Paul Trevillion is a world-renowned sports artist, famous for the legendary comic strip character Roy of the Rovers and his cult classic “You are the Ref” column in The Observer.
Trevillion is the artist behind the latest soccer title from Bloomsbury Publishing, the brilliant You are the Ref.
1. Why do you think “You are the Ref” became a cult classic?
It was in 1957 when “You Are The Ref” first appeared in a UK national newspaper the Sunday People. It was then under the title “Hey Ref”. The first Sunday it appeared in print, immediately the letters (no emails in those days!) started to come in. The big surprise was that over half of the letters were from school children and many from girls. “Hey Ref” had scored right across the board, appealing to soccer fans of all ages.
The title “Hef Ref” was not the image for the top children’s soccer magazine of the day Shoot! I agreed to re-think the title, and came up with “You Are the Ref”.
Today, the letters continue to poor in and the young ones are sending in the lion’s share. England’s oldest national newspaper The Observer now carries the “You Are The Ref” strip every Sunday with three questions and answers, and there will be a third You Are The Ref book, filled with the weekly strips. You Are The Ref book 2, reached No. 7 in the Amazon best-selling sports books list.
2. How does your art bring out football’s depiction as “the beautiful game”?
I saw my first soccer match when I was 3 years old. I fell in love with the game, and went every Saturday to see my home London club Tottenham Hotspur. To a little three-year-old, the soccer legends, Dixie Dean, Stanley Matthews, appeared 20 feet tall – even today I have never lost that feeling. They still appear 20feet tall. I look up to every one.
On match days in their bright colored team shirts, to the artist’s eye, they are a moving painter’s palette.
3. How challenging is it to create illustrations for a game that is so fluid and fast?
I was drawing soccer players even before I could talk because my family were mad keen on the game. Soccer Programmes, books and magazines were littered everywhere. As a schoolboy, I was drawing soccer players for my local newspaper and for children’s comics. I will be 80 years old on my next birthday and I will still have that schoolboy excitement drawing the many legends of next year’s World Cup in Brazil. It is a tremendous challenge to ensure each “You Are The Ref” drawing graphically captures the scenarios emailed by readers. Every drawing I do has to receive approval from my referee friend Keith Hackett, who always appears in the list of the top 25 All-Time Great Referees. There are times Keith Hackett makes technical corrections to the art. It’s a bit like being shown a yellow card – thankfully I have never received a red card!
