“Without ‘A1’ and ‘Deadline’, We Might Be in an Entirely Different Place in Comics” – Alison Sampson, Dave Elliott, Fred Van Lente and Cathy Kwan on the Return of Two Legendary Publications in ‘A1 Deadline’

Bringing together two legendary comics titles from the late 20th century in one package, A1 Deadline is an anthology that both builds on the past and looks to the future. A1 originally debuted back in 1989 from Garry Leach and Dave Elliott and featured largely one-off stories that included established characters like Flaming Carrot, Mr. Monster and Concrete, alongside homegrown strips like Moore and Parkhouse’s The Bojeffries Saga. Deadline was created by Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, mixing comics and features, and was of course the magazine that gave us Tank Girl, Hugo Tate, and all manner of Shaky Kane weirdness.

Cover by Alex Horley

Now the two are back in one combined anthology courtesy of Elliott and the new A1 Deadline special has a very tangible Broken Frontier connection. This collection of stories includes Fred Van Lente and Alison Sampson’s strip ‘The Beard’, first published in the Broken Frontier Anthology over a decade ago. In this multi-creator interview Alison looks back on the creation of ‘The Beard’, the importance of both series, and invites a number of other voices involved with A1 Deadline to share their thoughts…

ANDY OLIVER: The Beard’ was one of your earliest comics projects, in collaboration with writer Fred Van Lente, which was published in our Broken Frontier Anthology a decade ago. What does it feel like now looking back on that story, given its republishing in the A1 Deadline special,  and what were the themes it explores?

ALISON SAMPSON: ‘The Beard’ is about what happens when a woman grows a beard and it gives her superpowers. An actual comic about body hair. Every time I tell people about this story they laugh. So – a rare opportunity to draw something funny (guided by someone who really can do funny), a reunion with Jason Wordie (who coloured my first book), the Trinder family (who a lot of people will know from Thought Bubble, even if the name is unfamiliar) and an opportunity to learn from some very gentle collaborators. In short, just what I needed. And the story has remained perennial, for all this time. Fred and I have discussed continuing it and I would like to. Perhaps the republication will give it some attention.

AO: Given that it appeared at a time when you were first breaking into comics how much of a learning experience was it? How important was it to you at the time in making your mark on comics?

SAMPSON: I honestly can’t remember. I think, to some extent, the pressure was off, because it wasn’t a book I was going to have to be responsible for sales for (I’d just come off marketing an Image book round the world) and I felt unconstrained. On the other hand, I knew it was a book that would be around for a  long time (it is still linked on the BF site) and I was aware that my art would have to stand the test of time. It had to be good. That isn’t a bad lesson. But making Genesis (my first comic, published by Image) had been an incredibly hard and complete lesson (I’d had to do an extraordinary amount of work aside from the drawing, which perhaps sometime I’ll write a book on, because it was bonkers). What this taught me was it doesn’t always have to be that hard and that one can enjoy oneself. The whole thing was healing. But it being a funny story, I did worry that *I* was not funny enough. That’s something to think about, even now. Funny is hard. I think I was pretty relaxed about making my mark. I like shorts because I can experiment. It was pretty chill, even if I cared deeply about the art.

AO: What was it like working with an established name like Fred Van Lente?

SAMPSON: An absolute gift. Being funny is hard, like I said and I’m not a funny person, really. But Fred is, and he also does things properly, which is less common that you think. His script format is the gold standard for comic writers. So much so, ‘The Beard’ would live on as part of his script-writing course on Domestika (which I recommend). Again, being treated properly was a healing experience. I think Fred is great – and I think he is also quite self-sufficient. His work is very largely free-standing, probably due to his background in small press. That’s an inspiration. For the record, I also did not know who Fred was. I just thought ‘this script has been written by a person who knows what they are doing’. That was enough.

AO: How did the story come to A1 Deadline?

SAMPSON: Right at the moment some of us were commenting that there were not enough not-men in the revived Deadline, Dave Elliott showed up at my table at MCM Comic-con and asked me if I had anything creator-owned that he could reprint in the first issue. Because I love this story, and it remains top of mind because of that, and it is quite entertaining just to talk about, I mentioned ‘The Beard’. Dave laughed, like everyone always does, and we were in. A very smooth process. We signed contracts very quickly, possibly almost the same day.

Shaky Kane’s cover

AO: How important do you feel the legacy of both A1 and Deadline is?

SAMPSON: To me these magazines were about what was truly innovative in comics at the time they were made. I don’t mean that they set out to be avant garde, because that is not what they were. It was that they were fresh and unique and it was people genuinely feeling unconstrained and *trying stuff* and lo and behold, that stuff was good. And without A1 and Deadline, we might be in an entirely different place in comics. Would there be a Vertigo without Deadline? Would there be a way of drawing that was so influential that without it commercial comics might look very, very different, a lot of people would not have had illustrious careers and exciting contemporary artists might not have picked up a pen. We owe Deadline a lot, even if we never had sight of a copy. Its DNA is *everywhere*.

And – my hope is for this iteration of A1 Deadline is that it continues the path of the previous versions: that it publishes new and exciting work and shows us new creators and creates new generations of comics evolution. Deadline stands for this with many, many creators and it is important for there to be a place for this kind of work to be.

Laura Helsby’s cover

I’m genuinely honoured to have work in here too, even if it is a reprint. By Deadline standards, I’m a comics baby and perhaps I think of the ‘The Beard’ as some kind of catching up the magazine has to do, on its way to the present day. I missed it entirely the first time round – being a student and was in entirely separate circles to this kind of art, so to be involved now is very meaningful to me. But ‘The Beard’ was first initiated and published by Broken Frontier for their Anthology, and that was also a great honour. I didn’t honestly know what Broken Frontier was then and what it would go on to be, but it was an opportunity when really a lot of the work around was superheroes or 2000 AD. Neither were going to accommodate me. Broken Frontier said ‘this is your home’, and it was and I still have quite strong feelings coming from that. And, I do hope my work isn’t the last thing that goes from Broken Frontier into Deadline.

AO: How do you feel your art and visual storytelling has evolved since ‘The Beard’? Is there anything you look at there now and think you’d do differently?

SAMPSON: I honestly can’t look at it. At a previous glance, a lot of it has held up. But it was more than a decade ago, and whilst I might do some things in a same or different way, I’ve moved on. Not least, working digitally, for me it changes a lot. I like the story, I’m proud of my work, but I do think, and especially in the context of what we are talking about, nostalgia is a trap. It is what we make now that counts. It is also worth saying is that comic art is evolving as a thing all the time , and what it needs to be is as good as it can be in the constraints that it has. That is all.

From Fraser Campbell and Lucy Sullivan’s story

AO: You suggested a couple of artists yourself to be involved in the first issue of A1 Deadline. Given how vital anthology projects can be for enhancing creators’ reach and providing a platform for their work how excited are you at the prospect of something as high profile returning for a new generation of both readers and artists?

SAMPSON: Very, although of course what goes in the new magazine is Dave’s (Dave Elliott’s) responsibility and just because I have views and aspirations it does not mean that those things will come to pass. I hope so, though. A1 Deadline does offer a huge opportunity for a whole load of readers to be introduced to exciting new art that fits into their current preferred aesthetic boundaries. Hypothetically it is an opportunity for everyone. In reality there is probably more  constraints (money, for one) than anyone would like. I’d like to thank everyone who supported the Kickstarter that got us this far. And I hope people can support the new A1 Deadline so that it can become the forward looking publication that it has always been. Maybe I can put new work into it – one can hope.

For people who have not seen the new magazine, I was making a cover for it and for reasons my cover could not be used, and I ran out of time to start again. I did not want to let Dave down when he really needed a cover, so I referred him to some colleagues, Laura Helsby and Cathy Kwan. Both got to make covers, got paid and got to bring their work to a new audience. Lucy Sullivan and others also have work in this issue of A1 Deadline, too. Dave thought Laura and Lucy and Cathy’s work was a fit. I think that gives us all a lot of hope.

Fred Van Lente shares his memories of ‘The Beard’…

FRED VAN LENTE: I do not remember the circumstances around which I was approached for the anthology; I had been interviewed by Broken Frontier quite a lot of times about my other work, that was the connection there.

I had just done a historical horror story with Alison for Dark Horse’s Creepy anthology and knew I wanted to work with her again. When the opportunity to participate in the BF anthology came up, I dropped her a line. We Skyped (remember Skype) and after kicking some things around, I settled around ‘The Beard’ as something to bring to her.

The germ of the story was as a member of a vast ensemble of a satiric superhero story that Alison and I still have kicking around to some degree. Originally, the character of Meg, who goes out at night fighting crime with her beard, only to shave it off again before going to bed, was supposed to be a suburban mom; but having a husband and a bunch of kids mucking about is too many extraneous characters for a short story, I thought, so Meg became a single lady, which makes it work even better, I think.

From Séamus Hanly and Roger Langridge’s story

Publisher Dave Elliott on the return of A1 Deadline…

DAVE ELLIOTT: I can’t emphasize how helpful Alison was in this. Not just for allowing me to use ‘The Beard’ story, but directing me to Laura and Cathy. Cathy’s work is amazing, and we’ve already discussed a way they can be involved in something sequential without doing a comic strip. Fred and Alison will always be welcome in the magazine going forward.

The only thing I will say right now about what I hope this will lead to, is to create a home for creators that aren’t producing a book a month, or even a year for that matter, and to introduce different artists, styles and genres to an audience that might now see them normally. A1 and Deadline were different fish in the same sea, but there was an overlapping commonality to them where this new iteration can hopefully find a home. Creators’ rights are very much at the forefront of this. Everything is 100% creator-owned and everything is used on a non-exclusive basis.