
From “One Girl Goes Hunting” (H. Sackett & J. Swogger, 2014)
It’s only March, and yet it’s already shaping up to being a busy year for me and comics.
I’ve got two big collaborative comics on the go this year. The first is the comic Hannah Sackett and I are working on, set in Orkney during the Neolithic: One Girl Goes Hunting. I’ve talked about this project a little bit before. This is our attempt at making an archaeological comic in the visual style of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films. It’s a really interesting and challenging project. It’s a project full of firsts: the first time I’ve ever collaborated with another archaeologist on a comic, the first time I’ve ever collaborated with a writer, and the first time I’ve ever collaborated with another comics creator! Hannah’s story is a lovely mix of archaeology, interpretation and magical realism; her art direction is nice and clear, however, meaning that I’m not struggling over how best to show what she’s written (the advantages of working with someone who’s both an archaeologist and a comics creator, I suppose!). The real challenge has been in trying to capture the feel of Studio Ghibli. While I’m a big fan of the films, I’m not naturally that kind of illustrator, so it’s been a bit of an uphill battle for me to find a way of working to that model in a way that feels natural. And it’s a challenging mix of drawing – the cel-shaded characters – and painted backgrounds. Since the autumn it’s been a bit of a case of two steps forward, one step back, but I think I’m just about there!
There’s more going on this year for me in comics and archaeology. Between now and June I’m working in the Potteries – at Middleport Pottery in Burslem – producing comics and graphics for their interpretation displays. The project is a real gem: Middleport Pottery is a nineteenth-century model pottery with a working pottery still occupying part of the factory. The complex includes a bottle oven – the only survivor of seven original ovens, and one of only a handful of such survivors in Stoke that has both the hovel and oven preserved. Anyway, more on that as the project progresses.
I’ll also be returning to Carriacou for my usual field season, and will be pushing forward the next phase of our use of comics in public outreach on the island with some museum displays and some live, weekly updated comics as well.
But I’m also returning to the genre of comics and medicine this year with the first chapter of One of Those People – a comic about eating disorders, depression and dependency. I’m collaborating with a very special author on this project, and we’re blogging the process on a separate site. We’re hoping to present our work so far at the 2014 Comics and Medicine conference in Baltimore, MD in June – still one of the best small comics get-togethers around, even if it has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years!
So, as I say, a year full of comics. Onward!
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