Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, sits down with Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, two longstanding luminaries in the field, subverting expectation and sending up convention with Babs, their latest title, available now through from Ahoy Comics.
COMIC BOOK YETI: Garth and Jacen, we are delighted to have you stop by the Yeti Cave to share more about your latest title from AHOY Comics, Babs. From my understanding, you two first worked together on 303 back in 2004, a grounded war comic from Avatar Press. Did you know each other well (or at all) before that point, and what did you recognize in each other that has inspired a long-standing (if intermittent) working relationship?
GE: We met around then, or not long afterwards. I knew Jacen’s work from some of the stories he’d done with Warren Ellis at Avatar, and I’m pretty sure I asked for him on 303. I saw instantly that I could trust him as a storyteller who’d be sympathetic to my scripts, which is the keystone of any comics’ collaboration.
JB: Avatar started offering me really cool projects early in my career. I had always seen myself as being on more of a Vertigo track than a mainstream superhero artist. So getting to work with writers like Garth and Warren Ellis, and eventually Alan Moore, was a dream come true. But I still had a lot of rough edges and I did my best to try to live up to the projects mainly by focusing on being very faithful to the scripts and the writer’s vision for the story, first and foremost. That goes a long way toward establishing trust and it has served me well.
CBY: Garth, you’ve mentioned Jacen’s ability to capture humour cleanly as an obvious incentive towards collaborating on Babs. Given the range of other illustrators and variety of titles you’ve both been involved in over the years, what brought you two together for this project initially? Did you create it together from its inception, or did the team-up come together later in the development process?
GE: Jacen occurred to me as the obvious artist very early in the process. We’d done several books together in the years running up to Babs—Soviet, The Ribbon Queen and Get Fury—and at this point are pretty much finishing each other’s sentences in creative terms. As far as humour goes, the obvious one that came to mind was our book Wormwood from some years prior, but I don’t think we’ve ever done anything that’s been entirely devoid of a chuckle or two.
JB: Chronicles of Wormwood was one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever done. I love the serious stuff and gut-wrenching horror, but getting to do something with humor baked into it is a nice vacation from that. You get to exercise different muscles, and it can sometimes surprise you as an artist. And I always find ways to squeeze a little horror into everything.
CBY: For our readers who haven’t yet checked out Chronicles of Wormwood, it’s another Avatar Press release. So Babs opens with what might be called a bit of a bawdy start, and I’m sure anyone picking up one of your books isn’t expecting anything in-line with old Comics Code Authority standards. When writing, where do you find the sweet spot in prodding at any sensitivities in the reader, Garth? Jacen, how do you use your illustrations to either accentuate or provide counterpoint to what is taking place in the text? You both get creative with your insults and sight gags, respectively, so what narrative and visual attunement do you both employ to “draw the line” – if at all – when writing for an adult audience?
GE: It’s done entirely on instinct. There’s no map, no plan—it’s just a question of what feels right.
JB: It feels like I get to lean in a bit more on the cartooning side of comic illustration in ways that don’t fit in a book like The Ribbon Queen. I can turn things up here and there without it breaking the tone.
CBY: It’s certainly coming through deftly in the execution! As the creators of the title, can you tell us a bit about how you tapped the rest of the team for each issue? You’ve got Andy Troy and Lee Loughridge contributing to colors, Rob Steen on lettering, and John J. Hill on design. You’ve also pulled in some artists like John McCrea, Amanda Conner, Mauricet, Richard Pace, and Erica Henderson for covers (that I’ve seen so far). What did your recruitment process look like for the group of artists you’ve pulled together for Babs?
GE: Most of the rest of the team was put together by Tom Peyer at AHOY, but Rob Steen is an old mate of mine and letters almost all my stuff nowadays. The cover artists were a mixture; I think John, Amanda and Chris Burnham might have been my ideas.
CBY: Between you and Tom, you’ve been able to draw deeply from a brilliant pool of talent. On the editorial and publishing front, knowing Tom from your Vertigo days, Garth, you’ve mentioned that given AHOY Comics having a reputation for some brilliant genre-twisting comedy titles, there was a natural fit for Babs within its line-up. You’ve both worked extensively across the industry, so can you share with our readers the sort of experience you get out of working with AHOY (in particular) and indie publishers in general compared to your work with the Big Two?
GE: Generally I look for the most creative freedom (which is pretty much total in independent comics) combined with the best deal and the most competent people. At Marvel or DC, it’s more a question of going with people you trust—with work for hire there’s no question of any kind of deal, but you do want smart people to guide your project through the corporate environment with minimal censorship. At Marvel, my old pal Nick Lowe was able to put Get Fury out with almost no interference at all, which is one of the reasons I’m always happy to work with him.
JB: Everything has run smoothly, as expected from a team of professionals. They’re an enthusiastic bunch who really love the medium and that makes for a good working relationship. My Marvel experience was probably a little different than the average artist, considering my projects, but you do tend to feel like a small fish in a very large and constantly changing pond over there.
CBY: I can imagine, given the rotating cast of characters and the creative roster cycling through each title. Without diving into spoiler turf, some late ‘70s references pop up (e.g. – the Rankin/Bass film of The Hobbit and Mork & Mindy), so I’m a bit curious to any other reference material outside of the realm of fantasy you may be pulling from that wouldn’t be as obvious to the casual reader beneath the familiar veneer of the genre? (I was making specious leaps with Howard Chaykin over his inspiration on Fargo: Hell on Wheels, so I’ll avoid making the same inferences here.)
GE: The episode titles are fairly obvious, so long as you sing them to the right tune. Beyond that, a vague familiarity with sword & sorcery’s greatest hits should be enough to get you through.
JB: My initial inspiration, visually speaking, for Babs was Bettie Page. The attitude, the athleticism, that sly grin. I also wanted to pull influence from a lot of classic illustrators for my approach to a living fantasy world. Artists like Ivan Bilibin, Harry Rountree, Arthur Rackham, John Hassall, Fritz Baumgarten, and a host of others. If you never stop studying, you never run out of inspiration!
CBY: Words of wisdom I hope our readers can put behind their own efforts in the future, and now that you mention it, Jacen, I can absolutely see the Bettie Page nod. I’ve had a chance to read the first three issues of Babs, and I appreciate the talking sword, Barry, as a means of avoiding monologues and creating a means for banter with only a single figure on the page. You also deconstruct and lampoon proponents of the medium in that you don’t mind taking the piss out of comic fans and the toxic, anti-social behavior that has often been granted a haven amongst the fandom ranks. The panel-by-panel humor is clearly feeding into a broader tale as it slowly unfolds. I see five issues announced on the AHOY website – how many issues do you ultimately have in mind for the intended story arc for Babs to unfold?
GE: It’s six issues, but we both love the world and the character and are bound to do another series after this one.
CBY: I’m glad to hear there is more in store for your readers. Given the track record of successful adaptations to filmed media of your work, Garth, and both the familiar setting and easy banter of the characters, what sort of path to adaptation do you both envision in your mind’s eye for Babs if you allow yourself to speculate on what it might ideally look like when encapsulated on the screen? Who would you like to see involved if you had free rein to put together an adaptation?
GE: God knows. I find it’s better not to speculate in that department, because both the process and results are so utterly unpredictable and random. However, for what it’s worth, I see either Aubrey Plaza (for the shitty attitude) or Emily Blunt (for sheer talent).
JB: Give me the team that made Arcane and I’ll die happy.
CBY: The prospects are certainly encouraging, and I look forward to seeing how Babs might evolve beyond this six issue run. You’re both versatile, highly accomplished creative professionals with a variety of projects across a range of publishers in your respective portfolios. What other projects beyond Babs would you like our audience to know about? Is there anything from your prior work recently reprinted in new form, or are there any updates regarding forthcoming titles you’d like to share?
GE: Let’s see… I currently have a story running in Boom’s horror anthology, Hello Darkness—a nasty little number called “The War.” For those familiar with my work, it is not what you think from the title. It’s possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve ever written—unusually, I even managed to disturb myself on this one—but also I think among my best. Art by the always superb Becky Cloonan.
Speaking of my best, there’s also Partisan with Steve Epting, coming in the new year from TKO. This is a follow-up (but not a sequel) to our graphic novel from a few years ago, Sara, and features a young mother forced to join the Russian resistance fighters behind German lines in WW2, essentially for the sake of her children.
Battle Action is currently running from Rebellion in the UK, featuring my Johnny Red story with Keith Burns on art—this is a story about 40 years in the making, where I get to finish the saga of one of my all-time favourite characters. I’ve also written a couple of one-offs for the anthology, featuring Dredger and Hellman.
And in 2000AD, the latest series of Rogue Trooper is nearing its conclusion, with art by the excellent Paddy Goddard. There’s also a Strontium Dog one-off in the Christmas issue, drawn by Henry Flint—one of comics’ all-time greatest.
Lastly, out soon from the new horror imprint Ninth Circle will be Freddie The Fix, drawn by Mike Perkins—I think we both had a hoot with this one.
JB: Right now I am all Babs, all the time. The Get Fury collection from Marvel either just came out, or is about to, and I am quite proud of that book. And The Ribbon Queen from AWA was the best horror book of last year, in my completely biased and self-serving opinion!
CBY: You’ve just loaded up the to-read list of our audience with selections from your own recent portfolios, but we’re not done yet. As is customary in the Yeti Cave, we always close with a moment to turn attention to the work unrelated to your current projects that is providing you with inspiration. What other comics, films, music, literature, and other creative work has been catching your interest of late? What should our readers give a look once they check out Babs?
GE: I enjoyed the last season of the British dark comedy series Inside No. 9, which represents a pretty astonishing feat of creativity—nine seasons of six episodes each, all standalone stories by the same creative team.
Movie of the year is still American Fiction, which I saw on New Year’s Day.
I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Moore’s new novel, The Great When.
JB: I go through a lot of Audiobooks while I’m drawing and tend to stick to the genre I’m working in to keep my head in that space. Joe Abercrombie, Christopher Buehlman and Terry Pratchett are my go-to. Throw in the Dungeon Crawler Carl books by Matt Dinnimin for a little irreverence. I’m also working my way through the Berserk manga and the Delicious in Dungeon anime just for fun.
CBY: I think you’ve given our audience enough to keep them occupied through the holidays!Garth and Jacen, it is an honor to have you stop by the Yeti Cave. Your insight is indispensable, and we look forward to seeing how Babs continues! For our readers at home, if you have any additional links you’d like to share, we’ll make sure everything is on display.
JB: You can find me mostly promoting work on https://bsky.app/profile/jacen-art.bsky.social or jacen_art on Instagram.
