FROM humble beginnings, illustrator David Squire is now trying to tackle the history of the world, well football at least, with the nib of his pen.

Last week, Squires marked his 42nd birthday with the release of his book ‘The Illustrated History of Football’ to showcase his widely held satirical comics.

What started at as a hobby for the former Dorcan School, now known as Dorcan Academy, pupil to attain a cheap laugh from his peers has turned into a lucrative career.

“I often say that I hope none of them are still in existence, the cartoons that is, because they would almost certainly end my career immediately,” said Squires as he reflected back to the origins of his drawings.

“I sort of put the cartooning stuff to one side for many years and I was trying to eke out a profession as an illustrator, with varying degrees of success.

“It was probably about eight years ago that I decided to draw some more cartoons, specifically about football, just to reflect how I felt about the game.

“I didn’t really see much else that really mirrored my relationship with football and not much that I felt was really commenting on the circus that surrounded football – that is the stuff that really interested me.

“That is where I think the funny stiff is as well, the egos, the corruption – that is a rich source for any cartoonist.”

It was at his home-town club where the Eldene-born artist began to make a name for himself.

As a bitter teenager, disillusioned that one of his beloved footballers, Duncan Shearer, had moved from the County Ground to promotion rivals Blackburn Rover, Squires made his feelings known in the best way he knew how.

He got drawing, depicting how he envisaged Shearer’s career at Ewood Park would turn out and he wasn’t far off from reality.

“Let’s just say it didn’t go well, in the cartoon or in real life actually,” he explained.

“I think I just stuck it in the post and sent it off and I don’t even know if I sent a covering letter. I was shy about doing it.

“It was a few weeks later and the next edition of the 69er came out. I was delighted to see it in there and I really enjoyed the reaction of seeing other people look at it and laugh at it and that encouraged me to do a bit more.

“I think I did two or three more for them and I can’t quite remember why I stopped.”

Having got by on caricatures of former Swindon Town managers and the odd mascot design - yes he is responsible for the Rockin’ Robin and also West Ham’s Herbie the Hammer – Squires has made a name for himself on tracking the bizarre antics in the world of football in his weekly comic in The Guardian.

As a result of his popularity, publishers Penguin Random House approached the former New College student, who now lives with his wife in Sydney, about commissioning a collection of his works in a book.

“They had seen my work in The Guardian and they asked me if I would like to do a book and pitch an idea and I had had a vague idea for a few years about doing a World Cup book,” he added.

“We decided together to broaden that out a bit so that I could encompass domestic football and a few other bits and pieces.”

The project started 18 months ago, with the book taking just over a year to draw and to write.

There were many a late night spent up to his eyeballs in books on the history of football, autobiographies and football memorabilia in the quest to present a unique and ultimately funny way to portray the world’s most popular sport.

The book, a series of 91 comic strips, covers everything from current West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis admiring the primitive origins of the sport in Britain all the way through to a village many find hard to pronounce winning the Premier League and it even has the odd Easter egg for his home-town club, if not as many as he would have liked.

“There are a few bits and pieces of my own memories but mostly it is all researched,” he said.

“Some of the references to popular culture is the stuff I have drawn from my own memories.

“Some of the other references, I think at one point there is a reference to Cairo’s nightclub, so there is a bit in there for Swindon fans.

“I managed to sneak in a handful of references to Swindon Town, I had to do it.

“I didn’t quite go as far as including the 1969 cup final as one of the 90 pivotal moments in the history of football, although clearly I think it should be.

“You don’t win every battle with the publisher.”

However, the journey to publication was not all smooth and there would be many an occasion Squires would have to take the dog for a walk or jump in the shower to get the creative juices flowing.

“That only happens on probably a daily basis,” he revealed when asked if he ever suffered from mental blocks.

“The good days are when you get an idea really early and you can just go for it.

“If there is a big story that breaks in football and you can straight away think of five or six strong jokes about it or it is something that you feel strongly about, those are the good weeks.

“The bad times are when you have no ideas and you can see the clock ticking away and you get closer to the deadline.

“On those days, I find if I can just try to switch my mind off and then usually something will come to me.”

While Neil Ruddock’s shorts or the discussions in the board room before Paolo Di Canio’s appointment will forever be in print, and the current goings on at the County Ground are enough to start another book, Squires admits that he has had to rein in the desire to refer to the club he has supported since child-hood too often, despite how much joy it brings.

“I do enjoy when I get the chance to do a Swindon-related cartoon,” he said.

“I think the Neil Ruddock one was for the Washbag and the Di Canio one was just for my own entertainment.

“I would love Swindon to do something great to grab the national headlines and enable me to do a cartoon about it in the Guardian.

“I think most people know that I am a Swindon fan so occasionally, while I might not always be able to get a reference to Swindon in there, if I can get something sly in about Bristol City of Oxford United then I will.”

Squires has come a long way from those back-of-the-classroom cartoons but feels like he missed a trick in not apologising to all his former art teachers in Swindon to sign off his debut manuscript.

The Illustrated History of Football is available now, published by Century, hardback, £12.99