Q&A: William Simpson

"There was a lot of stuff in the early days I got to conceptualise. When I started on the pilot, we didn't know what anything was going to be like. I drew the White Walkers, then did some work on the direwolves, Dany's [Daenerys Targaryen] walk into the flames and the dragons' hatching, the Godswood tree and the three-eyed raven. The main thing I was hired for was to work out weaponry, like the Dothraki weaponry. All that stuff I got a chance to conceptualise. So I've been lucky, the work I did influenced what would come to be on the show."

"Every director has a different approach. Some need very precise storyboards that they are going to stick to, others use it as a guide. Anything to do with CGI tends to be much more precise."

"I started painting very early. I had an influential art teacher in school who pushed the right buttons for me, art-wise. The comic book thing came out of me deciding to not be in art school, and going out to paint landscapes and portraits around the countryside, and also doing comic strips for myself. I did a fanzine thing, then three issues of this comic book, had my first disagreement with an editor, took my artwork home and thought that was the end of my comic career. Then, one day, as a young unemployed artist, I was walking past a little shop. I had enough money to buy either food for my dinner that night or a comic book. I stupidly bought the comic book. I got to the end of it and there was a review section. It said, 'Very interesting work coming out of Northern Ireland, especially the artwork by William Simpson.' And that was from British Marvel. If I hadn't picked up that comic I would never be [where I am] today."

"In a comic, you can be as elaborate and artsy as you want - you are director, cameraman, everything. Storyboarding has to follow clear logic. It's a personal thing as to the amount of detail you put into a storyboard, what you wish to display on that sheet. The priority is to make sure you are fulfilling the director's [brief] on that page."

"I was always heavily influenced by films. As a kid I used to sit on Saturday afternoons with my mum watching black and white movies, all the film noir stuff, Westerns, everything. It was just wonderful to watch films. And I found that when I was drawing comic books my references were [filmmakers] like Alfred Hitchcock, a bit of Orson Welles, Sam Peckinpah and John Ford. When I actually got into films it was one of those amazing moments where you suddenly realise that your world's potential had suddenly changed. It's something I want to work more on."

Aayush Niroula