“Cold Chips is simply one of the most confident first-time self-published efforts I have seen in my nearly two decades of reviewing at BF.” Those were my words earlier this year on Chris King’s slice-of-life comic; one blending psychogeographical reflections on seaside town nostalgia with a beautiful visual character study of the sometimes fraught, and always complex, relationship between siblings. In the third of this year’s interviews with our 2025 Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ creators I caught up with Chris King to chat about his cross-media practice, inspirations, and the particular communicative qualities of comics…
ANDY OLIVER: Our opening Six to Watch question in all interviews first, Chris. Can you tell us about your wider artistic background to begin with?
CHRIS KING: I have been working as a fulltime freelance illustrator for the last 15 years, before that I studied animation and media production at university way back in the early 2000s. More recently I went back to university to gain an MA in illustration, which is where the idea for Cold Chips came from. I have always dabbled in comics and they have been a constant influence in the way that I draw, but it wasn’t until I completed my MA that drawing comics became the focus of my own practice.
AO: What was your entry point into comics?
KING: I still remember the first comic book I bought with my pocket money. I think I still have it somewhere…. Ewoks #1. My Gran bought it for me on a day trip to Whitby when I was about 7. I was brought up in Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast in the 80s so getting hold of any comics that weren’t the Beano was really hard. There was a discount shop in the town centre and right at the back of the shop under the hair dye and shampoo was a basket, that was sporadically filled with Batman and Teen Titans comics, they felt pretty special, like illicit goods.
AO: Who do you count among your inspirations in comics?
KING: There are so many!
When I was first finding my feet, artists like Mike Mignola and Paul Pope were a big influence. They were the first artists that I really took note of having a singular voice to their work. It opened me up to comics being more than just superheroes.
In regards to my work today, artists such as Jon McNaught and Tim Bird have been an inspiration in how to tell stories that capture a sense of place and time, that also drives my storytelling. Their work highlighted the possibility that telling low key stories is possible.
AO: Last year your comic Cold Chips debuted; a debut that as I mentioned above I described as “one of the most confident first-time self-published efforts I have seen in my nearly two decades of reviewing at BF.” For those yet to sample its story how would you describe its premise?
KING: Yeah, wow, what a moment that was. It’s a pretty simple story about two brothers spending the day together, in the seaside town of Scarborough and how their relationship is defined as they navigate the beaches and amusements arcades of their home town. Oh, and there are some escaped wolves (which is based on a true story) added into the mix also.
AO: Cold Chips has more than a hint of the psychogeographical to it with its wistful seaside town nostalgia and subtle sense of place, memories and time. What is it about the storytelling tools of comics for you that make the form such a powerful one for communicating these themes?
KING: I think it’s the pacing. Comics give you the ability to tell stories and navigate space at whatever speed you like and by slowing things down, we can explore the moments between moments. It is in these small pockets of time we can play, strengthen and manipulate the sense of time and place. A single panel can depict a multitude of narratives. The stripped back subtle approach of telling stories is what excites me the most when making comics, how much can I tell within a snapshot of time?
AO: Something that I felt on reading Cold Chips was that there was at least one significant point that seemed to be setting up more stories related to this one. Are you planning a return to this world and its cast of characters in the near future?
KING: Not so much the characters, but definitely the world. It is a world that I know and telling stories within it feels natural, so we will definitely be heading back to the coast in the future, hopefully in a longer format than Cold Chips.
AO: Your comics work is notable for its clear lines and gorgeous, evocative use of colour. Can you give us some insights into your creative process and the mediums you work in?
KING: It is the same process I have always used and to be honest it can be unnecessary convoluted. Artwork starts on paper and is scanned into the computer and then inked digitally. I don’t tend to work on a full page of artwork at the same time, but break the whole story into individual panels and then kind of assemble it all together at the end. Colouring is usually a mixture of digital and scanned textures, that are constantly tweaked to make sure every panel flows into the next.
AO: You work in so many areas – animation, film-making, advertising, kids book illustration, painting and sculpture to name a few. Do those other forms of practice inform your approach to comics or give you a different perspective on sequential art in any way?
KING: Working in areas outside comics has definitely informed the way I make sequential art. Making and engaging in art has always been where I feel the most at home, so naturally those interests make their way into my comics. Chewing on all those influences that resonate, whether it’s film, painting, children’s books or even music, plays a huge part in how we can tell stories.
AO: And, finally, are there any upcoming projects, either in comics our outside it, that we should be looking out for?
KING: There is something in the pipeline that I can’t talk about just now that could be really fun to work on, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for that.
In the meantime I’ve got a few short stories set in the world of Cold Chips that will be complete for this year’s Thought Bubble, as well as working on some longer form stories that I plan to pitch this year.
You can find Chris’s website and store here. Follow him on Instagram here.
Interview by Andy Oliver
