WITH the release today of the blockbuster movie X-Men, the Marvel Comics on which the film is based will be very much in the minds of fans everywhere.

But what Worcester Marvel fans probably don't know is that the illustrator of one of the X-Men comics lives right here in the city.

Steve Pugh has been illustrating Generation X - one of the X-Men comic books - for the past six months.

"I do a book called Generation X, the youngest of the X-Men, currently in training at Xavier College," said the 33-year-old.

Steve, who has been drawing comic illustrations for 11 years, sends 22 pages of artwork to Marvel in New York, each month.

"The writers send me a script, like a movie script, with the dialogue and what happens. I do the breakdown of the panels and decide what the characters look like, what they are wearing and so on and draw them," he said.

"I then courier my black and white drawings to New York, where they are coloured up on the computer and the words pasted in by hand."

Steve, originally from Marston Green, Birmingham, studied graphic design at the University of Central England but always "had his heart set on" doing comic work.

He had been doing a lot of work for Darkhorse, based in Portland, USA, which produces licensed comics such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Predator and Terminator, when he landed the Marvel job.

"Most people start working on British magazines and then get poached by the States, but I did it the other way around," said Steve, of Cornmeadow Lane, Claines.

His name was put forward by friend Warren Ellis, "another Brit" who was already writing for Marvel, and Steve said he was quite surprised to be chosen as his work was "old school".

"There's a trend for Japanese-style drawings at the moment whereas my stuff's more old school, very British," he said. "But they went for it, and I got the job."

He now works "upwards of 12 hours a day" from his home-based office.

6 X-Men goes on general release today and is being screened at Worcester Odeon