Tag: interview

The monumental Judge Dredd Megazine #400 is nearly upon us – hitting shops on 19th September, packed with Thrill-Power – including the latest exploits of everyone’s favourite vampire dandy, the dashing and debonair Devlin Waugh!

This special tale of the voluptuary vamp occult investigator comes to you courtesy of US superstar writer, Aleš Kot (The New World, Zero, James Bond) and 2000 AD favourite artist Mike Dowling (Judge Dredd, Unfollow). Richard Bruton sat and chatted with them about their new Devlin Waugh story, ‘Call Me By Thy Name’…

Can you tell us a little about the story – is it just for this one issue, or will it be continued?

Aleš Kot: It’s a one-off, but it’s not a one-off. There’s a haunted building, but the building isn’t everything that’s haunted. There’s an orgy, but Devlin can’t quite stay. There’s a demon trapped inside a dildo, but how did he get there? These questions and riddles shall be answered, but some of the doors they open shall be walked through again, in the future.

Aleš, this is your first work over here at the house that Tharg built… were you already aware of 2000 AD in general, and of Devlin Waugh in particular and what was it that brought you to writing this particular vampiric dandy?

AK: I partially grew up reading semi-random translated Czech reprints of 2000 AD stories — and stories by many writers who started by writing for 2000 AD as well. 2000 AD is partially responsible for me!

And as for me and Devlin, ‘Swimming in Blood’ was one of those translated stories, and so, about a couple decades later…I mentioned wanting to write the character on the internet, 2000 AD caught wind of it, emails were exchanged, and…here I am.

Devlin just always felt right. We share large amounts of interests and attitude.

You’re only the third writer on the character, after creator John Smith, and recent writer Rory McConville – does it feel as though you’re stepping into some impressive shoes?

AK: I mean, John Smith is one of the best comics writers I ever read, so definitely. As for Rory’s work, I haven’t reread it enough to have a fully formed take yet, but I’m very much looking forward to doing that later this week.

How do you approach something like Waugh, with a voice and tone very much tied to one writer’s particular voice?

AK: You’re talking to a queer who once got so bored at an orgy that they spent most of their time on a sofa with a bottle of red, reading Necronomicon out loud while half-heartedly spanking a human chair. I also managed to swallow a ghost once, which is not a euphemism, at least not in this case. So it could be said I’ve got my qualifications.

It’s not really hard at all. Devlin’s basically a good friend I check in with whenever I want. We respect each other, and I think he’s got a bit of a crush on me.

Old Devlin is a hugely popular character with fans, right from his first appearance – what do you think is the attraction of the character?

AK: These are the first lines of Devlin’s publication history on Wikipedia, the arbiter of all truth:

2000 AD had mainly featured monosyllabic tough guys such as Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper: people driven by either a sense of duty, or honour, or revenge. Waugh, by contrast, was a camp homosexual exorcist priest, employed by the future Vatican City, with medals in flower-arranging and Olympic high-diving, a bodybuilder’s physique and a cutting line in humour; his main motivation was simply to do “Anything to offset the dreadful ennui of it all!” Smith describes Waugh as a hedonist, “a languorous upper-class misfit, a fop, an ex-public schoolboy with a neat line in sarcasm. A lounge lizard. Imagine Noël Coward as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger”. Phillips visualised him missing a tooth like Terry-Thomas.

…what is not to be attracted to? AND he’s a vampire.

Mike, compared to Aleš, you’re an old hand at both 2000 AD and with Devlin, having become Devlin’s artist of choice, illustrating the last two tales, ‘Blood Debt’ and ‘Kiss of Death’, both written by Rory McConville. What is it about Waugh that you obviously enjoy drawing so much?

Mike Dowling: Devlin’s a real free spirit – his louche outlook changes the rules for him. If a monster invades his world he’s as likely to flirt with it as try and kill it and his somewhat amoral character adds to the fun. It’s a nice contrast from Dredd and some of the more stoic AD characters. It allows for more complicated outcomes than ‘good guys fight the bad guys, and win’.

Can you take us through the artistic process of creating Waugh, from initial ideas through to finished page? How was the collaborative process for you both?

MD: I pretty much just worked straight from Aleš’ script. I have a fairly simple process – working from rough sketches through to the finished page. Some of the art required a bit of lateral thinking though – Aleš has tricky structure for this one!

AK: I handed in the pages and Mike’s outdone himself!

And how was the experience of working for 2000 AD compared to US publishers?

AK: Just like at any company — if the editor and the team are all committed to making the best possible story and everyone puts in the work, it usually works quite well, and I’m happy to say that feels the case here through and through. I’m delighted to be working with the team and with everyone at 2000 AD, and I am being treated wonderfully.

MD: Agreed! – Everyone at 2000 AD seems totally committed to doing the best possible work. I wouldn’t want to generalise about American publishers but my experiences have been similarly positive.

What was your first 2000 AD experience as a reader?

MD: It’s hard to be sure! I read my brothers old copies from a young age – They were just lying around the house – as far as I knew 2000 AD was always there. Button Man and some of Mike McMahon’s Sláine art seem to rise to the top of the memory soup though.

AK: Oh, a few of those Czech-translated reprints…some D.R. and Quinch, Sláine, Johnny Nemo…I was hooked. I think I was about eleven years old.

Favourite 2000 AD strips/characters/creators?

AK: Devlin Waugh, Sláine, Indigo Prime, Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Strontium Dog, Halo Jones…as far as creators go, Pat Mills, Garth Ennis, Carlos Ezquerra, John Smith, Sean Phillips, Edmund Bagwell, Frazer Irving, Alan Moore, John Wagner, Alan Grant, Simon Bisley, Colin MacNeil, Kev Walker, Chris Weston…as far as stories go, I’ll name just three that I want to reread the most right now: Sláine: The Horned God, Cradlegrave, and Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham.

MD: There’s so much to choose from! I like all of Aleš’ picks – I’ll add Button Man, Judge Anderson, the Mega-City Undercover stories and Ichabod Azrael. I really like Rob Williams take on Dredd – his collaborations with Chris Weston and Henry Flint are great. I also think John Wagner and Alan Grant deserve some kind of elevation for their amazing work down the years.

The bumper Judge Dredd Megazine #400 is out on 19 September!

The massive 400th issue of the Megazine hits shops on 19th September, absolutely packed with classic Thrill-Power courtesy of some of the best in the comics biz!

One of the highlights will be the return of Blunt from TC Eglington and Boo Cook, where we return to the lush organic delights of Getri-1 and discover just what’s happening with the surviving colonists and their mutie/uplift pro-tector, Blunt.

Richard Bruton talks to Eglington and Cook about psychedelic plant life, lush organic art-work, and whether humanity really is a virus…

Blunt II begins this September in the Megazine 400 for a new eight-part run. In the first series (Megazine 372-379), we were introduced to the lush and beautiful colony of Genti-1, complete with its Mega-City One colonists, uplifts, and the mysterious Blunt. What can you tell us about that first series and where you’re taking the story in this second part?

TC Eglington: The first series involves Blunt getting involved in a rescue mission to save a crashed ship and its essential supplies. He befriends Ilya, a feisty teenage girl determined to find her moth-er, but the mission soon descends into chaos as the planet’s sentient ecosystem fights back, creat-ing a virus that mutates the colonists into dangerous predators.

This second series explores more of the planet and how it has evolved, as well as aligning the story more generally with the Dreddverse. Blunt is again at the centre of things, but the dangers are greater and the scale of events larger, with the entire colony at risk of destruction.

Boo Cook: The first series of Blunt was definitely a set-up story for the world, Blunt himself and the large ensemble cast. Now that the cast has been whittled down considerably we really get to see people coming into their own as their characters develop. Also, we get to find out what’s really been happening on the planet – in particular the full revelations relating to the mysterious tribe that appeared in the final episode of series one; without saying too much, there’s a reason they all have a *certain look*… on top of that there is the background thread of the whole Terence McKenna ‘nature is alive!’ vibe to the planet itself which ramps up considerably with dramatic ram-ifications.

And, if that wasn’t enough, the introduction of a well known third party adds layers of chaos even McKenna would struggle with!

The end to Blunt in Meg 379 left things hanging – was this a deliberate thing leading into this sec-ond series, or merely a tentative thing whilst you waited to see if the second series was happen-ing?

TCE: We knew at that time there was going to be a second series, so it seemed a good way to give a teaser for it. Also, there’s something satisfying about a grueling story of survival ending with the realization that the protagonists are out of the frying pan and into the fire.

How did you find the reaction to that first series of Blunt?

TCE: The reaction to the first series has been great. I think people loved the mix of wild action, gory mutations, and psychedelia. We consciously went for a different look and feel to previous colony stories. Hopefully that paid off.

BC: There’s a feeling that Megazine strips, particularly brand new ones, can go slightly under peo-ple’s radar in comparison to major strips in the weekly Prog. But, I’ve spoken to quite a lot of folks online and at conventions who seemed to really enjoy it – which has been great to hear. I think Tom and I are gaining a reputation for massive psychedelic mayhem with our collaborations and Blunt II certainly won’t disappoint on that score!

Boo, I was reading an old 2010 interview you did for the FPI Blog, where you talk of Damnation Station and it connecting with your “old skool sci-fi sensibilities; big bleak moonscapes, detailed space suits, wrecked spacecraft and tangible characters”. Seems to me, barring the tangible char-acters, you couldn’t get much further from that than the organic creations of Blunt?

BC: Well, wrecked spacecraft definitely have a part to play in Blunt II but those old skool sci-fi sen-sibilities can cover a lot of ground, amongst which aliens, mutants, and crazy worlds all play a big part!

Further on in that interview from 2010, you mention Blunt for the first time as a forthcoming co-creation between you and TC – so, how did the collaboration come about, and why did it take six years from that first mention to seeing it in Meg 372?

BC: Because we’re lazy gits! Seriously, drumming up a pitch for a whole new series takes a vast amount of work – from plot outlining, character fleshing out, world building plus all the visual con-cept work. It took me many, many drawings to finally come up with the face of Blunt too – he’s a man/beast of few words so his face really needed to sum up his attitude instantly.

The setting for the strip changed radically from the start too – initially the world was much farther on in terms of colonization, with Blunt running a business taking young hipsters from the big new city on ‘outback tours’ but many of the recognisable themes were in place. The actual pitching to editors takes a lot of time too and can introduce hefty overhauls into the mix – Matt Smith, for example, suggested that he’d be happy to give the strip a go if we could set it in the larger Dreddverse, a change that we were only too happy to make.

TCE: Originally, we wanted to create a sci-fi strip together that involved some of our favourite sci-fi topics. Blunt came about from a mix between story ideas I was working on and a character Boo had drawn that fitted the bill perfectly. That first concept was a planet where biotech meant every-body had started adapting themselves with living suits to enhance their bodies, but Blunt was the one exception – the kind of brute force of human nature that is completely resistant to change. He developed over time and the story changed to fit with the Dreddverse, as it fitted nicely with the Uplifts and the colony scenarios. I’m still not sure why it took so long to reach the printed page. We always seemed to have different things we were working on at different times, but eventually it came together.

It seems to me there’s an environmental fable wrapped in a bit of classic sci-fi going on with Blunt, plus the ideas of humans as an invasive species, sitting above any natural ecosystem, de-stroyers of all they touch. How much of this did you design into the initial ideas of Blunt and how much came through in its development?

TCE: I was really interested in involving an environmental aspect to the strip, as it seems a fitting subject for sci-fi. There was a tagline I used for the first story that ran along the lines of ‘Colonists try to adapt a planet for the benefit of mankind, only to find themselves adapted by the planet for its benefit’. Although it’s done in an extreme way here, it summed up the idea of humans sudden-ly finding themselves being radically changed by their environment. I like the idea that homo-sapiens might just be another stage of evolution, not the final product.

In this second series, I’ve kept some of those concepts going, particularly the idea of humans as an invasive species, and that maybe our impressive advances as a species are intrinsically connected with environmental damage. It’s like that George Bernard Shaw quote about all progress depend-ing on the unreasonable man. Here, humans are an unreasonable species.

Funnily enough, the first incarnation of Blunt we worked on involved humans trying to find re-demption from all their environmental destruction by using advances in genetics to de-extinct spe-cies, with the technology spiraling out of control. So I guess some of those ideas carried over years later.

BC: The great thing about coming up with a sci-fi tale is that it can be used as a microcosm, be that of the human condition or our relationship to a certain aspect of existence. With Blunt, obviously, humans are pretty slack about caring for their living environment so we thought it’d be a great start to have them attempt to terra-form a planet but have the planet terra-form them instead.

Also, there’s a lot to be said for using strong characters to create microcosms within microcosms to espouse further allegorical elements – something which Tom does with great aplomb. On top of that there is the over-arching McKenna vibe of all organisms being linked/part of a greater whole and awareness of this through psychedelics which is something we are eager to promote in a balls out action way as opposed to a whimsical, unicorn hugging fashion.

Boo, Blunt is certainly a departure of sorts from your previous work – the world building involved with a new strip is there of course, but the beautiful organic nature of the artwork is something that really sets it apart. Can you talk us through the ideas behind the design of the world of Blunt and some of your process in creating what we see on the page? Do I see elements, or at least a love of, Brendan McCarthy’s layouts and psychedelic imagery in your work on Blunt?

BC: Brendan has always been right at the forefront of my influences from an early age – his work on strips like Sooner Or Later, Chopper in Oz etc. hit me like a day glow freight train and it’s been lodged in my frontal lobe ever since. Getting the chance to have some tripped out fun with the visuals has been great, and there’s plenty more to come!

A strip like Blunt is very freeing in many ways – freedom from drawing anything regular or normal, which can be a little tedious for me at least, even freedom from drawing solid realistic anatomy as there are plenty of mutants in series two where I would literally draw a massive squiggle that fulfilled the compositional requirements of the page and turn that into a huge swaggering beast: maximum fun.

Also, I think Tom is quite happy for me to go off piste with the scripts a bit when it comes to the crazy stuff and I’ll add in a background made up of a tessellating network of the wee square mon-key guys (Splonges to be technical), or somebody getting a nasty case of ‘fractal fingers’. I guess that comes out of a process of thinking about how to portray the script, then once that’s safe think about it again, then REEEEAAAAAALLLLYYY think about it until you’ve pushed it almost off the edge of the plot cliff. All of which stems from the marvelous mind seeds planted by Tom.

And, finally, what’s coming up next for you both?

BC: I’m still involved with Elephantmen comic which has found a new home with Comixology, so expect more covers from there, plus Tom and myself are working on a typically messed up and psychedelic Dredd tale for the Xmas Prog. Plus, we’re hoping that Blunt II will go down well enough to merit a third outing… also, as I absolutely love working with Tom we have several new ideas in the long drawn out conception process that will be hitting the pitching zone soon. They will be probably be psychedelic.

TCE: We’ve just collaborated on a Dredd together, which is a real fun one. It’s a standalone tale that’s absolutely perfect for Boo’s art, full of weird visions, classic Dredd action, and some heroic eggnog.

The bumper Judge Dredd Megazine #400 is out on 19 September!

Every year, 2000 AD gives new writers and artists the chance to get their first work for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic at the annual Thought Bubble convention in Leeds.

Put before a panel of top creators, prospective art droids have their work scrutinsed while would-be writers must pitch their own original Future Shock in just two minutes! They’re not for the faint of heart but the competitions have launched the professional careers of some of the newest talent to grace the pages of 2000 AD!

The competitions are happening again at Thought Bubble on 22-23 September and you can see the rules and download the art competition sample script here…

The 2016 art competition winner, Tilen Javornik, has gone on to have two Future Shocks in 2000 AD – ‘The Best Brain in the Galaxy’ in Prog 2023 with the 2016 writing contest winner, Andrew Williamson and ‘Terminal’ in Prog 2048, written by Rory McConville, himself the winner of the 2015 writer competition.

Richard Bruton caught up with Tilen to talk about flying in to take part in the Thought Bubble competitions…

How did you hear about the 2000 AD talent search and what convinced you to enter?

I had been following 2000 AD online, and found out not only about the competition that way, but also about the Thought Bubble festival itself. I didn’t need any convincing and booked my plane tickets immediately!

You flew into Thought Bubble?

Yes, I am based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and entered a total of three times. The first two years I actually didn’t get past the first round, but I learned a lot from watching other people get critiqued as well as the feedback I received. The first year I mostly got tips on how to improve my anatomy skills, whereas the second year the feedback was more about composition and panel placement.

What did winning the competition mean for you and how important has it been for you to be published in 2000 AD?

I won on my third attempt, so it was a great learning experience. I got invaluable feedback eachyearthat I wouldn’t have improved without. Secondly, it was a big confidence booster. To see my name besides industry professionals that I admired was a big deal for me.

As for the competition itself, can you tell us a little about the actual process of entering, the preparation involved and the terror of pitching in front of the judging panel of experts?

The first part of the process [a first come, first served portfolio review] is finding out when and where the queuing is to take place, which is usually announced around mid-day. At this stage, one of the judges will have a look at your work, one-on-one. Based on that, the judge decides on the spot if you make it to the next round or not – those that do will then wait for the live judging event, which happens the next day.

The competitors each have to present their opening page on the big screen, and hear the panel’s critiques. This part is honestly my favourite, there’s always great levity in the way the process unfolds, so there’s really nothing to be nervous about– the worst thing that can happen is you walk away with free feedback from a table of hardened industry pros.

Since winning the competition, how do you think your work has evolved and where has the competition win and subsequent Future Shock strip taken your comics career?

I’ve drawn for 2000 AD once again after winning, and it was as rewarding as the first time. The win has helped me land a couple dream illustration gigs, however I’m still working on a comics career. It’s a slow process, and I’m trying to get better and faster with every other project I do.

What comics (or other writing/art) work have you done so far, and what’s coming from you we need to look out for?

I’ve worked for the role-playing-game industry, specifically for the Onyx Path (of Vampire fame). Look out for the Chronicles of Darkness books – the writer & artist roster is amazing, and if you’re into any sort of horror/psychological/drama comics (or fiction, really), you’ll love the RPGs as well.

What advice would you give to up and coming writers and artists about getting into comics in general, and the 2000 AD/Thought Bubble competition in particular?

I work digitally, so here’s a piece of advice that I learned the hard way: have your work printed out professionally, on quality paper. The judges are going to hold the line art in their hands, and you want the quality to be crisp. And once you’re up there, listen to what the judges have to say, they know what they’re talking about.

And develop a daily routine, even if it’s just one quick sketch. Learn to use reference. Patience is a virtue. Here’s a quote by Alec Worley: “Breaking in, as I discovered, is really more like seeping in.”

Finally, Tilen, who would be your dream character or comic to work on, 2000 AD or further afield?

Besides Dredd, you mean! I have always wanted to work on Dylan Dog, or something similarly Lovecraftian and weird.

Humanity is on the brink in this tense, atmospheric series by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. Forced to leave Earth for the claustrophobic confines of orbiting ‘habitats’, the only people keeping a lid on the powderkeg are the Habitat Security Division.

In volume one of Brink, we met Carl “Brink” Brinkmann and Bridget “Bridge” Kurtis, two Hab Sec officers investigating bizarre deaths and possible religious cults.

In volume two, now on her own Bridge is a private security consultant hired to investigate the bizarre and mysterious reasons part-constructed habitat Galina is running late. Everything quickly goes very wrong and we’re treated to another stunning sci-fi procedural that takes tension and cinematic vision to a wonderful level.

Book 1 and Book 2 are available separately right now from the 2000 AD store or in a bundle pack.

In volume 1, we saw Bridget Kurtis uncover a plot to set humanity on a path off the orbiting habitats, but that investigation potentially ended her career. And then, of course, there was the ominous moment in the final episode, where Mercury went dark… It’s now six months later… Can you give us a quick recap of what’s happened in Brink so far, and what can we expect from Brink in this second volume?

Dan Abnett: In the nearish future, mankind is living in ‘the Brink’. Earth is dead, and the evacuated population is living in less than ideal conditions in deteriorating habitat space stations in the solar system. Things are grim: there’s very little personal space, and people are suffering deep psychological problems. Kurtis works for the HSD (Habitat Security Division) and she’s investigating ‘sect crime’, which is the activity of ‘cults’ and other subgroups who have developed strange, deluded ideas because of the psychological erosion of life on the Brink, leading to murder and other major crimes. Or ARE they just ideas?

There’s a deep, understated thread in Brink that all the unseen horror might be true. In book 2, Kurtis gets the chance to continue her investigations, pursuing threads left after the first case. It’s going to lead her into even darker places.

You’ve previously collaborated with INJ Culbard as the artist on Dark Horse’s Dark Ages, The New Deadwardians for Vertigo and the three volume Boom! Studios series, Wild’s End. How do you find the initial genesis of any series comes about?

DA: All of these projects have come about because we talk a LOT and develop ideas, just chasing things that mutually interest us (hence the diversity). We’d worked on US projects together, but also (independently) worked for 2000 AD. It seemed silly not to try and combine our efforts on a 2K strip. Brink came out of those conversations, and it was immense fun adapting our established working style to the format of five-page weekly episodes rather than 22-page monthly books. It altered the storytelling a lot and changed the dynamic of what we found we could do.

When Brink began, we were quickly introduced to the concept of the strip as a sci-fi police procedural taking place onboard the ‘habitat’ space stations holding the remnants of humanity. And in the two protagonists of Bridge and Brink, we had that classic buddy cop dynamic going on. Throw in the cult elements to the tale, and the simple shorthand of True Detective meets Outland comes to my mind. When you’re putting together the series, are those sorts of shorthand summaries something you consider, or are they (as I suspect) annoying when thrown at your work!?

DA: No, that’s pretty close 🙂 We find we like to boil things down to a very simple top line. New Deadwardians was “The Walking Dead meets Downton Abbey”, Wild’s End was “The War of the Worlds meets the Wind in the Willows” and Dark Ages was “Kingdom of Heaven meets Starship Troopers”. They are, of course, much more than those things, and nothing like a derivative as the top lines sound, but they are good anchor points to get the idea across.

INJ Culbard: The idea itself, the nucleus, is really almost nothing compared to the worlds and the characters that inhabit them. So, Wild’s End is really using the way survival stories and anthropomorphic stories both hold a magnifying glass up to the human condition, and the stories become about inner bravery, inner peace, inner turmoil etc. But you can’t really sell that idea unless you say ‘War of the Worlds meets Wind in the Willows’. And in contrast you have Dark Ages, we just happened to have two alien invasion stories run at the same time through different publishers just because that’s how it all worked out in the end, but the two stories could not be more different in their approach and execution, because of character.

You’ve taken a simple conceptual idea and really put a huge amount of detail into the story. How does this massive world-building come about in collaboration?

DA: Again, conversation. We also pick up on each other’s work as we go. I’ll write in something that Ian then plays with in the art, or he’ll draw something that I pick up on and develop in the script. Each of our projects has a huge amount of world building: we like to know how things work, even if that information doesn’t make it to the printed page.

INJC: The crime scene at the beginning of book one of Brink, on page one, was originally a static scene (in other words the body was lying on the ground, not floating in the air) but I remember ringing Dan up and saying it’d be cool if the body was floating. Because how do you lock down a floating crime scene in space? But then Dan later uses that device for a major scene. And going back to Deadwardians, we’d had this really long conversation about vampire biology and how the blood doesn’t flow, there’s no plasma flow, no fluid, it’s just still waters. Consequently, a grieving vampire ‘applies’ their tears by painting on running mascara, and that then becomes our bit of vampire lore. And all this comes from a lot of conversation, a lot of asking one another, ‘what if?’ and trying to come up with plausible explanations that sound cool.

The speed of Brink is something that sets it apart from many of the other series in 2000 AD. The police procedural nature of the tales means a lot of the story is very dialogue heavy, punctuated by infrequent action. Yet, there’s a massive sense of tension and excitement that builds through the tale. How did you approach the storytelling elements to make the slower pace (compared to other strips) work so perfectly?

DA: Yes, agreed. We knew from the outset it was going to be very talky, and wondered if that would make it a bad fit for the prog. It really doesn’t work like anything else in 2000 AD – it defies the usual conventions of a classic 2000 AD story. But we stuck to our guns, and I think the conversational pace is what builds the detail and tension, the ‘normalcy’, so that the violence, when it comes, is more effective. There’s also no narrative and no captions, the usual methods of delivering all the exposition and world building. We wanted it all to be in dialogue (and the ‘tag’s which identify things) so that there would be a certain amount of detective work required by the reader. I think that’s what makes the world immersive. There is no “Basil Exposition”, no info-dumping, no “as you know, Steve…” moments. You have to unlock it. And, to our delight, people REALLY liked it…

INJC: Seconded. There’s a lot of acting to be done when there’s little action. So it ends up more focused on subtlety and nuance. You have to sort of guide the reader through it and curate their emotions. I tend to watch actors performances with greater interest than car chases.

With Brink’s police procedural pacing, the necessary elements of the story are slow to build. How do you satisfy the seemingly conflicting demands of the slow-build and the serial structure?

DA: I try to make sure that there’s a rhythm to each episode, so that we learn something each time. There aren’t necessarily cliff-hangers, but there’s a sense of closure, or dread or of realisation.

Now, without really wanting to give away the huge twist in volume one, there’s no getting away from the fact that volume 2 is very much a solo tale featuring Bridge, now a security consultant away from the Habitat Security Division. At what point in creating Brink volume 1 did you decide on the path the series would take when it came to Brink and Bridge’s futures?

DA: Early on. We knew where we were going. We had a tight plan in mind for the first book. After that, well… once we had that first volume in hand, we realised we knew where we wanted to go afterwards. We now have much longer plans… and that’s thanks to the confidence that came with the positive reaction to book 1.

With Volume 2, your story has isolated Bridge, and the tone is completely different. Is this something deliberate for the story?

DA: Yes. Because the actual process of the story – the pace, the dialogue, the low-key atmosphere – we wanted to avoid making it repetitive, so the shift in tone was our only option. Not for nothing, Book 3 is now underway, and it represents yet another major shift in tone.

INJC: With Book 1 there was a real sense of people practically living on top of one another, all sardines. Book 2 goes for quite the opposite, right from Page 1, Panel 1, with a solitary figure lying on a sun lounger and a big open space above them. The actual space the characters inhabit is something that comes up quite a lot, so much so it became a key point working on book 3.

The violence in Brink, when it comes, is far from the normal violence we’re used to seeing in comics. It’s quick, nasty, very realistic, and leaves those affected in shock and scared. Again, is this something you decided from the outset, or is it something that came about during the telling of the tale?

DA: Definitely. It’s grim and nasty and, I hope, quite authentic, so the reactions need to be too. That matches the over all realistic tone, the conversational pace. It’s not gung-ho, high-octane action SF. I think it’s cosmic horror.

With Brink’s definite sense of confinement, of claustrophobia, with the closed in environment of the ‘Habitats’ and the whole police procedural style of things, we could have expected something dark, full of dingy corridors, badly lit space stations falling into disrepair. Yet, with Ian’s artwork, we get so much more. How would you describe what Ian brought to Brink and do you think the series would have been as successful with any other artist?

DA: I’m just in awe of what Ian does, both on the large scale and with the intimate character work. Colour is a particularly important part of this book, and he’s brought in fantastic ideas about that (in the same way, comparative space is vital to book 3, and he’s been ingenious with that). I think the series might have worked with another artist, but it wouldn’t have been this series. It would have been an entirely different thing in terms of tone and style – Ian defines the way this works, and let’s not forget it was developed between us. It’s fair to say there wouldn’t have been a Brink to offer to another artist. This is what we both wanted to do. We’re invested. It’s an absolute favourite poroject for both of us.

Ian, how did you approach Brink as an artist and can you give us some idea of your process involved in the creation of Brink?

INJC: I’d done about two or three episodes of Book 1 before going in to hospital for some major surgery, so I had this long extended time out for recovery, during which I had an epiphany. I remembered photographs from the 1980s of New York subway trains (the interiors of carriages all covered with graffiti) and photographs of Tokyo at night. That was it. I was also in this clinical environment for about a week, drifting off to the sleep to the sound of monitors beeping intermittently, that sort of eighties sci-fi ambience. So when I was fit and able to get back to my desk, I went back and redid those first episodes, and what I did was change the color scheme completely and cover everything in graffiti. I tend to think in terms of how characters effect the environment around them so this change was pretty significant for me. I was stuck indoors, on medication I didn’t want to be on and not feeling great… that’s practically everybody onboard Odette. I was there, man.

Whilst talking of the ‘habitats’, we have seen quite a few already with interesting names… Antioch, Hesperides, Kiros, Ludmilla, Odette, Phoros. Is there any rhyme or reason to the naming you want to share at all?

DA: There might be 🙂 But we might not reveal that for a while…

Finally, with the end of volume 2, we’re left with a mystery unfolding. It has that sense of being midway through the tale. How much more Brink have you got planned?

DA: Yes, it’s pretty much a trilogy. Book 3 “High Society” debuts soon. But the world is so rich, we’ve found we have strong ideas for at least three more volumes after that. We’ll see how the audience reacts. It all builds into one, big ghastly picture, whichever characters are ultimately around to witness that. We’d love to continue exploring the Brink.

Brink Book Two is out now from all good book shops, online book retailers, comic book stores and 2000 AD‘s webshop and apps!