Interview: Rory McConville & Nick Dyer bring back Department K for a crisis!
24th August 2022
It’s the return of Regened and the return of Mega-City One’s protection from multiverses of madness, muddles, and plain muck-ups when Department K return in 2000 AD Prog 2296!
Mega-City One’s Department K protects the Big Meg from interdimensional threats and keeps the nasties from breaking through the walls of reality. Headed by Judge Kirby, the team is made up of Mechanismo Judge Estabon, the alien Blackcurrant, and recently arrived intern Afua, who’s already proved her worth on recent adventures.
After the events of Cosmic Chaos (Progs 2234-2243), we’re now back in Dept K headquarters for a brand-new Regened adventure in 2000 AD Prog 2296, Crisis of Infinite Estabons… time to talk to writer and co-creator Rory McConville and new Dept K artist Nick Dyer about what on earth’s going on…
Rory, Nick, nice to speak to you. Are you relaxing comfortably with a nice cold drink in this absolute inferno of a summer?
NICK DYER: It started as a nice cold drink but now it’s bubbling away!
In 2000 AD Regened Prog 2296, we see the return of Department K for their fourth outing in Crisis of Infinite Estabons.
What do we all have to look forward to with this latest turn from Tek-Div’s strangest department?
RORY MCCONVILLE: It’s the same interdimensional chaos but with a slight twist. Most Dept K stories involve the team going off to explore the multiverse but in this case, a very specific Estabon-shaped piece of the multiverse is coming to them.
Our story begins with two Estabons crossing paths in the halls of Department K, and all hell breaks loose from there.
Rory, you’ve been with Department K right from the start, but you’re now joined by Nick on art after previously working with PJ Holden and Dan Cornwell.
I suppose the obvious question is, what on earth are you doing to the artists to make them keep leaving you? Is it you? Is it them? Is it the script asking them to fill the panels with impossible to draw cosmic stuff?
RMc: I hadn’t thought about it much until you’d mentioned but maybe I need to start doing some self-reflection…. it must be the cosmic stuff, right? Right??
So, now that you’ve used up and discarded the Holden and Cornwell droids, have you seen what Nick’s delivered with Crisis on Infinite Estabons yet? What do you think of what he’s done with the Department and all of those different Estabons?
RMc: I have and I think Nick’s done a phenomenal job. One of the fun things about working with different artists on Dept K stories is getting to see so many interpretation of the characters. Nick’s taken the premise of alternate Estabons and spun gold with it.
Nick, you do know that McConville’s developing this reputation for using and casting aside his artistic collaborators, don’t you? Did you know what you were letting yourself in for here?
ND: I did not!, but frankly I always keep my expectations of subsequent work to a minimum, I always hope for new jobs but never take it for granted so each project is a gift!
(Nicely dodged there Nick! Obviously the McConville’s gotten to you!)
How has the collaboration been this time? (And don’t be fooled by the niceness he may show you now Nick, it won’t be long till he turns nasty!)
ND: For pretty much all the stories I’ve worked on I have never had a back and forth with the writer so to date I’ve never experienced a symbiotic/evolving collaborative process. I’ve had no complaints (that I know of!) from any writers, however it is an intriguing prospect to give it a go!
So, after thoroughly trashing Rory’s reputation, let’s ask him a few more questions shall we?
With Dept K, it’s the only strip in 2000 AD to have successfully gone from Regened for the first two episodes with PJ Holden, to the main Prog (for want of a better description) for the multi-part Cosmic Chaos with Dan Cornwell, and now back into this latest Regened Prog with Crisis on Infinite Estabons. And of course, all of this from a strip you originally pitched as a Judge Dredd Megazine thing.
What is it about Department K that allows you to do this?
RMc: I think it comes down to the core concept being so versatile.
Personally, I think it’s the perfect example of how good all-ages material works wherever it goes. 2000 AD has always had material that’s aimed at younger readers right from the start and there’s plenty of room for well-told stories that can appeal to young and old.
Is there any particular difference to approach when you’re doing these one-off Regened strips and when you’re planning something longer for Dept K in the Prog itself?
RMc: Not massively, except with the Regened one-offs there’s probably a bit more of a focus on making sure they’re as new reader friendly as possible.
Oh, and one thing I just thought of, given that you originally pitched it to the Megazine, is there even the possibility of Dept K going dark and you giving us something way more serious, way more apocalyptic in the Megazine one day? It strikes me that Dept K is one strip that really could manage to work across it all.
(Although you still haven’t answered PJ Holden’s pitch about a Dept K & Conan idea!)
RMc: You never know! There’s certainly elements that could take it into a darker direction… and limitless possibilities about where they could travel to…but all depends on where Tharg wants the series to appear next. Who knows?
Maybe every Department K story already features an entirely different team in an entirely different reality each time…
Now that you mention it, I do remember PJ pledging to quit if we didn’t do his Dept K/Conan pitch….
Nick, lovely to see your work here on Crisis of Infinite Estabons, completely different from what’s gone before of course but keeping the essence of what makes Dept K so much fun.
How did you get involved here?
ND: I’m afraid the answer is boringly functional. Matt/Tharg sent me the script and I drew it! 😀
Was there some negotiation involved with Rory that ensured it was all set nicely in the Dept K HQ and none of that cosmic stuff that obviously destroyed the Cornwell droid – some sort of clause in the deal stating no pages of Rory suggesting 80,000 different alien species, all with a unique look and monumental scale?
ND: Nope, no negotiation at all! One of the things that excites me about the process of comics is you never know what you might be asked to draw next! I love that the challenges are varied and unexpected and I enjoy working with a variety of writers all with their unique signatures on the creation of characters and worlds.
I think Rory has come up with a brilliantly flexible premise in Dept K and combined with his dynamic and fluid scripts the possibilities are wide open!
Did you take a quick dip into the art styles of the last few episodes at all to ground your Dept K with what had come before or just go with it and get on?
ND: Absolutely – with established characters you need to respect the vision of previous artists so I studied both PJ’s concepts and strips and similarly with Dan’s work it provided a very coherent framework that made it an instantly accessible world to expand on!
It strikes me it’s one of those strips to really enjoy drawing with the weird and wonderful cast of characters, all grounded in a familiar MC-1 world.
ND: Oh I love it! In comics nothing is impossible and Rory’s concept plays to this strength effortlessly. As an Artist to receive a script that offers such a playground is a real delight!, and as you say when grounded in a familiar structure it enhances the mind-bending remit that Dept K have.
And in terms of the cast of characters…Nick sent along these great Dept K design roughs he’d done in prep for the strip (full-size versions at the end!)
As it’s the first time we’ve spoken to you Nick, can you give us a quick idea of who you are and all that? What’s your story?
ND: Well I’ll keep this brief! 😉 I started to try and draw comics around the age of 7 or 8, like many contributors I have been a massive fan of 2000 AD since those years. At 18 I went to art college, graduated with absolutely no career prospects but always obsessively continued to teach myself about the craft.
MANY years later I joined an independent collective/publisher call Underfire Comics, which provided an invaluable understanding of the entire mechanics of production and through a submission that my Editor secretly sent I was picked up by one of the Megazine’s new talent searches which led to the extraordinary experience of drawing a John Wagner story, the multi created ‘Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty- Backlash’ as my first job, and since then I have been an irregular but extremely grateful contributor to the Galaxy’s Greatest!
With Department K here, what was your process in putting the pages together?
ND: I read the script 2-3 times to get an idea of pace and continuity, then page breakdowns with small thumbnails that contain just enough information to set elements and page flow, and then at A3 I go straight into the finished pencils and work up the inks straight on to them.
Given that all the characters are, by this stage, well developed, did it make it a slightly easier job, or was it a case of putting all of your design efforts into all of those wonderful Estabons?
ND: I think overall it was easier though I have a propensity to lose my own voice in other artists styles so it was important that I made my own versions of PJ’s and Dan’s established characters, as far as the Estabon’s go we are back to playground territory so though I was initially daunted it was wonderful fun to imagine them all!
With four different Department K stories now in the bag, what can we expect from them next? Will there be more Regened, will there be more multi-parters in the main Prog?
RMc: It all depends on what Tharg’s after. Nothing in the pipeline at the moment but there’s definitely a few plotlines from the last run in the main Prog that will need to be picked up at some stage.
Finally, what can we expect from both of you next, whether that’s for 2000 AD or elsewhere?
ND: I am currently drawing a one-off Dredd and hopefully with Tharg’s good grace I will continue to contribute to the worlds of 2000 AD as and when required!
RMc: After this Dept K story, I’ve actually got nothing immediate on the horizon with 2000 AD for the first time in maybe five or six years, which is quite a strange feeling.
Well Rory, obviously there’s something gone wrong with Tharg’s scheduling droids. He’s just been muttering something about unleashing the repair team down to their department – the special repair droids with the really sharp reprogramming attachments.
RMc: Elsewhere, I’m currently writing Spawn for Image Comics and co-writing Time Before Time, a time-travel crime series, also for Image, that’s midway through its third arc.
Thank you so much to both Rory and Nick for taking the time to have a chat with us. You can find the latest Dept K, Crisis of Infinite Estabons, in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2296, out right now in newsagents, comic shops, and the 2000 AD web shop.
And don’t forget to order the first Department K collection, Interdimensional Investigators, featuring work from Rory, PJ Holden, and Dan Cornwell – out on 9 November 2022.
For more Department K chat, including more on the Holden droid’s idea for a Dept K/Conan episode… there’s the interview about their debut in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2196 here with Rory and PJ, plus a triple interview here with Rory, PJ, and Dan about the second Regened strip in Prog 2233 and the multi-part Cosmic Chaos which began in Prog 2234.
Now, because we promised you, the full-size versions of Nick’s Dept K design work from Crisis of Infinite Estabons…
