Researching Comics: Elephantmen

Elephantmen is a graphic novel created by Richard Starkings. I visited and interviewed him at thought bubble in Novemeber on his work in Elephantmen and everything it explores, from mental health issues such as PTSD, depression and addiction to subject like racism and war. All told through an explosive post apocalyptic future. All of this was included in my dissertation for the module Context of Practice 3,  however I have decided to include it below to show you how in depth I looked into Elephantmen as it will influence our comic enormously.  

Elephantmen Case Study

Elephantmen is a comic book series from writer Richard Starkings. In short, the plot revolves around a post-dystopian war set far in the future, where a deadly virus (FCN) has whipped out most of Europe. Mappo (a company tasked with containing the outbreak) hired an arrogant scientist ‘Nikken’ to design human/animal hybrids, taking the intelligence of humans, and combining it with the ferocity and strength of animals to cleanse Europe of the FCN virus with genocide. Mappo kidnapped innocent women and impregnated them with the Elephantmen DNA. They would then extract the children and raise them to be fearless, training them to know only death and violence until adulthood, being programmed to serve Mappo, before sending them to wipe out the rest of the infected areas, as Gaston answers to his wife Yvette in the warzone, those creatures are here to mop up those left of us alive after the FCN virus swept across Europe… Nikken spent years, and trillions trying to force nature to comply with his Elephantmen designs, he thought machines could substitute for millions of years of molecular evolution but they could not, so Nikken was forced to bring back an essential to his equation. Woman, the perfect gestation chamber. Don’t ask me where they found those women Yvette… but I doubt they volunteered. No-one know what happened to the mothers, but nevertheless Nikken got what we wanted, his children were half-animal, half-human, all Mappo. (Starkings, 2011).

Already having created a new, intriguing world, and a range of larger than life characters to fill it, that are stronger, tougher and visually interesting to begin with Starkings knows that he can make these characters extremely real and grounded, characters that can have so much depth to them. With this idea, Starkings takes an interesting twist, and focuses just as much on the mental health of these creatures, as he does the action and narrative of the story. With a great entrance to the subject, these creatures of flesh and bone, but man-made, have an already questionable existence after the war. He explores this distressed state of mind and the effects the war as well as their already complicated minds has on them, dealing with issues such as PTSD, depression and racism.

‘Gaston: “Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Mappo raised an army. They walked like us… Perhaps talked like us… But I wonder, Yvette… what’s going on in their heads?”’ (Starkings, 2011).

He takes this idea and questions what this state of mind, what war can do to a person and draws on reality to display it.

‘Why is it we look away? What is it that frightens us about the wheelchair bound vet with worn clothing; long hair and a fade-away look in his eye? We are encouraged to support our troops, but how many of us support our soldiers when they come home shell-shocked, physically wounded or emotionally scarred?’ (Starkings, 2012).

The Elephantmen are tortured souls, described as emotionless weapons, created to be unstoppable soldiers to serve only one purpose. Exterminate the survivors of the FCN virus in Europe, as they might carry infection. Soldiers immune to the disease, created for only the purpose of war. (Starkings, 2011). They have this drilled into their heads, that they are nothing more than Mappo’s soldiers. ‘Speaker: You are animal… and you are less than animal. Always remember you’re place in this world… you are nothing more than property of Mappo! Soldier: You can turn it off, but they will always hear the voice in their heads.’ (Starkings, 2011). This already proves a difficult existence for the creatures, but the question Starkings asks, is how do these kind of soldiers survive after war, suffering from the effects with PTSD, and inevitably depression? After being raised and trained with a certain set of ideals? However it’s not just the Elephantmen that have a vast history, and issues to explore. Take the journey of Yvette for example, an innocent woman with a husband, family and friends, thrown in to a war she never wanted to be in, who is transformed over the first volume, after suffering her own losses from the war with the Elephantmen, is hardened into a fierce warrior of hate and violence, the Elephantmen’s most deadly foe.

‘The story of Yvette is that of a transformation of an innocent who’s been exposed to war and had to do things she wouldn't have done had she not been fighting for her life’ (Appendix A).

Although the reader witnesses the horrific things she does, we assume she is the hero of the story, and are on her side throughout. It isn’t until after the war we see the Elephantmen’s perspective. Starkings successfully writes understandable characters we root for on both sides of the war. 

‘Gaston was killed five months later by the Elephantmen. It was as if they reached down her throat and ripped out her heart. Another statistic. Another death that didn’t count. Another unknown soldier. No. No quarter extended, no surrender accepted? So be it. What did she have to loose, except the fear of death? She would defy death… and drive him into the enemy ranks. She would remind them that they too were creatures of flesh and blood. She would make them feel pain. Pain. Fear. Anger. She would force them to look into the darkness of their own souls… And they would remember her name.’  (Starkings, 2011).

As war damages soldiers on both sides of the battlefield, we see the lines start to blur of what Yvette is fighting for, as she becomes an emotionless killer of the enemy, everything she hated about the Elephantmen. She carves her name into the corpses, (see fig. 1) eats their carcass’ exclaiming it’s simply animal meat (Starkings, 2011). She becomes their most feared adversary. ‘Ebony: We were confronted by enemies just as ferocious as ourselves… Some even more deadly.’ (Starkings, 2011). She quickly became a racist terrorist and treat as great to their army as they were to hers. ‘Yvette: I am not like you. I am not a terrorist, you invaded my country! You killed my friends and family. You left me nothing but hatred!’ (Starkings, 2011). This shows a woman who has nothing left to live for, stripped to her bone and left with only the ugliest of human traits. As she looses her innocence we start to see the softer side of the Elephantmen, the human side. As Yvette takes out Hip Flask (Hippopotamus) and Ebony Hide (Elephant) and leaves them to bleed out, she leaves them with harsh words and Hip’s reply is the first glimpse we get of humanity in the Elephantmen. ‘Yvette: I won’t rest until every single Elephantman is dead? Got it? Hip: Yes… I understand… Hope.’ (Starkings, 2011). We start to see regret and a conscience in the monsters here, a deep-set desire for their own demise. This is confirmed later when we see Ebony’s memory of the event, and his understanding of the situation. 

‘Ebony: Yvette had left me and Hip to die, and it wasn’t long before the black dragons found us… I would have welcomed release from this world… but it was not to be...’ (Starkings, 2013).

We see here Ebony already has a deep-set depression. He is not particularly suicidal at this point, not willing to take his own life, but he clearly wants an escape from his current life. His thought process is obvious and blatant; we are shown his torment in his thoughts.

‘Ebony: We’d lost a lot of blood… The sky was shrouded by a layer of burning ash… and then, out of the darkness… I saw death… I felt myself slipping away… but then a voice snapped me back… Gabbatha… his skin looked white to me, his eyes kind… he was not like other Elephantmen then, any more than he is now. It was like he was willing me to live. But for what? Of course every single one of Mappo’s foot soldiers carried a dollar value… twenty million each. Stich ‘em, fix ‘em, send ‘em back in…’ (Starkings, 2013).

These kind of thoughts are not only in the characters inner mental state, but also in his vocabulary, which shows not only he is thinking, and wanting suicide, but also asking for it, shortly after the even we hear him clearly state his desire as he begs the medic to leave him at let him die, not just as a current feeling, but it seems like an ongoing experience for the character, through the way he describes life.

‘Ebony: White elephant, please… leave me, let me die… Put me in a place, Gabbatha… believe me… I know about life’s sorrows, Mappo will just fix me up… send me back... for more.’ (Starkings, 2013).

Ebony’s suffering does not end with the war however, when it was over, he could not adapt to the world as a lot of the other Elephantmen, although he was not the only one. Starking mirrors that of war veterans, as society expects them to be able to switch back when returning home. Many come back with a different state of mind, unable to see the world as they did. 

Hippo: You see Miki, when the Elephantmen got pulled out of Mappo and dumped into the world, not all of us were like Horn. Rehabilitation didn’t work for all the munts, not all of us could adapt. You think we just disappeared into nowhere, and left the others to their success? They would have liked us to, maybe, the government, the U.N. Hell some of us wished we could have left it all behind, nice and simple. You think we wouldn’t trade places with Horn if we could choose? We only come to this place because we have no place else to go. Because we hate the bleeding hearts who rescued us just as much as we hated the ones who we were trained to kill.’ (Starkings, 2011).

 This is not just suggested through characters in a dive bar, it is directly told to the audience through Hip Flask’s thought dialogue, as he witness a fellow Elephantman be attacked on the street, Elephantmen are not allowed to carry weapons, although they are WMD’s themselves, they are harmless to society now. Tusk for example, is simple, wouldn’t hurt a fly. War screwed him up as it did the U.N veterans, but folks don’t forgive or forget. (Starkings, 2012). (See fig. 2).

Ebony although knew right from wrong after his rehabilitation into society, did not find his place, and could not function as the government wanted. His depression worsened, he was expected to forget about his past, what he was forced to do and simply be at peace with it, but he could not. ‘During his rehabilitation, Ebony was forced to come to terms with the terrible things he had done. Ebony remembers many of the faces of the innocent humans he killed. Sometimes, at night, he hears them begging for their lives. Remember? Elephants never forget.’ (Starkings, 2011). His shift into the human way of life was not easy, he acted in many ways human, and we see him explain his suicide attempt (see fig. 3) after being recued by Hip and Sahara at the height of his depression.

‘Ebony: Only two years ago I would have snapped you like a twig. We are soldiers… trained to kill. That is what we were designed for. That is the way we were made. It doesn’t just go away. No matter how much we might want it to.’ (Starkings, 2011).

He goes into detail about how the transition into normality is a struggle, and uses his knowledge to display the subject realistically and honestly.

‘You know and put in a situation where you're fighting for her life. Where basically that becomes your reason for living and then they take that away and what kind of person you become. A lot of people who become killers, sit on roof tops, picking people off with guns, they've been in war and something gets broken. There are writers who have treated the subject of mental health very specifically in comics I don't think I specifically set out to touch on that issue but its inevitable when you're writing about warfare. You know the goal of training; boot camp is all about breaking the mental bearings of a young man or woman. The first goal is to break them and then rebuild them, and teach them that it is okay to kill, but its not okay to kill. But on the other hand we're taught to fight for king and country and we’re taught the concept of a just war. But a just war and what people see in warfare are two different things.’ (Appendix a).

Starkings brutally explains the horrific way war veterans are treated, through the Elephantmen’s rehabilitation. ‘They treated the Elephantmen like normal, human, war vets… which of course, is simply a way of saying they didn’t treat them very well at all.’ (Starkings, 2010). Ebony’s constant struggle with adapting to a ‘normal’ life is shown and described in many ways, he suffers from PTSD, his flashbacks are shown and described vividly as dreaming of those days, a dream of blood. (Starkings, 2010) (See fig. 4). We don’t see Ebony take any medication for his mental health state, this is because Starkings seems to think that is not a great help to the suffer, and in fact makes the situation worse in many ways.

‘I know that veterans are over medicated. I know that, all the guys I know suffer from bad dreams; medication doesn't necessarily make bad dreams go away sometimes it actually encourages them.’ (Appendix a).

He is vocal about how he dislikes the way vets are treated both verbally and creatively through his work.

‘You have a system that feeds that medication to keep them pacified and free of doubt, I don't know if you can be free of doubt, but you've got to have compassion for the people who went into that system and survived.’ (Appendix a).

The effects war leaves on the characters is evident, Ebony’s depression is often hinted throughout the series, his view on life bleak and distorted compared to that of the other characters, as we often hear in his dialogue ‘Ebony: He’s better of this way, dead, in an unmarked grave.’ (Starkings 2010). His conversations with characters give us insight into the state of mind he is in ‘How do you see light where I see only darkness.’ (Starkings, 2011). His views are not just of himself though, he clearly see’s his kind as a broken species, with no place left for existence and describes them as weapons of war, prisoners of war, spoils of war, all the same thing (Starkings, 2012). Ebony works with Hip Flask as a private investigator, and is sometimes thrown back into battle, although he will always try to avoid such conflict ‘Trench: Ebony, you can stand, here- you’re deputised. Start shooting. Ebony: No. Trench: I wasn’t offering a choice Ebony.’ (Starkings, 2011) (See fig. 5). His reaction to these incidents is not what it used to be, and he cannot become the man he was, leaving him lost as to who he is now, and what he is supposed to do. Hip explains that he simply does not have the stomach for it anymore. (Starkings, 2011). All of this replicates real life, and what it is like for veterans coming home. Starkings does not finish showing issues there however; he shows how the characters are expected to fit into the world whilst being subjected to racism, (See fig. 2 and 6) this is not only an issue on its own, but can also be a cause of depression. As we see a young girl wanting to chat to Ebony, saying things like ‘Savannah: You’re funny, but my friend Chase says you guys are monsters. Are you a monster?’ (Starkings, 2011). The Elephantmen are supposed to co-exist with a species that hates and fears them, as proven when the girls mother screams to Ebony, who has barely spoken a word.

‘Mom: Get away from him! Oh my god! What do you think you’re doing?! Stay away from her! If I see you round here again, I’ll report you! Ebony: All things will change Ebenezer. Nothing changes.’ (Starkings, 2012).

We see Ebony fall back into his sadness after briefly visiting the other end of the spectrum, and how can we blame him? Starkings cleverly makes all sides of the story relatable and understandable. The racism is both physical, verbal, and subtle, as we see in and interview with Obadiah and his human wife Sahara.

‘Obadiah: Is that your angle? Are you trying to suggest that Sahara’s own mother would disown her? Interviewer: Imagine how she would feel if her daughter brought a creature like you home for dinner with her and they announced their engagement. Obadiah: A creature like me? An animal? This interview is over. Interviewer: I’m only saying- Obadiah: What your saying is Sahara’s love for me is comparable to the love a girl feels for a dog, would you like me to bark?’ (Starkings, 2012).

It’s also shown in neglect. Elephantmen are hard to miss, but their comforts can be ignored and they become almost invisible when asking for help. (See fig. 7).

‘Ferris: No offence agent Flask. Hip: None taken, but um, speaking of tails mine’s freezing… does anyone have a blanket? Ferris: and speaking of credit, Collier… don’t forget the fifty you owe me.. Hip: A blanket? A towel? Well, a tarp would be best, anybody? Collier: you’ll get your money Ferris… you’ll get your money!’ (Starkings, 2011).

This torment is continuous and harshly displayed to the mentally ill Elephantman, and given to Tusk (Warthog) often (see fig. 2). The truth comes out when men are in a place of power. When they can speak their minds freely we see what humans really think of them (see fig. 8).

‘Guard: You are one ugly pig, aren’t you? If ah was standin’ next to you in a bar ah’d be pullin’ all the chickies man. Man, and ya stink like an old sock full of turds… whatevers keepin’ ya alive, it isn’t your sense of smell, ya big freak! Hey, Tusk! Ah’m talkin’ to you, ya daft bastard. That’s right, that’s right, give ya old pal keimond a nice smile… y’know one of these days ah’m gonna have that god tusk of yours… Serengheti will pay a nice price for a piece like that. It’s not like your usin’ it. Is it ya slobbering gimp?’ (Starkings, 2011).

This racism is not entirely one sided however, after seeing what Yvette did in the war, (see fig. 1) Obadiah has no interest in being human, and would never count himself as one of them (Starkings, 2011). However not all humans share the views, with many men feeling jealously over their muscular physic and size, and attention from women for that and their animalistic beauty ‘Miki: Look at you, you’re beautiful.’ (Starkings, 2012). Starkings uses the unique natural design of these animals to convey certain illnesses, the worn, colourless, bleak, tired look of an Elephant is a perfect design to embody depression, and this is often referred to ‘Ebony: No, I don’t have a girlfriend. Savannah: You kind of look like you need one.‘ (Starkings, 2012) This is shown various times, and is hard hitting when we see him in a mentally distressing situation. ‘Oh gosh Ebony, look at you, you look like you’ve been in the wars. He just needs a little tender loving care, boy your eyes are red, is that why your head hurts Ebony? Are you back on the sauce?’ (Starkings, 2010) Also hinting at a history with alcoholism. This is visible through the series but particularly well in a page, (see fig. 9) as Ebony takes the fictional drug ‘mirror’. ‘Hip: Mirror. The deliriant drug that is supposed to help you see yourself more clearly… it’s supposed to reveal your hearts desire. (Starkings, 2012) The panels are almost void of colour, dark, similar, which portrays a monotone, boring outlook, reflecting the characters emotions. The light lands lightly on the character, seeming almost like he is literally in a black hole of emptiness. We finish the page with a close look into his heavy eyes, containing all the emotion the page is revealing. It’s wordless pages like this, that rely completely on the artist’s capturing of the moment that proves it is not just the writing that has a great detail of work put into it. In these panels we see Starkings tackle another issue, drug abuse, which is a difficult subject and much like as alcoholism, can be escapism for sufferers of depression, as well as being independent issues on their own. Starkings accurately describes the effects of drugs through a character, Trench.

‘Trench: I saw you take the mirror from the crime scene. But I didn’t stop you. You looked like you needed it. Yeah I got hooked on that shit years ago. It worms its way into your soul… warms all those cold places… makes you feel powerful in just the right way.’ (Starkings, 2012).

Although this might seem like a little too much glorification, we are quickly taken back down, showing it’s dangerous spiralling effect and uncertainty, as well as re-enforcing Ebony’s struggle.

‘Trench: For innocents… like that little girl… If you hurt her while you were out of it Ebony… you know what I’d have to do…

Ebony: You wouldn’t have to.’ (Starkings, 2012).

While Ebony’s words are harrowing its also the scene and the way the artist has given Ebony his own panel for those final words, (see fig. 10) and show him closing his eye with regret and pain that give it an extra emotional tug. We would assume that Starkings has had a close relationship with the subjects by the time he has written this volume, as he understands the subjects deeply but confirmed in my interview with him that prior to Elephantmen, he had not done any deliberate research.

‘When I was writing about war veterans, we've all absorbed what we've observed, we're not necessarily experts on mental health or PTSD. I now know a lot of Vietnam and Afghan war veterans, old people and young people. I've had letters from readers saying I understand PTSD, I don't but I have an inkling of it.’ (Appendix a).

However although Starkings did not research the topic before writing Elephantmen, he did as he wrote the series, and had the advantage of having more knowledge of the subject from his family members at an early age.

‘Both my grand fathers were in WW1 my mother’s father was a stretcher bearer, he refused to take lives, my father’s father was in cartography so he was in, behind the front, my grandfather who was a stretcher bearer was literally getting people who'd had there limbs blown off out of trenches and his wife was a nurse in WW1 so I come from a family of people hopefully saving lives in war time and that’s coloured my point of view having said that now that I've got to know people how have actually fought in wars, and a war like Vietnam that is not regarded as a just war, has been so damaging and I have more compassion for people who were actually put in the field of battle to kill people, you know so on the one hand I'm proud of my grandfather refused to kill however on the other hand you cant judge the people who took a job and didn't understand the consequences to their mental health’ (Appendix a).

These consequences to their mental health can come in many different forms, mostly in addiction as an escape.

‘Each of these friends have struggled with various addictions, but ultimately come to terms with the fact that there is not enough whiskey, wine, narcotics or marijuana in the world to numb the pain they were caused to experience.’ (Starkings, 2012).

Starkings does not only use mental health and the effects it has to humanise the Elephantmen, but also gives them very human emotions like love, regret and sorrow and builds histories besides the war to connect with and relate to the larger audience.

‘Hip: When I’m around this old flame, well, I’m anything but fireproof…Just one look at her skin turned gold in the sunlight, the smell of her musk.. and I’m living in a fantasy all over again. So when she kisses me, I don’t resist… What man could? Or would? It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven.’ (Starkings, 2012).

These emotions are not just in the characters thoughts but also their vocabulary. ‘Hip: I’m not alone honey… but she’s not you.’ (Starkings, 2012). While giving them this very human side, Starkings does not forget about animal instinct, and not just the dangerous side, but also the beautiful simplicity of what the animals enjoy (see fig. 11). Infusing this with the human emotions he makes his designs into very believable characters.

Starkings displays a range of mental health problems from the effects of addiction, racism, PTSD and depression in Elephantmen, and does so with great care and accuracy. His work is outlandish and a little daft, but is incredibly fun, thought provoking, engaging, and has a beautiful depth to it. It’s an organised body of work that has so much to say, and wraps it all up with a world full of great characters and strong detailed narrative. Elephantmen has influenced me more than any for the work I will take into extended practice.

Images

Fig 1, Starkings, R. (2011) Elephantmen: Armed Forces, Volume 00: Horn finds Rhino corpses  [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 2, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Develish functions, Volume 05: Tusk’s attack [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 3, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Wounded Animals, Volume 01: Ebony’s suicide attempt [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 4, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Wounded Animals, Volume 01: Ebony’s flashback [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 5, Starkings, R. (2011) Elephantmen: Fatal Diseases, Volume 02: Ebony’s refusal [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 6, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Wounded Animals, Volume 01: Camel’s place [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 7, Starkings, R. (2011) Elephantmen: Fatal Diseases, Volume 02: Hip’s invisibility [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 8, Starkings, R. (2011) Elephantmen: Fatal Diseases, Volume 02: Tusk’s torture [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 9, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Develish functions, Volume 05: Ebony’s escape [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 10, Starkings, R. (2012) Elephantmen: Develish functions, Volume 05: Ebony’s depression [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Fig. 11, Starkings, R. (2011) Elephantmen: Fatal Diseases, Volume 02: Horn’s peace [Comic] Image Comics: California.

Bibliography

Starkings, R. (2011) ‘Elephantmen: Armed Forces, Volume 00’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2012) ‘Elephantmen: Wounded Animals, Volume 01’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2011) ‘Elephantmen: Fatal Diseases, Volume 02’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2010) ‘Elephantmen: Dangerous Liaisons, Volume 03’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2011) ‘Elephantmen: Questionable Things, Volume 04’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2012) ‘Elephantmen: Develish functions, Volume 05’. California: Image Comics.

Starkings, R. (2013) ‘Elephantmen: Earthly Desires, Volume 06’. California: Image Comics.

Appendices

Appendix a

Richard Starkings - How do you think mental health is represented in comics?

Me: Could we get a quick portfolio review? And do you mind if we film the interview for our blogs?

Richard: Oh my goodness, if your going to film it I better say nicer things.

Me: no just be honest because we want to end up doing it in the industry.

Richard: I don’t know how big you’ve drawn these characters, but a lot of this texture, you’ve done some good drawings, but texture is always disguising bad drawings. You have too much time and rather than using colour to create forms your suggesting it with lines, if you want to work as a comic book artist, your going to need to pick up speed, and one thing that slows you down is too much feathering. That’s what I call this, its feathering, when you see a bird cleaning its wings it takes a fucking long time, because there’s a lot of feathers.  Feathering takes a lot of time, but if your doing just illustration that can work for you, but in comics you need to get your line work down, its line work its not feathering. The hardest thing to master is colour, one thing you’ll always be asked by artists is where is your light source? Where are these shadows coming from? Where is your light source? Is it here? Is it? If it was over here would it make any difference? I see where there’s a shadow under the chin if you want to pop out the jaw but then why is there not a shadows over here? And then he’d need a shadow on his arm aswell, you haven’t really thought through light source. And that’s inking, inking is about that, colouring is about light source. Your using shadows primarily to pop stuff out, but then the colouring should be different. You’ve got some good drawing, but one thing I’ll say to you with anybody that’s ever drawn the Elephantmen is where are the feet? Where the feet fall on the floor, you get the weight right. You get the difference in where the feet fall because heavy half human half animal feet, they don’t stand on the floor like humans do your thinking is human here. You’re like ‘oh well there a flat line under here’, I don’t know where his knees are now, I don’t know where his weight is, because you haven’t done that, look, these feet are holding his weight. Because that position can hold his weight, you push him, he falls over, but he’s got a stomach, that means he’s got massive hips, his pelvic girdle is massive and its going to push his weight slightly apart. The reason we have pelvic bones is so that our intestines don’t drop through our asses, our pelvis has two purposes, keeps the baby from dropping out, keeps your intestines from dropping out, force of gravity, its why people get hernias, hernias literally forcing gravity, weight, pop. The pelvic girdle in a female mirrors how big your brain can be, it’s a very important part of evolution, because we need bigger brains to be smarter, to outwit predators right? That’s why we have bigger brains. But there’s a limit of how big that can be, I don’t know if you’ve read issue 59 I talk about how we’ve evolved, men on the species level are attracted to women with large childbearing hips, because the larger the hips the bigger the space for the brain. The bigger the breasts the more nourishment for the child. And a big brains needs more nourishment. So there’s reasons anatomically for the way were built, but animals are not built the same way. An animal weight can be heavier because their weight is carried between two sets of legs, so you have to rethink anatomy when you have your animals standing upright. The elephantmen have huge heads, you’ve shrink the head, if that was an elephantman that head is a fraction of the size, bigger the head, the bigger the structural anatomy, bigger the shoulders, bigger the waist, the shorter the legs, the wider the legs, the bigger the feet. So you’ve got to think things through anatomically. Because were not easily fooled. A lot of the CGI characters in Star Wars, are brilliantly thought through from an anatomical level, because how is he carrying his weight? What happens when he sits down? You’ve got to think those things through and there’s flatness about these. The feathering is actually covering up lack of consideration of anatomy. Not real anatomy, you’ve got to think it through from that aspect. Same here, this guys stomach, it’s a pelvic girdle, it’s supporting the stomach, as you get fatter it pushes the pelvic girdle out. That’s why a lot of people loose weight but their skin is saggy, because you cant fix your bones. Once the weight has dictated, they’ve grown to support the stomach, don’t even get me started on birds. Or cats. That’s a whole different thing, but you know all the same things apply this one is a little better, you’ve got one foot slightly further forward, because pandas do sometime stand on their hind legs, you’ve probably looked at pandas, and pandas know how to do that. You’ve got nice expressions, nice ideas but you’ve got three fingers on the elephant, and five- yes you’ve thought those things through, same with the cats. I think its just weight and mass, its interesting how you’ve done things, is this all of them stuck together? but where’s the light source? You can’t just stick them together.

Me: We have a few pages, but we don’t like the font, its all very last minute but if there’s anything with the layout.

Richard: everybody always apologises about font to me. Yeah this is a famous font, okay I’ll tell you something, looks the same. Pages start to look the same. You know, zoom in on the eyes, save yourself some drawing, good comic book art isn’t just about drawing well its about saving time and making things a little more graphically interesting. I ask for a lot of close ups, its partly because its interesting to see these characters up close, the eye reveals a lot. Were always looking for the eyes, in a movie your like where are the eyes? Pull back when you can, let see how many pages, one, okay I can see his feet here, haven’t seen her feet yet. Oh wait there they are, haven’t seen the right leg. Okay your doing lots and lots of medium shots, because your afraid. Afraid to draw, afraid to move the camera. Pull back further, zoom in closer. Don’t be afraid to move the camera. In fact it’s essential. And everybody will tell you that.

Me: How do you think mental health is represented in comics? Done well? How did you do it?

Richard: I didn't approach it from the point of view of anything other than story driven, so when I was writing about war veterans its, we've all absorbed what we've observed, we're not necessarily experts on mental health or PTSD. I now know a lot of Vietnam and Afghan war veterans, old people and young people. I've had letters from readers saying I understand PTSD, I don't but I have an inkling of it. I know that veterans are over medicated. I know that, all the guys I know suffer from bad dreams, medication doesn't necessarily make bad dreams go away sometimes it actually encourages them. You know I think anybody that is put through war is going to suffer. The story of a Yvette is a the transformation of an innocent who’s been exposed to war and had to do things she wouldn't have done had she not been fighting for her life, you know and put in a situation where you're fighting for her life. Where basically that becomes your reason for living and then they take that away and what kind of person you become. A lot of people who become killers, sit on roof tops, picking people off with guns, they've been in war and something gets broken. There are writers who have treated the subject of mental health very specifically in comics I don't think I specifically set out to touch on that issue but its inevitable when you're writing about warfare. You know the goal of training, boot camp is all about breaking the mental bearings of a young man or woman. The first goal is to break them and then rebuild them, and teach them that it is okay to kill, but its not okay to kill. But on the other hand we're taught to fight for king and country and we’re taught the concept of a just war. But a just war and what people see in warfare are two different things, both my grand fathers were in WW1 my mother’s father was a stretcher bearer, he refused to take lives, my father’s father was in cartography so he was in, behind the front, my grandfather who was a stretcher bearer was literally getting people who'd had there limbs blown off out of trenches and his wife was a nurse in WW1 so I come from a family of people hopefully saving lives in war time and that’s coloured my point of view having said that now that I've got to know people how have actually fought in wars, and a war like Vietnam that is not regarded as a just war, has been so damaging and I have more compassion for people who were actually put in the field of battle to kill people, you know so on the one hand I'm proud of my grandfather refused to kill however on the other hand you cant judge the people who took a job and didn't understand the consequences to their mental health, and you have a system that feeds that medication to keep them pacified and free of doubt, I don't know if you can be free of doubt, but you've got to have compassion for the people who went into that system and survived.

Starkings, R. (2014) ‘Richard Starkings - How do you think mental health is represented in comics?’ Interviewed by Callum Brown [In person] 15/11/14, 12:13.