When you’re starting with a geometrical shape – in this case a hexagon – and your mind goes blank about what to make it into, the traditional robot is a useful character to turn to. My comic in my primary school days was Eagle, which featured Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future on its cover, so I like the style of 1950s science fiction where the rockets, robots and space stations look like a plausible extension of the technology of the period. While drawing the telescreen, I thought about our 405-line black-and-white television and our record player – similar to the classic Dansette – covered in wine-red and cream leatherette.