High Hopes for the Hopeless - an interview with Tom Brown

Where and what is Hopeless, Maine? 

So far, it has manifested as a webcomic, a paperback and interactive weblog, before becoming a series of luscious graphic novels and is still growing, currently in the process of being developed as a roleplaying game, a tarot deck, a cuddly ‘spoonwalker’… It has become a many-tentacled beautiful beast and grown into forms that creators Tom and Nimue Brown had not envisaged when they first created the island as a refuge in imagination and settled there to live... 

Tom and Nimue Brown in the middle of Hopeless, Maine

Comic creator, Tom Brown kindly gives Remy Dean a guided tour of the island and chats about steampunk, demons, poetry and pictures. 

Welcome to Hopeless, Maine.

REMY: I know you have been asked this before, but here at Scrawl we are interested in process, so how does the creative collaboration between you and Nimue generally work out? 

TOM: “Well, there’s perhaps less ‘generally’ for us than there is for most for a start. We started out on opposite sides of the Atlantic which put some restrictions on how we could work together. At that point it was Nimue doing the writing and me doing the art, pretty much across the board.

“We would have ‘What if?’ and ‘What even is this?’ conversations a lot. Now, as we work at the same table, things have evolved - and continue to change. Nimue now hand-colours the pages, and though the script for the series has been written for years, we still tinker with each volume as we work on it, and there is the question of what do we do with the chapter covers and two page spreads. They’re always present and used to tell another story, augmenting or filling-in detail to provide information that is not in the scripted pages.

“It's back and forth, really, and though the script is already written, things evolve. For example, I needed some eye candy for a background on a two-page spread, and I drew a giant decaying Victorian industrial site. We then wondered what this was, and how it fit into the history of the island. Nimue ‘discovered’ that this was the abandoned Great Oceanic Gnii refinery.”

OK, for the uninitiated, can you explain what Gnii are?

“Gnii are tentacled creatures native to the island. They lash themselves to bits of stone, often gravestone, and put a lit candle on top to fill their gossamer balloon and float in the skies over the island. Great Oceanic Gnii are their behemoth cousins which no longer visit the island as they have no wish to be pressed for their oil!”

Sometimes, there is a lot going on, visually, in the backgrounds… Do words disappear from the script as the pictures take over telling the stories, so you find you can then strip back the text? 

“Not often, no. Nimue has a very tight writing style and usually the only things edited out of the script are scenes - which though lovely - are not necessary to the plot, or don't move things forward.

“Nimue's original scripts are like scripts for a radio play with little setting information in them, as she relied on me mostly at that point, for the visual ideas. Now that we’re working together in the same place, we sit down and work out the thumbnail drawings for the pages and figure out settings and visual details as we go.”

Hopeless, Maine Book Two: Sinners

Many writers use visual stimulus to spark story ideas - are there images that come to you, including those from within imagination, that then just have to be worked into the story? 

“Yes! Easiest example of that - aside from the time that I did the cover before Nimue had even started the script. Erm... is coming to the UK and seeing teasels for the first time. It became obvious that they belonged on the island, where they became teaselheads... Buildings, landscapes, people, graveyards, that we find interesting or moving usually end up getting into the story, in one way or another.”

The dialogue has a really lovely, sparse rhythm to it and unlike many comics, the characters seem to establish their own distinct voices very quickly. Do you act out the speech and develop the characters in a kind of roleplay ‘rehearsal’ or are they lifted from other sources, like real people or favourite characters in TV shows?

“The truth is that these are people who live in our heads, and Nimue just ‘hears’ them and writes it down. The sparse rhythm may be partly explained by Nimue's interest in flash fiction. She also studies people and thinks a lot about language-use and… pretty much everything. In this way, she’s really working all of the time. Even when asleep!

Is there a typical ‘routine’ to writing days?

“The short answer is, no. We are easily bored creatures and are constantly finding new ways of working.”

Where do you generally write and draw?

“All of the actual ‘work’ happens here, in the flat.”

Do you go on research visits, or do you ever seek out certain environments in which to write?

“We walk for pleasure, and transport, and we frequently do long walks on weekends - 12 to 20 miles… This gives us plenty of input and inspiration, as well as a chance to discuss things as they come up.”

How was the narrow-boat as a studio?

“Bloody awful!

“It was damp, there was no reliable internet, electricity had to come from wind, solar, or running the engine - which I had to do while scanning pages - the boat moved constantly and violently when a large plastic boat came by. I was using watercolours at that point, because computer colouring used too much electricity. When the boat was shoved about, the brush would slip and I would mutter ‘alright, those can be crows, then’.”

OK, so why Maine? 

“Much of the inspiration for the setting comes from my growing up and spending most of my life in Maine, and I have stored up enough from that to keep me going for some time.

“I absorbed the folklore, history, landscape and sense of the place on a deep level, consciously and unconsciously. There is a sort of literary tradition of strange tales set in New England and that was the water that I wanted to swim in.

“I spent much of my life walking the woods, coast and graveyards of Maine - and decorated my home with gravestone rubbings. The setting is really a central character in Hopeless, Maine. Nimue came to visit me there before I moved to marry her, and she was able to see some of the charm and strangeness of the place.”

Artwork for the forthcoming Hopeless Maine Role-playing Game,
the pencils and coloured stages of production... click image for more info

You get the H P Lovecraft comparison quite a bit, which I see as a good thing, but I’m feeling resonances with other media too – and you have name-dropped Clive Barker. You are now dabbling in transmedia storytelling with some music and purely prose stories on the way. Who have been your favourite creatives and what have you learnt from them? 

“I'm glad you mention the music crossover. One of our early fellow travellers has been Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys - one of our favourite bands of all time-ever! I feel that we have sort of evolved together from opposite sides of the Atlantic. Walter has even written and recorded a Hopeless, Maine song - which will have to be part of the soundtrack if there is ever any sort of film treatment of the story. Walter has also done a drawing of Sal which appeared in The Gathering. We take a lot of inspiration from them! Also, Barry Dodd's crew who produced Maine-set web-series Ragged Isle. Which has been compared to Twin Peaks.

“There has been a fair amount of creative DNA swapping between us and mutual support.

“Hiyao Miyazaki has had a serious impact on us. Also, the folklore of the UK, and folk music in general are very much part of Nimue's creative life - and mine. Finding the Steampunk community has certainly influenced us in all sorts of ways and given us another place where we can be ourselves in community. I could make a nearly endless list of other comics and other sorts of creators we admire. Edward Gorey is probably a grandfather of tradition for us.”

To me it doesn’t seem a far cry from the Little House on the Prairie books – bear with me here – I’m thinking the historical backdrop, and the darker side of things… Their little homestead is beset with troubles and disasters, plagues of locusts, diseases that leave lasting damage… and similarly, it seems there is a sort of real historical backdrop to Hopeless that places it within a sort of American idea of the past.

“Absolutely. I have already mentioned my immersion in New England history and culture, and Nimue has read and studied Hawthorne. I wanted to do some sort of thing in that tradition, but updated. Also, as way of looking at human experience in general.

“Immersion for me, and reading victorian literature for Nimue. We do go poking around into New England folklore still from time to time, just because it's fascinating stuff!”

Welcome to... Hopeless, Maine

So, how have your interests in folklore and magic fed into the stories – do you strive to be true to the research, or is it all simply made up? I think I spotted allusions to witch-bottles and witch-balls? But what of the ‘creatures’ and ‘demons’?

“Well, we are both Druids, and so, have a wealth of information to borrow from. We have a lot of Wiccan friends and Nimue works for a Pagan publishing house. No shortage of magical thought in our environment! The creatures and demons are largely made up but are the sort of things that we think would be out there in this setting. The sort of things you might see out of the corner of your eye, if you will.

“Well spotted on the witch balls! I'm just strangely fascinated by bottles for no readily apparent reason."

Do you have a Hopeless Maine bible?

“No. Though as there is now a Hopeless, Maine RPG, Travels in Hopeless by Keith Healing. There has been some discussion of whether or not there might need to be something along those lines in the future. This also gives me a chance to talk about the fact that we have opened up the island to other creatives and have a growing creative tribe.

“On our website, the Hopeless, Vendetta, there are regular columns, art and all manner of offerings from people who have come to play in our rather strange playground. Nimue's father Martin Pearson brings us regular Tales from the Squid and Teapot – the Hopeless, Maine “local”, and another series of tales by Keith Errington is soon to be collected into an illustrated prose book that will, hopefully, be the first in a series of such things.

“There have been stories on the Vendetta which have been inspired by other tales and inventions by other authors on the site, to the point where some of them contain only things that we had no hand in whatsoever!”

Dead dogs don't die...

How did the visual style come about – is this just what looks cool to you, or is there a conscious Dark Kawaii approach?

“I had already drawn all of the first book of Hopeless, Maine, and then I discovered Manga. I knew I needed some of that style in the visual mix. Face stylisation especially, but other elements as well. It was a very conscious decision. Also, Blade of The Immortal was a revelation because it showed that finished comics work could be in pencil.

“Otherwise, I just sort of wander off on my own, or rather now, we wander on our own, as Nimue has become part of the art team and hand-colours all of the pages and has an equal – at least – part in the visual storytelling decisions. I see new things literally every day that influence current and future art for Hopeless, Maine.”

I’m a hardcore horror aficionado, an old goth, and it really appealed to me, but my 14-year-old daughter also enjoyed the comics – her other favourite comic universe being My Little Pony… Who do you think of as your typical reader whilst you are creating?

“People, and others - we like to be inclusive!

“We're mostly making the sort of thing we would want to read. I think it's dangerous to imagine an audience too clearly. You may end up doing some sort of box-ticker that has no real life of its own that way. We do think of some of our friends while doing certain scenes and put in things that we think will please them, but only if it's fun.”

I feel that the poetic often lies outside words, and I have often found truly poetic moments in films and in music that do not have any dialogue or lyric – but I maintain they derive from a form of writing. In Hopeless Maine, there are definitely poetic moments, but I feel they are not solely in the images or the words… do you know what I’m talking about? I’m on a quest to explore what ‘the poetic’ is and would like to hear any thoughts you have on this.

“What an utterly gorgeous comment-question! That is pretty much exactly what we are setting out to achieve. Poetry, is, among other things, a way of getting across something that is more than is, or can be, contained in words. The whole being so much more than the sum of its parts, a distillation of life, dreams, and experience. We are very interested in the numinous, it's the well that we draw from, and if some of that comes though, that is serious success for us.”

Hopeless Maine Book Three: Victims

Volume 3, Victims is imminent, so without giving too much away, what else can we expect to come out of Hopeless Maine in the near future? Such as those transmedia spin-offs…

“The Hopeless, Maine RPG is now in print. We may do a kickstarter for a deluxe edition this year. The series of illustrated prose, I mentioned above, including two Novellas from Nimue, a Tarot deck is nearly complete. I'm the bottleneck here. Apologies to Laura Perry who has created something really amazing and so very much in the spirit of the setting.

“Our next Small Strange Book For People - tiny books which can be sent as cards if people desire, will be “How To Find Hopeless, Maine” by Meredith Debonnaire, which I will decorate with singing snails and similar strangeness.

“We are hoping that the Hopeless, Maine music scene will continue to grow. It is very likely that there will be a HM themed album from Madeline Harwood next year, which will join Utterly Hopeless by Johnny Benson, the Hopeless, Maine song from Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys and the Hopeless, Maine track Professor Elemental wrote and performed. It's on his Nervous EP. The Role Play game continues to grow with scenarios and other extra tentacles. I'm sure there will be more than this. We seem to be in rather a fertile period, just now."

Thank you, Tom Brown, for your time and a lovely chat! 

Hopeless, Manie is my kinda place...

“Thank you! This has been rather a lot of fun!”

Tom Brown was talking to Remy Dean

if you enjoyed this interview, you can...

Hopeless Maine is published by Sloth Comics

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 Bryan Talbot From Wigan to Grandville  + There's No Stopping Thomas E Sniegoski...

From Wigan to Grandville - an interview with Bryan Talbot

Bryan Talbot is one of the most widely recognised and respected practitioners of graphic storytelling. His long career has produced a hugely varied, always relevant, body of work that spans many genres from superhero fantasy to documentary realism. His subjects cover machine-gun toting badgers, imaginary giant rats, civil engineering, history, social geography and biography.

Since the mid-1980s he has steadily accrued a string of top accolades. In 2009, Talbot was the first graphic storyteller to be given an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Sunderland, and in 2012 was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Northumbria University. That same year, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, a clever graphic memoir he co-created with Mary Talbot, won the Costa Biography Award. This year he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Bryan Talbot being signed into the Royal Society of Literature,
...using Lord Byron's pen! (picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)

Just take a look at his body of work and the vast scope of some of his more ambitious tomes and you will know that Bryan Talbot is a busy man! So, The Scrawl is hugely honoured that he took the time to talk with Remy Dean, about anthropomorphising animals, the collaborative process, the development of the comic industry and whether Rupert the Bear is terrifying or not…

I was part-educated at Wigan College of Mining and Technology. During the mid-late 1980s, I found the ‘scene’ there a very rich and creative one. It was one of my student friends who introduced me to Hellblazer, which was when I first remember being conscious of the name Bryan Talbot as an artist, though I had also been reading 2000AD, to which he also made an important contribution. 

Bryan Talbot was born and raised in Wigan and also went through art college there. Soon after his graduation from Preston’s Harris College in the mid-70s, Talbot had started publishing his own indie comic, Brainstorm Comix, in which his character, Luther Arkwright made his debut. Later, a long-form edition of the epic Adventures of Luther Arkwright was published as a single volume and this is generally recognised as being the template for what we now consider to be a Graphic Novel. The Graphic Novel, or GN, is an extended form of storytelling using the comic strip format, tending to be more literate in tone and often tackling more ambitious concepts and serious themes. Talbot now has the deserved reputation of being the ‘Father of the British GN’ and is certainly one of the form's more prominent proponents. 

Years after I too had graduated, I visited an old college friend from Wigan and saw they had a big poster of artwork from The Tale of One Bad Rat – I think this was one of the first comics, along with what was coming out of the New York counter-culture, that I came across that really tackled serious social and political issues like child abuse and homelessness, whilst ultimately remaining an uplifting read. 

How did The Tale of One Bad Rat come about and what was the motivation? Was it simply a good story, an issue you felt strongly about, or was it a conscious effort to push the envelope of what a GN could do?

I never set out to write a book about child abuse. It came out of a desire to do a graphic novel using the Lake District as a setting. I know the place very well, and partly grew up there. It was in my mind for several years and I began to read books on the area and its history. I researched the Lake District poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge but a graphic novel idea never crystallised.

While visiting Beatrix Potter's house, Hill Top, the thought struck me that here was a woman who told stories using a mixture of words and pictures, a direct correlation with comics. So, I started to research Potter. I'd never read her books when young and started by reading her complete oeuvre, then books about her. I must have read about 13 biographies before I realised that her life wouldn't make a very interesting basis for a graphic novel. If you saw the movie Miss Potter, you'll understand what I mean. They only managed to make that vaguely interesting by inventing events and simply making things up.

Shattering the silence... The sublime landscapes of the Lake District feature
prominently in Bryan Talbot's ground-breaking GN, The Tale of One Bad Rat
 (picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)

So, I'd reached another dead end. Then, one day I saw a teenage girl begging on a platform in London's Tottenham Court Road Tube station. She was being hassled by a huge, bearded Jesus freak, who was trying to persuade her to go with him to a hostel or somewhere. She looked so embarrassed. Thinking about her later, she brought to mind descriptions of Beatrix Potter who, at age 16, was said to be "painfully shy." As you know, that became the first scene in the book and I grew the story from there.

Can you talk us through a bit of how this process of 'growing' that story went?

I thought, "What if this girl has a psychic or synchronistic connection with Beatrix Potter and she follows Potter's footsteps to the Lake District?' As I plotted it, I asked myself why she left home. "Because her father was abusing her," was the reply. It was as glib as that. It's a fact that many kids do run away to escape abuse and many end up in London. Personally, I knew nothing of the subject, so I began to research it, buying books and visiting the library. What was amazing was the number of people who came forward, from friends I've known for years to people I met at conventions, to talk to me about the abuse they'd suffered as soon as they discovered I was researching it. It quickly dawned on me that it was far too important to marginalise, to simply have as a reason for her to leave home. It needed to be what the book was all about.

Just one page from the meticulously designed dynamic layouts
that pepper the hugely entertaining Grandville graphic novels...
 (picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)

Please tell us about the anthropomorphised characters in Grandville – I had first assumed they were under the influence of Wind in the Willows, perhaps the work of Beatrix Potter… but then I made the connection with Parisian cartoonist J.J Grandville. I am wondering what creative path led you to the characters for Grandville and why they have held your attention for so long…

My graphic novels are usually the result of years of consideration, some taking longer than others. I think, research and make notes, slowly developing the concept until I’m happy with it. The first volume of Grandville was the complete opposite. Directly after finishing Alice in Sunderland, I was tidying away the pile of reference books I’d been using and picked up a book I’d had for decades. It was a book about JJ Granville, the pen name of Jean Ignace Isadore Gérard, who was a big influence on John Tenniel, illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s original Alice books.

As you know, his brilliant cartoons, satirising French social mores, fashions and attitudes, used animals to convey character. I had a sudden flash of inspiration: “Grandville” could be the nickname for Paris in a story set in an alternative reality populated by anthropomorphic characters in which Paris is the biggest city in the world.

I’m a big fan of crime fiction and, of course, Sherlock Holmes. The idea to write a detective story, in a Belle Epoque steampunk fantasy setting, really grabbed my imagination. Also, I’d never done an anthropomorphic comic before, so jumped at the challenge.

How do you approach such an ambitious undertaking?

With this book, after spending a week thinking about it, while working on the artwork for my experimental graphic novel Metronome, I scribbled down the plot in ten minutes and typed the whole script over the next five or six days. The characters arrived fully-formed and even delivered their own lines. It was like taking dictation. For all my previous comics, I made meticulous thumbnail sketches of each page before starting the scripts. This time, I didn’t need them, as I could vividly visualise each page, something I’ve done ever since. Creating a graphic novel is a very long slog, and anything that can save time is a bonus.

Animal action and crime capers in Bryan Talbot's Grandville
 (picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)

Some of your graphic novels are huge undertakings – how do you go about planning something with the scope and breadth of Alice in Sunderland, for example, which is so rich in facts and history? 

I spend a lot of time on the structure, which has to be rock-solid before I type a single word. The first Grandville was an exception. I know that many prose writers, such as Stephen King or Ian Rankin, create as they write, the story growing out the initial concept, developing it as they go along. You can’t really do that with a comic. You can’t get half way through drawing a graphic novel, then suddenly realise that, to take a silly example, your protagonist should have been two feet taller and you have to re-draw eight month’s worth of work.

Even after spending two or three years researching Alice in Sunderland and making copious notes, I still had to spend six weeks working full-time on the plot structure, going through draft after draft until it was as perfect as I could get it. With this 320-page book that used dream logic and what had to seem, on the surface, to be stream of consciousness storytelling, a solid structure was vitally important.

Alice in Sunderland: the inventiveness and diversity
of Bryan Talbot's visual storytelling is showcased in
this hugely ambitious cross-cultural history-spanning
'biography' of this typically remarkable Northern city.

Writers often talk about differences between approaching short-form fiction and the novel – do you have such distinction based on the length of a work?

I don’t tend to write short strips but, when I do, the process is no different.

 You are an all-round comics creator, how do your ideas generally develop – through sketches and drawings, through prose, through story... Which came first the word or the image?

They come at the same time. It’s not as if I’m writing a script and then I have to imagine how to stage and draw it.

Alice in Sunderland… The Tale of One Bad Rat with its runaway from the North, in London… Do you think being ‘a northerner’ has influenced your outlook in any way?

I don’t really know. I know I have a low tolerance for pretension, but that’s probably due to coming from a working-class background, rather than being Northern. I did make my early characters Northern, such as Chester P Hackenbush and Frank Fazakerly.

Do you have a creative ritual or regimen?

I get up around 9 a.m, start working around 10 and work till 9 p.m, with a break for lunch and another for a brisk four-mile walk, seven days a week. My creative process, which you can probably imagine from my description of how the last two books came about, all depends upon what stage I’m at in the development of a book – whether working on ideas, writing, pencilling, inking or colouring.

Can you describe the place where you do most of your creative work, outside of your own head, that is?

If you mean my studio, it’s in a large ground floor room with a bay window. There are lots of bookshelves, books in piles on the floor, a plan chest full of artwork, a drawing board, a computer area with 2 Macs, printer scanner and Wacom tablet, a large Victorian roll-top desk and a big aspidistra. The place is cluttered with a variety of junk that I’ve often used as props.

What can you see from there?

If I’m at the drawing board, in the bay, I can look out onto our front garden: trees, lawn, flowers. Mary’s a keen gardener. I enjoy watching the birds that we put food out for and have a bird identification book handy.

Do you have a favourite treat or tipple?

Wine. As a treat, I do enjoy a full English fry-up once every month or two. Usually we eat very healthily!

You regularly collaborate with other artists and writers – which is very usual for comics creators. But you also are an auteur – writing, drawing, colouring, as a solo venture, and more recently you have been collaborating closely with Mary Talbot. 

The graphic memoir of  Mary Talbot draws on parallels
between her troubled relationship with her own father, a James Joyce scholar,
and Joyce with his daughter Lucia... Winner of the 2012 Costa Biography Award.

Can you tell us a little bit about your motivations, both for working alone and for working with others and how that process generally works out creatively?

I always prefer to draw my own stories. It’s satisfying and also easier, as I know exactly what the writer intends! Though, I must say, as a writer, I’m often a complete bastard to myself as artist, giving myself scenes that I know will look good, but that will be hell to draw. Crowd scenes, for example. They take ages. Commercial comics are a production line, with an editor who commissions a writer, gives the script to a penciller, who’s then inked, coloured and lettered by different people. There is often zero collaboration between the writer and artists, apart from any script instructions.

The books I draw for Mary work very differently and the collaboration is extremely close. We discuss the books as she’s researching and writing them. We both have input on all aspects. I recommend script and plot changes and sometimes even supply extra dialogue, and Mary comments on the art as I’m working on it.

You have been involved in British comics for some time - articles often refer to you as a 'veteran' or the 'father' of the British GN... How has the scene changed? It seems to have gained respect during your tenure, and your contribution to this shift in perception has been recognised by numerous accolades including your honorary doctorates and the recent Royal Society of Literature Fellowship...

The big change has been the decline in sales of monthly and weekly comics, and the dramatic rise, in the number, range and quality of graphic novels. Also the rapid growth in the percentage of women creators, which has shot from hardly any about 40 years ago to what I now guess is 50%. Graphic novels are no longer confined to the specialist comic store niche market and are now sold in regular bookshops and every respectable literature festival now has a sizable graphic novel component.

When did you ‘wake up’ to being a writer/creator?

I’ve been writing and drawing my own comics since I was eight.

Casting your mind back, what was the first book you can remember that really grabbed you, immersed you in its world and carried you off?

The Rupert the Bear annuals, when I was five.

…and did they scare and 'scar you for life' as they did Ramsey Campbell?

Not at all. I know the story he means, he told me all about it once!

For me, it was an escape from the grimy, smoky Wigan of the 1950s where I grew up, the idyllic country setting and fantastic adventures... probably why I fell in love with the Lake District when my folks bought a caravan there and we started going up every chance we had.

In my research I came across a mention that you had done some concept art for a screen adaptation of a story by Campbell?

Yes, coincidentally enough, that was set in the Lakes. It was only a short film, about 30 minutes long I seem to remember, directed by Jon Sorenson, a cinematographer who’d worked on Bladerunner, among other things. I don’t think it was ever shown on TV.

Do you have an all-time favourite book or one that you regularly return to?

I’ve had books like that, but they changed over the years as my tastes have developed. I do find myself going back to Aldous Huxley once every few years.

What’s out there right now that you would recommend?

Hannah Berry’s Livestock.  Salman Rushdie’s Shame... it’s been out for many years, but I only read it recently.

I would expect there has been some interest in screen adaptations of your work, I mean a Graphic Novel is practically a storyboard already...

I’ve sold the film option on Luther Arkwright a few times, but nothing’s ever come of it. At the moment, Euston Films is trying to get a TV series based on Grandville off the ground, ditto with a small UK production company and Bad Rat. I’ve been here before, though, and am not holding my breath. These things more at a glacial pace and often fall through.

What is coming up from Bryan Talbot that we should look out for?

I’m currently drawing Mary’s fourth graphic novel, Rain.

Thank you, Bryan Talbot!

Merci!

Bryan Talbot was talking with Remy Dean

if you enjoyed reading this interview, you can... 

for more information, news and updates: 

Official Bryan Talbot Website

of particular interest, and well worth spending some time with, are
The Grandville Annotations
in which Bryan Talbot is very generous with information about
the influences and ideas behind the epic story and artwork 
- it is like a director's commentary you may come across on a
collectors' edition DVD for a classic film, only free and online!

and follow his approved fan-page twitter

@Bryan_Talbot

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 Peter David, Superhero Saviour! + Tom Brown, High Hopes for the Hopeless

Jonathan Stroud, Free Thinker

Jonathan Stroud is one of the UK's foremost writers of fantasy and supernatural fiction, for younger adults. Actually, that last bit is redundant. He is one of the leading voices in fantasy and supernatural fiction. Full stop. Since his debut novel in 1999, Buried Fire, he has created two well-loved and successful books series: the epic Bartimaeus Sequence of four books (so far) - following the millennia-spanning escapades of an ancient, wise-cracking djinni, and the Lockwood & Co. series - about a ghost- and ghoul-hunting hero in a  parallel paranormal version of Britain. What sets his stories aside is an easy, yet solid and well-paced style, along with consistently intriguing content born of a sophisticated imagination. There is always adventure, plenty of action, and genuine 'laugh-out-loud' moments of humour. 

Jonathan Stroud

With Halloween upon us, Jonathan Stroud talks to Remy Dean about writing and other forms of magic, as well as parenting and allowing children the Freedom to Think... 

REMY: I have been a creative arts lecturer to young adults in the 14 – 19 age range, for 16 years, and a father for 11 years... I have witnessed education veering away from any emphasis on creativity it may have once had. Creative subjects have become much more criteria-based to enable educationalists with dominant left-hemispheres to test and quantify creatives with highly functioning right-hemispheres.

With the introduction of tests for our children from 6 upwards - we now test and grade our children more than any other country. SATs for 11-year-olds are getting tougher and the level and density of A-Level content has increased dramatically. It seems to me that education is not only geared to emphasise non-creative subjects and actively suppress creative ones - the recent axing of Art History is a case-in-point, but also to create low self-esteem through early and repeated failure - and so discourage the pursuit of further and higher education, without mentioning the fees, loans, and so on…

Can you tell us a little bit about the ‘Freedom to Think’ initiative and how it fits into, compliments or challenges this contemporary model of education?

JONATHAN: My recent experience of education is from the outside, watching my two oldest children - currently 12 and 9 - as they seek to balance the demands of school with their own creative impulses. Already, they’re having to wrestle with homework, exams and tests, and I can see how these threaten to overwhelm their energies - at times you can see their creative verve wilting… though it always reasserts itself. As a parent I’m torn between wanting them to do well academically, and being determined to keep their creative fire alive.

My own career as an author has its roots in the writing, drawing. imagining that I did throughout my schooldays. I managed to sustain my creativity alongside all the academic work, but I think the pressures on children have increased markedly since. Freedom to Think is a response to this: it doesn’t in itself seek to overturn contemporary trends in education, but it does aim to promote the idea of a regular ‘breathing space’ for children, a time when they can drift, let their minds wander and (if they wish) follow their own creative paths. It’s in such moments that you are most likely to discover what really excites you, and thus who you really are.

Jonathan Stroud talking about 'Freedom to Think' at the Oxford Literary Festival,
earlier this year - click image for more info and another interview with Jonathan

Whist on the subject of parenting… how has being a father changed you - as a man and as a writer? How do you find the time, for one thing?

Ha ha! Time is certainly the most precious commodity for all writers, and having a newish small baby doesn’t exactly help… but that’s more than counterbalanced by the sudden opening up of new perspectives – on the world in general, and on you and your role in it. When you become a father you suddenly understand your own parents more clearly; you have a sudden revelation about your own mortality, and, to balance that, how parenthood is the nearest you’ll ever get to ensuring your own immortality. Profound stuff, if you can stomach the 5 a.m. awakenings…

Evidently, all those present enjoyed the panel you hosted at the Oxford Literary Festival earlier this year, where you encouraged your guests to talk about their approach to writing, though you did not discuss your own… I realise you have already been generous with such info on your website - particularly the origins of Bartimaeus. Do you have any writing rituals or regimen and have they changed with success?

I think being a successful writer - as with many jobs generally - relies on establishing a regular, predictable work pattern, in which you know what is required of you and you more or less force yourself to do it. Since going freelance 14 years ago, I’ve attempted to write a certain number of pages per day when I’m in the throes of a book. I usually fail, but the attempt galvanises me, and ensures a steady output. My own environment is incredibly tedious – study, silence, cups of tea, the minimum of distraction. All the excitement happens on the page.

What would you say were the main considerations when writing for a Young Adult audience and do they differ from other forms of mainstream fiction?

In principle writing Young Adult fiction should be no different from fiction generally, except that you perhaps have a slightly higher bar to attain, young readers being rather more critical and choosy than adult ones! I always seek to write something that the 12-year-old me would have loved, and which also pleases my jaded middle-aged self. If you can manage that dual perspective, you’re on to a winner.

What age is your typical reader, and what were you reading at that age?

I want my readers to range from 8 to 88, or more… so I aim for clarity of story-telling and for variety of content. When I was 12, I was in the throes of reading masses of whopping fantasy series. A couple of years on, I realised that most of them were sub-Tolkien and not really any good, so - despite writing it - I don’t read that much fantasy these days.

How did you research the Bartimaeus books? Your description of Prague and Golden Lane sound like you visited the locations.

I did visit Prague for a couple of days way back when I was inter-railing around Europe at the start of the 1990s. I loved the city, and was fascinated by many of its locations, including the Jewish Cemetery, the castle and the old alchemists’ quarter in Golden Lane. When I came to write Bartimaeus 10 years or more later, it was easy to seize upon it as a good location. Most of my research comes of general reading of myth, legend and folklore down the years.

…and your knowledge of Qabalistic Ritual seemed fairly well-informed – I recall an account written by Aleister Crowley about his attempt to summon Choronzon, I think, and the entity - from his subconscious - the Other Place, wherever - was bantering in order to put him off, telling crude jokes and trying to throw sand over the lines of his magic circle to break out...

Do you have any belief in, or experience of, High Magick or aspects of the supernatural?

I’m remarkably, and probably fortunately, wholly unacquainted with the supernatural in any immediate sense, but having read Dr Faustus, the Arabian Nights and sundry folktales in which wizards have perilous dealings with devils, demons and other dubious types, it was good fun to mix a lot of this material into the Bartimaeus stories. The trick for me was to do it mainly from the djinni’s perspective, which undercuts the potential pomposity of the magicians and their ritualistic traditions.

Do you see links between magic and creativity?

I believe that Crowley was a - bad? - poet. The Romantic literary tradition was all about invoking and corralling the power of nature, and I guess many self-styled magicians were trying to do the same. People like Yeats certainly tried both methods. Earlier, Renaissance magicians such as Dr John Dee sought to invoke power through magical ritual, but also through the more rigorous methods of mathematics and science. On a prosaic, personal level, there is something magic about producing a bit of writing that didn’t exist before: but that ‘magic’ has its roots in long hours and hard work!

When I was reading the Bartimaeus books out loud, I found it helped to channel ‘Hacker’ - from CBBC - to get his mode of address… Do you ‘cast’ your books and did you expect Bartimaeus to have a Wigan accent?

Ha-ha! For me, Bart more or less had my voice, so he was a bit more home-counties! But you’re absolutely right that the voice was the core of him – he changed his shape repeatedly, so the way he talked was the one consistent thing. I don’t tend to ‘cast’ my books as I write them – to see a character as a particular actor risks skewing them out of true.

Pages from the graphic adaptation of the first novel in
the Bartimaeus Sequence : The Amulet of Samarkand
- click image for a look at how the comic was made -

I also enjoyed the Graphic Novel adaptation of The Amulet of Samarkand – are there any other graphic adaptations on the way? And what of films?

I’m glad you liked it! I think the adaptor [Andrew Donkin] and artist [Lee Sullivan with colours by Nicholas Chaplis] did a terrific job with it. There are no immediate plans for another graphic novel, though we’d all love to do one. It depends a bit on whether we get the Bartimaeus movie, which is still out there, being discussed, but hasn’t yet quite come off. I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll happen one day…

The ‘Freedom to Think’ event was focussed on early creative experiences and I think you may have answered this question during it: What was the first book you can remember reading that really absorbed you and carried you away to another place?

It’s hard to say what the very first one was. Put it this way - in my mum’s loft I discovered a version of Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow - which was a cool Ladybird book - that I’d written and drawn when I was about 5 on old pieces of wallpaper, so that story must be a contender!

Do you have a favourite book, or one you have returned to more than once?

It’s difficult to pick one out. One of my all-time faves is Treasure Island, which I regard as the fountainhead from which all YA fiction springs. It certainly has everything I’d aspire to: great story, exciting narrative, fantastic characters, beautifully written. What’s not to love?

Who have been your favourite authors and what have you learnt from them?

Italo Calvino, in Six Memos for the Next Millennium, extolled certain literary virtues, among them Lightness, Swiftness, Exactitude. Folk tales and fairy tales have these qualities, as Calvino well knew, and I think the writers I most admire all have them to some extent, as well as humour. My favourite fantasy writer, who survived my disillusionment, mid-teens, is Jack Vance, and I thoroughly recommend his Lyonesse and Dying Earth novels for some light, but magical, entertainment. In my ghost-story writing mode - I’ve been writing about ghosts for my Lockwood & Co. series for the last few years - I venerate the great M R James, the master of the English supernatural tale.

The Creeping Shadow is the fourth book in the
Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud

Well, as it is Samhain, can you tell us anything about your latest spooky book?

The latest Lockwood book is The Creeping Shadow, and features lots of spooky adventure, daring heroism and good jokes. A must for all the family!

Thank you, Jonathan Stroud!

Thank you! It was a pleasure.

-  Jonathan Stroud was talking to Remy Dean 

if you enjoyed this interview, you can... 

For more Jonathan Stroud news and  info, 

check out his Official Website 

Click the Recruitment ad. below for an excellent Lockwood & Co. Case Book  (PDF)
filled with activities and resources, courtesy of World Book Day

Peter David, Superhero Saviour!

Marvel maestro, Peter David talks to Remy Dean about the changing perception of comics, from throwaway kidstuff to literary award-winning genre, from subculture geek fodder to surefire box-office ammunition, from experimental indie titles to supersafe superheroes...

Hulk and Spiderman are now super-huge superhero franchises. But if it was not for Peter David’s penmanship, Hulk and – to a lesser extent, perhaps – Spidey may not have been in the running to be re-invented as the big screen cash-cows we all know and love today. They were both ‘flagging’ series when Peter David got to write for them early in his comic career back in the 1980s… and on both counts his inventive story arcs re-vitalised the titles and attracted fresh readers to the marvellous world of Marvel. 

Peter David rapidly earned a reputation as being a prolific ‘writer of stuff’ (as he describes himself) and has remained a fan favourite, because he writes like a fan who can write - with knowledge, enthusiasm and sensitivity to the characters and the worlds they inhabit. He has a flair for making potentially ridiculous characters emotionally engaging, with real weaknesses to counterbalance their unreal strengths. Real world issues are often paralleled in in his stories and his characters have to deal with everyday problems as well as more Olympian conflicts…

Peter David - Comic Convention regular
(picture credit: Luigi Novi)

Having been a major proponent of the comic genre for a long time, you must have seen the industry - and perception of comics - change a great deal, from being ‘for the kids’ to becoming a respected literary form... What or when do you see as the ‘watershed’ for this change?

“My guess would be the rise of the direct market. Once upon a time, comics were only available in ‘mom and pop’ shops and 7/11s. The rise of the direct market and the development of comic book stores not only gave rise to an older audience, but gave them a place where they could congregate and interact with other fans. This caused the audience to skew older, and as that happened, publishers began seeking projects that would appeal to older readers. As a result of that audience growth, we got Maus, and Watchmen, and Dark Knight Returns - all the various projects that appealed to the 18 and up crowd.”

As you say, Art Spiegelman’s Maus was a ground-breaker in dealing with issues and 'heavy' subject matter in the comic format. What wider issues are important to you - what gets you 'fired up' - and how do you tackle them?

“Free speech is a particular sticking point. It particularly irritates me when people who proclaim that they are liberals try to censor others in the name of political correctness. I find that even more offensive than when conservatives do it. At least conservatives are honest. They declare, ‘We want to stop this talk because we find it offensive.’  Liberals say, ‘We want to stop this talk because we're worried other people will find it offensive.’ Which is crap:  the fact is that they feel the same way conservatives do, but they're being dishonest about it. I've written both comic book stories and also columns about it.”

OK, so my literary snob pal admits Maus is worthy and has ‘literary merit’, and I can get them to look at The Arrival, and Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, even From Hell… but superhero comics? Guys in leotards, big green freaks with massive muscles, men flying about wearing metal suits! How can I convince them to give that a try? (This question is asked with the healthy tone of British irony!)

“Well, I hear tell that some British guy wrote a book called Watchmen that a lot of people seem to like. And Frank Miller wrote Dark Knight. They could try those. Plus anything of mine."

Of course the scale and scope of the superhero universe is akin to the Greek Myths – from where some of the very first stories and heroes were born. I was recently watching a lecture-talk given by Stewart Lee where he talks about leaving comics behind with his childhood because he did not perceive them as ‘grown-up’ things to read, then rediscovering the format through coming across a story cycle of the Hulk written by you - respected by many as the finest Hulk stories since those of Stan Lee. Why did you want to write comics as an adult? 

“I wanted to write comic books as a kid and as a teen, so why wouldn't I want to write them as an adult?  It's like asking an astronaut, ‘Why did you become an astronaut?’  Why?  Because every kid wants to be an astronaut. Just like tons of kids want to make comic books their lives. It's just that some of us manage to do so …and some of us don't, and consequently show up on the Internet and bitch about the people who made it.”

I imagine you grew up reading comics in the second superhero revival of the 1960s… what is your earliest comic book memory and what was the first time a comic book really carried you off into another world?

“I first discovered comic books in my local barber shop, actually. They had the Harvey Comics for kids to read while we were waiting. That's where I first met Casper and Wendy. I knew so little about comic books that when Casper turned into dotted lines, I thought it was a participation thing where you were supposed to take a pencil and connect them - I had no clue that it meant he was invisible. My first superhero comics were Superman - Action Comics, and that extended from my love for the George Reeves Superman TV series. Every episode would end with the announcer saying, ‘Superman is based on the character appearing in Superman magazines.’  And I thought, ‘There are magazines?’ So I went to my local magazine store and sought them out.”

An old Superman story - from the 1960s

What do you think of the current explosion of the Superhero genre, and the huge-budget cinema adaptations?

“When I was a kid, it was all the stuff of fantasy. Hollywood FX couldn't possibly live up to the requirements of superhero films. I mean, hell, we went nuts with the - by today's standards - crummy flying effects in Superman. The growth of the genre has been amazing. The only downside is that the expectations have risen as well. You get films like Green Lantern which really weren't that bad and the fans hate them. Does nobody remember the DC live action TV shows from the seventies? Those were awful!”

Movies adapted from comics are currently the biggest genre – the sales of related titles must reflect this – from your point of view within it, how has the perception of the comics industry changed in the last couple of years?

“You proceed from a false premise:  the sales of the comics don't relate at all. Millions upon millions of people see movies. With a comic, these days if you're over 100,000 you're doing incredibly well. Yes, we get some PR boost, I suppose, but we're not selling millions of copies of Guardians of the Galaxy, no matter how well the movies do.”

Has this had any effect on the attitude of the comics publishing world? Has it pushed Marvel/DC superhero format to the forefront at the expense of indie and less mainstream comics? Or do you find the industry thrives throughout now as a result? In other words are publishers putting more money into the successful superhero genre and less into the new, cult and unusual ideas?

“Publishers put money into what sells. Untested and unusual ideas don't sell, at least not to Marvel readers. Heavily character driven stories don't sell. What sells for the most part are things tying into events. As much as readers may piss and moan about it, that's what they buy. Does that mean Marvel will never be experimental? Of course not. But the expectations for such projects are pretty low.”

What unlikely comic would you love to see given the blockbuster treatment?

“Fallen Angel. But that's probably just me.”

Fallen Angel created by Peter David
with artist David Lopez

Fallen Angel is a character created and owned by you, and you have written a great many solo works, but the majority of your writing seems to be working with characters and scenarios devised by others – what do you enjoy about this challenge that keeps you coming back for more? 

“Most of my solo projects are in novels. That's one of the advantages of having ties to various venues outside of comics. I have a great deal of fun contributing to the vast tapestry that is the Marvel universe. It's nice to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself."

What do you think are the positives and negatives of both working alone on a project and collaborating with others?

“The positive is that it's the purest form that your story can take. There's you, the reader, and the story and nothing else. So you get all the credit. The downside is that you also get all the blame. The advantage of collaboration is that, if you have a quality artist, that artist can elevate the story to something far beyond what you are capable of attaining on your own."

Writing novel-style fiction and writing for teleplays, video games and comic scripts must use very different ‘skill-sets’. How does your approach differ in these varied formats? And what aspects remain constant?

“It doesn't really involve different skill sets. It's like saying to someone who's working out, ‘Wow, first you lift the weights overhead and now you're pushing weights with your feet!  How do you do that?’  You're just using different muscles. The only difference is the format in which you're writing.”

Do you have an established writing method or ‘ritual’?

“I sit and work.”

Who did you learn from - who are your writerly heroes and heroines?

“Stan Lee, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King...all of whom are now friends of mine.”

What comics are you currently enjoying, and would recommend?

“I like a lot of stuff that Marvel puts out. I also enjoyed Kick-Ass and I'm enjoying Jupiter's Legacy."

You are so prolific, so you may have to be selective here, but what up-coming Peter David projects can we look forward to in the near future?

“I'm working on some Star Trek: New Frontier novellas, so it's great to be back in that venue. I'm working on various miniseries for Marvel... I'm also working on a project with Colleen Doran..."

I often wind up an interview by asking for any ‘top tips’ - in this case for the aspiring writer of comics - but you have already written an entire book on the subject! So, please feel free to share any ‘in-a-nut-shell’ pearls of wisdom that have helped sustain you in your career…

 “Read more than you write... and read my book.”

- Thank you Peter David!

Peter David re-invents the Marvel Universe

For 2015, Peter David is re-inventing the Marvel Universe in his Secret Wars 2099 series for Marvel, re-working iconic Avengers characters again, such as Spiderman, Captain America… and it may all turn out to be a little Strange… (as in the Sorceress – that was almost an in joke, for the in-crowd)

Keep up with Peter David news at his official website.

...and find out about new titles at the Marvel website.

Peter David was talking with Remy Dean 

if you enjoyed this interview, you can... 

There's No Stopping Thomas E Sniegoski...

Television series, novel series and revisiting Vampirella - Thomas E Sniegoski up-dates Remy Dean on just some of what has happened since his last Scrawl interview...

Tom (left) and Kirby (right)

“Thanks for the kind words about my latest Vampirella story.” Thomas E Sniegoski responds with his characteristic energy, enthusiasm and positivity, “It was a blast getting to write her again.”

As you will know from the previous time I talked with Sniegoski for Scrawl, I am a fan of Vampirella and opened by telling him how much I enjoyed On The Side Of The Angels, the collected series of the new Vampirella Strikes that keeps up the quality and spirit of 're-invention' from his earlier Vengeance of Vampirella series... 

There are always rumours of a new Vampirella movie and recently there was some vague talk about a big budget Hollywood one… With the recent ‘glut’ of blockbusters based on superhero comics, it would seem like an opportunity to ‘strike’ while the iron is hot… I am digging here, but Tom has heard nothing solid about any adaptations being currently considered.

Vampirella is On The Side of the Angels

One thing that does seem quite clear is that comics transition to the big screen quite readily – I suppose they are ready-made storyboards...

“When they're done well, they're absolutely amazing,” Tom concedes, “and so far the track record has been pretty good. There have only been few ‘dogs’ here and there. I love the fact that the creators doing these films seem to have a genuine respect for the source material. If somebody had told me thirty years ago that we would be seeing Thor, Captain America and The Avengers on the big screen - and have them be done well - I probably wouldn't have believed it possible… but here we are!”

I wonder what the so called ‘literary’ writer could learn from comics?

“Hmm, that's a tough one…” He ponders, “They're two very different kinds of writing. If I had to say anything, I would say that a comic can teach a literary writer about how to be more succinct in their story telling. You only have so much space to fit in a word balloon, so you have to make the words that you can fit really count. Comics can also help with the visualisation of a story. Breaking down certain actions - be it a fight scene, or a car chase - into panels inside your head can help with laying out a particular scene in a book.”

Tom knows a thing or three about different kinds of writing, he has been writing for comics since the 1980s, has contributed to video games, writes short fiction, novels and series fiction. His writing always seems fast-paced and very visual, does that come from honing his skills with comic scripting?

“I'm sure some of it comes from that,” he agrees.

I get the feeling from the visuality of his written texts that perhaps he imagines the stories and runs them like a movie in his head, recounting what he ‘sees’…

“Yeah, that's a pretty good description. I love movies and television so it's very easy to see it all played out before your mind's eye.”

Yet each format - novel, series fiction, comic, screenplay – are also vastly different. Does Tom’s writing approach vary?

“Completely... Each one is approached differently. Novels are the toughest, and require the most work. Series fiction is pretty much the same thing - if it's in novel form, it's tough. The only difference with series fiction is that you already know some of the characters. Comics and screenplays are a little more ‘loose’ in their execution… and for the finished product you're not responsible for all the work like a novel. With comics, you'll likely be working with an artist, and screenplays, actors, directors and a whole host of other talented folks that are needed to make a movie.”

Is the screen the goal? When Tom is writing series fiction such as The Fallen - which has now been adapted into a five-part television series - is it with a literary, word-based focus or is he really thinking ‘TV proposal’ - are the books some sort of compromise because he does not have a producer lined up for them?

The Fallen # 5

“I love series fiction because it lets me flesh out worlds, and characters to their fullest.  They're always books first in my mind… If the whole TV, or movie thing comes along after, that's cool too, but I never think of these ideas as anything other than books first.”

For any new readers who are unfamiliar with the series, how wold Sniegoski sum up The Fallen?

“The Fallen series is about Aaron Corbet who on his 18th Birthday learns that he is a Nephilim, the offspring of a human/angel pairing, and that because of this, he has made himself the target for a group of angel enforcers called The Powers. The Powers believe that the children of angels, and humans are freaks – ‘abominations’ - and an affront to the Lord God. However, there is a prophecy that a special Nephilim would be born who would redeem all the fallen angels, and allow them to return to Heaven. The Powers don't care for this idea at all, and are attempting to eradicate all the Nephilim, just in case this prophecy happens to be true.

“It was a fun series to write. Originally there were four books, now collected as The Fallen Volume One and Two, and then I was allowed to write three more original novels.

In collaboration with Christopher Golden

Another series of novels that seemed ripe for the screen were the Menagerie series, so what happened with those?

“The Menagerie is another favourite of mine, written with my good friend, Christopher Golden. The Menagerie series is about a team of legendary characters, each with his or her own powers and mystical, mythical origins. Chris and I took characters or concepts from well-known legends and mythology and made them our own. It was sort of like a supernatural Mission Impossible team. There were four books in the series, and there were supposed to be more, but sales weren't what the publisher was hoping for. Some day, Chris and I would love to write a final Menagerie book to wrap up the major story arc which we never got to finish... Some day..."

If someone had never read anything Sniegoski at all, where should they start?

“If nobody has ever read me before I'd recommend that they start with my Remy Chandler books. I like to call them my ‘Big-Boy Books’. The first Remy book, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, was the first time that I really tested myself as a writer - going places that normally I wouldn't have felt comfortable going to. I think it was a real wake up call for me as a writer.”

Remy Chandler # 1

Is there any particular piece of work that he is either the most proud of, or that means something special on a personal level?

“I'm extremely proud of the Remy books, and they're most definitely the most personal of my work. Though I did write a short story not too long ago for a collection that Christopher Golden was putting together - 21st Century Dead - which I'm extremely proud of. The story was called Ghost Dog and Pup: Stay, and I was really taken aback by how much it affected me to write it. It was an extremely emotional experience doing it. I think it's one of the best things I've ever written, and would love to expand on it someday as a novel... Guess I'll just have to add it to 'the list'."

Sometimes it gets difficult for a successful writer to find the time to read… I wonder if Tom makes time to read books, and what he may have enjoyed recently?

“I just finished Snowblind by Christopher Golden, which was fantastic. Before that, I read The Troop, by Nick Cutter which was one of the best horror reads that I've had in a while. Currently, I'm reading The Language Of Dying, by Sarah Pinborough, which is really amazing so far.”

…and, I should think, he will be having a glance at the continuing Vampirella arc, but what else is currently on Sniegoski’s comics and graphic novels shelf?

“I read quite a few monthly titles still… love some of the new stuff Marvel has been doing - The Avengers titles, Warren Ellis's new Moon Knight, James Robinson's Fantastic Four, et cetera. Fun stuff. Loving all the Dark Horse Hellboy stuff. Image has got quite a few titles that I'm really enjoying... Revival, Black Science, Manifest Destiny, Saga, East of West. The Batman stuff over at DC is quite good. The graphic novels that I absolutely love from Archaia-Boom are Hopeless Maine, Volumes One and Two. They're by Tom and Nimue Brown and they're stunning!”

Enthusiasm and positivity! Tom sounds just as happy with his lot as he did last time we talked...

- you can read his earlier interview here - 

So thank you, Thomas E Sniegoski …now get back to that ‘list’!

Thomas E Sniegoski was talking with Remy Dean

if you enjoyed this interview, you can... 

more info at the

official Thomas E Sniegoski webiste