Mindless Ones

Writer/artist, Suzanne (2022), I’m A Luddite (And So Can You!) (2023), Introduction to Charts (with Chrissy Williams, 2024). His Grave Offerings newsletter is gorgeously illustrated and sharply written; you might go so far as to say it’s ELITE.

What can you tell us about the similarities between comics and poetry?

There’s a quote in Alan Moore’s Writing For Comics where he discusses comics that try to mimic film techniques that has always stayed with me:

“In the final analysis you will be left with a film that has neither movement nor a soundtrack […] Rather than seizing upon the superficial similarities between comics and films or comics and books in the hope that some of the respectability of those media will rub off upon us, wouldn’t it be more constructive to focus our attention upon those ideas where comics are special and unique?”

Too many people, I think, see comics as storyboards for film projects or view the page as a series of shots rather than a collection of panels. It’s always struck me that we were looking to the wrong medium for inspiration. Comics, for me, have always been much closer to poetry. And thinking of them that way allows a creator to do so much more lateral and abstract thinking about how to approach a page’s layout and composition. You stop thinking in terms of shots and think more holistically about the page itself. That’s not to say I don’t look to film for inspiration – I’m always reading about what cinematographers have to say about depth of field, shot compositions, lighting and colour. But we should, as comics creators, be looking to every medium to help us understand what our own does so well.

Chrissy Williams and I co-edited a book about poetry comics and came up with a list of statements that could be true of poetry and comics:

• economy of line is paramount
• each panel and page must be carefully constructed
• consider how much will fit on the page
• put everything in its right place
• choose whether to prioritise ideas or form
• juxtaposition is an important tool
• composition is not linear, but a whole system of architecture
• the reading process is one of interpretation rather than perception
• the reader is inextricable from the art
• all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order
• what happens off the page is as important as what happens on it
• the impossible can be made possible

What can you tell us about the differences between comics and poetry? 

Ultimately, I think it comes back to that Moore quote about trying to focus on what makes comics special and unique. You can draw parallels to and inspiration from other mediums, but as a comics artist, I think it’s also worth coming back to asking yourself: “Why should I communicate this idea/story/feeling in the comics medium instead of all the others?” Sometimes the answer to that question can be as simple as: “Because I know how to make comics.” But it’s worth thinking about all the same. Comics can do things that other mediums can’t and can’t do things other mediums can – we have to find ways to play into their strengths.

Writer/artist/certified hunk. Collaborator with Iain Laurie on small press comics with unpleasant titles (Crawl Hole, Roachwell, acht, Metrodome’s not too grotty). Purveyor of occult wisdom (Billy Quest, The Ultimate Ross Geller Fanzine). Script droid on Ales of the Unexpected.

How did you and Mark Brady come to do a monthly strip for Ferment magazine?

Mark and I had finished our first bit of collaboration – tactile medieval battlefield workplace silliness in Medieval Times – and were considering a few things for our next project. I’d been getting Beer52 boxes for a few months and noticed the comic they had going in Ferment had dropped out the magazine. I thought we could have a lot of fun with it and I do like the challenge of a short gag strip, so we worked up some strips for a speculative pop at it. Unexpectedly enough, we were successful!

Do you guys get much feedback on the strip from readers?

Not a thing! It’s kind of crazy to think that given the membership of Beer52 and the number of people receiving Ferment magazine we must have somewhere between one and two hundred thousand people at least giving the strip a cursory glance once a month. Far, far more than has read any of our other small press work. But no, not a word either way. It’s cool though, we are stoic in the face of ambivalence.

Are there any particular strips that are favourites or felt like some sort of breakthrough?

I wouldn’t say breakthrough, as the groove and working pattern we found from the get go has served us really well and we haven’t had to modify it. But I have loads of favourite strips, and what’s fun is to link back to older strips and characters and expand the secret internal mythology of Ales that only Mark and I care about. To pick a favourite off the top of my head, maybe the Pilsner Pickelhuabe one as it’s a bit of classic Ales escalation and exactly the kind of thing Mark does an outstanding job on.

Any chance we’ll see a collected edition of these strips in the future? 

I’m pulling that together, albeit in a stop-start manner for what seems like forever!

Do you and Mark have any other projects on the go, together or separately?

If I get an Ales collection complete in some shape or form it would be lovely to go back to Trapped!, our dungeon crawling fantasy comic.

Finally, if you had to be any X-Men character who would it be and why is it Gambit?

Covid brought about significant changes to th’ way we live, and some of them have been difficult for ol’ Remy LeBeau. Jus’ one example is the ubiquity of de contactless payment. One day Gambit is taking an X-Jet through McDonalds drive through (de McRib is back). Garçon leans out wit’ the payment machine an’ the Cajun reaches for th’ Mastercard. But den de muscle memory kicks in – first we charge de card MWAAAAP – an’ den we flicks it through the window. Bang. Limbs an’ blood an’ broken glass… that boy is dead. Maybe others. Next ting we know, de Cajun is on th’ run an’ de Professor is screaming in his head “GAMBIT, RETURN TO DE MANSION! REMY, YOU HAV’ TO FACE DE JUSTICE!”. An’ no McRib. So what I’m sayin’ homme, is dat Gambit is tryin’ to be a better man in a complex an’ ever-changing world.

A new girl steps into the starlight. A girl who is a radio journalist. A girl called Brenda – no, wait – Jennifer! DANGER ON THE AIR promises DJs and “Pop” stars although there’s an awful lot of talking to local council officials here. Nevertheless, the decisions God (Dan) gives Jennifer (Fraser) are genuinely difficult and the writing is compelling. Could Danger On The Air be the greatest Starlight Adventure yet? Listen on, Fellow Traveler…

Dan and Fraser’s Starlight Adventures can be supported on our Patreon where (at time of posting) you can listen forward to Episode 26 and hear two episodes of us tackling a pretty bad Gladiators game book.

I’VE MADE A MOUNTAIN FROM A LOVEBITE AGAIN

The Beast Must Die, Lord Nuneaton Savage and Gary Lactus gleefully jump back into Batman and the Outsiders #8 on behest of The Drifting Reviewniverse.

There’s mysterious adverts, there’s adverts that pull the brave reviewmonauts down plastic rabbit holes and there’s the rest of the comic too! This masterfully told story breaks heads in all directions! The impressive! The absurd! The amusing! The Traumatic!

THANK YOU, OH BEAUTIFUL REVIEWNIVERSE!

The next episode of SILENCE! is already on our Patreon alongside around three-hundred exclusive episodes.

Find Lord Nuneaton Savage on Instagram and on the Savage Beast Substack

Enjoy The Beast Must Die on his website

Gary Lactus also exists

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