Rebellion brings MISTY back across the pond with ALY FELL

With a UK release date of July 17th, the 2024 Misty Special is making its debut Stateside this week. Check it out on the Rebellion site once you give this conversation between esteemed illustrator, Aly Fell, and Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, a thorough read!

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COMIC BOOK YETI: Aly, thanks for stopping by the Yeti Cave to discuss your contributions to the Rebellion revival of Misty. How’s everything going up north at the moment?

ALY FELL: Hello! Thank you for asking me! My snug little attic is baking in the sun today, one of the side-effects from having a studio/office in the roof. But at least it's sun for a change. I need to get a plan-chest, so goodness knows how I'll get it up here!

CBY: Glad to hear you're getting at least know Tales from the Crypt, Strange Tales, and Vault of Horror all paved the way in the horror anthology space for a publication like 1978’s Misty. What sort of awareness of the original run did you have prior to becoming involved in this resurrection, and what did your engagement in this anthology entail? 

AF: Those you mention, but personally I also had Amicus and Hammer productions in my thoughts as well. Folk horror seems to be the phrase on everyone's lips these days, but sometimes British horror is just 'horror', or simply just creepy. Think Dead of Night, an early example of the 'anthology' format, in which all 5/6 stories are all really scary in their own way. 

I was introduced to Misty some time ago by my partner who had the annuals and a couple of comics. Prior to that I'd only been aware of its existence without having actually read it. It seemed to me that Misty could recall the best of British spookiness, and was often urban in its setting. I grew up through the seventies, and popular entertainment had a thing about how environment could be threatening, whether rural or urban. I like stories where the familiar is not what we imagine it to be. Triffids on London streets for example, or for that matter, Daleks! I've talked about it before, but the 'Brigadier Rule' sums it up. Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart was a prosaic voice in the crazy world of Dr Who, and that grounding made the unexplained more bizarre when seen through his eyes.

CBY: You've just drawn from the well of classic British horror enough to whet my thirst for more, so hopefully the audience feels inspired to check out some of the other influences you've listed. Speaking of other titles, you paired up with the inimitable Gail Simone for this comic, and I know she’s staying busy with X-Men at Marvel, and Action Comics at DC, with other stuff in the works. Can you share a bit about the collaborative style you both found to work best for this story? 

AF: Gail is genuinely wonderful to work with. She's a creative force and amazingly prolific. Due to distance, it's been via emails, but 'collaboration' is how writer, artist and for that matter editor and others work. Understanding the nuances is important to creating something all can be happy with but still retain a consistent vision.

CBY: Yes, she strikes me as a consummate professional and a steadfastly supportive figure in the comics industry, so I'm sure it's been a pleasure! You’ve done a lot of work as an artist for a variety of different titles, but have also embarked on solo efforts over your career - what sort of balance do you try to maintain between working on your own creations and collaborative efforts with other writers?

AF: That's an interesting observation. I did one strip for Oink!, but for most of the eighties and nineties I was working at Cosgrove Hall in Manchester as an animator. I provided some instruction sheets for model kits made by Halcyon in Liverpool, for 2000 AD characters, most based on the Stallone Judge Dredd film. But it was after I left a (long) stint in computer games that I really discovered that I wanted to tell my own stories. My partner developed throat cancer, from which she completely recovered, and then my own health went south as my kidneys started to fail. All of this made me think, well, when AM I going to tell my own stories, because if it isn't NOW, when will it be? 

At about this time I was approached by a wonderful woman called Barbara Moore, who is massively respected in the Tarot community. She asked if I'd be interested in making a deck with her. After a bit of thought I said yes! This led to me quitting my day job and committing to 'The Steampunk Tarot Deck'. This also provided a chance for me to consider where I was headed whilst having a small income as well. I did a few covers for books by Seanan McGuire, who was also a joy to work with, but my style was changing and my own stories were pulling me. 

CBY: I’ve waited until now to fawn over the art, but the attention to detail in your rendering is absolutely fantastic, and I want to know as much as you’ve got time to share. Can you unpack your illustration process from conception to finished inked & colored pages? How does your interior workflow differ from your cover work (which is even more lustrous and detailed)?

AF: Thank you very much! At the back of both 'A Trick of the Light' and 'The Kissing Gate' I explain some of my process. But in a nutshell, I always begin by writing my stories as prose. Straight through, so they read like a novel or novella. This allows me to explore character in more depth, and makes them easier to edit for a sequential story. I then rough it all out with loose compositional sketches not thinking about accuracy of environment or costume - that comes later. Get it writ! At this point I have 'the story' in rough. 

I'm not someone who sits and draws countless iterations or possibilities of character design. I usually have ideas of how the character looks already by this point - so I explore that in the roughs. For example, in 'A Trick of the Light' - Cynthia - I knew how her face and haircut were going to look as she was loosely based on someone I remembered from childhood. Her outfit was typical period, polo neck sweater and tartan skirt. I found plenty of good reference for that, literal and otherwise - and reference is good! Particularly for drawing period, and the best place is primary sources. Nothing wrong with movies for that, but for example if drawing 70s, look at everyday 1970s films, not modern films set in the period which are one step removed. But most of the posing and interaction is drawn from my head, however sometimes I find an image that works for me and adapt it to fit. 

I've been working predominantly digitally, with occasional pencil work, but that's changing. After my kidney transplant I had a slight tremor due to the medication I was on and making detailed drawing had its issues, so I found the ability to 'undo' with digital as I drew more conducive. My tremor has settled down now, so I've been getting back into pencil work.

As for cover and interior, there's no difference really, but sometimes I come up with a sketch that would make a better cover than interior panel. And vice versa. With 'The Kissing Gate' I included a set of five cards as an extra that were neither cover or interior appropriate, but were a snapshot of the characters.

CBY: Interesting to hear how verbally your process begins, given how strong your illustrative work is - that's rather distinct for someone with a rich visual vocabulary. I’m looking forward to seeing if the rest of the Misty stories share the common thread of evoking the time and place of its origin so strongly. Seeing stories that feature the sort of ingénue role set in the era makes a Susan George role or two come to mind. I understand you’re based in Manchester, so I’m wondering, what sort of regional reference points for 1970’s home and village pub decor were you able to draw upon to capture this distinct small town British vibe?

AF: The only Susan George film that springs to mind is Straw Dogs with Dustin Hoffman, which I can assure was not in mind! However, I haven't seen any of the other Misty stories yet, having had no advance preview. But the other creatives are fantastic, and I think we'll all interpret Gail's storytelling from our own independent viewpoints, which is great! 

For myself, I've gone full 70's. I kept thinking of the pub which Michael Caine's Carter visits in Newcastle in Get Carter. I also browsed through our family's collection of photos from the sixties and seventies. And of course, the internet is great for specifics. However, I should have looked more at the work of Shirley Baker whose photography of Manchester and Salford is incredibly evocative.

CBY: Having such a rich tapestry of aesthetic reference to draw upon certainly doesn't hurt. Also - there was a clear David Cassidy reference I caught (I assume Gail would’ve seen even more of The Partridge Family than I did growing up), and a bar patron that looked a bit like Peter Sellers, who was a fixture of UK entertainment at the time Misty launched. I’m curious, as you’ve got really expressive and distinct character renderings, what other figures provided inspiration for Abner, Ian, and the servers at the bar? 

AF: The haircut on one of the characters is deliberately modelled on David Cassidy and footballers of the time. That layered flick was something I had as a yoof as well, but it was more, 'Michael Praed in Robin Hood' than David Cassidy. Yes, Ian does bear a resemblance to Peter Sellers in 'The Ladykillers', but if you remember the early seventies, there were still a lot of original Teddy Boys around, gradually maturing as we all are! Ian is 'inspired' by that look. 

Abner isn't really based on anyone. Gail described him very specifically and I had northern club owners in mind, so knew immediately he was going to have a Zapata moustache. One thing I try to do though, is never see a character as incidental, so visualise each as though they exist independently within the world created. They may be only walk-on, but all 'extras' are important.  

CBY: Everyone finds their place in the visual landscape that way. Noting other titles you’ve created, such as A Trick of the Light, are set in the same general period, was the opportunity to situate the pub in the 1970s an imperative from the outset for this Misty anthology, or something you and Gail elected to proceed with out of a mutual interest in the exploring the setting? I saw from your facebook page and blog you’ve got what looks like some even earlier 1920’s period pages in the works. Is there any particular period and setting you’d like to explore in future work that you haven’t yet tackled?

AF: Gail specified 1970's from the start, including Hammer and romance comics of the time as inspiration, and it was to be kept 'British' in setting and atmosphere. As for the other images you refer to, yes, the next personal book from me is set in the 1920s. It has a school environment like A Trick of the Light, but is fundamentally a mystery with supernatural elements, and I'll reveal to you now is a 'faery tale' of sorts.

Some time ago I picked up a copy of The Schoolgirl's Own annual from 1927 because I was looking at a lot of Alfred Bestall’s art, who did Rupert Bear. Bestall did the covers for the earlier annuals, but I became obsessed with the work of Leonard Shields who produced much of the interior line-art for the annuals and also for the weekly 'comics/story papers' from 1921 through to 1936 and beyond. Sadly he seems largely forgotten these days, but these books are now pretty much out of living memory and perhaps don't have the nostalgia value of more recent decades.

As for exploring other eras, the last of the four that started with A Trick of the Light will be either 60's or 80's. I know the story, loosely, but as of now haven't quite made my mind up when it's to be set.

CBY: I'm overjoyed by the range of artists you've mentioned whose work I've never really explored before. There's so much to dig into further! Another period you’ve visited in your readily available comic, The Kissing Gate, retreats further back in time to a mid-century pastoral gothic setting. What other classics from the 1950’s and earlier inspired that piece of work, and how did you treat the illustration process differently, if at all? 

AF: The Kissing Gate bookends in the 1950s, around the time CND were becoming prominent, but the bulk of the story is set just before WWII, between 1928 and 1936. 'The War' seems to dominate twentieth century history, but I wanted my story to essentially avoid it as a narrative element - Alice briefly refers to it in a conversation with Sykes. I suppose this unintentionally makes the main story more dreamlike; a bucolic existence uninfluenced by the huge events unfolding across the world, with the 'reality' of the 1950's starting and ending it. But then childhood sometimes feels like a dream...

I'd say The Kissing Gate was more influenced by children's novels than comics on this occasion. I'd just reread The Ghosts by Antonia Barber, and rewatched the filmed version: The Amazing Mr Blunden. Alongside that - E. Nesbit stories such as The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Railway Children, I wanted to recall the enclosed worlds that kids create, despite it not really being a children's story. But inspiration is just that, a motivating element to tell my own tales. I'm not trying to do 'my version' of something. That said, I do have an adaptation I'd like to do, (he says vaguely...) 

CBY: I can see the literary reference coming in heavier than that of contemporary comics, for sure. Reflecting further on the inspiration for your work, 'The Pub at the End of the Road' actively, vocally plays upon a few key tropes often seen in Disney princess films. You and Gail also employ a really stellar sight gag early on (that I don’t want to spoil). What sort of expectations do you consciously work to subvert with your visual storytelling, and what can readers unfamiliar with your work take away from your comics?

AF: I'm not sure I intentionally set out to subvert, but by telling the female-centric stories I do, that is perhaps unavoidable. I just hope those people kind enough to buy, support and read my books enjoy them for themselves. These are stories to take your time with, that hopefully elicit some emotional reaction that isn't easily forgotten. 

Alan Moore said, "Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness." He recalls a quote by Aleister Crowley: “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” The artist exercises their will to make art, which elicits emotional responses or cause change in the reader, listener or viewer. I don't think many set out to consciously DO that, but it happens regardless. Art IS Magick! 

CBY: It wouldn't be a good chat about anything spooky, British, and magical without a Crowley reference in the mix! I know you've already given me plenty to explore beyond your current work, but what other comics (or film, music, art, literature, etc.) have been inspiring you lately? What should our readers check out after Misty drops on July 17th?

AF: Well, I'm currently reading Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics by Julia Round, which is very pertinent right now! Also a reread of one of my favourite novels: The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. The Silence of Unicorns - a Tara Togs mystery in the spirit of Tintin by Stephen White. As for TV - I'm halfway through the current Steven Zaillian adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, which is superbly choreographed and very 'comicbook' in its heavy contrast lighting. I've also dug out Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.

CBY: I am certain with a list like that, all of our readers will have learned something new from this interview. Aly, thanks for making the time to talk about the launch of Misty and your contributions! Please share any portfolio, publication, and social media links you’d like our readers to use to better acquaint themselves with your work.

AF: It has been my pleasure. I've enjoyed the questions so thank you!

I have a very old fashioned blog, but you can also visit my Facebook page, my profile on Cara and my shop on Etsy. My website is in a state of flux! 

Thanks again!

https://alyfell.blogspot.com/

https://cara.app/alyfell

https://www.facebook.com/AlyFellArt

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DARKRISING