Career
He is known for his independent publications as a comics historian under his Pure Imagination imprint, as well as for developing the Theakstonizing process used in comics restoration. He has used the pseudonym Earl P. Wooten. Greg Theakston became involved in the Detroit area fandom community, contributing to Detroit"s Fantasy Fans and Comic-collector"s Group on their fanzine The Fan Informer (1968-1971), as well as his own publication, The Aardvark Annual (1968), and Titan.
Foreign much of the 1970s Theakston helped organize the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, credited as one of the first conventions in the United States dedicated to comic books, eventually owning it after working on a number of shows.
After graduating from Redford High School in 1971, Theakston worked with artist Jim Steranko at his Supergraphics publishing company in Reading, Pennsylvania. He also inked samples of Jim Starlin"s early pencils, which helped Starlin gain his first work for Marvel Comics in 1972.
Theakston built his portfolio and expanded to paperbacks and magazines, including Berkley Books, Dell, Ace, DAW, Zebra, Tor, Saint Martin"s Press, Warner, Ballantine Books, Belmont-Tower, If and Galaxy Science Fiction. Among other various assignments were jobs for Marvel Comics, District of Columbia Comics, Image Comics, Warren Comics, New York Daily News, Archie Comics, as well as periodicals magazines including National Lampoon, The New York Times, Kitchen Sink, Playboy, television Guide and Rolling Stone.
He was a Mad illustrator for ten years and has worked regularly with numerous comics publishers on projects such as Omega Men, Super Powers, District of Columbia Comics Presents, District of Columbia"s Who"s Who and Planet of the Apes.
Theakston"s movie poster work includes Invaders From Mars, Silk Stockings, B"Wani Junction, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Jungle Book and Mogambo. He has seven lithographs in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Artist Theakston founded and operated Pure Imagination, a comic book and magazine publisher since 1975.
His name has been given to a process called "Theakstonizing", a term coined by District of Columbia editor-in-chief, Dick Giordano, which bleaches color from old comics pages, used in the restoration for reprinting.
To date, he has reconstructed over 12,000 pages of classic comic art, including work on Superman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, The Flash, Porky Pig, The Spirit, The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Archie, Dick Tracy, Torchy, Pogo and numerous collections of popular comics artists, including Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Basil Wolverton, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Wallace Wood, and many others