For the following few years he spent his time between playing the drums in various bands, some of which released singles and compilation album tracks (The Silent Scream, The second Coming, This Colossal Youth) and working part-time in a Sheffield comic-book shop with fellow budding artists Nick Percival, Greg Staples and filmmaker Lee Ford.
Ormston's dark, thick paints were seen in action on the Judge Dredd strip on numerous occasions, most notably in the Judgement Day and Raptaur storylines.
For the Judge Dredd Megazine Ormston also created, with Si Spencer, the comedy strip Harke & Burr, a twist on the notorious grave robbers Burke and Hare.
Ormston's prominent American comic credits include 'Bodies'for DC Vertigo which has been adapted for Netflix as an 8 part series starring Stephen Graham .
The Girl Who Would Be Death,[3] many issues of Lucifer, and primary artist on Books of Magick: Life During Wartime, all published under the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics.