Writer Barry Hutchison Talks Writing Comics And Crime Novels

From Outer Space To Scotland And Back Again

Barry Hutchison is a writer who in recent years has made a career writing crime books under the pen name JD Kirk. But this month he launched new comic series Space Team running on Kickstarter with artist Franco Cespedes. Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows caught up with him to talk all things writing…

What was the genesis of Space Team?

Strangely, for a comedy sci-fi series, Space Team has its origins in grief. A few years ago, when my mum was in hospital, dying of cancer, I spent a lot of long nights sitting by her bed. The chair wasn’t the most comfortable, so it was almost impossible to sleep, but the hospital had these big floor to ceiling windows, and with the lights down low it was possible to see the stars some nights.

And so, I’d while away the hours as she slept just looking up and letting my mind wander, making up little stories about what was going on out there. And, because I always turn to humour in difficult situations – my mum’s subsequent funeral was an absolute hoot, for example – the stories I made up were objectively ridiculous.

They stuck with me for a few years, and every time I saw the stars I’d remember them and think that I really must do something with those stories.

Then, in 2016, I did. I wrote the first novel, it started selling very well, and I went on to write eleven sequels, three spin-offs, and a book of short stories. And now, a comic!

How did artist Franco Cespedes come on board?

A few years back, I wrote some scripts for an animation company that was producing a series for Dreamworks TV called ‘Kip Van Creepy’. I’ve stayed in touch with the guys at the company ever since, and we’ve spoken a lot about working on other animation or comic book projects together. When I wrote the script for the Space Team comic, I went straight to them, and suggested I work with Franco on it. They sent me some of his samples and I absolutely loved his style.

How closely have you worked with the artist on the series?

Not very closely at all! Franco lives in Costa Rica, and speaks very limited English. Luckily, there are others in the company who speak English fluently, so they’ve acted as the middle man between us! It has actually been really good for me, because I realised I was writing long, complex panel descriptions that could really be simplified and cut right back. Just being aware of that potential language barrier has made me a better comic book writer, I think.

What made you decide to use kickstarter rather than use a traditional publishing model?

I think in a lot of ways, crowdfunding is becoming the traditional publishing model for indie comics. I’ve written for a number of publishers in the past, usually on licensed titles like Power Rangers, or Adventure Time, and spent a few years writing various characters for The Beano, which British readers will be very familiar with.

But I didn’t have many contacts in the US comic book industry, and so rather than start cold calling Image or whatever, and having seen so many great, original comic book projects do so well on Kickstarter, I thought I’d go down that route.

That said, it took me months of building up the courage, because I was scared that I’d put the campaign live and get no backers at all, so it was a relief when they started coming in.

You have already passed your target on the campaign. Has this given you confidence to create other comics using crowdfunding?

It’s amazing. After all those months of worry, we hit the target in just over an hour, and were 500% funded at the end of the first day. I hadn’t even thought about stretch goals, or any of that stuff, so it completely caught me off guard.

It hasn’t just given me the confidence to creat other comics, it’s given me the resources, too. With the additional funding, we’ll be able to get straight on with another issue – or even a graphic novel…

You also have a separate successful career writing crime novels under the name JD Kirk. So what are the pros and cons of writing prose compared with comics?

I don’t know if one’s necessarily better than the other, but they’re very different. The writing part takes much longer for a novel, obviously, but you don’t then have to wait for artists, colourists, letterers, etc, to come in and do their part.

Writing comics is more like writing film scripts than novels, because you’re constantly having to think of the images that accompany the text, rather than just focusing on the text itself.

This isn’t particularly easy for me, as I have something called aphantasia, which means I’m unable to see any mental pictures in my head, and think exclusively in words. It can make for some interesting conversations with artists. Even more so if we don’t speak the same language!

What do you enjoy about writing crime?

The obvious answer is that I get to murder people who have annoyed or wronged me, and get paid for it. The truth, though, is that what I enjoy about writing crime is what I enjoy about writing anything – creating a group of characters you can love, hate, laugh at, or whatever, and then spending some time with them.

Basically, I enjoy playing God. I’m sure there’s a name for people like that, but I probably don’t want to know what it is.

Crime continues to be such a hugely successful genre in the prose field. What is it about crime that continues to capture readers’ imagination?

I think we’re all sort of fascinated by darkness, aren’t we? We’re instinctively fascinated by the idea of awful things happening to people, and crime fiction lets us indulge those cravings without anyone actually getting hurt.

We can witness the absolute worst of humanity, then we can turn off the light, roll over, and go to sleep, safe and sound. I think it’s the same sort of thing we get from roller coasters, or whatever, that sort of high-adrenaline feeling, with minimal danger.

You have also self- published your crime books rather than go the traditional route. What made this a better way for you to pursue your prose writing career ?

I was a full-time children’s author for about ten years before I self-published the first Space Team book. I wasn’t really expecting it to do much, but within a month it was earning more than my 140+ children’s books combined. By the time the third book was out, I was making more in a day than I was making in six months from all my other books, while retaining complete creative control of the whole process.

Since then, I haven’t looked back. I set up my own publishing imprint to get books into bookshops, have agents selling foreign language and TV rights around the world, and have sold over two million books since leaving traditional publishing behind. Indie publishing isn’t for everyone – it does take a lot of work – but if you can make it work, it can be an absolute game changer.

Support Space Team now on kickstarter