Rafer Roberts on A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong

A New Adventure for Valiant’s Favourite Pair

♦Valiant is relaunching Archer & Armstrong as A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong with writer Rafer Roberts and artist David Lafuente in March. Tripwire caught up with Roberts to find out more about the new series…

TRIPWIRE: Archer and Armstrong was one of the best loved of the older Valiant books. How daunting was it to take over the title?

RAFER ROBERTS: The original series by Barry Windsor-Smith, and the more recent run written by Fred Van Lente, are both absolutely amazing works of art so, sure, there is a bit of fear of screwing it all up. Fortunately, my creative engines are fueled by fear so it all works out. I’m also very lucky to have some of the best editors and collaborators with me on this book, which does help a lot.

I think that if Archer and Armstrong wasn’t so much of a blast to work on, it might feel like more of a daunting task picking up the reins. However, these characters and their adventures and their relationships all fall right in my wheelhouse as a writer. I mean, look, you’ve got Armstrong, who is a ten thousand year old drunken, immortal, warrior-poet, and Archer, who is a super-human teenage martial arts expert who was raised by a secret fundamentalist society and trained since birth to assassinate Armstrong. Now they are best buds who fight crime and get on each others’ nerves. It really is a lot of fun to write.

TW: The original series had this comedic adventure feel to it. What is your take on the characters in the new run?

RR: There is definitely a lot of comedy, but at the center of the humor is a lot of heart. Archer and Armstrong are best friends who, very often, find it difficult to get along. The comedy comes from their differences, while the heart comes from them pushing those differences aside.

In A&A, we’ll be exploring how the friendship between these two unlikely companions affects each other. We’ll see how Armstrong’s hedonistic view of the world opens up Archer’s mindframe, and we’ll see how Archer’s inherent “goodness” impacts Armstrong, forcing the selfish immortal to once again feel compassion and empathy towards his fellow man. We’ll also explore how these influences might not always be in each other’s best interests and may sometimes actually be detrimental to their battle against the surreal conspiracies of the world.

Getting a chance to write these characters is a writer’s dream, but also a wonderful challenge. They bicker like an old married couple and fight strange and unusual enemies, so there needs to be a mixture of good and realistic dialogue and characterization as well as loud and surreal imagery. It’s like if Neil Simon adapted a Steve Gerber comic for film, and Tim Burton directed it.

TW: You have worked on a number of indie comics but this is the first series you have written where are you a writer for hire on characters created by someone else. How does that feel?

RR: There is a lot of fun being able to play with someone else’s toys, though my mindset is pretty much the same whether I’m writing A&A or Plastic Farm. I’m just trying to make the best comics that I can. This is also my first venture into a shared universe and I’m incredibly excited by the prospect of collaborating with other writers on potential guest appearances or, if it feels right, one of those big yearly events. Making comics is a pretty solitary experience, so getting to be part of a team is crazy and fun.

Coming from the indie and underground DIY side of things, having a team of people who take care of all the behind the scenes stuff (like marketing and logistics) frees me to focus only on the writing. It’s going to ruin me, probably.

TW: It is also an ongoing series rather than an oneshot or graphic novel. How does it feel to take on a series that is ongoing?

RR: I like writing mini-series and short stories, but my stupid daydreaming brain really enjoys longer epic stories. For A&A, I’ve already got a pretty decent plan for the first 25 issues and a decently hazy idea for everything after that. Hopefully people like what David and I (and Ryan and Brian and Dave) are doing and support the book so that we can do all of those stories.

With an ongoing series, there is greater opportunity to delve deeper into the characters and explore their personalities and motivations in greater detail. I look forward to examining the dynamic of such an unlikely friendship and testing it against the backdrop of battling strange and dark and kooky enemies. Like in any relationship there will be ups and downs. There will be good times spent laughing and joking while beating up an army of trash golems, and bad times where they are straight up pissed at each other for setting a bunch of lizardmen loose upon the Earth. It’s like the first season of True Detective but if it took place in the town from John Dies at the End.

We are also currently well ahead of schedule. As of this interview, I have written the scripts up to issue 4 and outlined up to 8, David is almost done pencilling issue 2, and Ryan, Brian, and Dave are not far behind. I imagine that once we get started on the monthly grind my stress levels may rise, but as I said before my creative juices are brewed from fear, so I’m not too worried about that.

TW: How closely have you been working with artist David Lafuente?

RR: David is amazing. I didn’t know that he was going to be the artist until after I had already written issue #1, but we have such a naturally similar aesthetic that anyone who looks at that issue might think that it was written with him in mind. We do message each other, mostly just to touch base, and I have tweaked the subsequent scripts with him in mind. I really like the way he draws Mary-Maria, Archer’s step-sister, so I’ve already come up with a bunch of other stuff for her to do so that she might be in the comic more.

Something I really appreciate about David are his instincts. He’s not afraid to add or rearrange panels if he thinks it makes a scene work better. He seems to naturally get what I’m going for and is able to capture the intent of a scene even if it differs from how I actually broke it down panel-to-panel. As someone who draws the occasional comic myself, I like to give artists I work with the freedom to draw the comic and to tell the story to the best of their ability. I find that when giving artists that freedom it ends up making me look like a better writer.

This is the first interview I’ve done where I’ve actually seen the work being done by inker Ryan Winn, colorist Brian Reber, and letterer Dave Lanphear. Holy crap. This book is turning out to be absolutely gorgeous. Those guys bring so much to the table and are turning in some incredible work. From editorial down to the artists, I can’t believe that I get to be a part of this team. More than that, I can’t wait until March when issue #1 hits the stands and for folks to be able to experience the fruits of our labors.

JOEL MEADOWS

Archer & Armstrong Roberts www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk

Valiant Universe