When an opportunity to write for and with iconic creator Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame comes up, there are two ways you can go. You can shrink up from the pressure of working in the world named after Mike, the MignolaVerse or you can meet the challenge. That’s what writing veteran Rob Williams did when presented with working with Mike on Dark Horse Comics, The Sword of Hyperborea. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when you are partnered with Mignolaverse Veteran artist Laurence Campbell. Together, the three combine to tell the background story of the famed sword. With issue one just releasing, it seemed like a good time to catch up to the talented writer and ask about this collaboration. So, let’s welcome writer Rob Williams to GVN’s Talking Comics.
Background
GVN: Thanks for giving us some of your time, Rob. Let us start with a little bit about your background. When did you take an interest in writing and for comics specifically and whose work inspired you to pursue it?
RW: I never planned to write for comics, simply because I didn’t know it was possible. I grew up in the south Wales valleys in the UK, and comics were written by people in New York City, or so it felt to me at the time. So instead, I trained to be a journalist and worked as a freelance journalist for quite a few years on a bunch of magazines. I wrote one comic script just as an experiment to see how I’d handle it, went to a comic convention, and submitted it to a new company. They rang me a few months later, said they wanted to publish my script. That was a book called Cla$$war. It went down well, and that led to the likes of 2000AD, DC, and Marvel asking me to pitch to them. It wasn’t a career I sought prior to that point. Suddenly I had opportunities, and it grew from there.
As for whose work inspired me to pursue comics. Probably Alan Moore. His Captain Britain, Marvelman, DR & Quinch, and Halo Jones were stories where the writing was of such a high level. Those stories really stood out to me as an impressionable teenage reader. They showed me what was possible.
Working with Mike Mignola
GVN: I can certainly relate to your thoughts about where comics were created. I had wanted to be a comic artist since I was 7 years old. But that kind of thing didn’t happen in South Haven, Michigan and especially not in Mountain View, AR. Such is life, I suppose. However, since your career started, you have written for a number of iconic characters, including Dr. Who, Suicide Squad, Judge Dredd, Superman, Batman, etc. so I would imagine, you don’t intimidate easily. But did you have any apprehension in working with Mike Mignola on Sword of Hyperborea?
RW: Oh, definitely. Not apprehension, per se, but a degree of pressure. The comics Mike has created with Hellboy in the last few decades are some of the very best, and his collaborators in the Hellboy world are fantastic––people like Duncan Fegredo, Guy Davis, John Arcudi, Laurence Campbell. The standard here is extremely high, so you definitely don’t want to let the side down, as it were. As you say, I’ve worked on big books with big-name creators before, so I think I know what I’m doing (I hope). But you’re never 100% sure how a collaboration will play out. Mike and the Hellboy editorial folks were very welcoming. It’s been a really collegial experience. We’ve had a few Zoom calls, with Mike offering his thoughts on the world, the sword, and the tone. It’s been really fun.
Collaboration Beginnings
GVN: So, how did this collaboration come about? Was this a story that Mike laid out or was it a mutual meeting of the minds for the history of the Hyperborean Sword?
RW: Laurence Campbell had been discussing a Gall Dennar barbarian story with Mike Mignola and the Hellboy editorial team. Then Laurence, if I remember right, had the idea of doing a series where we followed the sword of Hyperborea through history and saw the various sword-wielders. Laurence and I are friends and had just done Old Haunts together for AWA. I’d had a meeting with Katii O’Brien, the Hellboy editor, at New York Comic Con where we’d discussed my maybe doing some B.P.R.D. stories. I’m not sure if Katii suggested me to Laurence to write “The Sword of Hyperborea” or vice versa. From there it was on to some Zoom calls with Mike, who had a plot spine for a Gall Dennar story that we could build out from.
Laurence Campbell
GVN: Well since you mentioned Laurence… who is a Mignolaverse veteran, as you worked through the Hyborean Sword saga, did you have to make any changes in how you worked to meld successfully with his art for the book?
RW: Laurence and I have worked together a bunch of times over the years, most recently on Old Haunts, a gangster ghost story. It’s sort of “The Sopranos” meets David Lynch. We’re longtime friends and have a lot of the same touchstones when it comes to comics and movies. I usually find that we’re coming from the same place in terms of storytelling. Laurence drew B.P.R.D. for something like five years, so he knows this world extremely well. We’d knock ideas back and forth, and there’s plot elements here that are suggested by Laurence. A lot of comics are writers write, the artist draws the script, and the two never talk. With “The Sword of Hyperborea,” the boundaries get a lot more fluid. “Old Haunts” was a creator-owned book, and we’ve really brought the same approach to “The Sword of Hyperborea.” Plus, of course, we have Mike Mignola offering plot and world suggestions.
Other Projects
GVN: Well, I certainly would never turn down Mike Mignola’s input. He appears to know something about story craft. Well after perusing the first issue, it looks like a great story that fans will enjoy. Thank you once again for your time, Rob. Before I let you go, do you have any other projects that you can talk about and would want our readers to know about?
RW: “Out,” my World War II horror book. It’s The Great Escape but if a vampire was in the camp with the prisoners. It’s in the shops now, from AWA Studios. The graphic novel collection comes out in March. Thanks very much!
Dark Horse Comics Swords of Hyperborea #1 was released on January 12th and can be found where great comics are sold.
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Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 60 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove headfirst over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 21-year-old young man with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
