Mark Stafford (born 1970) is a London-based cartoonist. His work was first seen in the UK small press/underground comics scene in the mid-Nineties.
Graphic novels
The first graphic novel illustrated by Stafford was
Cherubs! It was written and co-created by
Bryan Talbot, with the first half being published by
Desperado Publishing in 2007
before the entire work was published by
Dark Horse Comics in 2013.
He later illustrated three more, all written by David Hine. The first of these was 2013's
The Man Who Laughs,
which was followed by Lip Hook: A Tale Of Rural Unease in 2018
and The Bad, Bad Place in 2019.
Self-published work
Stafford's self-published comics include Botulism Banquet - A Compendium of Carcinogenic Canapés,
Scenes From Books I Have Not Read,
Coin,
Tinhorn Galoot
and Something Wicked/Something Waiting.
A collection of his self-published work called Salmonella Smorgasbord: A Collection Of Crimes Against Cartooning was published in 2023.
Anthologies
Stafford has contributed to anthologies such as The End,
The Lovecraft Anthology Volume One,
Meanwhile...,
The Mammoth Book of Skulls,
HOAX Psychosis Blues,
The Broken Frontier Anthology
and The Golden Thread.
Funded projects
In 2009 Stafford worked with
Southwark Council on a graphic novels/comics mural for
John Harvard Library,
and in 2017 he co-operated with the
British Council on its Shakespeare Lives project in
Seoul,
South Korea.
He subsequently collaborated with the
British Council again in 2018 in partnership with Arts Council Korea on a comics project with the Kangkangee Arts Village in
Busan,
South Korea.
In 2022 he worked with Raksha Pande at
Newcastle University on Arranging Love, a comic based on Pande's research about attitudes to arranged marriage in modern UK based Punjabi communities.
Commercial work
Stafford's artwork has appeared on beer labels and record labels, and he has designed 2D puppets for a theatre production.
He has also produced comic strips for the UK animal abuse defence society
Animal Aid and is cartoonist in residence at the London Cartoon Museum.
