David Hitchcock Talks The Genesis Of Scratch Comics’ Hedrek Series

Both Sides Of The Law

Scratch Comics’ Hedrek is a UK indie comic by writer Laurence Allison and artist David Hitchcock. Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows caught up with artist Hitchcock and writer Allison recently for two interviews about the series. First up is our chat with artist Hitchcock…

Q: What was the genesis of Hedrek?

DAVID HITCHCOCK: Hedrek was a fully formed idea from Laurence, he showed me the script and it it sucked me straight in, it struck me as being very original, at that point though I hadn’t heard of the term ‘mummer’. But having read up on them and their long-time existence, I was hooked.

Q: How did you create the look of the main protagonist? 

DH: At the beginning Laurence wanted to base Hedrek on Reece Shearsmith of course it just so happens he’s not easy to draw, so he’s ‘loosely’ based on him.

Q: How did Laurence Allison come on board?

DH: We’ve worked together on a number of projects over the years, probably about 30 years ago John Short contacted me and asked if I would be interested in illustrating a short story The Six Penny Murder, based on a true Victorian teenage gang crime. Laurence was involved in this and to this day it’s the most hard hitting, message driven tale I’ve had the privilege of working on on. The case was adapted for comics by John, it was so well received we had a great review stating that it should be available on the school curriculum.

More recently I illustrated the  Twelve labours of Heracles as single page illustrations this was written by Laurence and from there, we did Hedrek.

Q: How would you describe Hedrek in one pithy sentence?

DH:  Hedrek is a determined character who sees both sides of the law and he’s also put through the mill.

Q: Each issue is a self contained story but there is an overriding arc for the whole series. What challenges has this thrown up for you as an artist?

DH:  There are loads of characters in Hedrek, to reflect the wide spread reach of the mummers. Some have basic hand made costumes, some simply have a pillowcase or box over their head – but all have an axe to grind. Coming up with some of the more ornate costumes and trying to get them looking the same throughout did cause a small headache I have to say.

Q: How have you found the crowdfunding model for funding the series?

DH: Shane Chebsey at Scratch comics organised the Kickstarters, but I think it’s quite problematic with its reach. I don’t think our posts reached a lot of people, despite banging on about the project daily. I think there’s a fine line between doing it too much or not enough. There are many, many fine projects at any one time on these funding platforms so it’s very difficult.

Q: How have you found working with Scratch Comics?

DH:  Working with Shane and Scratch Comics is great as we are both allowed to do our own thing and Shane does the mechanics of the funding process. I’ve worked with Shane several times and he’s a great friend.

Q: You are a very detailed artist so have you worked out a way to adapt your style to draw a little quicker for a miniseries than for a standalone work? And have you got faster as an artist?

DH: I have always had a fairly strict work ethic and I like to complete projects in a timely manner.

Q: How does your work on variant covers at places like Dark Horse fit in with creator-owned work like Hedrek?

DH: Between comics work I’m always looking for the next project, at the time I was illustrating a pitch for a story written by Thomas Sniegoski, he had just finished Frankenstein New World with Chris Golden and Mike Mignola. Dark Horse happened to ask Tom who he would like to draw a variant cover and, very kindly, he asked me. I did another cover for Dark Horse which I was also recommended for, out later this year I believe.

I’ve been very lucky with writers over the past couple of years, currently I’m drawing Nosferatu2 for John Short, Shokwave 3 is about to be on Kickstarter. I illustrated a story written by Mark McCann for Berserker Comics’ From Under The Floorboards, a short story written by 2000ad’s Alec Worley called These Walls, out this Halloween from John Carpenter’s comics brand. The latter two stories have been beautifully coloured too. I even worked on some stories that are unlikely to see print, so I’ve been incredibly busy, which is good news of course.