ARCHAIA ENTERTAINMENT

Cow Boy is an all-ages title that packs quite an emotional wallop!  What sort of difficulties did you face in writing a comic that appeals to kids, but catches the attention of adults as well?

I’m (sort of) an adult now, but I’m pretty good at accessing my childhood memories, remembering what I liked, and what I didn’t. I sort of use my memories as a guide, and realize lots of the stuff I enjoyed back then worked on several levels, not just as surface entertainment. Rich, layered storytelling can excite anyone, no matter their age, as long as you make the audience understand the emotions and stakes of the characters.

There are some mighty heavy themes in Cow Boy, particularly about family ties and the idea of justice.  What was your inspiration for the comic, and what kind of message do you want to send to readers?

Boyd’s story is specifically his own, but behind that there’s plenty of underlying things that have to do with the journey from childhood-to-adulthood, and all the weird, strange feelings that come with aging. You’re becoming your own person, forming opinions, all while listening to adults around you and not being sure that everything they’re telling you is “right.” Boyd’s got a heightened version of this, in that everyone he knew growing up were outlaws. So at a very young age he’s decided that whatever he is, he’s NOT like his family. And his interpretation of “justice” is still forming, as he continues to round up his kin.

Boyd’s family is quite the cavalcade of troublemakers.  Where do you get the ideas for family members?

Mostly from my own family, or people I knew growing up with in Mississippi. No one in my family is an outlaw, but I like to cast the personalities (and sometimes the real names) of people I know well…it makes the characters more “real” to me, adds a texture that I hope shines through in the story. Boyd’s grandad is very similar to how my grandad was, his brother’s a lot like one of my cousins, etc.

Could you tell us a bit about your process for creating a page/writing a chapter?

I wrote the first chapter as a single-issue 22-page comic. I had literally no plot, no plan, just thought “I wanna write a Western” and I got to writing. After I showed Chris and he liked it, my process evolved, because everything after that is fully informed by the way Boyd talks and acts in that chapter. After that, I would write each chapter out long-form in my notebook, with very bare scene descriptions, but pretty much finished dialogue.

Then I’d hand it over to Chris, and he’d make magic. I started very descriptive in my initial scripts, but when you have such an amazing storyteller like Chris on art, it’s in your best interest to give him lots of breathing room to do his own thing. 

What’s your favorite part of making a comic?

The initial spark of an idea. That kernel of a concept that won’t get out of your head, distracts you from other projects you should be working on, to the point that you HAVE to write it down and tell your friends about it. I absolutely love the process of actually writing, editing, making the book…but that first spark is just the best.

Could you give us a hint of what’s to come for Boyd?

Boyd’s got a BIG family, and they’re ALL bad news. His journey is going to take him all across the American Wild West and beyond. Not all of his missions will be successful, and he’s going to encounter plenty of enemies along the way…but just like in life, there’ll be moments of joy and happiness, and maybe even longer down the line, a little bit of peace. 

Were you a troublemaker growing up?

I grew up a good little Christian boy, but even so I got into my fair share of trouble. I just have a tendency to find trouble and/or adventure. 

Did you ever want to be a cowboy when you were a kid?

Growing up in Mississippi, I always had access to farmland, animals, nature. I love being outside, phone turned off, getting my hands dirty on a project. So yeah, being a cowboy crossed my mind a few times. :)

Click here for more info and a preview of Cow Boy.

From start to finish, Black Charity is an incredibly dark book–both in the writing and the artwork. What inspired the tone of this story?

The tone just came about as I wrote and illustrated the book. I had little idea of how the book was going to pan out other than having a skeleton plot to work around; the meat and muscle of it was made up as I went along, it kind of happily wrote itself. I did set out with the idea that I wanted to write something that I have never seen out in the comics world before, something I would like to read. To me language is very important. In the visual mediums (comic, film and TV) I very rarely experience language as I hear it in my everyday life. Casual swearing for instance is rife in the UK, and is viewed by most as inoffensive and humorous. I’ve also tried to show violence as it is in real life. I hate casual violence in films and TV where characters manage to take inordinate amounts of beatings and still get up for more. Violence to another human being is a hideous thing in any form, and for me it should be shown as real as possible. It should be sickening and not celebratory as it is normally portrayed.

My inspirations are mostly film, book and music based. I’m an avid film watcher and I have 2500 films on DVD at home. I love foreign language films, as they tend to tell their stories in interesting ways without the encumbrance of trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximise profit. I don’t read a lot of graphic novels or comics. I do however, like Robert Crumb, George Herriman and Dave Cooper’s work.

I needed characters, and have always thought of using interesting people I admire, as actors for my story. I don’t understand why people don’t do it more often. Imagine Marilyn Monroe in a comic strip story with Johnny Depp. Quite simply at the time of writing the book those three were uppermost in my daily life. Smith and Cave still are I suppose. They are geniuses at what they do. Peel was for many, me included, the best radio DJ ever. There was an old show in Britain called ‘The Professionals,’ about two secret service blokes and their Scottish boss, I used that as a rough guide for the relationship between the three characters. The show was rubbish, mind you!

Why did you choose to make those three characters into the bad guys?

The England of Black Charity feels both familiar and novel. How would you describe the world this story takes place in?