ROBIN HENLEY MICHAEL DOWLING
Tell us a little about yourself as an artist, how you got started, and a bit about your career so far.
Like most artists, I’ve been drawing since before I can remember. Around the age of 12, I recall being unable to decide whether I’d like to be a writer or an artist when I grew up, and then realising that making comics would be the perfect compromise. However, despite having such a clear idea of what I was aiming for, my career has taken a few detours. After finishing school at 16, I went to art college, and then got a degree in Illustration at university. Straight after graduating, I moved to London and got a job as an illustrator/graphic designer working in house at a studio specialising in drinks packaging. After a couple of years, I decided that working full-time in commercial design wasn’t for me, and I’ve been a freelance illustrator and comic artist ever since.
What’s your relationship to comics and 2000 AD specifically? Are there any key characters or stories that you feel epitomise what 2000 AD is all about?
For me personally, 2000 AD represents my big break into working more or less full-time in comics. In autumn 2019 I entered and won a talent search at Thought Bubble Festival, run by 2000 AD, and judged by Leah Moore, Mike Dowling and Frazer Irving. After the competition I was hired to draw a future shock for the Prog. I was then approached again a few months later by the team at Rebellion to draw a longer strip for that year’s Misty & Scream special. I think that eagerness to work with Britain’s emerging comics talent epitomises for me what 2000 AD is all about. So many of my favourite artists and writers got their start at, or have worked at some point with, 2000 AD.
It’s 2000 AD’S anniversary. Is there a single highlight you could pick out from over the years? (This can be something you have created.) My favourite 2000 AD story, by a country mile, is The Ballad of Halo Jones. Written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson in the ‘80s, Halo Jones is both a truly original piece of post-apocalyptic science fiction, and a quirky, well-scripted social drama about a woman trying to make her way in the world. It’s also one of comparatively few female-focused stories in a comic that is historically quite male centric, both in terms of content and creators.
Name any favourite writers or artists that inspire or entertain you, and tell us what it is about them that you love.
Outside of 2000 AD, and a few serialised works that I keep up with, such as Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga, most of my comic reading comes in the form of graphic novels. Some stand-out favourites include The Black Project by Gareth Brookes, The Nao of Brown by Glyn Dillon, and The Motherless Oven by
Rob Davis. I am drawn to graphic novels for the same reason that I’m drawn to prose novels, I want to read a well-written and original story that gives me something to think about.
What is it about comic art that you enjoy most, as both a consumer and creator?
I enjoy its ability to tell a story in a truly unique way, like no other medium. There are things that can be done with comics that could never be achieved in prose or on film.
Tell us about what you see as the future of comic art. Any thoughts on how they might be published and consumed?
Although I’m aware that plenty of people enjoy reading comics digitally, I remain a fan of print media. I struggle with the amount of screen time involved in my work, so I don’t feel that I need any more in my leisure time. Unfortunately, comics are very labour intensive, and horrendously underpaid for the man hours involved in creating them, regardless of how they are published. I hope that we are able to find better ways to pitch graphic novels and comics to adult audiences outside of existing comic book fans. I don’t understand why a reader who enjoys a good novel wouldn’t enjoy the right graphic novel.
I enjoy comics’ ability to tell a story in a unique way, like no other medium
Tell us a little about yourself as an artist, how you got started, and a bit about your career so far.
I always lacked the patience to draw comics. I drew all the time as a kid and occasionally I would start drawing a comic – I would labour over one page then completely lose interest. The commitment and patience needed was beyond me. I never made it past the second page. Later I went to Art School and studied painting. I was mostly working from life, out in the landscape, making big oil paintings. After Art School I was unsure of where to go with my art – I’d had some success in painting but I really needed something to work towards, something to push me on. At the same time, a friend was making a no-budget sci-fi film and asked me if I’d do the storyboards. I’d recently had my interest in sequential art rekindled by reading Hellboy and thought it would be an interesting challenge. This led to me drawing a promotional comic for the finished film. That was it for me, really – I was all in. I had the patience to commit myself to drawing comics.
What’s your relationship to comics and 2000 AD specifically? Are there any key characters or stories that you feel epitomise what 2000 AD is all about?
I can’t remember when I started reading 2000 AD, it was just always about. My older brother would bring comics into the house and I’d pick them up after he was done. This was back when you could pick up American comics in most newsagents, so as well as 2000 AD we had a bunches of Marvel books too – mostly Spider-man. When my brother moved out, I realised I’d have to buy my own 2000 ADS. I was also steadily digesting classic 2000 AD stories through the graphic novel reprints.
2000 AD contains so much it’s hard to think about it as a single entity. All the wild, diverse stories add up to an amazing, well-rounded reading experience. And like all comics, the simplicity of the medium, of words
and images, will make you aware of how these things work on you, how they tell you a story with just lines on a page. It’s an ideal medium for creators – the directness of creating and reading something like 2000 AD is unparalleled.
It’s 2000 AD’S anniversary. Is there a single highlight you could pick out from over the years? (This can be something you have created.)
A real highlight for me from 2000 AD’S past was the politicisation of Dredd that became explicit in the Democracy stories – America, Tale of the Dead Man and the final Democracy referendum. I had been reading Dredd for a few years by the time those stories started – I’d been
The directness of creating and reading something like 2000 AD is unparalleled
reading out of sequence, reading some of the more absurd early outings and some of the more naturalistic, later stories. The Democracy stories just crashed in and brought it all to a head. All the problems of Dredd being the hero and villain of 2000 AD and the mad structure of Mega-city One, how the people lived in this terrible city, it all came under examination in a bunch of really great stories.
Name any favourite writers or artists that inspire or entertain you, and tell us what it is about them that you love.
I’m a big fan of Mike Mcmahon’s art. His stories brim with energy, and they’re often beautifully designed too. I tend to think of the backbone of 2000 AD art as Mike Mcmahon, Brian Bolland and Cam Kennedy. They’re quite different in approach but there’s such consistency and integrity to all their pages, it’s really amazing.
Reading The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller when I was 14 or so was an incredible experience. I put the book down in awe whilst I chewed over what Miller had done. I think I’m still trying to figure it out!
Recently I read Supermutant Magic Academy. I heard someone describe it as the best New Mutants/gen X book ever and that’s true. It’s a fantastic book and it points to the kind of stories that aren’t limited by genre or readership demographics.
What is it about comic art that you enjoy most, as both a consumer and creator?
Comic art is this weird alchemy between words and pictures that, if put together right, can create something amazing. Trying to find that perfect connection between words, or narrative and imagery, either in your own work or others, is what it’s all about.
Tell us about what you see as the future of comic art. Any thoughts on how they might be published and consumed?
Comics have changed a lot in the last couple of decades – there’s a lot more diversity and there isn’t really such a hard distinction between ‘art’ comics and ‘mainstream’ comics anymore. It feels like anything is possible.