Andrew Holmes

Despite being brought up by a pack of wolves in a heavily wooded area of Hertfordshire, Andrew managed to develop into a relatively stable young man. Always serious and hyper-sensitive to people, he was never one to smile at strangers, but was always helpful around the house. After spending his formative years setting fire to things, carefully placing bangers in cowpats and smashing up other kids' beautifully constructed dens, Andrew settled down to his studies.

Following uiniversity, Andrew worked for a succession of companies where, over time (well within weeks actually), he developed a general dislike of the world of work, mainly due to the incompetence and political shenanigans of his colleagues and terrible behaviour of his bosses, who were equally incompetent. This is where Andrew finally understood what The Peters Principle was all about. Frustrated that his genius was never valued, he packed a few sandwiches into a snotty handkerchief and went off to find his fortune, which alas he never did.

Since being a glass half-empty kind of guy, Painspotting made perfect sense to Andrew and many people, including his army of therapists, believe he has finally found inner peace. Andrew is eternally grateful to the moron who ruined his otherwise depressing commute home as he was the one that inadvertently launched the Painspotting quest that continues to this very day.

Dan Wilson aka DeCreate, aka Wil


Dan scribbled on pads, furniture and the walls of his bedroom as a toddler, and nothing much has changed. A compulsive doodler, he was aware of pain-in-the-arse people from very early on and learnt to hide his feelings under a swathe of insecurity. Being polite and amiable was clearly a way to get on in the world, and as he went through school these skills brought him the ability to blend into the scenery. Never one to blow his own trumpet, Dan is actually the most talented artist alive today, possibly ever, and suffers serious delusions of grandeur.

Trained as a transforming-ninja-jedi he also studied Fine Art, rejecting the standard painting practises of zero-talent bullshit, instead choosing to produce work that people may actually like. After College and a prolonged period of travelling, Dan set up Decreate ( say dee-create, idiots ) as a catch-all co./moniker for his varied artistic interests and pursuits, ranging from canvas', graphics, murals, illustration and writings.

When Andrew got in touch in 2004 with ideas about his pains books, Dan finally found a place to exorcise his comic-demons. The style of the Pains pics was already set, but Dan added his own dimension. The Devil/God is in the detail, and the portraits of Andrew's pains became a labour of love and hate, comedy and drama, and are evolving from book to book. Although cartooning is but one arrow in his artistic quiver, Dan thoroughly enjoys it as he says it's just like being back at school, doing stupid pics of stupid teachers in his rough book.

When he's not doodling or sat on the laptop (not literally), he finds peace riding his off-road wheelie-board thing - he's co-founder & art/design monkey for mountainboarding's premiere webzine remolition.com.

He also does a monthly cartoon for online alternative-sports magazine 'X-sport', called 'Max Extreme', a sample of which appears below...

Plough through a load more of Dan's eclectic work on decreate.co.uk