Sometime contributor to this very parish Matt Badham has a two-page spread in the latest Comic Heroes talking to Martin Eden about the brilliant Spandex. We’ve been very impressed with Spandex on the blog, not just because of how it portrays LGBT issues but because it is a cracking read too, and we’re delighted that a collected edition is coming out this summer so hopefully a wider audience will be able to pick it up and see just why we’ve been recommending it to you.

Bat: Gareth, who are you and why would what you’re doing be of interest to readers of the FPI blog?

Gareth: Well, over on Twitter I describe myself as “award-winning Northern hospitality operator, management consulting guru, publisher of Vworp Vworp and gentleman of the road…”. In essence, I own and operate the Lass O’Gowrie, a very nice little pub down the side of the old BBC [in Manchester] and publish a very nice fanzine and (with luck) comics if we can get the rights to the odd interesting property. I suppose it’s of interest because I use the Lass as a platform for all the things I love, so it’s festooned with original comic art, old collectables and vintage arcade machines. We also programme plenty of genre shows, including, come January, Russell T Davies’ Midnight and a brand new adaptation of Halo Jones.

B: Please tell us about this new production of Halo Jones? It’s not just a re-staging of the eighties stage play is it? Who’s involved and what’s your role?

G: No, it’s a fresh adaptation of Books One and Two, going back to the source material. The odd thing we’ll be looking at [changing] and there are a lot of healthy debates going on in the team as to location, characters and design. There are some practical things to get over too, so Toby is now a humanoid dog character to get him off all fours, but it works – trust me! I’m involved this time round as Producer, so I’m overseeing it, chipping in where I see fit and making useful suggestions. The chaps have termed me Joel Silver, which I’m taking in the spirit it was intended (honest; you’re fired, chaps!). Alongside me is Ross Kelly, who has been scripting, Daniel Thackery who is directing and a top-secret script editor who has asked not to be revealed, but has been brilliant to work with. And, as of today, we’ve cast all but one of the roles and it’s the best cast I’ve ever worked with. We’ve settled on Louise Hamer as Halo and she’s perfect. See Casting Call Pro if you don’t believe me. In fact, if you don’t fall in love with Halo all over again after this then frankly, you’re dead inside…

B: Halo Jones is part of the Mid-Winter Lassfest. What else have you got on that may be of interest to the blog’s readers?

G: A whole heap of goodies. An event with genre publisher Hirst Books. They will be bringing along a host of his writers for a day on Saturday, 7th January. Three episodes of Coronation Street from 1968 penned by the legendary Jack Rosenthal and performed on the ground floor of the pub, cast by the great June West of the Road to Coronation Street fame. A revival of Jack’s Play for Today from 1974 ‘Hot Fat’, never since repeated and the tapes have been LONG wiped by the BBC. Oh… and an adaptation of Russell T. Davies’ Midnight, originally from the 2008 run of Doctor Who in our claustrophobic Salmon Room upstairs.

B: How did you get permission to put on a performance of Halo Jones and also Russell T Davies’ Midnight?

G: Well, we asked Rebellion [publishers of 2000 AD] very nicely and they very kindly allowed us to perform Halo. Similarly with Russell, who is a fan of [Gareth's rightly celebrated Doctor Who fanzine] Vworp Vworp and knows the Lass from his BBC Manchester days (apparently he lost his watch there in the nineties. We’ve still not found it!), although what we’re adapting is the script and characters created by Russell. Nowhere are the Doctor or Donna to be seen, but a brand new mysterious stranger known only as John Smith. You may recognise him….

B: Word is that you had to chat to Tharg himself, the mighty Mr. Moore and that you’ve been seen in the company of television giant, Russell T Davies. It must be a big thrill to be rubbing shoulders with (or making phone calls to) these guys. Are you in geek heaven?

G: Oh absolutely. In fact, it’s like being controller of your own TV channel! Alan has been very kind to us with Vworp Vworp and he’s such a pleasure to work with. I was adamant we wouldn’t do Halo unless Alan was cool with it, even though it’s not his IP, it’s important to let people know what you’re about and what we’re here for. Ditto with Russell who we’ve got to know again through Vworp Vworp, so we want it to be right. The Lass doesn’t profit by a penny from Halo or Midnight. We do it, because we want to and we love the material. And it’s often completely forgotten, but these guys are fans of things too. We’re all fans.

B: Please tell us about the theatre space you’ve got at the Lass.

G: Well, we have a wee space above the pub called the Salmon Room (named after our good pal, the artist Adrian Salmon) which we’ve developed as we’ve gone along into a great studio space that seats around 35 people. Our budget is non-existent, but we work our capital hard and with support from sponsors, we do manage miracles. Of course, a first for us this January is to use the ground floor of the pub to stage things, so Halo and Corrie will be down there and that will be amazing.

B: Tell us about the mighty publishing adventure that has been Vworp Vworp. It’s a fanzine that, I think, is fair to say, has exceeded expectations?

G: Again, we’ve been blown away by the supper for our little fanzine, but the love and nostalgia seems to have been there, which is lovely. I mean, what could be better than publishing a lost Abslom Daak tale from Steve Moore? And working with people whose work I so admire like Steve Dillon, Steve Moore, Dez Skinn, Mick McMahon, Alan McKenzie, Ade Salmon and Martin Geraghty is so not work. It’s an honour.

B: What’s the word on Vworp Vworp 3? What’s in it and when’s it out?

G: Well we’re beavering away — myself and co-editor Colin Brockhurst — and we’re aiming for Summer 2012. And you can look forward to a frankly amazing chat with Alan Moore talking about his early Doctor Who and Empire Strikes Back strips, his thoughts on contemporary Doctor Who and something so top secret, you’ll weep when you read it. Elsewhere, we’ve more Abslom Daak as well as a sequel to the seminal Iron Legion strip penned by Lance Parkin with pencils and inks by Dan McDaid and colours by Charlie Kirchoff. And, of course, another wizard free gift that will top issue #1′s transfers and #2′s Weetabix cards.

B: What’s next for you, the Lass and for your adventures in pub theatre?

G: Well, we’ve ambitions for a much bigger space up there to make the Lass a proper, London-style theatrepub. We’ll see…

B: Finally, there’s quite a lot going on year round at the Lass. What regular events might the blog’s readers want to pop along to?

G: We open our doors to Doctor Who fans on the last Saturday of every month in the Snug for drinks and the occasional screenings. We also hold retro gaming nights on the second Friday and last Tuesday of the month, as well as open mics, book clubs, karaoke, meat-free Mondays and the like. Come see us on Facebook, or bob over to www.thelass.co.uk!

Thanks to Gareth and Bat for taking the time to conduct this interview. Bat, a short, balding man with (according to his dad) ‘shifty eyes’ was last seen at Manchester Piccadilly Station clutching a stained copy of Fantastic Four #6. If anyone has any information about his whereabouts, please contact us here at the blog. His mum is very worried about him. (To be honest, we’re not that bothered, we know he’ll come home when he gets hungry enough.)The Halo Jones stage production runs from the 2nd to 7th January, a fine way to start the New Year – if you’re in town please do go along and give them some support.

But why do I want to write a column? And what will I be writing about?

I don’t really like keeping a blog. I’ve tried over the last few years (mainly because I felt, as a freelance writer, that I should have somewhere to showcase myself). However, my latest effort has just gone ‘boom’ due to inattention because…

Time for a digression.

A few years ago I was at a comics convention talking to Colin Mathieson of Accent UK and he identified me as “The man who keeps starting and then deleting blogs.” (that’s not entirely accurate – you’re also the man who starts and deletes Twitter accounts too! – Joe)

I can commit to certain things in life: I can commit to my friends, my family and to the Doctor (until recently at least: ‘appointment drama’, who needs it?) But I can never seem to commit to blogs. They’re just too f**king needy. Rapacious little content eaters that… well, they’re not for me.

An occasional column at the FPI blog gives me the best of all worlds. I’ve got a place to put writing that I’m not being paid for, but I’m not solely responsible for all the content here and if I fall off the radar, well… it was nice while it lasted.

That’s the why. Now what about the what…

I’ll be writing mostly about comics (no surprise there) but I hope to filter the medium through the wider lens of society. In fact, what I imagine I’ll write about a lot is hacking.

A pause. Another digression and another explanation:

A few weeks ago (or a month, maybe more), there was an interesting article in the Guardian about hacking. (I can’t find it online but if anyone can and they want to send it to me, I’d be most grateful.) The piece discussed the fact that (and I’m working from memory here) the classic stereotypical image of a hacker is almost wholly negative. That what springs to mind when someone uses the term ‘hacker’ is a programmer who uses their expertise and knowledge to disrupt computer systems. To steal money perhaps…

But not all hacking is negative. After all, a hacker can go into a system and try to improve it. The article further posited hacking as a metaphor for any intervention we make in life and that idea really caught my imagination. I’m a member of a local gardening group — co-project-managing a community allotment scheme — and now every time I sit down to devote time to my work with the group, I think of it as a hack. We’re hacking society. We’re hacking the land.

(cover art to Commando Book #4385, Deserter, written by Matthew Badham, art by Macabich, published and (c)  DC Thomson)

But what has that got to do with comics?

Well, comics is full of hackers…

From creator to fan.

Writers and artists create content that reflects their world-view and then filters down to fans (although they don’t always accept it unquestioningly, of course, as many creators can testify to). Fans use their wallets to decide which titles live or die. Retailers betray bias in their shelf-space arrangement, even if unconsciously. Con-organisers make the spaces in which feuds happen and friendships are formed. Bloggers throw words and images into the idea-scape, which spark, rebound and reverberate.

And they all shape comics. Put their values somewhere on the agenda. For good or ill.

And that’s what I want to write about.

So, yeah, what do I hope this column will be about? Comics — from fan to creator — and hacking… and, if all goes a plan, a bit more besides.

Matt Badham has written articles for the Big Issue in the North, Comic Heroes and the Judge Dredd Megazine. He’s also had three of his comic scripts realised, in 2000 AD, Commando Picture Library and Zarjaz. He can be contacted via mattbadham (at) hotmail (dot) com.

If you’d like Matt to mention your stuff (comics, books, cakes, board games, card games, beer or whatever), then feel free to drop him a line and send him a sample. If he likes your product and the ethic behind it, he’ll try to give you a plug. If he doesn’t, then he won’t. (Also, if you’re an individual or small company then he’s more likely to give you a plug. If you’re a mega-corp, you might just be wasting your time sending anything.)

This time round, Matt would like to direct your attention to the fantastic Thrillpowered Thursday blog, which as the name infers, covers the great institution, 2000 AD. (Yes, he’d like to plug blogs and websites too that catch his eye.)

Panel Borders: Comic Book Caption(s), tonight on Resonance FM at 5pm, podcast on Panel Borders afterwards

Starting a month of shows about comic book shops, we have three interviews recorded at Oxford’s small press comics convention ‘Caption’. Alex Fitch talks to Doctor Who comic illustrator Al Davison, who runs a graphic novels and art supply shop in Coventry and to former Gay Comics writer Will Morgan, one of the proprietors of a comic book shop in Putney which specialises in classic British titles. Also, 2000AD artist P.J. Holden is interviewed by comics journalist Matt Badham, about the shops he frequented while growing up in Belfast.

(The smiling eyes of the Corinthian in The Dreaming, borrowed from Al Davison’s site)

Panel Borders: The art of P.J. Holden

An extra online exclusive episode of Panel Borders, to compliment this week’s broadcast show – in an interview recorded at Oxford’s Caption comic book festival in 2010, comics journalist Matt Badham talks to 2000AD artist P.J. Holden about his work, from his formative years combining art and computers to getting his first Judge Dredd assignment and his most recent projects.

Recent podcasts:

Electric Sheep Magazine Podcast: Stanisław Lem and Russian Science-Fiction

Electric Sheep Magazine editor Virginie Sélavy talks to Russian scholar Sergei Kapterev (Institute of Cinema Art in Moscow) about Soviet science fiction and the connection between SF cinema and politics, the impact of the space race and the Cold War period, and Roger Corman’s re-edits of popular Soviet SF films. (Originally broadcast 15/07/11 on Resonance FM)

Plus, in a Q & A recorded at Sci-Fi London, April, 2010, Alex Fitch talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and SF writer / journalist Wojciech Orliński about cinematic adaptations of the work of Stanisław Lem from Steven Soderbergh and Andrei Tarkovsky’s adaptations of Solaris to more offbeat films such as Edward Zebrowski’s The Hospital of Transfiguration.

Panel Borders: Kieron Gillen – Gameplay and fantasy comics

Concluding our month of shows looking at the crossover between comics and games, Alex Fitch talks to writer Kieron Gillen about how his history as a video and computer game journalist has influenced his comic writing career. Alex and Kieron talk about the latter’s experience writing for Warhammer Monthly, developing an online game The Curfew for Channel Four and how game playing has only had a small impact on his writing Thor and Uncanny X-Men.

(scene from the 2000AD Future Shock Cargo Cult by Arthur Wyatt and Edmund Bagwell)

“Matt: When did you decide that rather than being ‘just a fan’, you wanted to be a creator?

Arthur: Well, it might have been when I was very earnestly doodling Nemesis the Warlock or the ABC Warriors on schoolbooks in imitation of Kevin O’Neil or the Biz, but I don’t really think that was going anywhere. I actually started writing comics and being involved in the small press scene around about the time I was heading off to university, during the ‘dark times’ when I’d left 2000 AD behind for a while. Serious, densely written Vertigo-style books were very much the model I was following, with the odd EC comics pastiche or SF piece in between the angsty slice of life works; slices of life being of course that much more difficult to portray if you’ve only really lived a little of it.

Then I pretty much put that all away, got a degree, got a job, moved to London, forgot about it until I picked up Prog 2001, saw the submission guidelines for Future Shocks (always a favourite) and decided to give it a go. “

First up we have Dan Lockwood, editor of the Lovecraft Anthology Volume 1 (available now) and Volume 2 (coming March 2012 – just in time for the end of the world?). I do rather like (and agree with) Lockwood’s response to Matt’s question – can comics scare?

“I think horror works well in pretty much every medium – it’s just the approach which differs. In comics, the nature of the medium means that you tend not to get the physical jolt which film or TV can provide, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be scary. It’s about building tension through atmosphere and the structure of the story. Unsettling images and layouts also play an important role. For example, as a teenager I was haunted by Raymond Briggs’ When The Wind Blows – not strictly a horror comic, but tragic and terrifying nonetheless. Last year, I was genuinely freaked out by John Hicklenton’s 100 Months, which was emotionally raw and profoundly disturbing. These books are very different in style and detail, but both contain particular images which will stay with me for the foreseeable future. I think that whenever a reader is drawn into unfamiliar territory, there’s scope to scare them.”

After that there’s an interview with INJ Culbard, artist of the Sherlock Holmes graphic novels with Ian Edginton and his Lovecraft adaptation At The Mountains Of Madness. His second Lovecraft adaptation The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward comes out in March 2012.

Badham also interviews Culbard’s writing partner on the Sherlock Holmes books and on the forthcoming Princess Of Mars (February 2012) Ian Edginton.

And it’s rounded out with an interview with Matt Brooker/D’Israeli; artist on Edginton’s Lovecraft strip in the anthology and artist on the great Edginton/D’Israeli works Leviathan, Stickleback and the forthcoming Warren Ellis written SVK.

The interview is cross posted here and at Down The Tubes and the original is on Matt’s blog.

Okay, over to Matt:

West, by Andrew Cheverton and Tim Keable, is one of my favourite indie comics. It’s the story of Jerusalem West, a conflicted anti-hero with a chequered and incident-filled past. West is smart, sophisticated storytelling that both subverts and embraces Western tropes.

And I’m not the only one who likes it…

The Forbidden Planet International blog reckon that ‘… with this Morricone, Leone, Eastwood-inspired Western tale, Cheverton and Keable have delivered the goods.’ Meanwhile, Comics – on the Ration has called it ‘ …very well-written and well researched…’

I decided to chat with Andrew and Tim about West and the following interview was the result:

(Above: An atmospheric panel from West: Stray Bullets. Art by Tim Keable.)

Please tell me how West first came about?

Andrew: Towards the end of 1993, I had packed in my job to look after our newborn son and started working Saturdays in the local comic shop to keep my sanity. Tim was one of the customers pointed out by the manager as ‘a good sort’. We began to discuss comics, movies, books and television shows, and have never really stopped. Our tastes are quite consistent with each other, and whenever we do disagree we have the best debates and arguments.

During this time, I had become quite prolific on the old Comics International email group. I was later selected by moderator Phil Hall (based, I assumed, on my sarcastic and profane comic reviews on that group) to write for his online comics PDF magazine, Borderline. Initially, I did an opinion column called The Blank Page, though I later branched out to reviews and even a few interviews (culminating in a Grendel feature/interview with Matt Wagner, who was my idol at the time). Through Borderline I met such people as Jay Eales and Selina Lock, and was exposed to the British small press scene. Tim and I went up to a Caption event one year (2004, maybe? Whichever was the last one held in the Oxford Students’ Union bar) and were so enthused we began, separately, to get work published in The Girly Comic.

After having been friends for about a decade at this point, one day I asked Tim if we should probably work together on a short comic strip.

His answer was, simply, “Okay. Something with cowboys or Romans.”

Tim: I’d like to add that the Caption event was definitely in 2003. Also, I seem to remember Andy saying to me that cowboys or Romans were definitely not his thing. Then, about a week later he called me up all enthused telling me he had an idea for a cowboy story!

Then he had another one…

And another….

(Above: It all kicks off in a story from West: Stray Bullets. Art by Paul Rainey.)

What experience have you guys got outside of small press comics? (Tim, didn’t you work on Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) under John Freeman?)

Tim: Yes, many years ago I did some one-off illustrations for DWM. I did these for John and for his successor, Gary Russell. Later I did some back cover CD illustrations for Big Finish’s Dalek Empire which led to one more illustration accompanying an article in DWM about these. That would’ve been in about 2003. I also illustrated Jim Mortimore’s Blood Heat. That was for Virgin’s Doctor Who [novels] range in the nineties.

Andrew: My experience, as far as writing goes, doesn’t really extend beyond the stuff I did for Borderline and the two or three short strips I did for Factor Fiction (I think that Believers – the first West strip, published inViolent! – was the third script I sent Jay and Selina). The debut issue of West, Justice, was the first time I ever wrote a full-length comic.

Had you both been ‘creative types’ since childhood? Always doodling or writing? Andrew, you draw as well as write don’t you? Tim, do you write?

Andrew: Actually, I can’t say that I was especially creative as a child, beyond the sort of thing all kids do. I had always drawn, copying characters from Marvel comics and, later, 2000 AD, but it was never for more than my own amusement, though I would always add an illustration to the interior of friends’ birthday cards. I barely scraped through O-Level art at school.

Writing short stories was something I experimented with in my teens, but that was just for fun too. I didn’t do it with a view to submitting to magazines. Back then it was all longhand and typewriters, and I had neither the patience nor the attention span.

If it hadn’t been for Borderline (and having a PC word processor to organise my chaotic thoughts into actual writing) I wouldn’t have been encouraged to write again, and wouldn’t have become aware of the opportunities of the small press and desktop publishing.

Of course, once I did start writing again, I had more stories than I had artists to draw them. So that was a matter of sitting down, looking hard at the comic artists I liked (Ted McKeever, Mick McMahon, Matt Wagner, Nabiel Kanan) and teaching myself how to draw all over again.

Tim: I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember. At school other kids would get me to draw things for them. Usually Spitfires and the like…

I don’t really write. It’s not something that comes naturally to me. Guns on a Cold Morning is about it, I’m afraid! That was a short West story that appears in Tall Tales, which was a collection of short stories we put out a couple of years ago.

I was messing about in my notebook and sketched an image of these guns poking out of a saloon window. Then I thought about who might be behind those guns. Then I thought it’d be fun if they were all lying in wait for West.

I didn’t really write it. I just drew it then did some dialogue afterwards.

It was an exercise in page design really. I’d been looking at some of Dave Sim’s crazy page layouts and I wanted to have a go at it.

Then Andy had me add one line and suddenly it fit in with the big West story line.

There’s been a lot of serendipity about West.

(Above: Art by the talented Emma Price from the West: Stray Bullets anthology.)

So, how did West start to cohere into an ongoing after that first strip?

Tim: Andy just kept coming up with new ideas. I think it’s best if he tells that one.

Andrew: Believers was, by publishing necessity (Violent! being an anthology title), only six pages long. I wanted it to be both a classic western, but also different. The last panel was the first thing that occurred to me: the gunfighter, his pistol emptied, facing off against a gang of men with only bluff and his reputation. Writing the five pages leading up to that was simple enough, in retrospect. [It was a] classic barroom shootout. I didn’t really give it any thought after it had been sent off to the editors.

But every once in a while Tim would ask me what happened next. I didn’t know. We leave West there in the street, his gun empty, facing down two hardened gunfighters armed to the teeth, with only bravado to save him. That’s the point of the story. Either the bad guys would draw and shoot him, or they’d both sheepishly wander off, their tails between their legs. Neither are good endings.

The only option – as I wanted to keep working with Tim – was to do a prequel. After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with what I thought was a simple Western ghost story. I checked with Tim that veering into fantasy territory was okay with him and started writing what became Justice. At some early point I may have naively thought I was writing another short strip that we’d send to Violent!, but it rapidly became clear that I was writing my first full-length comic.

As is usually the way with these things, the writing of one story lead to another, and a character for Jerusalem West began to form.

I read up on a bit of Wild West history and the thing that struck me was that there didn’t seem to be as many ‘bad guys’ and ‘good guys’ as the movies would have it. Outlaws would become lawmen and vice versa. Law-abiding men were easily driven to murder and men would travel, learning trades to survive. It seemed like one man could be, in a lifetime, many men to different people, depending on which stage of his life they’d known him.

As we’d already set the non-chronological template for West, I liked the idea of jumping around in time; it gave us the opportunity to tell many different types of story and to change West’s personality a little bit to suit. In some stories, like Population 489 and The Last Bounty, he’s proactive, with an agenda (even if it’s not entirely clear from just that story what his agenda might be). Some other tales, like Justice and High Moon, simply feature West while the story essentially unfolds around him.

And, as you say, ‘cohere’ is the right word. I have the whole story in my head (in fact, I have the final story already written), but it evolves in small ways all the time. High Moon, for instance, was a deliberate reaction to my noticing that the first two issues had West walk into a town, have an adventure and then leave. So I pointedly started High Moon mid-adventure, told a separate story in the middle, and then had West abandon it halfway. I figured if the audience we’d built up at that point would go for it – would quite happily read a comic with one and two half stories in – then we were probably on to something.

(Above: Jerusalem West, in trouble as always. Art by Andrew Cheverton from West: Stray Bullets.)

Have you guys been surprised (gratified?) by the positive critical reception West has received?

Tim: Absolutely! Even more important to me is the vibe I get from the punters who regularly buy the book. I mean, sometimes it can be a real struggle creating something like this while doing a full-time job as well. Enthusiasm is a strange viscous thing that grows and shrinks. Meeting the people who like what you do and keep coming back for more is very important as a driving force. That and the sheer vibe I get from reading one of Andy’s scripts for the first time. It makes it all worthwhile.

As for critical acclaim… I tend not to read our reviews. I get Andy to do it for me so I only get to hear about the good ones, lol!!

Andrew: Gratified, yes. It’s always good to see that your hard work is rewarded.

Surprised? If I’m honest, no. I don’t mean that to sound conceited. What I mean is, I think anyone who creates something knows when they’ve done well, and every issue we finish is, I think, good work. If I didn’t think my scripts were up to scratch, Tim wouldn’t get to see them. And I have no doubt that if Tim thought his art was substandard, I’d never see that. Every once in a while, Tim will pick out something in the script that doesn’t work well – as I will in the art – but these are rare instances. By the time each issue is finished, it’s the absolute best work we can do. I’m surprised, however, that so many people like it and like it as much as they do.

Having said that, I wasn’t at all sure at the beginning who our audience would possibly be; after all, embarking on a multi-issue, non-chronological Western series and randomly switching genres with almost every issue isn’t what you’d call a targeted plan. It’s pretty much all of the things you’re not supposed to do if you want to reach a market. But we’ve ended up with readers of all ages and both genders. I like to think that’s because we quickly steered away from using strong Deadwood-style profanity and portrayed strong female characters, on the few occasions women enter what is largely a male-dominated genre. As West is coming from the classic western background where his wife was killed, I think it’s important to balance that with other women who aren’t simply there to provide the men with vengeful motivation.

(Above: Jerusalem West under siege in a strip from West: Stray Bullets. Art by Warwick Johnson Cadwell.)

It suddenly occurs to me that I haven’t asked you chaps for the ‘Hollywood-style’ high concept that underpins West, which would be useful for those unfamiliar with the series…

Andrew: West is, at its heart (and as much as we can make it), self-contained stories set in the Wild West – but that layer each other the more [of them] you read. For the first six issues (what we’re now calling Volume One), it wasn’t obvious that the whole thing hangs together as a totality; that every issue contributes something to a larger story the reader can’t yet see. Volume Two (so far comprising the two parts of Distance) makes these connections far more apparent. Those two issues build up to one name written on a piece of paper, the name of a seemingly random bad guy from a previous issue. It was very satisfying to hear from people who read that and then went back and reread everything. That’s what I want: to let people make their own connections from the clues we drop and to occasionally surprise them with something they never saw coming.

Tim: Okay. How about ‘Classic Revenge Western meets Universal Horror taking in George Romero on the way’?

How’s that for a Hollywood high concept pitch?

Andrew, you mentioned that you’ve taught yourself to draw so you could illustrate your own comics. What fresh insights, if any, has that given you into the medium of comics? Also, do you think it’s helped your writing at all?

Andrew: For a start, I’ve stopped writing so many 12-panel pages for Tim to draw! He hates those and now I understand why.

When I write a script (and I even write myself a script for the stories I plan to draw), I like to keep beats and moments running through the pace and I’m fastidious about only switching scenes mid-page if it’s part of the plot. So I have a scene of West and I’m often left with the choice: is this scene worth two pages of steady action, or can I fit everything into one page? If it’s three or four pages, where are the breaks, the mini-cliffhangers and moments of action or dialogue that I can end a page with to keep the reader turning the page? As soon as I isolate those moments, I have the pace of a scene and that’s something that I thought I knew as a writer, but I have a more solid sense of it now that I draw. As soon as I start edging over six panels [on a page], I start to fret about it. I write West full script and I like to write dialogue, so the tendency to fill the page is always there. Six panels is about our comfortable limit (though I tend towards five or seven, to keep Tim from using a standard 2×3 panel grid!), unless we’re opting for multiple small panels or splash pages for effect, such as we used in Distance.

For my own comics, I love tiny panels. I hate drawing big. It’s something I’ll need to learn, but my preference is small panels of close-up faces: intimate character-based comics. I’m lucky enough to get people asking me to draw their scripts. It’s a learning curve but I like to be challenged, otherwise I won’t get any better. But once these next couple of scripts for other people are done, I’m settling down to draw a couple of projects I want to write for myself.

(Above: It’s not all about Wild West shoot-outs. A romantic scene from a West: Stray Bullets story. Art by Jenika Ioffreda.)

Tim, have you got anything you want to say on that subject?

Tim: Only that I think Andy’s scripts are more visual now. I should qualify that: they were always visual but there was plenty of dialogue too. In fact when we came to publish the collection, Andy told me he was struck by how verbose the older stories seemed to be compared with what he does now. These days he’s much more confident using an image to tell the story.

I also happen to think he has a very beautiful art style and he’s much more confident about placing blacks than I am!

Please tell me about the the various West comics that are coming out in 2011, plus any other projects that are ongoing for you, either as individuals or as a team?

Tim: As far as 2011′s comics go I’ll leave that to Andy.

I don’t really have time for any other projects although I try to do one-off paintings when I can and I’m always happy to take commissions.

Andrew: The current issue of West is Stray Bullets, which is a bumper-sized special (32 pages!), crammed full of short stories drawn by guest artists. As well as having art by Tim and me, we also have Paul Rainey, Warwick Johnson Cadwell, Emma Price and Jenika Ioffreda. It started out as a way to give Tim time to get ahead of his schedule, not only so that he isn’t facing publishing deadlines all the time, but also to get him into a comfortable position to start work on our own bumper-sized West issue coming up soon – that one’s called Points West. In between both of these issues, though, we have Confederate Dead, which is the script Tim’s drawing now.

For myself, I’ve recently drawn a script Rol Hirst wrote called Face For Radio, a one-pager for Simon M’s The Sorry Entertainer, a newspaper comics anthology, and I’m writing and drawing a one-off comic called Pictures Made Of Light. Also, I’m writing a script for an AccentUK book, but I don’t think they’ve announced that yet!

After that, both Tim and I are drawing some very short strips for a new Rol Hirst series, and I’m working with Chris Doherty (creator of the excellent Video Nasties) on a miniseries called The Whale House, which will be an off-kilter family drama, partially inspired by two types of movies – the American ‘awkward Thanksgiving get-together’ movie and the British ‘Old Dark House’ movie. I’m writing and Chris is drawing, but we’re thrashing out the details and the characters at the moment.

(Above: Andrew takes time out from West to illustrate Rol Hirst’s Face for Radio.)

Where do you hope to be in five years, with West and as creators?

Tim: In five years I hope West will be reaching a much bigger audience. Also I’d like to be able to spend more time on my drawing and less time in wage slavery!

Andrew: Last year was personally quite stressful and busy for me. I managed to keep on top of our commitments to West – we finished both the issues we planned, and we finally had the collection published – but I wasn’t in any real frame of mind for much else. We’d like to persevere with getting West: Justice into some comic shops and submitted to distributors. We actually took the book into a couple of small press-friendly London comic stores and were pretty much rebuffed out of hand. That was a knock-back, considering the reviews and feedback we’ve had on it as a professional-looking package. But, as with anything, I guess it’s just a matter of plugging away at it. I have faith that it’s a good story, well told. We’ll get it finished one way or the other.

Thanks to Andrew and Tim for taking time to talk to me. For more on West, visit http://www.angrycandy.co.uk/

- And thanks to Matt for giving us the chance to share it with you. Like he said right at the beginning, we’re big fans of West here at the FPI Blog. Stray Bullets certainly looks a very nice continuation of the saga – you can buy your copy at the Angry Candy store here. West: Stray Bullets is written by Andrew Cheverton and illustrated by Jenika Ioffreda, Emma Price, Warwick Johnson Cadwell, Paul Rainey, Tim Keable, and Andrew Cheverton.

(cover art to Commando Book #4385, Deserter, written by Matthew Badham, art by Macabich, published and (c)  DC Thomson)

From the official description: “Abraham Brown’s older brother Robert went off to serve in the US Army in the American Civil War…and he didn’t come back. Abraham followed in his footsteps grimly determined to avenge his brother’s death. But when he discovered that it hadn’t been enemy action that ended Robert’s life but a pack of outlaws he saw only one way to settle the score — and that meant deserting the flag he signed up to serve.” Congrats to Matt!

On a related topic, Matt also has work in the new 2000 AD fanzine Zarjaz #11 (the one with the fab Clint Langley cover we mentioned recently), with a story featuring Pat Mills’ Steelhorn from the ABC Warriors. On working with both Zarjaz and Commando Matt offered up praise for support from the editorial teams,  commenting “Dave Evans and Richmond Clements (Zarjaz) and Calum Laird (Commando) can, if my experience is anything to go by, spot a plot inconsistency at 100 paces. They’re also pretty good at solving them...”

(opening page to Deserter, by Matt Badham and Macabich, published DC Thomson)

NB: Matt Badham, Richard Bruton, various readers of this blog and members of the 2000AD online forum wrote the questions for this interview. (Thanks, blog readers and forum dwellers, you came up with questions that we would never have thought of in a thousand years.) The finished piece was copy-edited by Matt Badham and Joe Gordon. In this first part Pat talks about his writing and how he approaches it, how some of his series, such as Savage and the ABC Warriors are increasingly sharing a history, how he works with artists and also some of the darker side of the comics business, such as the less than kind way some fine writers and artists and their creations have been treated. The second part will follow tomorrow.

Matt: Is writing ever a hard slog for you or is it always a pleasure?

Pat: It’s always a pleasure these days because the stories reflect something I’m interested in. Occasionally the tight, six-page format on 2000AD can be restricting, so good scenes get left out. That means the scenes don’t always flow as well as I would like and that can be a bit negative.

Matt: Why has 2000AD endured?

Pat: It had very firm foundations, but some years ago this wasn’t always recognized so the formulae got messed with to its detriment (e.g. that phase where it seemed to be influenced by Loaded). Not any more, thank goodness. The first Dredd story, the first Flesh story, the first few episodes of Invasion (Savage) and others still stand the test of time.  Great writers and artists have come and gone but the comic has survived their departure, so it has to be the product itself. So I think it has to be about sticking to the roots of the comic and the best of the newer stories reflect this.

(Prog 1 of 2000 AD from 1977)

Matt: Do you prefer the weekly serial format of 2000AD for your stories or would it be better for you to be able to realise them as part-work graphic novels? What are the advantages/disadvantages of writing for both formats?

Pat: I think ultimately graphic novels are the way forward. 2000AD is like Private Eye, a magazine held in great affection and therefore likely to continue for many years, and it’s possible to adapt to new times and new ways of story telling.

Also, the readers like cliff-hangers which you don’t get in a graphic novel AND it is a great way to train new artists and even test out new stories without releasing a whole album.

Matt: Do you still consider your characters to take place in the same shared universe as Dredd or was the whole shared world something you wrote into scripts when you were initially editing 2000AD? If you prefer for your characters to exist in their own ‘universe’ is this why you tweaked the dates of the wars in your recent ABC Warriors?

Pat: I think basically my stories are in one universe and the Dredd stories are in another. There has been the odd link. But there’s never been any great impetus to take this further.  I am enjoying linking Savage into the ABC Warriors early years… and there is more of this to come!

(Bill Savage, the British resistance hero, there in the early days of 2000 AD and still, under Pat’s pen, popular with readers 30 years later)

Matt: In the flashbacks to the Volgan Wars in recent ABC Warriors why did you decide not to include Happy Shrapnel, the only original warrior we’ve never seen outside of their original run? Was there something about the character you didn’t like? He was originally killed ‘off-screen’, I seem to remember…

Pat: I have plans for Happy Shrapnel, which are already set up in the script. Only problem is that it takes forever to get each book out, so it may be a while before you will see the connection.

Matt: Also, was it your intention that Happy Shrapnel appeared to be self-censoring? In the early strips he makes a buzz sound every time it looks like he is about to swear.

Pat: Yes, absolutely. But when he reappears, he may well be very different.

Matt: I seem to recall, perhaps wrongly, that you originally planned to make a series with Joe Pineapples as a private detective in the Gothic Empire. Is this true and if it is, is it a concept you would ever consider revisiting?

Pat: Yes. I think all the ABC Warriors could make their own series. But we’re always up against difficulties of time and artist availability.

Matt: How did the Martians (in ABC Warriors) survive the Torquemada era, being so close to Termight?

Pat: That’s a damn good point. I think there’s (another) missing story that could cover this. Probably to do with the fear of Medusa. Governments can often ignore regimes that are alien to them when it suits them. e.g. the USA is hostile to Iran, but not Saudi Arabia.

Matt: Why do you think science fiction and fantasy stories are such good vehicles for satires and political allegory? If, indeed, you agree that they are…

Pat: I think they’re good vehicles and make good stories. There was a recent Nemesis lecture at a college, for instance, doubtless analysing its sub-text. But I think that oblique allegory often doesn’t hit the mark and is seen as just a great story. People fall in love with the wrapping paper not what’s inside. Example: High Noon, inspired by the McCarthyism in the 1950s. But who is interested – if, indeed, they knew this? I personally like “on the nose” material, but I realise I’m in a minority here, probably a minority of one!

A good further example of all this is Charley’s War which does not use satire or allegory, it shoots from the hip. No wrapping paper. Many would say it’s my strongest story and I’d agree.

Matt: You seem to have had great success in matching artists to your scripts to get the very best out of both, with them frequently producing the best work of their careers. How do you go about finding and choosing artists, and persuading editors to use them? In particular I’m thinking of Mick McMahon here… while Belardinelli was the perfect if obvious choice for a rural fantasy world, McMahon had produced gritty SF all the way up to his incredible work on Sláine.

Pat: Mike had always wanted to do Sláine, but it was important to create a beautiful natural world first, which Bellardinelli achieved. Then it was set up for Mike. But readers divided fiercely at the time between which artist they preferred, which was painful for all of us. It’s a tricky, time-consuming process… example: I have a new artist in James McKay for Flesh.  It took me ten months for his first episode to be ready for 2000AD. It takes so long because I know what I want from an artist… and what the readers expect… so I have to be very critical to get the right look. I’m very excited about bringing Flesh back. It’s time it was done properly.

Matt: Was it as hard as people say to control Simon Bisley’s alleged artistic excesses or was that the editor’s job?

Pat: I think I was lucky as I was working with Simon at the beginning of his career. And on ABC Warriors, I deliberately wrote all the biker stories for Simon and the others for SMS. So both were drawing stories they wanted to draw. I still miss SMS, by the way. He is a brilliant artist who got ‘pushed out’ because his face or style somehow didn’t fit. I would love to see him work for 2000AD again.

Matt: You sometimes tailor your scripts to artists, as in the case of SMS and Bisley. How often, if at all, does it work the other way? Do artists ever offer story or ‘scene’ suggestions to you?

Pat: Yes, they certainly suggest scenes from time to time. For instance, James McKay suggested a scene in Flesh where a Quetzal bird attacks. Similarly I had a scene in Hell Creek Montana and he added the detail that the biodiversity there is all wrong. This prompted the idea that it was time-travelling Flesh hunters having wiped out the local wild life that caused this. Kevin O’Neill often suggested scenes on Marshal Law and the most anti-super hero scenes are generally his!  For instance, in Cloak of Evil, the Street Surgeon’s car was Kevin’s idea.

(you are never too old to enjoy some major dinosaur action – one of early 2000 AD’s most popular strips, Flesh, returns in Prog 1724, out on March 9th)

Matt: I was saddened to read that Clint Langley is leaving Sláine. What do you think he has brought to the character over his eight year run?

Pat: I think he brought back the epic nature and totally empathised with the way I saw the character. His version is definitive. There had been some problematic art before Clint. This was actually the fault of the editors at the time not the artists, who were not correctly briefed by them. This caused the character to lose ground. Clint brought it back to its old popularity and beyond and also established a unique graphic novel format that has found huge favour in the UK and abroad. He did all those extra pages for nothing or virtually for nothing. That’s one hell of an achievement.

Matt: Were those extra pages for the graphic novel collections?

Pat: Yes. I think he did many for free.

Matt: Is Clint leaving ABC Warriors as well?

Pat: No, he’s not leaving ABC Warriors. And I’ll be writing a new ABC when I find time.

Matt: Thinking about Sláine made me think about the first artist on the strip, Angela Kincaid. What was her contribution to the strip and its development?

Pat: Everything.  It was massive. It was the first story where the hero smiled and looked sexy to women and looked tough without being a macho git. You will find female fans will particularly note how they liked her interpretation.

All of this was down to her and all of it is hellishly difficult to make work. ‘Episode Ones’ are the hardest in the world to get right.

All the key visual ingredients in Sláine she created, which I made damn sure of. Because I sensed if anything was created subsequently her achievement would be diminished by her critics. As indeed it was anyway.

Matt: What makes first episodes so hard to get right?

Pat: Because you’re starting with a blank sheet of paper. The story could go anywhere. The art could go anywhere. What holds it all together is the strength of your combined – writer and artist – vision. Creators are sometimes eclipsed by developers [editors etc…] who look at a story and see how to take it further. But it’s that first episode that really counts. I don’t think this is always understood by readers, which is why I make a point of stressing it. Ask yourself how many of those developers have actually created anything comparable and as memorable. The answer is – not often. That doesn’t detract from their talent as developers, but stresses how difficult the creative process is and why it needs the most acknowledgement

Matt: Do you think she’s been slightly, unfairly perhaps, ‘whitewashed’ out of comics history?

Pat: Oh, yeah. Her face never fitted. Not one artist, writer or editor who I knew or was working with at the time rang her up to encourage or support her. As would be the case normally. It was like she didn’t exist. To our surprise, there was silent hostility from within the industry, which I’ve never forgiven. Yet she was the first artist (and possibly the last) whose story beat Dredd in the polls to be number one that week. It never happened again on Sláine, not even with Fabry and Bisley. This unpalatable fact sticks in too many people’s throats so its quietly forgotten.

Ironically she had agreed to create Sláine because she found her own world of illustration, where she was very successful, rather distant and thought she would be part of my usually friendly and supportive comic world. She found the industry so bloody unfriendly that she said never again (plus I’m very tough to work with — there was no nepotism there) [NB: Pat was married to Angela at the time]. Although she helped me out on a few later stories on Crisis when I was up against it time-wise. And her colouring on John Hicklenton’s Inspector Ryan series is genius.

(Some of Angela Kincaid’s artwork for Pat Mills’ popular Sláine for 2000 AD)

Of course no one will ever own up to sexism, jealousy and putting mainstream readers second and fans first, but that’ s what lay behind the passive aggression. Editorial really wanted someone like Mike McMahon, Alan Davis or Cam Kennedy to draw it. All their names were put to me. This would have been aimed more at — what shall I say? — hard-core comic fans. But I wanted it to appeal to mainstream fans. The reader in the street, if you like, who is always my target audience. I wanted a European, illustrated look which — despite imperfections — she was the most suited to achieve. The reason it is a success as a graphic novel and throughout Europe bears this out and owes much to her origination. Her Ukko is still unbeatable. If the foundations are weak, you can’t build even with great artists.

Other artists needed more time to develop their styles further, but were still encouraged at the start of their careers when they were a bit rough round the edges. She got zilch, which is disgraceful.

Matt: When you’re working on a strip like Sláine, do you have a conclusion/potential length in mind or do you prefer to try and let the strip develop organically?

Pat: I try and let them develop organically. Sláine was always designed to be a story that could be wide-ranging and draw on material from different sources.

Matt: How about your other strips, such as Savage?

Pat: I think there are certain aspects of resistance fighting that need to be worked through…. e.g. classic resistance fighting….  escape lines… “Mission to destroy secret weapon”…. gangster stories…  analogies with the way Britain and the USA are invading and occupying other countries and are seen as the Volgans.

I never quite seem to reach the end of those possibilities, although Allied Forces are now established in Wales, but the Volgans are still fighting back.

Matt: The Mills-verse is converging a bit in Savage and the ABC Warriors as you plot some of the development of the ABCs/Ro-Busters in the former? What led you to decide to ‘merge’ the two stories by tying their histories?

Pat: Both featured the Volgans when they first appeared so I think I had to explore how all that made sense – when/where/how etc. It also provided a science fiction element for Savage, which I think it needed to give it a certain visual spice.

Matt: Also, with all these flashbacks in the ABCs, tying in of separate histories, is there any chance we might see some new, untold Nemesis/Torquemada stories?

Pat: I would love to do more Nemesis stories but I always said to Kevin [O'Neill] that once I had pursued and resolved the outstanding story themes I would bring it to a conclusion, rather than have it continue as a “house” character.

(the mighty Kev O’Neill’s artwork complimenting Pat’s writing in the early Nemesis the Warlock, published Rebellion)

Matt: Why do you think the fans love to hate the likes of Torquemada?

Pat: We love villains and Torque is the most appalling of villains.

Matt: Do you think there could be more non-Nemesis stories set in the world of Termight in the vein of the Deadlock stories that you wrote and Henry Flint drew? Would you be interested in that?

Pat: Yes. That’s why I wrote that Deadlock story. I was very disappointed when [former 2000AD Editor Andy] Diggle specifically said he didn’t want to continue that approach, with further post-Torequemada stories, probably because he had plans for Henry elsewhere. I think the opportunity may be lost now.

Matt: You have an aversion to other people writing characters you’ve created. However, you’ve let the guys behind the Zarjaz fanzine play with your characters and offer them to other creators. Why are they the exception?

Pat: Well, Zarjaz is a fanzine so it’s not a threat to my living.  My aversion is well-founded, though. Ten years ago there were definitely plans afoot for people to take over my stories. And there were hungry hacks around at the time in need of a free lunch who would do it. I think my aggressive response at the time helped put a stop to this. Consider how Gerry Finley-Day’s stories got taken over by others and — in my view and of many readers — this was to their detriment. For instance, the sequel to Fiends. Or the sequels to my Flesh Book One. There are numerous other examples.

Perhaps the best is Charley’s War where the new writer killed the number one serial stone dead in a couple of months, despite Joe’s brilliant artwork. That was a tragedy. Publishers and editors I think have finally got the message:  it doesn’t work. No one would ever consider anyone other than Alan Moore writing Halo Jones or D.R. and Quinch.  I think that’s now the same with my stories. This should apply to everyone — including Gerry — not just writers with clout. But if Zarjaz is fun and an homage to the characters, why not? And I really enjoyed their 2000AD Defoe advent fan story. Excellent work.

Matt: You mentioned Gerry Finley-Day as a creator who has been somewhat ‘airbrushed’ out of British comics history. Are there others?

Pat: Gerry is the main one. Girls’ comics writers have also gone off the radar, but I’m doing my best to reverse that. Hence I have an article out in the next Comic Heroes about girls’ comics writers and the way everything began with Gerry.

Matt: Despite your maxim that only creators should write their characters, you have written Dredd in recent years? Why is Dredd the exception?

Pat: Well, firstly I’m the developer of Dredd and my version of Dredd started the character off in the comic before John [Wagner] returned to writing it. But also Dredd is a “house character” whereas my characters are not. I’m told there are great Dredd stories written by other writers, but I think John’s are still the ones that appeal to me.

Matt: In Defoe we don’t know a huge amount about the state of the rest of the world. We know they are importing zombies to the Caribbean instead of slaves (as the Native people, like the Arawak, were destroyed on contact with Europeans) but beyond that… not so much. Are the zombies just a British problem or worldwide? Will we see any of the wider knock-on effects for the rest of the world in Defoe?

(Defoe 1666 by Pat Mills and Leigh Gallagher, published Rebellion)

Pat: I think Britain was the main focus…. Because the Angelic intervention required this in order to create the British Empire. Eventually I’d like to see a wider focus on Defoe’s world, but I reckon he will be in Britain for the next two serials at least after the current one has concluded. I’m so happy writing Defoe… Leigh [Gallagher] is doing a fantastic job!

Matt: If you were editor what would you do differently, if anything, for 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine?

Pat: I think Matt [Smith] is doing a brilliant job editing the comic. As proof… we have had ten years of peace and progress and I can’t speak highly enough of him, and that’s an objective view, Matt can be as tough on my stories as any editor. So I wouldn’t presume to say how he could change it, given the limited resources, writers, artists etc he has available. You can only have one driver. That said, if it had been either of his two predecessors I would have much to say about what should be different. Thank Grud their dark era is over.

Matt: I understand that you wrote “Moonchild” for the comic Misty, but did you do any other serials for it?

Pat: Yes, I wrote a number of stories for Misty. I formatted the self-contained scary stories… although I wasn’t happy with the way they toned my stories down.

These included Paint it Black (which I recycled in Nemesis – about an old house covered in flies)… Roots  (about a horrible secret of why everyone in a village is happy)… and one about poisonous spiders in supermarket bananas.

They toned them all down… annoyingly. But the art was brilliant on Roots!  The standard was as high as anything 2000AD has ever printed. I should try and track down a copy!

I also wrote a serial called Hush Hush, Sweet Rachel about reincarnation (inspired by Audrey Rose) and probably another one whose name I forget.

Matt: If people are trawling though the back issue bins, which girls’ comics/strips would you recommend keeping an eye out for?

Pat: Early issues of Misty… my story Moonchild.  Malcolm Shaw’s story The Sentinels (set in a Nazi Britain).

Matt: Would you like to write for the female market again?

Pat: Yes. I have a graphic novel at early stage — Rose Noir, female vigilante

Matt: Or is that question in itself one you find reductive/sexist? The notion that there is a ‘female market’ distinct from a male one…?

Pat: People sometimes say unisex as a way of justifying and excusing male dominance. Until unisex is truly unisex, I think the term female market is appropriate.  And who buys all those acres of vampire novels like Twilight? They are clearly aimed at a female market.

Part two of Matt’s talk with Pat will appear tomorrow and will see Pat discuss working in comcis in both Britain and France and the pros and cons of each country’s take on comics, his dislike of superheroes, the ‘dark age’ of 2000 AD when he felt the leadership was much less than it should be and branching into writing for other media, with his script for American Reaper.

“Matt: What’s your take on the ‘state of the comics nation’ in terms of letterers/lettering? Are we in a good or bad way?

Jim: As we’ve already touched on, the contraction of the market has seen inking, lettering and colouring squeezed particularly hard. At the end of the day, I suppose that forces you to raise your game if you want to make a living from something like lettering — gigs are relatively thin on the ground, and you’ll only get them by being better than the next guy. In one respect, I have no problem with that — if your work is lazy or substandard then you damn well shouldn’t be getting paying jobs. On the other hand, I also know that Tom Orzechowski doesn’t make that much more a page than I do and that’s crazy. Tom-frickin’-Orzechowski. There’s something wrong there…

The back half of this year — post iPad, unsurprisingly — has seen a noticeable uptick in the amount of work on offer for digital formats, which is very promising. If the comic publishers would just learn the lessons of the music industry rather than appearing hell-bent on repeating their mistakes, we might stand a fighting chance!”