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| BEN DICKSON: Sounds great! BJR: Cool. We'll start with the easy questions! Please state your name, location and current occupation for the record?
BJR: I take it this has given you a lot of time to concentrate on your writing, in particular Falling Sky? BD: Yes, Falling Sky has been a godsend for my situation, as it gave me something to focus my mind on, and distract me from my situation. It's also been very handy of course to actually have the time to do ABOVE: Wounded Planet- A warning from the cosmos as Jupiter takes a direct hit from Shoemaker-Levy-9 BJR: Would you say concentrating on the writing has been therapeutic? BD: Like I say, I haven't been doing much writing because of the confidence knock, so if anything that's been frustrating, but the illustration of Falling Sky has been extremely therapeutic. It's fun, it gives me a sense of achievement, and I'm doing something I never thought I'd be able to do – I never believed I could really be an illustrator. BJR: What were you teaching? BD: I was teaching Fine Art and Graphic Design, and I was also running a course for Multimedia, which I'd also written. It was primarily BTEC students, say 16-18, but also a few younger and a few older. I also taught Art Foundation. It was very tough going, and I guess looking back I just wasn't cut out for it. I enjoyed much of it, but was always lacking confidence and I never had the kind of energy levels you need to be a teacher. I was also working in quite a tough college to teach in. When I was there, three other teachers had breakdowns in my department. Teaching in general has a very high casualty rate, and it's getting tougher all the time. BJR: Was it just the area itself, which made it a tough college? Was it a l ow-income neighbourhood etc? BD: It was a deprived area, but it was also some of the policies of the college that got me down. To be honest they're not issues I want to talk about publicly, as it was to do with issues that are today prevalent in some areas of education, and I don't want to put my foot in it. BJR: Fair enough. Lets talk about your influences then, creatively? What did you read growing up? BD: I read Eagle comic growing up. That's the 80s version I should say, not the original - I'm still in my 20s! Not many of the stories in Eagle influenced me creatively to be honest; I was more influenced by films and books I think. But stories I particularly remember inspiring me were Survivor , a story of a child survivor of an apocalyptic plague, and Charley's War . Charley's War was reprinted in Eagle when it merged with Battle . Interestingly Pat Mills said at Caption this year that nobody had ever been influenced by Charley's War - that it was creatively a dead end. Well that wasn't true for me, it was extremely influential. Tintin was something I read and enjoyed, but was never influential to me until only a few years ago. Later I discovered 2000AD , but never really had the opportunity to read American or European comics until I moved to University in Cardiff, where they actually had a comic shop. In terms of comics influence, I think that's where I got much of my inspiration from, reading Neil Gaiman books, discovering Watchmen and V for Vendetta , and Akira . Inspiration these days comes mostly from politics. I've really woken up to politics in the last five or six years, really since Bush stole the 2000 election. After September 11th I realised that I didn't know much about why it had happened, and from then became immensely interested in 20th century politics. That of course links back to Charley's War ! BJR: Quite nicely! I can't imagine anyone reading Charley's War not being affected by it; maybe Mills was referring to a cultural impact, like Watchmen had, spawning an entire industry of grim and gritty superhero comics. BD: I met Pat at Caption 2004, which was great - we got on pretty well. We talked about 20th century politics, and I told him about a historical story I intend to write some time next year, which he got quite excited about. I won't tell you what it's about yet, because I haven't started it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also a little daunted as well, because it turned out to be a subject that Pat has a lot of interest in, so I'm scared that it won't live up to his expectations! BJR: No pressure then! Besides Mills, any other creators stand out? BD: In terms of writing, I'd say Alan Moore most of all. Also Neil Gaiman, John Wagner, Art Spiegelman, Gary Spencer Millidge, Paul Pope - mostly the usual suspects. In terms of prose, I'd list specific books rather than writers. Frankenstein , Fatherland , 1984 and Slaughterhouse 5 all stand out for me and have been major influences. In terms of art, Gary Spencer Millidge was a big influence in terms of how I could approach Falling Sky because he's not afraid to use a lot of reference material. Also Herge and Paul Pope, and a guy called Christophe Blain, who wrote a book called The Speed Abater . BJR: You mentioned films earlier, but before discussing the obvious disaster movies, any particular directors' style of storytelling that is an influence? BD: Alfred Hitchcock would have to be the biggest influence in terms of how to tell a story, also Stanley Kubrick. Hitchcock said some great things about telling stories that grip people, and Falling Sky adopts several of them. For example, tell your audience exactly what's going to happen at the end, and then make them sit through the entire story, waiting for it to happen. Also, don't treat your audience kindly. Beat up on the bastards. Do exactly what they don't want you to do. BJR: I think it was Hitchcock who said don't confuse the audience; if you confuse them, they're not emoting. BD: Not heard that one before! BJR: It was on one of those quiz things before the film started! BD: Kubrick is a big influence as well, he taught me the idea that you can let an audience work out for themselves what's going on. His approach of crediting the audience with enough intelligence to work out what's going on without spelling it out for them is actually a very brave thing to do. That approach influenced me greatly when writing my contribution to Accent UK's Phobias anthology. BJR: I think a lot of comics these days have little or no emotional core beyond the flashy graphics.
BJR: Who's doing that? BD: Carmen Treffiletti is writing, Kristian Donaldson is on the art. I never heard of them before, but they've produced a striking sci-fi book. I read graphic novels more now. BJR: You've mentioned previously disaster movies, particularly Meteor (1979, directed by Ronald Neame) with Sean Connery, as a formative influence as a child. BD: Yeah, but I don't remember much about it. I remember watching The Towering Inferno ( 1974, John Guillerman and Irwin Allen, directors ) and The Poseidon Adventure ( 1972 Ronald Neame ) , both of which were very powerful films, which made an impression on me as a child. But to be honest there's really one subject matter that really lit my fire as far as disaster movies are concerned, and that's nuclear war. You know how when someone's under suspicion of being a serial killer or whatever and the tabloid press raids your home to see what films or books you've got in an attempt to explain why you did it? Well the scapegoat they would latch onto in my case would be my collection of nuclear war movies. It's a subject that fascinates me, and the way these films are made and structured helped a lot in producing Falling Sky . Threads ( 1984, directed by Mick Jackson ) is the best one. It's just so fucking brutal! BJR: I watched Threads when at school, gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards, but probably the best depiction of post nuclear holocaust on film I've seen. Ha ve you ever read Children of the Dust? BD: No I haven't, what's that? BJR: It was a ‘young adult' book by Louise Lawrence, which had the tagline: “There's only one thing worse than dying in a nuclear war, and that's surviving it." The plot involved kids running back home after the sirens go off in Avon, and have to survive under the upturned beds and doors inside the house after the strike. If I remember right there were two sets of characters, one in the house, the other trying to find the bunker for help. I remember it was quite graphic: eating dog food, killing the dog, the burn victims. As time gets on, they start to see mutations in the new born, as they develop this thin white fur and pure black eyes. Excellent book. What other films in particular stand out?
BD: I've got some quite rare ones - Miracle Mile ( 1988, directed by Steve De Jarnett, LEFT ) was brilliant. In that film, one man finds out via a wrong number phone-call that the US have launched their missiles, and they have about an hour before Russian missiles come back to them - but nobody else knows. From then on it goes into real time, and you genuinely don't know if it's going to actually happen for real, until the end. That structure was brilliant, and may well prove influential in a future story. Also a film called Special Bulletin ( 1983 TV movie, directed by Edward Zwick ), which is a very rare film made as a fictional news channel, reporting the hijacking of a small boat in a US harbour by nuclear protestors, demanding that the US deliver an essential piece of a every nuclear warhead in the area, or they'll explode their own nuclear bomb. It asks some really interesting questions about the role of the media in such events. BJR: I remember a scene from a pre 9/11 film, The Siege (1998, directed by Edward Zwick), with Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington, about terrorist attcaks in New York. They hold a bus hostage, then wait for the news cameras to arrive before blowing it up. Maximum publicity. I think more recently we've seen how the media can help perpetuate an event, especially in the case of Ken Bigly, giving terrorists the oxygen of publicity they want. BD: Certainly, yes. I remember that film, as well. It was a cautionary film about how fear of terrorism can turn you into something as bad as terrorism itself – something that is becoming extremely prophetic. I wrote a story called Realtime a few years ago, which looked at that subject of terrorism and its relationship with the media, originally illustrated by the then-unknown Boo Cook. I actually rewrote it not long ago, as I realised I was a better writer by that time, but Sept 11th happened when I was about two thirds of the way through, and completely ruined the concept of the script. I'd like to go back to the subject again, but I don't feel comfortable with it at the moment, because of where world events seem to be going. BJR: There was a project Babylon 5's J Michael Straczynski and X Files' Chris Carter were developing, a JMS idea called The World on Fire, which detailed how the world would slide to war within five years of a terrorist attack on New York. Then al Qaida attacked New York. I think most people, certainly writers, who watched the news could see it was possible, that America was open to such an attack. The government just didn't seem to take notice what scriptwriters could predict. BD: You know that the CIA actually hired Hollywood scriptwriters to come up with potential terrorist scenarios? Can't remember where I read that, but Hollywood cinema did seem to be more on the button than the Pentagon. BJR: There's the ‘war games' scenario as well; people dismiss it because its presented in films and popular culture, but it exists: if a attacked b and c got involved, would lead to x scenario. You then have contingency plans if the worst happens, common sense extrapolation of current events, and films prior to 9/11 explored that in the ‘disaster movie' genre. I think that's a duty of writers sometimes to not just entertain but to educate and warn. They have that capacity to raise awareness. BD: That's partly why I did Falling Sky . I don't seriously think a little small-press comic will actually change the way the potential threat of asteroids is dealt with by the authorities, but it was written to a degree in response to a lack of credibility given to the subject. Although considering the stigma surrounding English language comics, I may have done the subject more harm than good! But do writers have a duty to educate? Ultimately you don't have a duty to do anything. You're the writer, in theory you can tell a story about whatever you want. But there is certainly room for telling stories that warn us of things that concern the storyteller. BJR: If they feel strongly enough to do so. BD: Yeah. BJR: So why asteroids rather than nuclear holocausts? BD: Because of the lack of an enemy, partly, and also because I wanted the story to be about survival rather than who was firing what and why. With an asteroid, it's simply happening because shit happens. I guess I was also afraid that if I did nuclear war, it would just end up as a rip-off of Threads . BJR: More of a story about how people react to the situation, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances? BD: That's the staple of disaster movies. Most successful disaster movies are caused by benign incidents, because you don't want to waste time on who did it. There's nothing wrong with tackling that aspect of course, but it wasn't what I wanted to do with this story. The one thing I haven't mentioned yet, which was a big, big reason for me doing the story, was how fucking awful the Hollywood interpretation of the problem was. You can think of Falling Sky as me standing in front of Michael Bay and shouting "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!?” BJR: So no asteroid films worked for you then?
BD: Partially. I'm aware I do have a bit of a reputation for writing very downbeat stuff, or so people have told me. But the real reason for that is that I suffer from depression. I'm quite open about it, as I find that to be the best way to deal with it. It's a very hard thing to deal with generally, but one of the ways I deal with it is through art. You could argue that the Godzilla factor is a part of that – destroying the world on paper or on screen is certainly cathartic in that way. I should say that I don't really do this intentionally in my stories. I don't set out to produce the most depressing story possible – it just seems to always work out that way. BJR: The end of civilization as we know it is something I've had a morbid fascination with as well, I think it's just the eye-candy of devastated cities. Dramatically though, if the world ends, you really can't top it, you can't go anywhere after that! BD: Well there are places to go – it's all to do with your definition of the end of the world. If you mean that there will literally be nothing after it, then yeah, you've got a problem. But with something like an asteroid impact, there is an aftermath. I've got plans for two sequels to Falling Sky if it becomes a success. You see, Threads demonstrated where you can go afterwards - you follow the survivors. There would undoubtedly be some, if not many. Each sequel would follow a group of survivors of the impact - those that survived in the London Underground, and those that survived in the purpose-built shelters. BJR: Are you planning them as individual comics or a collected graphic novel? BD: Three individual graphic novels. They wouldn't be directly connected to each other, but they would fill in some gaps in terms of what happened. For example, who discovered the asteroid, when did the general public find out about it, and what the world would look like afterwards. These are all things I haven't been able to cover in Falling Sky , and it specifically states that there will be survivors, but we never get to see them. The issue about the general public finding out was something I skirted around in Falling Sky , because I wasn't able to cut away from the main characters. So although there is a point in the story where you become aware that the public has found out, you never really know how. A sequel would allow me to flesh that out, and also see what happened afterwards. Right now those stories are little more than a page of notes, but I would like to do them at some point. BJR: Will we get to see many landmarks getting obliterated? BD: Kind of, yes. But I don't want to give away too much. BJR: Cool. Why the decision for graphic novels rather than individual comics? Do you feel it's a more accessible format? BD: I do prefer it personally. It's designed as a story to be read all in one go. I have broken it into three parts, so it is publishable in that format should some kindly publisher choose to pick it up, but ultimately I prefer the graphic novel format. But it's also to do with cost - when pricing the whole thing up, it became clear that producing graphic novels would overall be cheaper than producing three issues. I tried doing them as photocopies, but the artwork is too subtle, and it just came out as a mess. I have actually had some interest from a couple of small publishers, but no commitments or anything. Can't say who, obviously! BJR: You've had work published previously in the small press. When did you become aware of the scene? BD: Er... I can't remember! The first convention I went to was in 1999, but I was aware of stuff going on before then. Actually, it probably would have started with fanzines. Class of 79 was one of the ones I read and ended up contributing to, but I didn't really get into small press itself until meeting you and Colin Dinnie from Underfire. I planned to set up a small press distribution company for a while, kind of like Shane Chebsey's Smallzone, but that died when I got my teaching job! BJR: Was the aim originally to break into 2000AD? BD: Yeah, but I'm not really interested in that any more. I did have some interest from them for a while, but I just couldn't get the Future Shocks format right. It is exceptionally hard to do, and I've never been a prolific writer, and also I was losing interest in the kind of stories 2000AD were publishing. I know Boo Cook has put the odd word in for me, bless him, but there's not a lot he could do, even though he's now one of their golden boys. Eventually James and I got together for a last ditch attempt to get in, and I wrote Serum 39 (art left), a Future Shock style story that James McKay illustrated. We showed it to 2000AD at the convention in 2003, and we were told that there were too many panels in it, and that there wasn't enough black. Also they didn't like us approaching them as a team. It's fair enough really because it's their comic, they have specific tastes, and they know exactly what they're looking for. But it made me realise that I didn't really want to go down that route, as I would probably end up changing my writing to suit them more than me. I was happier writing stories that interested me, even if I couldn't make a living out of it. BELOW: Serum 39
BD: No. I keep meaning to submit it to Heavy Metal , but I never seem to get around to it. It's in colour, and we really want it to see publication in colour, so it's difficult to find a home for it. You can see it on my website though, www.bendickson.co.uk . You can also see my Dredd fanstrip that Boo illustrated on there. That's actually the strip that got Boo noticed at 2000AD, so that's kind of gratifying, even if it didn't get me anywhere. BJR: Even if 2000AD give you free reign on their characters and a hefty budget, would you still be interested? BD: Ha! I've no idea. I'm not sure I'd want to write any of their characters. I like telling one-off stories, because it gives me the option of killing off the best characters - something which is always fun to do. Having said that, I would quite like to write a nice dark Dredd thriller, but I don't think there's any chance of that happening any time soon. Plus I'd have to have a damn good idea to take to them first. BJR: With producing a graphic novel yourself, do you think that format is the way the British comics industry should go, rather than the weekly anthology? Would comics then find a more receptive audience? BD: That's a tough one. I do think anthology titles can work, but they'd need to change considerably from the kind of 70's bog paper style that most of us grew up with. 2000AD certainly deserve credit for still being in business all these years later, but apart from them it would seem that the anthology is dead. I think there's more tolerance from the mainstream to pick up a graphic novel than there is to pick up an anthology, and that's who you need to target if you want to revitalize the industry. It does worry me how introverted American comics have become, and how non-existent British comics have become. As you're fond of saying Baz, small press IS the British comics industry now. BJR: I think the reason why small press has mushroomed so much, besides the decrease in printing costs and technology, is that there are so few outlets now for creators. So by default, the small press/self publishers have become the Brit comics industry. I would think though that no matter how intelligently written or well illustrated a graphic novel is, it will still be treated as a novelty rather than as a valid art form as in Europe or Japan, it's more of a culture shift that's needed. And a ton of money for advertising. BD: There has been a culture shift regarding manga, a hefty proportion of which is read by young girls, a demographic that would never have come into a comic shop before. It would obviously help if shops weren't given sci-fi names and didn't advertise trading cards and Star Trek model kits in the shop window, but to be honest that's not going to change until comics can support shopkeepers on their own. BJR: The chicken and the egg situation. BD: Yes. It's only going to happen slowly, if at all. I personally would like to see much more European translated stuff coming over, but I seem to be in a minority there. BJR: There are signs of that happening, slowly: Roger Mason's recent work London Inferno and Ordalie are originally in French, but I believe will eventually be translated into English; Sean Michael Wilson's Manga Mover is publishing unseen Japanese creators for the UK market, and a new London based company, Typocrat Press, is printing Euro stuff into English starting with Alex Baladi's Frankenstein Now & Forever. BD: Guess you're more up with this stuff than me! Where did you hear all that? BJR: I just trawl the news sites in the early hours of the morning! BD: I'm a huge fan of the Nestor Burma book 120 Rue de la Gare by Tardi and Malet, which was translated as The Bloody Streets of Paris by IBooks. I don't like the renaming – apart from anything else, half the book is set in Lyons. But what the hell, it's still a great book. I'm also a fan of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis , which is a French book. Hermann's Jeremiah is also good, and I'm also a huge fan of Dylan Dog , six issues of which were published by Dark Horse. I would love to see more of those kind of things come over here. BJR: With your own work, after Falling Sky, what next?
BJR: (laughs) Hijack a dingy, grab a nuke! BD: Nah, that film didn't end well... BJR: There's always Arts Councils, grants etc. Sean managed to get funding for his Angel of the Woods graphic novel. Since it's something outside of superheroes, you may have more of a chance, particularly if it's historical. BD: If I can't get a publisher for Falling Sky , that's the route I'm going to go. For the historical book I'm hoping to get some interest from the Imperial War Museum - but we'll see. Damn! Gave something away there! BJR: Hmmm… BD: Ahh, you'll never guess it... BJR: Anything planned with web-comics? Do you see your work going in that direction at all? BD: No. Web-comics are all fine and dandy, and I've worked out a way in which I think they work quite well, but to be honest nothing beats holding them in your hand. I've turned several of my short strips into web-comics for promotional purposes, but I don't see myself doing anything for that purpose, specifically for the web, I mean.
BD: It seemed the obvious way to do it, to me! I spent two years as a web designer, and it just seemed the obvious way. Whilst you're reading the top bit, the bottom bit is loading outside of your vision. BJR: Let me pitch a few film titles to you, say what comes to mind: Deep Impact?BD: AKA How To Survive An Asteroid Impact Without Really Trying. BJR: Armageddon?BD: When?!? BJR: Meteor?BD: It's not a meteor, it's an asteroid. Get it right. BJR: For the folks at home, when does an asteroid become a meteor?BD: It's a size difference, effectively. An asteroid is big, a meteroid is small. Meteoroids generally do not represent a serious threat due to their size – although they are capable of causing damage of course. A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere and is burning up. If any of the meteor manages to land without being completely burned up, it becomes a meteorite. It's all just a load of technical terms that I became familiar with when researching the book, but it makes me laugh that the makers of the film Meteor didn't even get that far. Or perhaps they thought people wouldn't know what an asteroid was. BJR: To wrap up, how would you pitch Falling Sky to Jerry Bruckheimer who's tied to a chair in your living room? BD: Honestly? I wouldn't. The guy would never understand it. I'd probably leave him for a couple of days in front of a loudspeaker system and a looped tape of me saying “You will never make another film again… You will never make another film again…” BJR: How would you pitch it to a Waterstones' customer?BD: A tale of survival set two days before the end of the world. No superheroes!
BD: Hopefully in time for the next Bristol convention in May. I'm always reluctant to put a fixed date on something like this, but yeah, it should be ready by then. BJR: Cool. Cheers for taking the time out for this interview. BD: No problem! ENDLINKS: For more on Falling Sky including previews and background info on asteroids, go to: http://www.bendickson.co.uk/fallingsky/ Full article from which Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik's quote is taken from, Liberal Democrat MP From The Guardian, 29/9/2004: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1315680,00.html Info on NEO, Near Earth Objects: http://www.planetary.org/html/neo/index.html NASA's NEO observation program: WORKS DICUSSED: Sean Michael Wilson's Boychild Productions site, publisher of Manga Mover and Angel of the Woods : http://www.boychildproductions.co.uk/ Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis publishers' site: http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/persepolis.html Typocrat Press, new London based independent comics publisher specializing in translating contemporary European comics into English: Roger Mason's site: http://www.looksgoodonpaper.co.uk/ An excellent Charley's War site: http://charleyswar.tripod.com/ Info on Babylon 5's J Michael Straczynski aborted The World on Fire project and other work: Info on all films discussed above: |
it. I should say that the actual script for Falling Sky was written in 2003, so it's just been the illustration side of it that I've been concentrating on. Regarding other writing, the confidence knock has proved a real problem in coming up with other stories, so I haven't been as prolific as I'd have liked to be. It's strange, but I get the most ideas when I haven't actually got the time to develop them. When you're doing nothing there's not enough mental stimulation to come up with ideas on a regular basis. However I have written a short western story called Confession , as you know, and I'm also working on a story for my friend James McKay to illustrate, although I've only been developing that one for a couple of days. 
BD: Yeah, although I'm not sure that many of them ever did. To be honest I don't read that many comics these days. I'm reading Forsaken by Image 
BD: No! What frustrated me was that they always went to the asteroid and buried nukes in it to blow it apart. Deep Impact ( 1998, directed by Mimi Leder ) and Armageddon (
BD: Well, I'm hoping you'll publish my western story in Fusion ! That's being illustrated at the moment by William Volley, a very talented guy who I worked with on my Phobias strip 
BJR: I do actually like the way you've done that on the site with the previews, the long page effect (sample page from Falling Sky, left). 
BJR: And when do expect it to be finished and printed?