Interview: Paul Starkey & Anna Readman’s Renk – all-ages sword & sorcery for Regened Prog 2296
24th August 2022
It’s Regened time again as 2000 AD Prog 2296 goes all-out for all-ages – five Thrill Powered strips for young and old, including the brand-new fantasy of Renk!
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Renk is a brand-new fantasy tale by Paul Starkey and Anna Readman, debuting in the latest all-ages and all sorts of awesome Regened Prog – 2000 AD Prog 2296.
Since breaking through as the winner of the 2000 AD/Thought Bubble writing contest in 2020, Paul Starkey‘s since appeared in 2000 AD with a Tharg’s Terror Tale, The Torturer’s Apprentice (Prog 2245, with art by James Newell, the 2020 art contest winner) and a Tales from the Black Museum, Double Jeopardy (Judge Dredd Megazine issue 438, art by Nick Dyer).
Renk artist Anna Readman has been busy in comics since graduating in 2020, including her debut at 2000 AD with the return of Abelard Snazz in The Only Way Is Up (2000 AD Prog 2206, written by Paul Cornell) and Terror Tales: Half Life (Prog 2225, written by John Tomlinson). She’s also published her excellent diary comic collection Handlebar Gumbo and featured in Z2 Comics’ Superstate, soundtracking the Graham Coxon album.
As for Renk, well… If you’re one of the 50,000+ weird and wonderful beings in the fantastical city of Crepuscularia who want something or someone finding, you might hire yourself one of many cunning wizards or mighty barbarian warriors. But if you’re a little short of gold, silver, or coin and want someone a little easier on the purse… then that’s where you hire Renk, Crepuscalaria’s dwarf private investigator.
But why have me tell you about it… let’s talk all things Renk with Paul and Anna…
Hi there Paul, Anna, good to talk to you. Hope you’re both keeping safe and haven’t melted thanks to the unseasonal burny thing in the sky?
ANNA READMAN: All I can say is that a lot of my pages are stained with ice-cream and that my pencil leads dribble down the paper.
In the latest 2000 AD Regened, Prog 2296, you’re introducing a brand-new strip, Renk – could you give us an idea of just what it’s all about and give us an idea of what we can expect from this first episode?
PAUL STARKEY: In a fantastical city populated by myriad creatures, Renk is a one armed dwarf who’s also the fantasy equivalent of a Private Eye. When he’s hired by a princess to locate her parents who’ve been kidnapped, he goes on an adventure through the crazy city of Crepuscularia, but does he know the whole story?
Obviously, when you’re doing something brand-new this way, it’s very much weighted heavily towards the front end – a load of research, world-building, character creation, and detailing to get to this first short 10-page story. What sort of work have you both already put into Renk to get to this first episode?
PS: A fair bit, Matt rightfully picked up on Renk‘s lack of agency in the original draft (hard to imagine but the bellows scene wasn’t there!) and he also encouraged me to add some more humour. Again Twayne and the whole ballroom dancing scene was a fairly late edition!
What sort of influences have you pulled together for Renk? – the lazy part of my brain came up with Pratchett meets Game of Thrones (sorry!) because it did seem to straddle the tone of the two. There’s the serious plot of the Princess’ reasons for looking for her parents and then we have Renk‘s attitude to things, a dash of comedy, and the weird and wonderful assemblage of characters here.
PS: The original idea is something that’s been percolating at the back of my mind for a while, the idea of a Noirish detective inhabiting a fantasy world, so really the central idea is ‘what if Ukko was Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade?’
What if Ukko was Philip Marlow? – now that is way better than Pratchett meets GoT!
AR: Visually, I took a lot of inspiration from Jeff Smith’s Bone and Chris Samnee’s current ongoing series Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters. Both are rooted in the fantasy genre and showcase some of the finest cartooning and world-building in comics, as well as keeping the story full of life and laughter appealing to every type of audience.
PS: As I say, the humour definitely evolved but I think it works really well, and Anna’s artwork really brings it alive.
AR: I definitely wanted to emphasise the comedic elements in the script by having us much physical comedy as possible. It’s more fun for the reader, and more fun for me to draw!
Presumably, both of you are fantasy genre fans?
PS: Sort of, but honestly it isn’t my favourite genre
AR: Apart from playing Skyrim and watching LOtR I haven’t really gotten into the genre much.
Well, that proves you really shouldn’t assume anything!
You’ve already mentioned Twayne and, although Renk is our lead here – who comes across as both smart and somewhat comedic with a great turn of phrase – I think my favourite character in here has to be Twayne (which is quite the perfect name). It was such fun seeing the trouble Renk gets himself into, all because he needs a little information and Twayne like to be paid in a dance. Of all the characters you’ve developed and designed in Renk, they come across so well.
PS: Renk is definitely supposed to be the world weary PI, but I like how he evolved, and Twayne looks great on the page – again, kudos to Anna!
Some readers may pick up on the fact that the two halves of Twayne are based on certain celebrity talent show judges! If Renk comes back I think we’d definitely have to see Twayne again!
AR: Paul’s amusing description of the character and allusions to which celebrities they may or may not look like certainly helped with designing them!
With Renk himself, Twayne and their great lumbering husbandwife, plus all of the diverse cast of background characters we see, it’s great to see a strip full of all shapes and sizes, all orientations, just getting on with their lives here. It’s noticeable that it’s not just the main cast here, it was nice, for example, to see the female barbarian on the first page.
PS: Thank you, I think originally it was a man but I changed it very quickly because, well why shouldn’t women be barbarians? I definitely wanted to give the impression that Crepuscularia was a diverse place, and of course Renk himself isn’t the kind of character we might usually see as the hero, being of short stature and missing an arm. Again Anna really ran with the diversity and the populace looks way better than it did in my head!
Again, something you’ve already touched on, the bellows scene, is something that sees Renk doing a bit of McGuyver-ing and quite a nasty bit of violence for Regened, something usually reserved for those robots who can be destroyed with glee even in an all-ages comic.
PS: But he does at least survive! It was more a case of trying to get Renk out of the corner I’d written him into!
When you’re doing a new all-ages Regened strip in a fantasy world of swords and sorcery, traditionally full of violence and nasties, what’s your thinking on how far you can go with things for your audience?
PS: Probably how far it’s gone is as far as it could go I think, especially in the Regened issue.
AR: I think if you keep everything to a level of sensible PG-ness and have most violence implied or drawn overly-cartoony then it’s fine. From working in a comic shop, I can tell you that kids read a lot more violent and nasty things then you might think! LotR Fellowship of the Ring is rated PG and that has beheadings in it!
Paul, we were introduced to you on the website back in the interview you did for your Terror Tale (Prog 2245), but feel free to give us a quick who are you and what do you do bit again!
PS: Ok, I’m a child of the 70s who’s been reading 2000 AD off and on since around 1981! My day job is in the thrilling world of Information Governance but by night I write fiction. Aside from the stories I’ve had published in 2000 AD I’ve had a lot of short fiction published and my novella The Lazarus Conundrum was published by Rebellion imprint Abaddon back in 2015.
Anna, this is the first time we’ve interviewed you for the site. Your first 2000 AD work was on the return of Abelard Snazz in The Only Way Is Up with Paul Cornell in Regened Prog 2206, something of a big deal given the character’s history! Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to chat to you then but Paul’s interview had lots of nice things to say about your art.
You’ve only just graduated and moved into the world of comics, what can you tell us about yourself?
AR: I’m a normal 20-something-year-old that lives in Leeds with my boyfriend and our newly adopted retired greyhound, and when I’m not drawing comics I’m either working at OK Comics or at the pub.
Everyone – if you’re in Leeds anytime, be sure to head into OK Comics – a fine, fine comic shop. And maybe ask to see greyhound photos!
Having your first 2000 AD job being the return of a rather famous character from the past must have been quite a big thing for you? Was there any trepidation taking on the job given the history there?
AR: It was a HUGE thing for me, and I absolutely felt like a complete imposter taking on a job as big as that AND drawing an Alan Moore and Steve Dillon character made it even more pressurised, but I did my best with it. It was a definite learning curve!
It was certainly a job well done and one that was full of visual invention, just like Paul said!
Here in Renk, although it’s a very different sort of genre you’re working in, there’s still an awful lot of the same visual invention going on, with pages packed full of details and some great characters for you as an artist to really get your teeth into.
AR: Yeah, I think my drawing style feels a bit more natural in a world of fantasy rather than sci-fi. I’d rather be drawing old rundown taverns than shiny spaceships.
Hey, never say never to the shiny spaceships!!
What was the collaboration between the two of you like on Renk? Was it a case of Anna having free range in populating the pages and coming up with the character designs or was it more a back and forth with Paul supplying ideas?
PS: I think Matt just gave Anna the script and let her run with it 🙂
AR: Paul’s script was brilliantly detailed with descriptions and ideas, and so I just worked off them with my own input and design work. I tried to capture the comedy in his script and keep it consistent in the visualisation of the world-building and sequential storytelling. In a landscape as vibrant as Renk’s, there’s always going to be something weird or funny happening in the background somewhere.
Anna, a few just for you regarding the art here. How do you work now? Is it all digital or do you still work old-school?
AR: I digitally thumbnail my pages, and then traditionally pencil and ink them. I find it utilises the best of the digital and analogue aspects the most efficiently for me personally.
I’ve already asked about the amount of world-building that goes on with these sort of new strips, did you find yourself doing a lot of preliminary work on the design of the world we find ourselves in and the characters populating it?
AR: I’m not particularly well-versed in the genre so I borrowed my friends’ Monster Manual from Dungeons & Dragons to help me populate the world with a range of different high fantasy creatures. The rest of the world-building just came naturally from prompts in the script or my own imagination.
Can you take us through the process of getting Renk to the finished page? How does the process work for you?
AR: I read the script and scribble ideas and page layouts as I go, then digitally thumbnail out the pages. After those get approved, I just jump straight into pencilling the pages traditionally with blue pencils, and then inking them with brush pens. In this particular case, it gave the lines a more organic feel which lends itself well with this type of fantasy landscape.
Anna was kind enough to send along her pencils and inks for the first couple of pages of Renk – small below but in full at the end of this interview.
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A word on Matt Soffe’s colours here from you both – he’s given the world you’ve come up with a really lived in feel, all deep earthy tones that add so much to the fantasy elements yet still with a down to earth feel. What do you both think of what he’s contributed to Renk.
AR: I really like the tone and depth he’s given to my lines. Adds a lot of ambience and layers to the story.
PS: I love the colours. I think it my head it was b&w but it really does add hugely to the world.
And similarly, Jim Campbell’s done a really nice job on the lettering, a very different sort of font choice to add to the feel of things here.
AR: The typography choices and SFX designs are perfect – they all seamlessly fit into Renk’s world.
PS: Yes it fits perfectly.
I know there’s a solid ‘The End’ on this one, but no doubt when planning and developing this first tale, there must have been thoughts of where you could go next with Renk.
PS: I think it’s safe to say I have the beginnings of a follow-up in my head. It would feature another princess but would be very different to this initial story.
AR: I’d be up for doing another Renk strip if Paul comes up with a new wacky story in the future.
Finally, feel free to tell us all about whatever you have coming up in the future – both here at 2000 AD and further afield.
PS: I’ve written a Cadet Dredd (and Rico) story which I believe is coming in the November Regened. Obviously writing Dredd was a huge honour, but also a lot of fun, I especially liked bouncing Joe and Rico off one another.
AR: I’m tabling for the first time at Thought Bubble this year after being a punter for so many years, so please come and say hi if you’re going in November!
Absolutely do head to Thought Bubble everyone! One of the greatest comics festivals in the world – say hi to Anna and be sure to check out the 2000 AD stand and attend the annual 2000 AD & Thought Bubble talent contest – it’s where Paul got his start at the Galaxy’s Greatest after all!
Thank you so much to both Paul and Anna for taking the time to chat to us all about Renk – you can find the first of his adventures in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2296, out right now wherever Thrill Power is available, including the 2000 AD web shop.
You can find more from Anna at her website and Twitter, and more from Paul at his Twitter.
And finally, keep scrolling for the full-page pencil and ink pages from Anna’s Renk pages 1 and 2.
