Will Skoggin's Skull

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"Working with writer and master storyteller Ben Haggarty, I set out to create the comic strip world of 'Will Skoggin's Skull'."

All Material © Copyright John Welding, Ben Haggarty and The DFC.

Ben made a trip up to Westgate Studios in the Merrie City of Wakefield where I work and offered to tell me the story in person, how could I refuse. I think this experience has enhanced the qualities of the finished work. We both agreed that the look of the strip should be lo-fi in quality, monochromatic even. We wanted a hand made feel to the work that was true to its 'folk tale' origins. Trying to convince the publisher that the story would look great in subdued tones was another matter altogether.

I had met Ben through a friend at a Leeds storytelling festival the year before. I was doing dip pen and ink drawings of Ben performing and of the characters he was bringing to life in the room. It was quite a trippy experience for me. The pencil style I employed on this strip was a huge change from the pen and ink stuff he had seen from me previously and he had the balls to go with it. I am not sure where this style came from but knew it was the right way to go.

Ben supplied a script with panel and page breakdowns, the look of the characters were already inside my head from being told the story. (One of the undertaker characters is based on the writer). I had to supply the editor Ben Sharpe with a set of page layouts. This is understandable as I had never worked with the publisher before and I guess they wanted an indication of my 'storytelling' skills regarding the comic.

The 'roughs' were enthusiastically accepted and I got on with producing the artwork. Comics is such a time consuming activity. What you read on the printed page comes from roughs and layouts and a whole bunch of stuff you don't normally get to see. I have detailed the lengths I went to to get the final effect on my blogger page.

Textures are taken from the wooden drawing board I was working on at the time. Original pencl drawings were done at A3 size on layout paper and then scanned and digitally coloured in Photoshop. Ben's intention all along was to keep it vague as to wether it was a skull that belonged to Will Skoggin or if it was actually Will Skoggin's skull.

Originally desiged to fit an A4 format, these pages have been 'cut in half' to fit this web site page. I am going to shut up now and let you get on with looking at the rest of the strip...

(Except just to say, this is my favorite panel, with the hell hounds in above).

Above is a detail from the front cover I did for The DFC, issue 23 which the first strip appeared in. Logos and strap line were added in after by the in-house design team.

The second Will Skoggin's strip 'An Eye for a Profit' appeared in issue 31 of the comic. Of course, if you wanted to get a paper version you could pop on over to publishers website and see if there are any copies left. Will Skoggin's Skull is suitable for 8 - 12 year olds and is published periodically in the new weekly comic that is 'The DFC'.