Dez Skinn

IPC

Skinn's professional career started at IPC Magazines (now known as IPC Media) in 1970, where he was sub-editor on Whizzer and Chips, Cor!!, and Buster. He was promoted to be an editor on the Buster Book of Spooky Stories in 1975 and 1976. While at IPC, he also served as Father of the chapel of the local branch of the National Union of Journalists.

Warner Bros.

Skinn left IPC in 1976 to expand the comics arm of Warner Communications' publishing arm, Williams Publishing. He took over editing MAD UK, Tarzan, Korak, and Larry Harmon's Laurel & Hardy, revived Monster Mag, and launched House of Hammer. Two of Skinn's publications were given Eagle Awards in 1977 — House of Hammer for "Favourite Specialist Comics Publication — Pro" and Mad UK for "Favourite Black & White Comicbook — Humour."

Starburst

During the summer of 1977, thanks to his interest in (and connections with) the film industry, Skinn became aware of the huge success of the film Star Wars, which would not arrive in British cinemas for nearly six months. Believing this was an opportunity to launch a science fiction magazine, he first suggested the project to his then-employer, Williams Magazines; after they rejected the notion, he decided to publish Starburst, under Skinn's own Starburst Publishing Ltd. Sporting the tagline "Science Fantasy in Television, Cinema and Comix," Starburst contained news, interviews, features, and reviews of science fiction material in various media (including TV, film, soundtracks, multimedia, comics and "collectibles"). Starburst won the 1978 Eagle Award for Favourite British Pro Comics Publication. He was able to publish three bimonthly issues – the first in January 1978, as Star Wars reached British cinema screens – before he was forced to spend the editorial and production budget for the fourth edition in order to ensure the rights to Hammer House of Horror.

Marvelman (a.k.a. Miracleman)

Before launching Warrior, Skinn contacted writer Alan Moore, telling him that "Marvelman's copyright had belonged to the publisher L. Miller & Son,... that they had gone bankrupt in 1963[,] and that the rights to Marvelman had passed to the Official Receiver [and therefore] could be purchased for a very small amount..."; and asked Moore if he "would... like to... contribute to this new retelling of Marvelman."

A quarter-century later Moore found out that Marvelman creator "Mick Anglo had always owned the copyright, that it had never been owned by L. Miller & Son, and that they had not gone bankrupt, but had concluded their affairs quietly in 1963.... Basically, Mick Anglo had been robbed of his ownership of [Marvelman]." According to Moore, "I was not on the best of terms with Dez Skinn by the end of the Warrior experience. I didn't trust the man, and my opinion – for what that is worth – is that there was knowing deceit involved in the Marvelman decision."

But according to Skinn, he had met with Anglo three times before assigning creators to Marvelman and Anglo had expressed no problem with the relaunch then or for the following 20+ years. Skinn cites quotes by Mick Anglo from George Khoury's 2001 book Kimota!: The Miracleman Companion, "[Regarding ownership] I don't know; that was Miller's sort of thing... Dez contacted me and he wanted to revive it and I said go ahead and do what you like."

After Warrior magazine folded due to poor sales, Skinn signed a deal with independent American publisher Eclipse Comics to reprint the Marvelman stories (under the title Miracleman) before continuing the storyline with new material by Moore and later Neil Gaiman. According to an editorial by then-Eclipse editor Cat Yronwode in Miracleman #24:

... The contract called for [Eclipse] to pay [Skinn] reprint royalties [which he was to then] forward to each individual [creator]. When [Eclipse] learned that Dez had not sent any royalty money to the creators, [they] cut him out of the loop and paid later reprint royalties directly [to the creators].... During the same period, Skinn also represented himself as the art agent of Mick Austin (painter of MM covers) and sold transparencies to [Eclipse] of Austin's work.... Eventually [Eclipse] found out – from the artist – that Dez was not Mick's agent, had no authority to offer his pieces to [Eclipse], [and] had not forwarded the money [to Austin]. [So Eclipse paid] Mick the sum total of what he was owed, recovering [its losses] from Skinn by withholding payment on the last projects [they] had going with him.

For Kimota!: The Miracleman Companion George Khoury interviewed both Skinn and Yronwode — separately — and asked each about the claims published in Miracleman No. 24. Skinn claimed to Khoury that "[a]bout ten years after that Miracleman No. 24 letters page," he and Yronwode had a "conversation via e-mail about that outrageous stuff." According to Skinn, Yronwode informed him that "Dean [Mullaney, Eclipse Comics co-founder,] had filled her head with those stories" and apologised to him. But when Khoury relayed this to Yronwode during his interview with her she denied it, maintaining that the "conversation with Dez Skinn about that" never happened and that she never apologised.