Ashley Wood, the Artist

Ashley Wood is an Australian comic artist, illustrator and painter, born in Perth in 1971, whose moody painted characters moved from comic pages into art books and, through threeA, into collectible figures.

Comics First, but Not Only Comics

Wood started in British comics, including Judge Dredd titles, before moving to the U.S. market with work for Marvel and DC. He is best known there for Image Comics’ Spawn books by Todd McFarlane: he painted covers for the Spawn titles and was the original artist on Hellspawn, written by Brian Michael Bendis, later collected as Hellspawn: The Ashley Wood Collection.

A long run of projects for IDW Publishing followed, including Popbot, Lore, Zombies vs. Robots and Tank Girl. Popbot, which Wood both wrote and painted, is the series most tied to his later toys. For IDW he also illustrated the comic adaptations of Metal Gear Solid, written by Kris Oprisko, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, written by Alex Garner. The work led to Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel for the PlayStation Portable, made with Hideo Kojima, and to guest illustrations for the game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker alongside Yoji Shinkawa’s team.

Painting Style and threeA

Wood typically works in mixed media, often combining oil painting with digital artmaking. His pictures are loose and atmospheric, with rough brushwork, muted palettes and heavy shadow, and the same cast of battered robots, soldiers and heroines keeps returning across comics, paintings and books. That recurring cast is what made the move into three dimensions natural.

In 2008, Wood co-founded threeA in Hong Kong with Kim Fung Wong, a Hong Kong toy producer. According to fan historians, the name joins Wong’s company, threezero, with the first letter of Ashley. threeA produced designer toys, posters, prints and clothing based on characters Wood created, and its first toy sale took place in June 2008.

The main lines grew straight out of his paintings and comics: World War Robot, Popbot, Adventure Kartel, Tomorrow Kings and Tomorrow Queens, and the Bertie figures. Many were made in 1:6 and 1:12 scale, as well as non-scale versions, usually with painted weathering that echoes his canvases.

Where to See His Work

The easiest place to study Wood’s art is in print. IDW published several volumes devoted to him in its small-format Sparrow art-book series, as well as Ashley Wood’s Art of Metal Gear Solid, and his Popbot, Hellspawn and Metal Gear Solid comics were collected in book form. Comparing those pages with the figures is the best way to see how a painted character becomes a threeA toy.

For collectors, the practical takeaway is simple: learn the comics and art books first. Knowing which painting or story a figure comes from makes it much easier to identify releases, variants and the character lines they belong to.