Rob Williams

Daredevils, a black and white British monthly comic from 1983, probably changed my life. I was 12 and liked comics but I picked up issue one of Daredevils and read, for the first time, Frank Miller’s reprinted Daredevil run and Alan Moore and Alan Davis’ Captain Britain, and they both blew my tiny mind. I’m fullly aware that Moore has done more sophisticated work since, but – that run on Capt. Britain – The Fury, The Special Executive, Mad Jim Jaspers, the blatant Tory bashing – it remains one of my favourite comics over a quarter of a century later. I love Captain Britain and thoroughly enjoyed Paul Cornell’s MI:13 book of recent years. I was sorry to see it it go.

So, getting the chance to write Captain Britain is an absolute thrill for me. In DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #893, coming in May, the merc with a mouth comes to London to steal Slaymaster’s old assassin tech, and Brian Braddock isn’t about to let that happen. Yes, this is the Slaymaster I read in Daredevils back in ’83 – it all comes back around.

Lots of fun writing Deadpool too. I’ve never read a lot of Deadpool comics but it occurred to me that he’s pretty much Low Life’s Dirty Frank in the ‘batshit crazy for comedy’ stakes, and I enjoy writing those sorts of strips. And the art by Matteo Scalera, an Italian artist I wasn’t aware of prior to working together here, is pleasingly great. He’s got a nice attitude and energy about his pages which suits Deadpool really well, I think. I’m sure you’ll see him on other Deadpool books in the future. And a cover by Humberto Ramos too!

Just a quick update to say that, in the new JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE (#294, March), the bagged ‘graphic novel’ is BREATHING SPACE by myself, Pete Doherty and Laurence Campbell.

I’m really happy to see this collected. It was my second story for 2000AD, written, probably, back in 2002-03, if memory serves. We opened with Pete Doherty (Shaolin Cowboy) on art, and the first episode by Pete still looks terrific. Pete had to drop out and Laurence Campbell took over. It was the first collaboration between Laurence and I, something we’ve since taken on to Wolverine, Punisher Max and hopefully more in the future. The series was eventually published in 2005, I think.

Reading it back in one sitting this weekend, it has its flaws, and some of the storytelling and panel layouts I was playing with are the most ambitious I’ve ever attempted. I’ve certainly not tried anything like it since.

But I have a huge soft spot for this story. There’s so many things I love about Breathing Space – the atmosphere, the overall sombre tone, the doomed narrative, which is wilfully uncommercial. I pitched it to 2000AD’s editor as a one-off. Every 2000AD series wants to create sequels and follow-ups, but Breathing Space definitely wouldn’t be back. I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say the protagonist dies in episode one… It’s also the most personal story I’ve ever written, probably, reflecting my state of mind at the time.

And it looks gorgeous. Laurence did his usual stunning job on it (Lee Townsend provided inks, so fans of Laurence’s US work where he inks himself can contrast and compare) and Pete came back to colour the series with the same uniform cold blue/grey tone that we talked about when we conceived the story. Pete’s colour job on Breathing Space is my favourite I’ve had on any of my comics. And he works with Laurence brilliantly. It’d be great if the three of us could do something else together in the future.