We all know that University of Sheffield students are a multi-talented and creative bunch. As if further proof were needed William Milner, a Philosophy graduate, and Richard Scott, a PhD student in the History department, have thrown their lot in by writing and drawing a cartoon based around a short moral story – all in their spare time.
Conceived and written by Milner, and illustrated by Scott, who both write and draw respectively as a hobby, the comic – entitled Gallus Gallus: The Naked Heel – recounts the character journey of a small time thug’s decline and partial redemption through a series of surreal events. What is particularly remarkable about this project is that it shows what students are capable of even when working on our courses and careers.
Producing a comic was a challenge for both Milner and Scott. Although both have an interest in creative writing, this was the first time that they had decided to specifically focus on a graphic story. Neither of them are hardcore comic enthusiasts, however both drew inspiration from particular works. “My favourites are probably Calvin and Hobbes, for brilliantly expressing a world view through humour and without laying it on thick,” says Milner. “And I think anyone who reads any comics get onto Alan Moore (Watchmen) eventually. More generally, something that I wanted to recreate was Garrison Keillor whose stories are all about small towns. They’re very touching and very simple stories with lots of layers, which was a hope for this project in some ways.”
Scott admits that although he has admired the work of comic book artists, and been exposed to them before, he was not a collector of comic book art. “I bought a few comic books specifically for the purpose of researching this project. My experience has come mostly from drawing purely as a hobby, which started off with portrait drawing. My grandfather was an art teacher and a phenomenal artist. He died when I was very young, but I think that he inspired me and gave me the idea that I had some kind of inheritance.’
For Milner, the creative impulse has been festering for some time, and up until now he had mostly been focused on the idea of writing a novel. His interests extended to other forms of storytelling however, and the comic book seemed like the perfect vehicle for some of the stories that he wanted to tell.
“The story is based on one that a bloke told me in the pub where I used to work. There were lots of locals in there with lots of slightly elaborated stories, and there are loads of them that I wanted to write down.”
Creating a comic not only allowed him to tell the story more concisely, but was an exercise in his writing technique through limiting the framework: “Every time I tried to write particular stories down they just got longer and more intricate, and writing for a comic framework allowed me to strip it down to the bare essentials of the story. I think working within a limitation is a really creative process. It changes the way you approach it and you get some of your best work knowing that you have to keep it to a certain length”.
There were challenges for the artist as well. For Scott, transferring Milner’s script into drawings was an interesting experience. ‘I’d never done anything like this before so I didn’t know what it would look like. When I drafted the first few panels I wasn’t sure what I was doing and the result wasn’t impressive.”
Scott’s persistence in a project that was almost alien to him paid off: “When I was working on the first few pages I initially thought ‘is this the best I can do?’ Then I turned over and just kept reworking it until I was happy with the finished product.”
The project is undoubtedly a success, a fact which the eternally self-deprecating creators seem surprised by. Considering that they both initially had very little prior knowledge of the comic book scene, it is inspiring that the hardest part was not in the actual production of a graphic novel but in keeping the storyline succinct.
For Scott, the comic gave him the opportunity to push his skills further than before. He elaborates: “Every time I had an idea for the comic book I didn’t really know whether it was within my capabilities, so every panel was essentially an experiment.”
Milner and Scott have been friends since their first year at university, when they discovered their shared interest in literature and comic art. Having been such good friends for the past few years, could it not have potentially been difficult to work together?
Milner thinks that by working with someone whom you trust, the project can remain more focussed and will ultimately be more successful: “I enjoyed working with Richard. As a writer you can be overly self-critical, and you do sometimes just want to destroy all your work. It’s good to have somebody else to stop you. In terms of being motivated, I felt that once Rich had put in hours and hours of drawing I didn’t feel like I could say ‘I don’t want to do this.’ He spurred me on.”
Scott agrees: “Collaborating really motivated me to work. Having this 12 page project to finish really focused my mind. It’s interesting because I’ve often had lots of ambitious ideas but they don’t happen just because they’re too long; this project kept me much more determined.”
Now that the work is finished, what do they plan to do with it? “We’ve been looking into doing a short print run if we can afford it. The great thing is that these days we can publish on the internet. The comic has been digitised through Issuu.com.’
This project not only highlights the creativity and skill of the creators and the possibilities that we as students have, but also the issues many face when attempting to publish their work and the importance of the internet in getting work such as this to a wider audience.
Given Milner and Scott’s clear love of their respective arts, and their extensive imaginations, there’s no surprise that The Naked Heel is such a brilliant final product for their first foray into the world of graphic novels.
They, and we, can rightly be proud of what they have produced; flying the flag for original art amongst the students and graduates at our university.
To read the comic itself and read more about the authors and story, visit the Arts Blog.