This was a much more enjoyable place to work and I quickly carved out a reputation for myself as a cartoonist, so much so that I was pretty much responsible for the company's output in that direction for a number of years until Rustcraft was taken over by another American company, American Greetings and they decided that as they had over 300 artists in the States they didn't need a bunch of Limeys creating stuff over here. So in 1981 I was almost made redundant and ended up still in the studio but reduced to doing menial tasks such as doing small drawings for the inside of cards, foil and cutter guides. I became increasingly pissed off with the way things were going for me at work, but at least by that time I was starting to get more and more freelance work and I began to think that was where my next career move lay. At work I became involved in the packaging side of things for a while, Our company (like many others) was moving into the 'Own Brand' market where greeting card companies would vie with one another for the business of large companies such as WH Smith, Marks and Spencer etc to get the contract to produce their Christmas boxed card ranges. Indeed one year myself and the other guy who worked with me at that time, Simon Osbourn (who now works for 'Hallmark') produced designs that brought in an extra £500,000 to the company! (...it might not sound much now but this was back in 1984) We were called back after work one night for our manager to tell us the wondrous news and to collect our reward for all our hard work. A nice fat pay rise you might think? a holiday abroad? ...company car? no forget it this is England and more importantly West Yorkshire during the Thatcher years! ...A BOTTLE OF 'BLUE NUN' APIECE!!! (don't want the buggers getting above themselves do we?) That was the extent of the companies gratitude for all our hard work! To say we were slightly crestfallen at this was an understatement! Within a year of receiving our somewhat parsimonious gift we both left, Simon went to the British Greeting Card Company at Dudley Hill, in Bradford and I began to work for myself as a freelance illustrator and designer. I could have got work from greeting card companies, and maybe even should have tried harder to do that but by then I'd had ten years of fluffy bunnies and day-glo coloured robins and was quite sick of the whole business so I steered clear of it as much as I could.

It was during this time that my first marriage came to an end, my ex buggering off with a Thalidomide chap with no arms from Hebden Bridge? during what was an acrimonious divorce she also buggered off with our two boys Jamie and Aidan and went to live in the Shetland Islands to the far North of Scotland.