10 YEARS OF THE BF SIX TO WATCH! In our second interview session with this year’s Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch’ artists we talk today with cartoonist Mike Armstrong. A member, and now part of the co-organising team, of the much respected WIP Comics group, Armstrong’s work has been one of the standouts of the last couple of years of WIP anthology projects. Mike chats with us today about the fantasy genre in comics, the spirit of community on the UK scene, and using the medium to comment on social injustice…
ANDY OLIVER: As one of this year’s ‘Six to Watch’ artists we want to introduce you to as wide an audience as possible. So let’s begin by asking you to tell us about your wider artistic practice and endeavours, and your background?
MIKE ARMSTRONG: This is probably where I should reveal some kind of unusual or tragic backstory, but no… sadly… I am a regular, mid-40s bald white guy with a rapidly greying beard and a compulsion to tell stories that hopefully make people laugh, or feel EMOTIONS, or both.
There was never a time that I didn’t want to be a cartoonist when I grew up. I spent my childhood surrounded by comics, with titles like The Beano, The Dandy, It’s Wicked and others providing a clear influence; I remember drawing Gnasher [Dennis the Menace’s dog from The Beano] over and over. My Dad was a fantastic artist and spent some time as a comic writer (Action, 2000 AD, the Tarzan newspaper comic) as part of his varied career. He nurtured the creative spirit in all his children. My Mum went out of the way to get us art supplies whenever she could, even if she couldn’t really afford it, and my twin brother and I would spend most of our evenings and school holidays inventing our own worlds. I churned out hundreds of pages of artwork between the ages of 8 and 18; I’m glad that most of them are lost to time, but each one represented a lesson learned.
At University I learned web design so I could create a website to host my dumb drawings (and those of my brother). I soon found that getting a job in web design was easier than getting a job in comics and art kind of went on the back burner while I built a career and a family, although I did dabble in graphics and animation for mobile games. A few years ago, I posted a couple of silly comics on Reddit that got some attention, and the sequential art bug bit me again.
‘Big Business’ from WiPXL
AO: Many Broken Frontier readers will no doubt be familiar with your work from your contributions to the WIP Comics group’s anthologies. Particularly, I would imagine, ‘Big Business’ from WiPXL which I thought was outstanding work and one of the best things WIP have ever published. Can you give us a quick run-through of your WIP comic strips to date in terms of premise, genre and how you looked to use the form’s tools in your storytelling?
ARMSTRONG: The tabloid-sized canvas for Big Business was a fun challenge. I knew that I wanted to tell a story that flowed through the whole page as a single panel, and revolved around a giant, buried skeleton. Originally, I had it as part of an archaeological dig, but soon settled on the idea of small creatures mining the corpse’s pockets for coins instead. The tunnels of the mine were handy for guiding the reader’s eye back and forth across the page, especially when they reading direction switched midway down the page.
For Change, the idea came quickly once the theme was decided: a dragon hoarding piles of treasure in its parents’ basement, and the knight that the parents hire to get him to change his ways. The format was more conventional, so I tried to really push the art for this one with hand-lettering, interesting (but readable) layouts and lots of small details.
For this year’s WIP anthology, Short Stories, I’ve gone back to my cartooning roots and done something with small, anthropomorphic animals trying to deal with the rise of a cult of personality (totally not inspired by a certain ultra-rich techbro and the group of pick-me enablers that orbit him). This one is read landscape, and I’ve had a lot of fun with the colouring, lettering and page layouts to help guide the reader’s eye.
AO: How important do you think group efforts like comic anthologies are in building a sense of community and building artist profiles?
ARMSTRONG: Humans are social animals and I’m a firm believer that we do our best work when we collaborate with others. Actively seeking feedback and input during the creative process vastly improves the outcome. What I love about anthologies is that everyone is working towards the same goal, often with a shared theme, and the different perspectives and styles that people bring to the project create something unique and beautiful.
A good anthology is a cross-section of the comics scene where experienced creators rub shoulders with relative newcomers and no single artist steals the limelight. Even if a reader picks up a book because of a cartoonist they’re already familiar with, they’ll see work from people who they’ve never heard of before. They might just discover their new favourite creator, and that’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.
Mike’s strip for this year’s WIP anthology project Tall Tales & Short Stories
AO: That brings us on rather neatly to talking about the WIP Comics group itself. As one of the key figures in WIP now can you give us some idea of your role and of what the group continues to achieve as a support network for aspiring comics creators?
ARMSTRONG: Making comics is a lonely business, and having a group of kindred spirits can be a real lifeline when you spend most of your time scribbling away by yourself. For anyone who knows WIP Comics’ reputation it probably won’t come as a surprise that they’re all super friendly and passionate about sharing knowledge, giving constructive feedback, and lifting each other up. The monthly online meetups give everyone a chance to talk about what they’re working on, and the suggestions I’ve received about my own work over the last couple of years have improved it immensely (Big Business in particular was shaped by several pairs of hands). They’re a consistent presence at events throughout the year and are always willing to sell members’ work at the WIP table which helps it reach audiences it may not normally have access to.
A few months after joining the group, I agreed to help with the monthly Creating Comics sessions as one of the other organisers was stepping down. Last year, Joe [Stone, the chief organiser of WIP] expressed a desire for more free time to work on his own projects, so he asked a few of the reliable regulars for assistance in the day-to-day running of the group. I offered to take on most of the anthology duties, and for the past couple of months I’ve been organising the vote on the theme, fielding questions on the WIP Discord, and designing the books (plural: there are two this year, now on Kickstarter). They’re looking great; I can’t wait for people to get their hands on them.
Page from Bigger
AO: Earlier this year we covered your minicomic Bigger which we called “a beautiful piece of storytelling that reminds us of the bonds that tie and of the inner child in all of us.” What were the themes you were looking to explore in that short story?
ARMSTRONG: Becoming a father gave me a new perspective on how we view our parents whilst growing up, as well as how our parents view themselves. Despite what we may believe when we’re kids, our parents are not unknowable, infallible giants; they are flawed humans who make things up as they go along, just as we do. Bigger is me trying to wrangle these feelings – spurred on by what would prove to be my final heart-to-heart conversations with my father – into something that other people could approach. It’s my most personal work, and one which was very emotional and cathartic to draw.
AO: A lot of your work has a fantasy feel to it. What is it about that genre that appeals to you?
ARMSTRONG: Fantasy (or fantasy-adjacent) settings are great to work with because the reader recognises that this is a world they’re not familiar with, so a lot of rules immediately go out the window. It’s brilliant for allegorical storytelling, as you can tackle issues with a bit more nuance than if you base the story in a recognisable reality.
It’s not a coincidence that the “boss” in Big Business who’s ordering the protagonists to return to work (to the detriment of their health and risk of collective disaster) has a distinctive mop of yellow hair also sported by a certain former Conservative Prime Minister, or that the gaggle of witless, garbage-spouting creatures that enable the new mayor in Small Adjustments made in Short Order (from this year’s WIP anthology book Short Stories, currently funding on Kickstarter) wear blue checkmark badges.
Also: fantasy creatures are fun to illustrate because normal anatomy rules don’t apply. No-one can tell you what a dragon really looks like, so you can draw whatever you want if it’s believable in the context of the story. You can really push the body language and facial features to get the most impact, which appeals to my cartoonist roots.
AO: You’ve also dipped your toes into the webcomic world with Skeleton Crew. What are the differing challenges, and also the differing opportunities, in that method of delivery?
ARMSTRONG: I really wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist when I was younger, so I focussed on writing and drawing short “daily gag” comics (think Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes). I think they’re a useful way to hone your storytelling as you have very limited room; setup, expansion, twist and punchline must all be delivered in a single row of panels. Pacing is tight, and sometimes good ideas get scrapped because of the limitations of the format.
I started Skeleton Crew as a throwaway gag for the Sea of Thieves subreddit. It got a lot of attention, so I did a second one… and a third… and then I made a website, and a Twitter account, and it became my main artistic output for several years. Because the comic is based on a (still relatively popular) videogame it’s able to talk to its audience using a shared vocabulary. Anyone who’s played the game past the tutorial will immediately recognise the characters and situations in the comic, and the immediacy of publishing on social media gives people a chance to tell me what they like (or don’t like) so I know if the joke I spent a few days crafting landed the way I wanted it to.
The biggest downside is that Sea of Thieves is not my own IP. There were plans for a print collection, but as some strips feature named characters, likenesses, and locations from the game then I needed official permission from Rare [the designers] and Microsoft [the publisher], which was not forthcoming. Posting comics online for free to drive engagement and traffic to the game itself is one thing but producing a physical object that would sell for a small profit is a different beast. Don’t spend time working on something you don’t own, kids!
AO: Can you give us some insights into your creative process and the mediums you work in?
ARMSTRONG: I’m being quite picky with my projects these days. I feel I do my best work when I’m trying to channel a message, whether it’s anger at social injustice (Big Business, Small Adjustments made in Short Order) or meditations on love and relationships (Bigger, Span). Whatever I do, I want to make sure there’s a story worth telling at the heart of it and I’m not just hooting into the abyss.
Art from Dad Jokes
These days all my art is done digitally, mostly on a 2018 iPad Pro. The convenience of having Clip Studio Paint – my program of choice – on the iPad is one of the big drivers in getting me back into art. I spent a large portion of my teenage years glued to a drawing board in my room, which is a very antisocial existence and one that I’m keen to avoid repeating. I have a tiny 8BitDo Zero 2 Bluetooth controller that I’ve paired with the iPad and use for common keyboard shortcuts in CSP, and a Sketchboard Pro (a big frame that you sit the iPad in) which is perfect for drawing on the sofa or at the dining table.
As for the art process itself: I write a script first, based around a few key scenes or images that I’ve been noodling away on in my head. For my silent comics the script is just a collection of paragraphs that describe each page in prose, but when dialogue is involved, I tend to break things down into proper panels using a piece of software called Scrivener. I try and get plenty of feedback on the script if I can (mostly from the WIP Comics folks), as they often spot things that I miss and generally help me make a better comic.
‘Goblins!’ – an entry into the Cape/Observer/Comica competition
I thumbnail very loosely to get the rough page layout, using stick figures and thick, low-opacity red lines. If I’m doing my own lettering, I’ll often export my layouts and letter them in Affinity Designer to make sure there’s enough room for all the dialogue, and that the page flows well. Pencils next, typically using blue lines so I can see the inks more clearly in the next step. Feedback on the pencils, again mostly from WIP, and it’s onto the inks – I used to draw my lines as vectors, but they looked a little flat, so I’ve moved back to using raster layers. Finally, I lay down colours and add any special lighting effects.
A final round of feedback and tweaks later, the comic is done and ready to be thrown in the general direction of its readers while I run away as fast as possible, cackling maniacally.
AO: You’re currently working on your first graphic novel Rose Thornhill and the Troll Bridge. What can we expect from that story?
ARMSTRONG: I’m reworking the story and changing things up a bit for Rose Thornhill. Having taken a break from The Troll Bridge I’ve re-read the book and while it has its moments, it feels a little unfocused and the art style isn’t best suited to its audience (8-14 year-olds). I’ve got a much better handle on the characters now, and I’m hoping to start the series fresh later this year with more humour, more action, and a looser, more cartoony feel to the art – something along the lines of the Etherington Brothers’ Long Gone Don. This would be perfect as a serialised story in something like The Phoenix; does anyone reading know how I get those discussions started? (Cheeky, I know, but if you don’t ask…)
From Rose Thornhill and the Lore Library
AO: And, to end with, are there any other projects you’re working on right now? Are there any events BF readers can expect to see either you or your work at this year?
ARMSTRONG: The 2024 WIP Comics anthologies (did I mention they’re currently on Kickstarter?) are my current focus, and once design work wraps up in September, I’ll be doing another short comic that I’m calling Span. It’s a fantasy-adjacent story about tiny, treetop-dwelling spirits that’s been rattling around my brain for a good few years and I’ve finally figured out how I want to tell it. After Span, I’m starting on Rose Thornhill and The Lore Library, which shows the origins of the characters from The Troll Bridge and focusses on the relationships and tensions between human and fae worlds. That one promises to be a lot of fun, with deep connections to folklore from around the UK and further afield.
Family commitments and travel time are a limiting factor for me when it comes to getting to events, but I’m going to make it my mission to get to at least one in 2025! The WIP anthologies will be on sale at Thought Bubble this November, and Bigger is still available on my online store.
Back the WIP Comics anthologies Tall Tales & Short Stories here on Kickstarter
Interview by Andy Oliver
2024 marks the tenth year of Broken Frontier’s ‘Six to Watch‘ initiative. Look for articles throughout the year celebrating the work of those artists who have been a part of the programme.
