David Lumsden discusses his graphic novel and film Boat

After completing an MA at the Edinburgh College of Art, David Lumsden worked on independent projects from short dramas to behind the scenes, working internationally with acclaimed talent.

His achievements include award winning shorts films, awards at the Roses creative awards and a movie viral award. His current position is Director and Editor at Freakworks Edinburgh.
David’s has just finished his short film Boat, a post-apocalyptic short film, and is in the process of developing ‘Prion’ his first feature length project about the return of the 1645 plague to Edinburgh.
He was recently selected for the 2013 Edinburgh International Film Festivals Talent lab scheme.
Boat premiered in competition at the Glasgow Short film festival 2015 where it was nominated for Best Scottish Short & the Channel 4 Innovation in Storytelling Award. It recently won Best Design at the Bafta New Talent Awards.

GKV: Tell us about the book you're nominated for...
Boat Vol 1 is based on my short film Boat . It is a post apocalyptic Scottish drama about a father and son looking for home in a futuristic flooded world. I wrote the script in 2011 and completed the film in 2014 after a long post production process. From the beginning, I wanted to create a comic book version of the film.

We had some really stunning graphic concept art of a flooded Scotland, created by Anthony Devine, which we used with the film as a guide to create the comic book with artist Mark Weallans. We completed the Graphic Novel while finishing the VFX on the film last year. It was a great experience and I am hoping to continue the story with the next volumes this year.

How did you get into comics?
Since I was a pretty young I've always loved film, my mum remembers taking me to the cinema at the age of two and i never made a sound or took my eyes of the screen for the whole movie. I discovered comics through reading comic books set in similar worlds such as Newt's Tale and Predator.

How far is your work a collaborative process?
Its a very big process and hugely collaborative, just like working on the short film I've had help from many talented people. It was my first comic so I was making lots of mistakes, but Mark (artist) and I discussed illustration style and panel story boarding. The lettering and additional artwork was by Andrei Stariuala and Tammy Le Vasan: everyone involved brought something unique that made the book better. I loved collaborating with them, it was a big dream to make a graphic novel and they really made it possible.

Do you see yourself as part of any particular Scottish tradition?
I don’t really know if I do, but as I've grown up in Scotland you kind of get immersed in its dark history. I like to feature an element of Scotland in my work, as it is my home and what I have known for many years. There are so many Scottish styles and literary traditions but it is definitely the darker side that I lean towards.


If I saw a film that I really loved, I'd try to find out every detail about it, the writers and the actors. I remember it started with Aliens and this was how I discovered comics, through reading comic books set in similar worlds. I used to spend all my wages at Dead Head comics and Forbidden Planet in Edinburgh. I was a big fan of 2000AD, The Crow, Punisher, anything I could get my hands on. I was pretty hooked on certain writers and artists and I always wanted to get into writing my own comics. I was developing Boat for a long time but I couldn’t draw to save myself so I went down the film-making road. Now I try and do both. The good thing about comics is there aren't the same budget constraints when telling a story.

SICBA: Inspirations

Who would you say your inspirations were?

Gillian Hatcher

I've mainly been inspired by American alternative comics like Peter Bagge's Hate, Julie Doucet's Dirty Plotte and Mark Beyer's Amy and Jordan. All these creators bend and break the rules to make something that has a high visual impact. I've never been interested in becoming a highly skilled technical artist- I just look for ways to communicate my stories effectively.

Charles Schultz and Herge have also been huge influences since childhood.





David Lumsden
2000AD, Robo-hunter & Rogue Trooper were my favourites. My older sister would let me read her Tank Girl comics when we were growing up too.

But James O’Barr’s The Crow really stuck with me, it was so dark and grim. Watchmen had a huge influence on me too. I was a big fan of Crimson by Brian Augustyn, the artwork of Humberto Ramos, the Wolverine series, the list would be endless so I better just stop there.



Letty Wilson

There are so many. From a very young age I was really into zoological and botanical art. I still have books like Thorburn's Birds and Keble-Martin's Concise British Flora, which I return to when in doubt. I love the exactness and detail of this kind of art, and the way some artists lay it all out on a page to describe a lot more than just what this animal or plant looks like. 

As far as comics artists go, I fell in love with Kirby's bold, structural linework from the outset - I still have an old Eternals issue, I think it's older than I am, and the art is just so instantly recognisable, it's iconic.

Tove Jansson is another favourite - I love the Moomins both for their storytelling, and often quite dark humour, and the art itself which is beautiful. Also loads of webcomic artists, or at least artists who started out in webcomics, are huge influences because that was what I was reading when I was first getting in to comics - they were free, easily accessible, and there's some fantastic creators out there, like Noelle Stevenson, Kate Beaton, Evan Dahm and Jon Allison. 

More recently I've been really influenced by Dan McDaid and Jake Wyatt's inking. Good inking is a huge part of good drawing, at least for my style and I'm trying to look more consciously at it. Dan McDaid has this kind of scruffy, sketchy elegance that I love, while Wyatt is great at combining realism with stylisation to get a very crisp, solid, but still otherworldly effect.

John Grieve
I’m a huge fan of everything Bill Watterson has ever done. Terry Pratchett, Dr Seuss, Lewis Carrol (The Hunting of the Snark) and Tim Burton (The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy) among many others

What are you reading right now?

David Lumsden

Right now I'm reading a mix of things: The Walking Dead is the one I have been following for a while now and I've just started Mark Millar's Chrononaughts. I liked 100 Bullets, Y the Last Man and Preacher and I read a local publication called Treehouse which is a collection of stories from different Scottish writers and artists that is really enjoyable.


John Grieve

I kind of dip in and out of reading graphic novels nowadays to be honest. For instance I only got round to reading Maus last year! 
That said, The Walking Dead is a pretty regular read for me.
There are no pictures, but I’m also reading Terry Pratchett’s A Slip of the Keyboard at the moment.

Letty Wilson

I just finished Return of the Living Deadpool by Cullen Bunn and Nick Virella. I love Deadpool and this is the best Deadpool story I've read in ages - particularly the ending, which seems finally to have a good take on a female Deadpool! 

Funniest thing I've read this year, excepting Sosmonaut the Cosmonaut, by Nathan Langridge with art by Isaac Hoar (though I should admit a little bias as Nathan's my flatmate and I helped letter it. Still, it's a great book about a cosmonaut trying to spread communism through space, mostly by beating up aliens). I'm also reading Help Us! Great Warrior by Madeline Flores, coloured gorgeously by Trillian Gunn. Tiny adorable demon-fighting heroes is exactly my kind of thing. 

Also Rumble, by John Arcudi, James Harren and Dave Stewart, which has fantastic art and is a lot of fun, plus more demons! I seem to be on a demon kick lately. Just finished its first arc, I can't wait to see more. 

I recently started reading Southern Cross , by Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger and Lee Loughridge. I always love Becky Cloonan's work, and this is really cool, especially love the atmospheric art style and the cool in-world posters and ads at the end of every issue. 

I'm totally stealing that idea for the comic I'm currently working on. 

And for webcomics, Judecca by Jonathan Meecham and Noora Heikkilä is amazing - muted, atmospheric art and a really intriguing story. Also I've mentioned him before but Evan Dahm's work is criminally underrated and his current project, Vattu, has been going strong for ages and is spectacular, everyone should read it, particularly if you're interested in amazing world building and how to tell stories with very little actual script.



Gillian Hatcher
I recently finished Sugar Skull, the final installment in the latest graphic novel by Charles Burns. I don't really like straight horror, but I absolutely love the unsettling creepiness of his work.

I've spent the past few weeks putting together the eleventh issue of Team Girl Comic (TGC), so I've had the pleasure of reading everyone's stories and compiling them into an anthology. This issue is one of our best yet, and covers themes ranging from politics and gender to monster cafes and rock bands in outer space.

John Grieve on The Beast of Barton

John Grieve’s The Beast of Barton is an example of how a comic can be a solo work of art, with Grieve responsible for every aspect of creation and production. Steve Morris, on The Spire website describes it as ‘a rhyming tale of Mad Kings, monsters, kill-happy townsfolk and all manner of whats-else… a pretty solid bit of entertainment.’ It has also garnered him a nomination for Best Newcomer at the 2015 SICBA Awards.


Tell us about the book you're nominated for...

The Beast of Barton is a rhyming tale set in the aforementioned fictional town of Barton. It is a story of greed, murder and the balance of good and evil (told in as lighthearted a way as possible). Being the first in a trilogy, it serves as an introduction to the troubled town and a hint at things to come.

Tell us how you got into comicsI had always read comics as a kid and think my first half serious attempt at one was when I was about 11. As time went on, priorities changed and comics and art in general kind of got put on the back burner.Additionally, a lack of confidence presenting my art/writing to the public ensured that until recently things were not taken any further. 

A few years back, I attended some of Garry Mac’s excellent comic workshops and that kind of rekindled my passion for comic creation. Also my wife has been an amazing support and has pushed me to get stuff out there which has helped immensely.

How far is your work a collaborative process?

Not at all. I bounce ideas off of my wife occasionally and ask opinions from others, but in general I am a bit of a hermit when it comes to working.
It’s not that I’m averse to working with others and have done in the past but writing/drawing/colouring/editing everything myself means I’m working to my own timeline and enjoying the creative process to the full.

Who would you say your inspirations were?I’m a huge fan of everything Bill Watterson has ever done. Terry Pratchett, Dr Seuss, Lewis Carrol (The Hunting of the Snark) and Tim Burton (The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy) among many others.

What are you reading right now?
I kind of dip in and out of reading graphic novels nowadays to be honest. For instance I only got round to reading Maus last year!
That said, The Walking Dead is a pretty regular read for me.
There are no pictures, but I’m also reading Terry Pratchett’s A Slip of the Keyboard at the moment.

SICBA: Best Graphic Novel

Best Graphic Novel
Amongst The Stars (published by Planet Jimbot)

Aliens have nightmares too. Us.
Over 64 pages, Jim Alexander (writer) and Mike Perkins (artist) visit an alien world that is haunted by the consciousnesses of humans. Intruding into their minds, thanks to a telepathic first contact, humanity inflicts suffering on the aliens, simply by acting out their usual weekend antics.

Told through  sparse, black and white, art - with sporadic forays into more expansive panels evoking the immensity of both Space and Mind, Amongst the Stars contrasts the pure world of the aliens against the messy, and sometimes violent Earth. 

Taking in scientific theories, a procedural crime drama and the philosophical musings of the aliens as they attempt to deal with human emotions, Amongst the Stars updates the psychedelic science-fiction of the 1960s and asks profound questions about the nature of being human. 


And Then Emily Was Gone (published by ComixTribe)

Part metaphysical thriller, part absurdist meditation on life, And Then Emily Was Gone pits a washed-up detective against supernatural forces. 

Set on a remote Scottish island - and starring a cast of individuals who can only be found in extreme rural settlements - Emily plays fast and loose with the boundaries of reality, re-imagining traditional tales through the filter of modern horror. 

It recalls The Wicker Man, but adds a bitter, almost comic, glance at the conventions of comics. Strong characterisation of the two leads - and the missing Emily - ensure that the meandering story has a rare depth and charm.

Boat vol. 1 (Self published)

Dark and dystopian future time from Lumsden and Weallands. Based on the short film, the dense black and white art is a perfect match of form to content, as a father and son try to survive in a flooded world. 

Aside from outbreaks of violence, Boat centres on the relationship between man and boy, offering thoughts on how parental responsibility can be deadly, given the darkest of circumstances. 

Despite the themes of despair and survival, Boat is less a bleak tragedy than an essay on hope... spanning several years and a range of emotional scenes, the final panels offer the promise of better times ahead. 


IDP:2043 (published by Freight Books)

Celebrated French graphic novelist and illustrator Barroux, Costa Award winner Mary Talbot and artist Kate Charlesworth, ‘godfather of British comics’ and creator of 2000AD Pat Mills and graphic novelist Hannah Berry, enfant terrible of Scottish letters and author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh and graphic artist Dan McDaid, graphic novelists Adam Murphy and Will Morris.
Story editor: crime writer and graphic novelist, Denise Mina.

'Themes of science, gender, rare, social hierarchies and privilege are tackled in the book... Nick Barley, the book festival's director, said the images conjured up by the writers and artists who worked on the project were "nothing like the science fiction visions from the 1960s and 1970s".'
Scotsman
'a very special comics collaboration'
Forbidden Planet International
'a quirky and thoroughly enjoyable work'
Guardian

Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter (published by Renegade Arts Entertainment)
It's sharp, witty and features the Scottish bard getting busy with the bad girls. Despite what appears to be the kind of idea Hollywood could turn into a really bad movie, Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby imagine Robbie experiencing the supernatural in more than just poetic imagination. 

With running jokes about Burn's skill in verse, a strong female lead and an attention to graphic detail, Witch Hunter manages to be both an action adventure and a cheeky satire on the idolatry around the 'nation's favourite poet'. 

Rennie's experience on 2000AD shows out through the novel: clear panels, clarity of story-telling and a sly humour ensure that Witch Hunter is not just another piece of Tartan Tat.