Laurence Alison On The Genesis Of Scratch Comics’ Hedrek Series

Watching The Detective

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

Q: What was the genesis of Hedrek?

LAURENCE ALISON: I’d just finished a novella called The Life and Death of Heracles. David had drawn the 12 Labours for me and some other spot illos and I wanted to flex my writing muscles and try my hand at a comic strip. David can draw pretty much anything but I think he’s especially good at creepy, magical horror related material. Im a big fan of folk horror too so I thought a script that leant into that genre would be good. And, having worked as a forensic psychologist for many years I know a fair bit about law enforcement. Hence, our strapline ‘Columbo meets The Wickerman’.

Q: What influenced the series?

LA: I think one rarely intentionally considers specific influences – they just bleed onto the page as a function of what you like. I guess with Hedrek some stuff is more obvious than other stuff. The Wickerman, Tales of The Unexpected, Inside Number 9, Columbo… it’s mostly from TV I’ve liked to be honest. Comicswise it’s hard to say. To be honest I rarely read stuff these days and most of my entertainment spending is on indie comics and small publishers. I love Chris Askham’s stuff, Grayham Puttock, Aly Fell, the list is long… But from a writing perspective I was quite disciplined and I’m a big fan of Pat Mills of course. I recall reading his script writing tips many years ago and I think some of that was in my mind: make sure there is a standout panel on each page, think about what will grip a reader’s eyes, make your villain more powerful than your hero etc. The book ‘Save the Cat’ I found very useful as well – it’s for Hollywood scripts really but it helps to give you structure. I don’t write any intro in any detail until I’ve got the ending and the plot beats. I think you need to be quite structured with that and then of course much more organic as the thing flows.

I’m a little ashamed to say I don’t read books – for two reasons – first part of my job as an academic is to read so I see it as work not play and second I’m terribly dyslexic so it’s more of a struggle than I’d like it to be. I haven’t read a book for pleasure since I read Moby Dick at school and my God, that was hard work nearly 40 years ago…

In terms of movies the list is endless. I daren’t even start…

Q: How much guidance did you give David when he was creating a look for the main characters?

LA: I think David will tell you I’m quite detailed but I don’t think I am – I don’t recall giving him much detail on anyone at all. And also, weirdly (to my mind anyway) David doesn’t draw character designs – he just starts on page one and gets on with it. There is a cast of hundreds in Hedrek and David has done a tonne of work that I cant claim any real responsibility for. If another artist had drawn it, it would, I think look totally different. The vision and look of it is all David really – my job is to create a beginning a middle and an end and plot the whole thing out. In terms of Hedrek himself the brief would have been simple – I gave David an actor’s name and told him to give that actor an eye patch and a dark suit. Simple!

Q: How did David come on board?

LA:  Like I said, I’d worked with David on Heracles. With artists I like to work with folk that are professional and by that I mean (i) they do what they say they are going to do (ii) they do it on time (iii) and most importantly they communicate with the writer and editor. I couldn’t work with someone without these basics. Likewise if I say I’ll do something pending force majeure, I’ll do it. David has all these basics and is incredibly diligent and fastidious – he doesn’t fuck around and is 100% trustworthy. Beyond that though he is just incredibly talented. Im very very lucky to work with him. I think he tolerates me because I do at least have the three basic functions in hand.

Q: How closely have you worked together?

LA: I haven’t worked as closely with anyone else. Ive been fortunate to work with some other incredible talents on a couple of other projects but David is by far the closest working partner so far – and we have another large scale project too in the wings.

Q: How would you describe Hedrek in one sentence?

LA: In comic book terms: ‘Columbo meets The Wicker man’ as a cop ‘Creative but rational… firm but compassionate. Broken but resilient’

Q: What writing challenges did the structure of Hedrek throw up for you?

LA: To my mind, structure is your friend as a writer. It’s not about indulging yourself and writing to just have fun, you get a better product with a degree of scaffolding to hang it on. With that in mind, my broad structure was ‘every page a major panel, at the end of every page think ‘why will a reader feel compelled to turn the page’. So every six pages is a splash or big reveal. If six pages represent one chapter then four chapters should complete a story arc and finally, I have four story arcs to tell the entire narrative. At the end of the third story arc, there’s a major reveal and then in the final quarter ratchet up everything – action, death, drama, emotion, risk and so on’. This sounds really rigid but it’s just hopelessly intimidating if you don’t have any scaffolding to work from and think ‘OK, page one.. what the hell do I want to say..?’ With all that in mind, I didn’t find it especially challenging and actually I generally write very very fast. I can easily do a 22 pager in a day – sometimes a half day. The difference is that I’ll have been thinking about how that story will work while I’m walking, driving, before bed, when I wake up or when I’m cooking. The thinking and the editing I do is the time-consuming bit while the act of writing is then fast.

Q: How have you found the crowdfunding?

LA: If I’m honest I kind of hate it. I don’t understand it, I don’t know really how or why what sells sells of how to market it. I hate any tech or admin around it but it’s a necessary evil and at the end of the day it’s many indie publisher’s friends – Hedrek would not be possible without it. But I don’t enjoy it. I need to try and figure it out though so I always welcome podcasts, articels and so on that will help me through it. I’m like that with lots of things like this – I am utterly thick  when it comes to how to fill in forms, work tech and mechanically figure stuff out.

Q: How have you found working with Scratch?

LA: Shane is a very lovely guy. He really has a heart of gold and he’s smart too. Im very lucky to be alongside heavy hitters like Claudia, Dacre and Chris and of course David. Hedrek is a poor relation to those titles mainly, I think, because no one is picking anything up because Laurence Alison wrote it. Who the hell is this guy? I have loved comics since I was knee high but Ive never produced my own until now (and partly because of lockdown … the time I saved travelling gave me a morsel of time back from my job – a job which is incredibly demanding). I think I was near burnout with my real job if I’m honest but my mind is always on the go. It can’t be still so when some of my major projects had been completed this creative work was very, very important to me. I have taken great pleasure in it and I think I would have gone nuts without it. It has also given me a bit of a social life – something else I had entirely neglected for years because of my job. Shane is a very easygoing guy and is good at managing my terrible impatience. I wanted four issues out in one year but I recognise that just wasn’t possible.  I find the speed of production very frustrating but then I. am like that with everything and sometimes in my job speed of action is critical so Ive got into that rhythm of expecting stuff to be done briskly – very briskly.

But again, who am I to dictate that speed of action..? Shane has produced the final work at a high standard and he is well respected and manages intelligently. I’m hoping that Hedrek will find a wider audience and, especially, when the TPB is available can be read in its entirety and enjoyed.

Q: What are the transferable skills between this and your real job?

LA: From a writing PoV I think that my real job helped me in two fundamental ways – (i) discipline and the art of editing (Ive spoken about this above) (ii) imagination and ambition – folk think that art and science are opposite ends of a spectrum but I disagree – they both require enormous self discipline and creativity. Incidentally I think my creative writing has helped my academic work – your using different muscles but in so doing making the entire organism stronger.

Q: How open are you leaving Hedrek for further adventures?

LA: Put it this way, I’m not averse to killing main characters off but that doesn’t necessarily need to be Hedrek. We are currently in discussions about a TV pilot as well so it might be churlish to have him killed so soon. That said, he will be well rested as David and I have another large project called ‘Out There’ which is looming – perhaps best summarised by saying it’s ‘Halo Jones meets the film ‘Brazil”!