Al Davison

Al Davison, born in 1960 in Newcastle, England, is a British comic book writer and artist best known for his deeply personal autobiographical graphic novel *The Spiral Cage*. First published in 1988 by Renegade Press, with an expanded edition from Titan Books in 1990 and an Absolute edition from Active Images in 2003, the work chronicles his lifelong experience with spina bifida and his path to becoming a successful creator in multiple fields, including martial arts instruction and filmmaking. The book was later featured in Tony Isabella’s *1000 Comic Books You Must Read* and inspired a documentary of the same name, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson.

Davison’s career in comics spans from 1979 to 2014, with credits as artist, colorist, inker, letterer, and writer on 33 issues. His most frequent work includes titles such as *Vermillion*, *Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage*, *Doctor Who*, *The Dreaming*, *The Unwritten: Apocalypse*, and *The Minotaur’s Tale*. In 2015, he was commissioned to create *Manga Carta*, a 10-page graphic tale about the 800-year-old Magna Carta, for the Festival800 in Lincoln.

He now lives in Coventry, where he runs The Astral Gypsy, his studio and comic shop in Fargo Village, alongside his wife Maggie.