Space-Master (Birn Brothers Ltd., 1953) (pop-up book) Joe 90 Puzzle Book (Century 21 Publishing, 1968) (written, devised and illustrated by Turner) Joe 90 Dot to Dot Book (Century 21 Publishing, 1968) (written, devised and illustrated by Turner) Rick Random: Space Detective (656 pages, Prion Books, 2008, ) (all bar one story illustrated by Turner)

Comic strips Comics work includes:

The Amstor Computer "854391 – A Modern Christmas..." (wr: Roy Preston, in Eagle #92, 1983) Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons "Assassination of the Director of Economic Affairs" (in Captain Scarlet Annual, September 1967) Untitled Story (in TV Century 21 Annual, September 1968) "Target London" (in Captain Scarlet Annual, September 1968) "Destroy San Francisco" (in TV21 Annual, September 1969) "Lost in Time" (in TV21 Annual, September 1969) The Champions "Error of Judgement" (in Joe 90 Top Secret Annual, September 1969) The Daleks "The Eve of the War", parts 4 and 5 (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #50–51, January 1966) "The Rogue Planet" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #59–62, March 1966) "Impasse" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #63–69, April–May 1966) "The Terrorkon Harvest" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #70–75, May–June 1966) "Legacy of Yesteryear" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #76–85, July–September 1966) "Shadow of Humanity" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #86–89, September 1966) "The Emissaries of Jevo" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #90–95, October–November 1966) "Road to Conflict" (wr: David Whitaker, in TV Century 21 #96–104, November 1966 – January 1967) "Return of the Elders" (wr: John Lawrence, in Doctor Who Magazine #249–254, February–July 1997) Fireball XL5 "The Drifting Coffin" (in Fireball XL5 Annual, September 1966) Joe 90 "Deadly Toy" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1968) "Rat Trap" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1968) "Ambush" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1968) "Doctor Fawkes" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1968) "Check Mate" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1968) "Break-Down" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1969) "The Deadly Swarm" (in Joe 90 Annual, September 1969) Judge Dredd "Robots" (wr: John Wagner, in 2000 A.D. #9, April 1977) "Robot Wars", parts 2, 4 and 7 (wr: John Wagner, in 2000 A.D. #11, 13 and 16, May–June 1977) "The Solar Sniper" (wr: Gerry Finley-Day, in 2000 A.D. #21, July 1977) Land of the Giants Untitled Story (in Joe 90 Top Secret Annual, September 1969) Rick Random "Kidnappers from Space" (in Super-Detective Library #44, December 1954) "The Case of the Man Who Owned the Moon" (in Super-Detective Library #49, March 1955) "The Five Lives of Mr. Quex" (in Super-Detective Library #64, September 1955) "The Gold Rush Planet" (in Super-Detective Library #66, October 1955) "The Mystery of the Moving Planet" (in Super-Detective Library #70, December 1955) "The Planet of Lost Men" (in Super-Detective Library #79, June 1956) "Invaders from the Ocean Planet" (in Super-Detective Library #83, July 1956) "Manhunt Through Space" (in Super-Detective Library #90, October 1956) "The Mystery of the Time Travellers" (in Super-Detective Library #97, February 1957) "The Riddle of the Vanishing People" (in Super-Detective Library #101, April 1957) "Sabotage from Space" (in Super-Detective Library #111, September 1957) "The S.O.S. from Space" (wr: Harry Harrison, in Super-Detective Library #115, November 1957) "The Planet of Terror" (wr: Bob Kesten, in Super-Detective Library #123, March 1958) "The Space Pirates" (wr: Harry Harrison, in Super-Detective Library #127, May 1958) "Perilous Mission" (wr: Harry Harrison, in Super-Detective Library #129, June 1958) "The Mystery of the Frozen World" (wr: Bob Kesten, Super-Detective Library #133, August 1958) "The Mystery of the Robot World" (wr: Conrad Frost and Barry Coker, in Super-Detective Library #137, October 1958) "The Terror from Space" (wr: Harry Harrison, in Super-Detective Library #143, January 1959) "The Threat from Space" (wr: Bob Kesten, in Super-Detective Library #153, June 1959) "The Kidnapped Planet" (wr: Bob Kesten, in Super-Detective Library #163, December 1959) "The Riddle of the Astral Assassin!" (wr: Steve Moore, in 2000 A.D. and Star Lord #113–117, May–June 1979) Star Trek Untitled Story (in Joe 90 Top Secret Annual, September 1969) Untitled Story (in TV21 #58–61, October 1970) 'Stingray' "Double Trap" (in TV Century 21 Stingray Extra, May 1965) Untitled Story (in TV Century 21 International Extra, October 1965) "The Collector" (in Stingray Annual, September 1966) "The Sunken City" (in Stingray Annual, September 1966)