Broken Frontier

On the American market, an English comic in the European format doesn't come around all that often. Yet, whenever such a book appears, it always catches my eye, probably because I'm a European myself and one who read Tintin and Astérix growing up. And boy, am I glad my dark brown eyes noticed Chris Blythe and Steven Parkhouse's Angel Fire.

With Angel Fire, the British duo has created a horror story that is solid on all fronts and which grabs readers by the throat from the first page until the last. Considering that their graphic novel is—in US terms—oversized and divided in six chapters, that says a lot.

Released through Blythe’s company Shattered Frames—“I wouldn’t want to promote Shattered Frames as anything more that an experiment at the moment,” the writer says—Angel Fire has become a book that skilfully plays to the strengths of the look and feel of European comics storytelling, even if it has been nearly 3 years in the making.

The decision to opt for the continental format evolved organically during Angel Fire’s production process: “We wanted more space to tell a story visually—that was the bottom line.” Blythe points out. “It wasn’t about profit, it was about aesthetics. I wanted space to tell a story, and Steve wanted space to visualize it. That led us to a more European format, because they revel in telling beautiful stories. They use larger dimensions, better paper, better printing. But to say any of Angel Fire’s development process was calculated or deliberate would give us too much credit.”

Still, the creators did not aim at a more ‘universal’ appeal by publishing Angel Fire in its current format. Blythe reiterates that most of the format decisions were from an aesthetic perspective, though he admits that “In hindsight, and with what we’ve since learned, an over-size book like Angel Fire is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gets you noticed, and as a first release, that’s very important. On the other hand, it doesn’t fit on book shelves very easily! The second edition will have several changes made, one of which is a slight cropping.”

Parkhouse chimes in: “Maybe in the backs of our minds we thought a bigger format may lend more weight to the book. I think we'd give it more thought if we repeated the exercise. [However], we're Europeans, so the European format is kind of a default setting. That's what we do—we do European stuff.”

Of course, as European comic creators, they have been influenced by their peers on the continent. Parkhouse recalls: “As a kid, I was an avid reader of a series of British comic books called War Picture Library. They were small format, black and white books in the classic European style that usually focussed on a single story, either about war in the air, at sea or on land. They concentrated on authenticity rather than overt heroics; and they inculcated in me a sensibility about storytelling that has lasted to this day. They were written by British writers, and mostly illustrated by anonymous European artists. They were of a stunningly good quality, probably the best material ever produced in Britain at any time. I've since learned that some of the artists involved went on to become legendary. I'm talking about Castillio, Blasco, de la Fuente and others of that ilk.” 

“I also admire Jean Giraud, Palacios, Hugo Pratt and many, many others. Of the British tradition I would have to include Eric Bradbury, Dudley Watkins, Paddy Brennan, Frank Bellamy, and Jim Holdaway. Also Jim Baikie, Barry Windsor Smith, Paul Neary, John Bolton, Simon Bisley, Dave Gibons, Mick McMahon and a host of others too numerous to mention.” 

Blythe, however, confesses that he doesn’t know as much about the European market as his ‘partner in horror’ does. “I’m a late-comer to the joys of what’s going on in Europe,” the writer tells us. “A couple of years back I was asked to work on a series called ‘Du Plomb’ for Casterman in France by Colin Wilson. It had a huge influence on me. Du Plomb is a crime thriller, centred around two hitmen but it’s not all action and explosions and forced perspective. It’s wonderfully paced. You get to know the characters. It’s a more confident and mature way of telling a story. They are literally graphic novels. Considering the scale of the market in Europe compared with the US, it’s clear which direction you have to head.”

Even though one may not know as much about the European market as the other does, both creators felt that producing a graphic novel that was up to their continent’s standards was simply something they had to do. So, when Blythe introduced Parkhouse to Angel Fire, the artist jumped at the chance. “He loved it,” Blythe says enthusiastically. “He started work before we really had any idea of the logistics. It wasn’t so much choosing an artist as finding a kindred spirit.”

“I’ve worked a lot with Steve both inside and out of comics. I’ve always been a fan of his work, and he encouraged me and helped me tackle the story ideas I had. We had waxed the lyrical for years about producing a book independently, and when I showed Angel Fire to him [things just took off].”

Zooming in on the actual plot of the book a bit more, Angel Fire, to put it simply, is a shivering horror story about designer drugs. Yet, what really makes this story unique is its killer conclusion. The ending is such an essential aspect of the story, that Blythe immediately started the creative process with the stunning final panels of the book: “The ending was the first thing to be established,” he points out. “Still, the story went through several incarnations before this one, and the Shadow Man as he appears in the finished product was quite a late addition.”

The make-up of Angel Fire suggests that is not merely a story that was created solely to give people the creeps. However, when asked if it was his intention to include a bit of a moral reflection on drug use, Blythe quickly shoots that notion down: “Not at all,” he says. “It’s more a statement on how we live our lives. People grind themselves into the ground trying to afford the cool car, or the flash apartment, or the designer clothes. We live in a ridiculous z-list celebrity culture all about image. It’s sheer lunacy. The main character in Angel Fire, John, is so focused on the next promotion or the next bonus that he doesn’t see his life falling apart. He doesn’t see his wife withering away in a city she loathes, and it destroys her. That guilt is John’s personal hell.”

The decision to tell their story while sticking to the European—and for Americans unconventional—standards has already been discussed at length. Yet, with regard to Angel Fire, Blythe and Parkhouse did something else ‘unconventional’: they put their book on sale for a few months through the Shattered Frames website before it was solicited in April’s Previews. According to Blythe, the idea behind this particular kind of sales method is “a unique economic-model called ‘learning as you go!’” 

“Selling online makes sense to me,” the creator points out, “and given time I hope a greater percentage of total sales will be fulfilled directly by us. The obvious advantages are a direct link to the creators, and without a third party distributor involved, there’s more money to pump back into the next project. Distributors are expensive. You have to sell in excess of double the volume to make the same return. If you sell direct, there’s almost no overhead. It’s a bit much to ask readers to buy a book from an ‘unknown quantity’ without being able to see it first. That’s the disadvantage; you can’t leaf through it and see the quality before buying. Plus, who wants to circumvent comic shops? They’re businesses too. I think the solution lies in a combination of direct sales, direct supplying to shops, and third party distribution. That’ll happen in time. At the moment we want as many people to see the book as possible, by whichever route that may be.”

“It wasn’t a deliberate strategy,” he continues. “We’re learning as we go. We had to learn to produce, print, market and distribute a product from nothing. On the one hand we’ve had a lot of exposure and we have hopefully got in the comic subconscious, which may pay dividends at solicitation. On the other hand, we might be totally forgotten.”

Shattered Frames will be anything but forgotten, as the indie company is putting out a new graphic novel later this year, entitled Human Clay. “Human Clay is a script I showed the legendary Cam Kennedy (Dark Empires) while Angel Fire was in production.” Blythe fills us in. “I was blown away when he said he wanted to do it. Cam, like Steve, is a real boy-hood hero of mine. 

As for the Human Clay’s premise, the writer says it’s a crossing between ‘Bourne Identity’ and ‘Omen’: “It’s conspiracy meet creationism. A man disappears in the 1950s and reappears 30 years later without ageing a day. On one level it’s about his family struggling to accept him, and his rehabilitation into a world that has moved on without him. On another level, it’s about him finding out what he was involved with and what he was doing when he disappeared. And on yet another level it’s about all the big questions: Who made us? Why are we here? What’s our purpose? In Human Clay, they get the answers, but wished they had never asked.”

That’s not all Blythe and co have got planned for the year. “We’re launching a new Shattered Frames website [this summer] with the first peek at Cams pre-production designs,” he unveils. “There’ll be plenty of information about the book then. We’re hoping for an early 2006 release for Book 1.”

“Asides from the Human Clay series, Steve and I would also love to continue the Angel Fire story. That may seem a little odd considering the ending, and indeed it was meant to be a stand-alone story; however, in its long production time I found myself wanting to know more about the characters. I wanted a chance to tell Tessa’s side of the story. I wanted to delve into the Angel Fire drug, its origin and its link with Mr Belial. I’m really excited about it, but [the current book] needs to prove itself first.” 

Hopefully, it will. It would be a shame if Blythe and Parkhouse’s gripping effort doesn’t pay off.

- Frederik Hautain