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AN ARTIST has had his stamp designs given the seal of approval by the Queen herself – after thinking it was a joke.
Andrew Wildman, of Chipping Norton, was asked to create the stamps, based on popular culture robots, the Transformers.
Toys, comics and films have all played their part in making the franchise a multi-billion pound success.
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Mr Wildman was involved in the early days, and was recently asked to take part in a ‘special project’ after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
“I got an email out of the blue and wasn’t sure if it was even real, asking if I would do some drawings and designs for a special project,” he told this newspaper.
“I had to sign an NDA, and then I was sent an email from Royal Mail.
“I then knew it would be stamps, and sure enough, it was.
“I was asked to design the stamps, and we got on board a couple of other people, and we became a dream team.
“We went through lots and lots of approval processes, with them eventually being signed off by the Queen.
“I thought it was a joke at first, but they said it’s the law.”
The Transformers stamps designed by Andrew Wildman. Picture via Royal Mail
The stamps are released on September 1, and are available to pre-order via the Royal Mail website.
“It’s amazing for me, Transformers was one of the first comic books I worked on,” said Mr Wildman.
“Everything started for me at Marvel UK in 1988. They were publishing various things at that time and one of them was Transformers in its very early incarnation.
“I didn’t know much about Transformers, I was too old to play with the toys, but I was young and hungry, and wanted to build my career, so I said yes.
“I went on to work with various comic books for Marvel – an X-Men book and some Spiderman ones.
“I didn’t do too much more with Transformers, so the stamps are a perfect way to cap off that part of my career.
“For an artist, being commissioned to do this is a real honour – it’s right up there with my career highlights.”
Andrew Wildman has had his Transformers stamps approved by the Queen
Other projects Mr Wildman has worked on include Dr Who, Poldark, and Channel 5’s Shane the Chef.
“It was designed to inform children of where their food comes from and provide an understanding of healthy eating,” he said.
“At the time, my children found it very amusing that I’d spent so much time doing these various comics and then I was doing a children’s TV show.
“Now, most of my work is for live action TV and film. One of the things I’ve recently finished is the Luther film coming out early next year.”
This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.
Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.
Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter @OxMailLiamRice
