A FAMOUS local artist - who’s worked with some of the biggest names in comic books - has shared the story of how he survived a brain injury and stayed in business in a new film that’s now available on Amazon Prime.
Dean Ormston is a popular name in comic circles, having worked with the likes of 2000ad - who published the Judge Dredd comics - and having a long-term partnership with Jeff Lemire, whose original story Sweet Tooth was adapted into a Netflix show back in 2020.
Over time, this local legend’s ongoing work with Black Hammer comics has taken on a life of its own, and is supported by his two town centre businesses Spiral City and Red Robot, which are both based in The Arcade.
However, many are probably unaware of the difficulties going on behind the scenes to keep these things going, as Dean suffered a catastrophic brain injury seven years ago that almost cost him his life.
Dean told the Chronicle: “I had a brain haemorrhage after I took a knock on the head.
“It caused a bleed and I was paralysed down one side of my body.
“I’m kind of getting back to normal, or whatever normal is now.”
Over the past four years, Dean has been working with his lifelong friend and Barnsley-born filmmaker Paul Ross, to develop the film ‘Dean Ormston: Working Class Superhero’ that chronicles his tumultuous journey.
The Kickstarter-funded project has taken longer than either would’ve thought, going through multiple re-drafts since Paul suggested the idea during the pandemic.
“It’s been a long old process,” Paul said.
“I’ve been making little commercial videos for years now, but I’ve never had a proper film project, which is what me and most people want to do.
“So this kicked off at the start of the Covid pandemic - I was wanting to do a project and found I had a lot of time on my hands.
“I was searching for subjects and thought of Dean.
“We went to the same school, Royston Comprehensive, I’ve seen his career grow and he had recently had this injury.”
Over the years in production they’ve built a big following, showing an early draft at the internationally-attended San Diego Comic Con last year, touring it around UK conventions and now releasing it on Amazon Prime.
“It’s difficult when making films to get people talking about it,” Paul added.
“Obviously it’s a big deal to us, but that’s not the case for everyone else.
“But in comic book communities they know about Dean with all his connections - we’ve had that support.”
While Dean appreciates all the work that’s gone into the film, and the support he’s got over the years, he admits he’s ‘not the kind of person’ who enjoys publicity, and has struggled to even watch the final product.
“To be honest I thought he was just going to do a little podcast at the start,” he said
“Then he started coming down and filming - I probably wouldn’t have agreed to if I’d have known.
“I find it hard to watch myself, especially seeing what the injury’s done to me - I look different to how I did and I don’t like seeing things like the way my head moves while I’m talking now.
“It’s just the aftermath of the injury - I was watching something with Freddie Flintoff and he mentioned that even if things get better it’s always different.
“But people have been so supportive - Jeff was great, he waited months for me to recover when the company said they would just get another artist.
“He told them: ‘no, I’m waiting for Dean’.
“My current editor’s great, he’s patient because I still can’t draw at the same speed I used to.
“Everybody’s been really helpful.”
