THE WORLD OF RICHARD STARKINGS
by
R. O'DONNELL
RICHARD STARKINGS, THE CREATOR OF HIP FLASK, THE ELEPHANTMEN AND FOUNDER OF COMICRAFT, CHECKS IN WITH STATIC.
Richard Starkings has been a mainstay in the world of comics for decades. His lettering work and his company, Comicraft, founded with partner John 'JG' Roshell in 1992, have won numerous awards throughout the industry. Through his publishing house, Active Images, he began with his own Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection (the collection has sold over 26,000 copies) and in only a few short years became a publisher of great note, putting out a compelling and eclectic line of graphic novels featuring some of the most talented and up-and-coming creators in the industry, including: Solstice (Steven T. Seagle and Justin Norman), The Spiral Cage (Al Davison), Ballast (Joe Kelly and Ilya), Strange Embrace (David Hine), Temptation, Skidmarks, Gunpowder Girl and the Outlaw Squaw, The Fly Chronicles, and Brickman Begins. Industry legends Dave Sim, Alan Moore and Will Eisner are just a few who have sung the praises of Active Images's lineup. Active Images's most recent graphic novel, The Nightmarist, by Duncan Rouleau (Static Interview), was launched to great critical acclaim and is currently in development at Paramount Pictures.
This July, Active Images and Image Comics release Elephantmen, a 32-page full-color ongoing monthly series (Image Comics, $2.99, Diamond Order Code: MAY06 1710) Feature stories will be by Starkings and regular series artist Moritat, with covers by Ladronn and flip covers by a who's who of comic talent, including Brian Bolland, Tim Sale, David Lloyd, Ian Churchill, Joe Madureira, Steve Skroce and Pascual Ferry.
R. O'Donnell: Born and raised in England, you worked at the famed Marvel UK's London offices as an editor, designer and writer on GI Joe, Zoids, Ghostbusters, Transformers and the Doctor Who comic strip, what was that like?
Richard Starkings: I consider myself to have been very lucky to have worked at Marvel UK during the 'Boom' years. Books such as Transformers, Care Bears and Doctor Who Monthly (I worked on them all, as did Civil War writer, Dave Strange Embrace Hine, but don't tell him I told you so!) were selling extremely well and the Captain Britain magazine, though short-lived, was something of a jewel in Marvel UK's crown at the time. At least, those of us that worked on it thought so.
In the early eighties, Marvel UK had learned to distinguish between the UK market and the US market, and as a young upstart editor I had my eyes set on the US market; I wanted to do color monthly books! Our titles, Dragon Claw's, Death's Head and The Sleeze Brothers, launched in '88 and '89, were considered misfires at the time, but with them, and alongside our GI Joe and Ghostbusters weeklies, I was able to nurture a strong group of British creators which included Dougie Justice Braithwaite (he was just 15 years old when he brought me his first samples), Simon Furman (who had already written a million Transformers stories by the end of the '80s but was able to work freelance full time on the back of Death's Head), Dan Sinister Dexter Abnett, Bryan Ultimates Hitch (just 16 years old when he brought in his portfolio, he was as precocious then as he is now), the delightful Lee Sullivan (best Doctor Who strip artist EVER) and obsessive compulsive multi-tasker Andy Majestic Lanning.
Best of all working at Marvel UK, living in London and freelancing for rivals 2000AD as a lettering robot, brought me into contact with British comic luminaries and stalwarts such as Dave Gibbons, Alan Davis, Jamie Delano, John Wagner, Alan Grant, Robin Smith, Mick McMahon, Kevin O'Neill, Lew Stringer, Steve Dillon, Steve McManus, Steve and Annie Parkhouse, Tom Frame, Steve Craddock, Brian Bolland, Alan Moore, John Higgins and Paul Gravett. It was a very small and intimate industry back then, and everyone had stories to tell and cautionary words to share. When Marvel UK's editor in chief, Jenny O'Connor, and I visited Judge Dredd writers John Wagner and Alan Grant, in an effort to woo them over to Marvel, I remember very well that owning a part of their creations was very much a sticking point in our negotiations. It was frustrating for us, and ultimately we weren't able to give them the deal or the money they wanted, but those conversations allowed us to forge a creator-owned contract for John Carnell and Andy Lanning's Sleeze Brothers, and ultimately drove me years later into self publishing so that I could own and control Hip Flask and, now, Elephantmen. Jenny eventually moved in with John Wagner-so she got something very different out of the experience-a piece of Judge Dredd!
You've been self-publishing since your teens, so I've got to ask if you where you one of those copy machine fanzine wizards?
Duplicating machines-my high school didn't have a photocopier back then. We created strange, inky carbon stencils and then the duplicator was hand cranked. I produced two copies of my Doctor Who fanzine, Galaxy Four, that way. When I produced collections of my Doctor Who cartoon strips some years later, I did those at Prontaprint, a chain of copier shops similar to Kinko's. I'm not sure if they're still in business. There was a very good one near the old Forbidden Planet store on Denmark street. Brian Bolland used to take me there to make copies of The Killing Joke pages he'd finished. I still have my set.
Is it true British lettering kings Bill Nuttall and Tom Frame originally inspired your unique design style?
I think Bill and Tom had very unique and interesting styles, and they were very kind and encouraging toward me way back when. Bill died a few years ago, and never saw Comic Book Lettering The Comicraft Way, which I dedicated to him. I did get a very nice phone call from his son, though. He was very touched. I'd never have gotten off square one without Bill's help. Although I never met him, the letter and samples he sent me are amongst my most treasured possessions.
What prompted you to move to the states?
Ahh-well, I always thought I'd like to live over here, but what brought me here was the pursuit of a lovely young lady who we'll call Sue Smith. She worked at Marvel UK for six months then moved back to LA. We broke up shortly after I moved to California, but I'll always be grateful to her for running away from me! Sweet girl.
Comicraft has been published in millions of comic books and magazines and has received loads of comic book industry awards for both lettering and design. How did your partnership with John 'JG' Roshell come about?
His girlfriend, the lovely Starshine, was the ex-girlfriend of the brother of a mutual friend. I was looking for the very first Comicraftsman to work with me on lettering assignments, and JG had been a big fan of SPIDER-MAN all his life and proved to be the perfect choice to help build the business. There wouldn't be a Comicraft without JG-he was the one who asked me how he should answer the phone... "Um, COMICRAFT!" I answered. My old roommate, Griff, was a carpenter in Venice Beach and called his business PROUDCRAFT, I just swapped out the first few letters!
You're regarded as one of the early pioneers of computer-based comic book lettering. How did the industry respond to your initial innovations?
With Fear and Loathing. Bob Harras famously told me he'd NEVER allow me to letter X-Men books digitally. He later ate those words, and his hat. It was a long hard slog. JG was constantly tweaking the font he created based on my hand lettering style-and creating new fonts all the time! We have over a hundred fonts available commercially now (comicbookfonts.com) but back then we had ONE. You tell that to the kids today and they won't believe you!
Tell us about the origins of Hip Flask?
Well, originally I wanted to sell our fonts as the official X-Men or Wildcats fonts, but neither Marvel or Jim Lee's Wildstorm studio really saw the potential, thank goodness! I finally decided to use my character Hedge Backwards (www.hedgebackwards.com) as a shill to sell the fonts, but his stories (which are semi-autobiographical and basically tell the story of my relationship with Sue) didn't fit, so I decided to create an action/adventure hero instead. Through one reason and another, that character became Hip Flask.
Comic strips, comic books, and Graphic novels seem to mirror the movies and visa versa, what are some of your biggest cinematic influences?
I think they're Very Obvious if you've seen the Hip Flask and Elephantmen books! No one will be surprised to learn that I love Blade Runner, Alien, Twelve Monkeys and The Fly, but I'd also add Jaws, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Delicattessen, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, Jean De Florette/Manon De Source, Pirates Of The Carribean and, well, so many more. I try not to watch genre movies so much now, and I'm more likely to be watching nature documentaries and British dramas. When you work in fantasy, you tend to seek out something a little more realistic in your down time! I've been watching The Lakes, Blackpool, Cutting It, State Of Play and Shameless on DVD. I think I'm single handedly responsible for Amazon UK's quarterly profits.
As a Buddhist, do you feel your beliefs greatly influence your art, especially in regards to Hip Flask?
Absolutely-here's the whole story.... When I was given the task of editing a comic based on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series back in London, I found myself having to cast around for new writers in order to generate the large amount of material that was needed in the book. I bought a number of scripts that were okay but they seemed to lack something which I couldn't quite put my finger on. They didn't seem truthful. I may just have been a young turk trying to prove something, but I really wanted to read and publish stories that were both fun and meaningful!
I had hired Andy Lanning to draw Ghostbusters, and he recommended the work of his old schoolfriend, John Carnell, and brought him to meet me. Generally I avoided hiring friends of friends but there was something mercurial about John that inspired me to give him a chance. John was quick with a joke and earnest in his desire to write entertaining stories. The scripts he turned in proved to be witty and vibrant and eagerly sought after by the artists working for me. I struggled in vain to understand what exactly it was that they contained so that I could communicate "the formula" to other writers.
I soon learned from Andy that John was a Buddhist and after he and I had come to know each other, I asked him about his practice. From time to time he would suggest that I probably couldn't handle Buddhist practice and instead read to me from Rilke's Letter To A Young Poet when he was drunk. Most of all I remember the question posed by Rilke: "Must I write"?
One night I sat with John and his wife as they chanted and leafed through a book called Guidelines Of Faith. Pretending not to be very interested, I asked John if I could borrow the book. Halfway through my reading I came across the phrase "turning poison into medicine." Suddenly, a penny dropped. All John's Ghostbusters stories turned negatives into positives. The Ghostbusters would be called to bust a ghost in a hotel, but would persuade the ghost and the hotel manager to work together so that people would visit the hotel BECAUSE it was haunted; or the Ghostbusters would trap two mischievous electrical sprites in a battery, thereby creating a source of everlasting power.
I called John the next day and confronted him with my realization. "Gotcha!" I told him. "You're propagating Buddhism in your stories, aren't you? Admit it! "
"Um, No, not deliberately," John told me, "but I have been practicing for over four years and I guess that Buddhist philosophy is starting to bubble up out of my life into my work."
I never quite believed John's denial, but regardless of his intent, I decided I wanted to get me some Buddhist wisdom. I started chanting and encouraged the other writers working for me to consider the concept of "turning poison into medicine" as an alternative to the "this ghost is toast" philosophy our licensor encouraged. Subsequently The Real Ghostbusters comic became one of Marvel UK's most successful publications.
To cut a longer story short, even when I was at the top of my game, winning awards, I was never truly happy just being the guy that lettered comics. Years after I started practicing Buddhism, I realized that I didn't have to wait for other writers to produce meaningful stories for me; I could write them myself! I finally had the answer to the question posed by Rilke: "Must I write?" Hip Flask and Elephantmen are the answers to that question.
Rilke said: "A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it…go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take the destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside."
Who would you say is the Hip Flask demographic?
At our booths at shows in San Diego and Chicago, we see a LOT of young adult males aged 15-25.
What's on the horizon for Hip Flask?
Adventure, Excitement and Really Wild Things. I'm very excited about Elephantment... I can't keep up with the stories that are spilling out of the characters, and our sales have been VERY encouraging. I can promise readers that we are NOT going to disappoint. And, of course, next year we should have the next issue of Hip Flask by Ladrönn as well!
Do you have any last words on the future of comic books and graphic novels?
There are more comics and graphic novels than ever. It's a GREAT time to be in the field-especially for independent creators like myself. REJOICE
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