 After leaving the Marvel staff in 1985, he wrote several "Doctor Who" comic stories for the Monthly under the pseudonym Max Stockbridge.He then wrote three non-fiction books, The Harrison Ford Story (1985), "Hollywood Tricks of the Trade" (1986) and "How to Draw and Sell Comic Strips" (1987) before contributing comic scripts to IPC's "Battle Action" and later "2000 AD".In 1987, he joined the editorial team of "2000 AD" as a freelancer, and from 1987–1994 he created a number of stories including "Bradley", "Brigand Doom" and "Journal of Luke Kirby".