Q&A 26: "Britishness" (Patreon)

Farhan Samanani asks: Your comics always feel deeply British — even though Britishness is rarely the main thing they are about. It seems to

Farhan Samanani asks:Your comics always feel deeply British — even though Britishness is rarely the main thing they are about. It seems to pervade the details. Sometimes even just the expression on someone's face, or the arrangement of a cafe feel quintessentially British, even though it feels hard to pin down exactly why this might be the case. How do you manage this? And how do you see the role of Britishness in your comics?

This is a funny question, because I've lived my whole life in the UK, so inherently the work reflects my lived experience. But within the work I also try to reflect what things actually look like where the comics are set. And because I do a lot of backgrounds, perhaps the sense of that location feels more important.

Of course it is important to me. If I don't believe in the setting, why should the reader? When I utilise a pre-built 3D model or photo resource as the basis for a background, which I do sometimes, I am very aware of "American" features in them - wide free-standing stoves, eye-level built-in microwave ovens. As I am not just tracing (heaven forbid ho ho), I try to take them out and put something more appropriate there. American and British windows are very visibly different too. I spend a lot of time looking at stone lintels and rooflines when I walk around. I trip over a lot.

To illustrate, here's an American sliding sash window, it's in a sort of box.

Here's the British equivalent, reflecting its placement within brick construction rather than a timber-framed house. [You do see these in (often) grander brick built American houses but that's not how most American houses are built.] To the top left of the photo you will see some lead flashing, I find it very difficult to draw a roofline without considering the flashings.

Windows (and lead flashing) are not particularly important to my stories, but I'd be unhappy if I drew the American-style window without thinking. When I draw a window in one of my stories, I always set it into the wall. It's a question of authenticity. I don't have time to make everything perfect in the three or four hours I take over each page. But I'm trying to adhere to my rules of making things "work properly".

Whether it's British windows, or British people, it's really just a matter of paying attention when I walk around. It started early on with trying to get clothes right, and accurately reflect fashion in my characters, but slowly it spread out to wanting to accurately reflect everything - at least to the extent that I can. This doesn't mean slavishly recreating elements on the page like a mangaka with several assistants might. I can't do that. It's a question of doing just enough to make things "feel" real.

Of course, I grew up with largely American comics, and a lot of American media. But on the one occasion I wrote an America-set story ("By Night") I was quickly uncomfortable with the setting. I was having to make too much of it up based on cursory research. When I had started my online comics, without thinking about it, I worked from a starting point of what I knew - which at 22, wasn't very much - but it was something to build on.

In conclusion, in terms of my Britishness, I think there are favourites that I channel, constantly, trying to alchemise a feeling. They were all important to me at formative stages of my development. Here are a few from an endless list:

PG WodehouseEnid Blyton's Famous FiveJohn ShuttleworthRupert The BearReeves & MortimerSmash Hits magazine/Tom HibbertThe Chart ShowFrench & SaundersLovejoyBergeracAgatha ChristieJames Herriot booksBrassDanny Baker and Danny Kelly on the radio (I note here that Danny Kelly is Irish)Michael Rosen's poetry booksChris Morris90 Minutes magazineHarry HillWithnail & IBlack Bob (the Dandy wonder dog)

The Britishness I'm channelling barely exists any more, and I try to always look forward, rather than back, but when I think it's my grounding in these things that informs the sensibility you detect more than anything else.