Richard Starkings Interview

I visited the Thought Bubble convention, to show off and get feedback for my work on PPP3, but also to interview Richard Starkings on his 'Elephantmen' work as having read it, I knew it would be a positive influence on my work. When I asked him "How do you think mental health is represented in comics? Done well? How did you do it?" He replied with this lengthy, in depth, detailed answer that I will use for my dissertation.

"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." 

You can see this conversation at 10:58 to 15:30 in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUQ-W6sFFfA&feature=youtu.be

MCM Comic Convention Reaserch

I went to the MCM Comic Convention to show artists my work and get feedback for PPP3, however whilst there, I though it was a good opportunity to see what people in the industry think of the representation of mental health, and sensitive subject matters in comic books. Below I have displayed some of the responses I got to my questions.

Liam Shallo.

When I asked Liam Shallo if he thought comics did a good job at displaying sensitive subject matters such as depression, this was his response: "I think comics do a better job than most, comic books are an industry where you can take more risks, and experiment. Like 'The Crow', everyones read 'The Crow'. The Crow was a book created when the authors fiance got killed by a drunk driver. He did it as a coping method, comic books can be so personal. Like Jeff, a very famous comic book writer, he dedicates a lot of his character names to his son. There been spousal abuse, depression, suicide, LGBT. The first gay kiss in a comic was way before anything on T.V. It's a good place to get your head around subject matter."

You can see this at 6:12 in the video link here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ro9I_xoGsI

Martin Griffiths.

WheN I asked Martin Griffiths if the thought comic represented subject matters like mental health and depression, he replied with this. "I think they always try to do things like that, such as the drug problems in the sixties in comics, I haven't seen many comics lately, I must admit, I haven't seen any of those kind of relationships. Maybe more of being gay in comics, or something like that. I haven't talked to many people so I can't give you their views, I would imagine the odd comics are out there that are good, there are writers out there dealing with those subjects probably but I haven't seen or heard of anything.'

I thought it was interesting how both artists so far started talking about homosexuality, and so I started to ask that question more often, and thinking about maybe bringing in this element to my work.

You can see this conversation at 1:35 in the video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5XPhr2NyzA

Sam - assistant editor at Panini comics.

I said to Sam I was looking into how comics deal with hard to talk about issues like depression or homosexual superheroes, and if he thought comics represent that fairly at the moment. This was his answer. "Well I don't know if you know Rob Liefeld, he was responsible for lots of the 'Image' stuff and then he came to do 'Heroes Reborn', quite a controversial figure in the industry but recently it 'X-Factor' one of the character that he created in the 90's, and he's a bit of a jock in america, but he's an x-man, and they decided that he was gay, and they started to play around with that in 'X-Factor'. Rob Liefeld actually came about and he said 'I didn't intend this character to be gay originally', and it's interesting. Have your read 'Muas' for instance? Thats dealing with something very depressing, and like yourselves he anthropomorphises animals, so mice are jewish, the cats are nazis. If you handle it with the gravity and a sense of humour then I do think there are ways of doing it properly. 'Black Hole' as well, I can't remember who its by now, Charles Burn! Give that a read because thats very much about coming into your own as a teenager. It's kind of the same with any medium, if you handle it well, if you handle it with a sense of imagination I think you can tell any story.

You can see this conversation at 8:08 in the video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5I8MwbnsVI

Lee Bradley.

I asked Lee Bradley if he thought comics were sensitive enough when dealing with issues people could relate to strongly such as depression and his answer was this. "I think a comic book is there to entertain, its like a film. Is a film sensitive enough to deal with those issues? If the film is about those issues, then it should have a layer too it about that, but if its not about that then its about characters, and what drives these characters. It comes down to the subject and the source material and what the aim is, so I would say yes and no.

You can see our conversation here, at 5:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnpOKG8Sb_E

Phil Buckenham.

I asked Phil Buckenham if he thought comics were sensitive enough when dealing whit sensitive issues like depression and this was his answer. "I think over the years they have shown, weather its alcoholism or drug abuse, that they can deal with those subjects, yes.

This is available at 3:41 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jGaYv_ffsc

With this information, i've found that most artist seem to either know or think it's possible to infuse these issues with the comic book medium, and some have even given me direct books to look at for secondary research.

Talk with Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr at Leeds College of Art

On the Thursday the 13th November 2014 comic artists Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr came into our university to give a talk on comics and how they broke the industry. As my new found area to expertise in, I decided to attend.

Cameron Stewart

Cameron Stewart got his first opportunity at the comic industry by chance, as Grant Morrison was in the store he worked in and liked a sketch he was drawing, After offering him some work on the 'Seaguy' series Cameron had his first job in the industry.

Cameron Stewart mentioned often on how it was vital to always reference when drawing. He said is captures a more realistic world, including anatomy, lighting and shadows. He also said how he personally likes to create well thought out fight sequences. Although with a limited page count, this can be difficult. 'Sin Titulo', 'B.P.R.D Hell on Earth: Exorcism' and is currently working on 'Fight Club 2' as a Graphic Novel, written by the author of the original book, Chuck Palahniuk.

 Babs Tarr

Cameron Stewart then introduced his college Babs Tarr, with whom we worked on the 'New 52 Batgirl' series with.  Babs has a very unique style, abstractly beautiful. He found Babs' work on Tumblr. She was very interested in fashion at uni, but got a reputation for drawing sexy women. Something she said she enjoyed drawing, although she is capable of alot more. She mentioned how she doesn't think 'sexy' should be mistaken for 'sexist'.