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Purple Revolver were fortunate enough to get The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard on the phone and grill him on amongst other things, why the zombie saga is such a runaway success, his working practice and the state of British comics.
Charlie, 49, has worked on a wide variety of classic titles, including Judge Dredd for 2000AD, but admits that it is the creator owned project The Walking Dead that really gets his creative juices flowing, due to the level of freedom he has to express his art.
He describes the popularity for the mammoth indie hit as pure blind luck and says if anything the strength of the story lies with the characters and not the zombies.
Speaking from his home in Shropshire, he said: “There is no secret to the success of Walking Dead – as far as I can see it’s blind luck.
“We don’t have a formula, like you can add so many zombies to the apocalypse and add these dimensions over here to equal this.
“No. Mainly it’s a great story and I like to think the artwork is good too. The story is not an instant grabber, it grows on you as you read it and become immersed in the world of the survivors.
“I think the strength lies in it’s characters. They are incredibly human.
“When we started it everything was against us.
“Image was not the powerhouse of indie publishing it is today, in fact it was not even very well thought of, plus we had no heroes and it’s in black and white.
“So, not much going for it really. But the story does pull you in. you read a couple of issues and you’re hooked.
“A while ago, we decided it was going to be a regular and stuck to it and I think that is a part of it’s success. I mean you can have a massively successful book, but if you don’t put it out consistently, you will lose readers.”
Taking us through his working process, Charlie said he prefers to keep things grounded: “I like to keep my working process as simple as possible. Most often I will simply start on the top left of a page and work down to the bottom right.
“As soon as I get a script from Robert, I will get down to pencilling it out.
“I tend to start early, around 9am when the kids have gone to school and then I work through to 5pm and call it a day.
“I’m a firm believer in down time and that weekends should be spent with family, so you rarely find me working then. Unless there’s a big deadline looming.
“But recently I have found that I’ve got more time to work on other things outside of Walking Dead, as we’ve removed my responsibilities of inking. Mainly because I couldn’t physically create two issues a month.
“Like most artists will say, I am my own best inker, but Stefano (Gaudiano) does it in the same way I always have.
“The main thing I like about the Walking Dead is that it’s a creator owned projects and so we have immense freedom to operate and take the story and art in different directions.
“My favourite characters to draw are Michonne and Andrea.
“But I’m also enjoying drawing Rick with the time jump, you can have a lot more fun with an older face, build up more character.”
As well as illustrating, Charlie revealed that he does like to keep up with reading comics, but keeps to the indie side of the industry rather than read any mainstream Marvel and DC titles.
He added: “When it comes to reading comics, I always feel it is a bit of a busman’s holiday.
“But not wanting to blow smoke up my employers’ collective arse, I do read a lot of Image comics, I like the fact that they take risks and I pick them up for the artwork.”
Taking about the shape of the British comics industry, Charlie said: “British comics are not really in a healthy state, mainly because they’re just not as well regarded as in Japan or France and Belgium, where it is held in high regard, just like any other branch of art.”
“I’d like to think that my work is mostly inspired by European styles, where attention is paid to research on backgrounds and creating a world within a comic properly.
“But as I was brought up on American comics, drawing Americana is easy for me, luckily I can step into both worlds.
Shrewsbury based artist Charlie said he’s looking forward to visiting Liverpool for the Writing on the Wall Festival and catching up with his old friend and Marvel Editor Tim Quinn, who got Charlie his first professional gig in the comic industry.
He elaborated: “Living in Shropshire, Tim was the first person in the comics industry I knew. He was living down here too.
“We got talking about the world of comics and hit it off. Eventually we collaborated and Tim got me my first paying gig in the industry, it was a short strip written by him for Virgin Atlantic magazine called Biggles Bear, which was a laugh.”
You can catch Charlie Adlard in the flesh talking about comics at the Writing on the Wall Festival at Liverpool Central Library. For More details visit: www.writingonthewall.org.uk/
Stay tuned to Purple Revolver for more comics news and our Heroes For Sale YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UC5YONM6rmBSTl2nGwaTg-qw) where you will find lots more in depth comics news and reviews and our Bay TV interview with former Spider-Man writer and editor Tim Quinn.