At the end of last year the first book of The Queen’s Favorite Witch, a new series of graphic novels from Papercutz, debuted with the first volume The Wheel of Fortune. A genre blend of fantasy, historical drama and comedy it follows the adventures of Daisy, Queen Elizabeth I’s new royal witch in Tudor England. We caught up with writer Benjamin Dickson and artist Rachael Smith to chat about alternate timelines, period research and creating for an all-ages audience…
ANDY OLIVER: Let’s start with some quick introductions. Where may readers have seen your comics work previously?
BENJAMIN DICKSON: Hello! My most recent graphic novel was A New Jerusalem (New Internationalist/Myriad Editions), a graphic novel about a boy’s father coming home from the second world war. I also wrote Santa Claus vs the Nazis (Aces Weekly/Markosia), and the non-fiction Fight The Power! (New Internationalist, with Sean Michael Wilson). I was also in Scar Comics’ recent Dead by Dawn horror anthology.
RACHAEL SMITH: Hi! You’ll probably know me from my autobio comics like Quarantine Comix and Wired Up Wrong, but I’ve also done stuff for Titan’s Doctor Who comics and my own made-up stories like The Rabbit and Artificial Flowers.
AO: What’s the premise of The Queen’s Favorite Witch and who are some of the cast of colourful characters we can expect to see in its pages?
DICKSON: The story is set in a version of Elizabethan England, in which magic is simply a fact of life. Most people with problems go to witches for help, and Queen Elizabeth herself has a royal witch to protect her from curses and so on. But when the royal witch dies in mysterious circumstances, our main character, Daisy – a twelve year-old witch with dreams of greatness – decides to audition to be her replacement.
But Daisy is from a poor family, and they don’t let just anyone into the royal court! Not only that, there are dark forces at play, trying to manipulate the situation for their own ends. Daisy needs to use every resource she has to become the Queen’s Favorite Witch!
Perhaps the most notable historical figure in the story – other than Queen Elizabeth herself – is John Dee. He is a major figure in the story, seeing Daisy as a wild card that can help him counter dark forces from behind the scenes. As fun as he is, my favourite character to write is a smart-but-cranky rat called Nathaniel, whom Daisy meets in the royal palace, and who becomes her familiar. He’s a character that says exactly what he thinks and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, which is a lot of fun to write, especially when Daisy is being foolish.
SMITH: My favourite character is Daisy as she is so likeable yet flawed. She reminds me a lot of me as a kid – she has a lot of moxy but doesn’t quite have the confidence to know what to do with it. Nathaniel is a close second fave. He’s so sassy!
AO: What’s the target audience for The Queen’s Favorite Witch?
DICKSON: It’s aimed at 7 years and up, but to be honest I wrote it for adults too!
SMITH: Yes, definitely not just a kids book. I lent it to my Mum and she loved it and she’s in her 70s 🙂
AO: How did your collaboration on the book come about and how did it come to Papercutz?
DICKSON: I showed it to Papercutz a few years ago due to a fortunate series of events, at a time when they’d just started doing creator-owned material. They were keen, so I put out an open call on a couple of Facebook groups to find an artist. Rachael was one of the artists that replied, and I couldn’t be happier with that, as she’s brought so much to the project!
SMITH: Aw, shucks… It’s a real privilege to be able to work with Ben too. He is so knowledgeable and passionate about the craft.
AO: Can you tell us about the research that went into the book both from a writer’s perspective and also visually from an artist’s?
DICKSON: I have a keen interest in history, and I’m always reading or watching documentaries about different historical periods. Most of my writing in the last few years has been historical in some way, and I find the research to be a really fun part of that process, as things always come out that I would never have thought of!
In fact, the idea for the story was sparked by a documentary which stated that witchcraft was simply an accepted part of life in Elizabethan England – that if you said you didn’t believe in it, people would think you were mad. I found myself wondering, if that were true, if the Queen would have a witch to protect her.
Obviously, I’m playing fast and loose with history here so I didn’t need to be quite as meticulous as I have been with other projects! But I find that little details can really help root a story in a period, so I did send Rachael a lot of visual reference.
SMITH: Yes, my research was either looking at Ben’s very helpful references or googling for what folk used to wear back then! I’ve learned so much! Did you know that common folk weren’t allowed to wear purple because that was the Queen’s colour! I love purple… I’d have struggled.
AO: In terms of historical characters obviously you’re taking some dramatic license from a comedic perspective but are you also looking to encourage a wider interest in this period of history from younger readers?
DICKSON: Yes, very much so! As a child I learned a lot of history by accident from reading Asterix books and the like, and I’m quite inspired by that approach. So we’re making a point of including real historical characters, events and details that kinds won’t necessarily notice up front, but we hope will be pleasantly surprised when they learn there are some real facts behind them…
AO: Rachael – After all your more personal output over the last 18 months on Quarantine Comix did The Queen’s Favorite Witch provide an escapist diversion from that understandably sometimes more emotionally affecting work?
SMITH: Hanging out with a young witch and her rat friend was indeed quite the tonic from making comics about how lockdown affected me! This book required a different set of creative muscles too which is always good.
AO: This is the first book in a series. How many volumes are projected? Could The Queen’s Favourite Witch become an open-ended ongoing or do you have a finite game plan?
DICKSON: There is a definite game plan going on here! We’ve signed up for 3 books, so we’ll see how well those do, and it will hopefully make for a satisfying trilogy. But if those 3 books do well enough, I want to do about 6 or 7 books to complete the story I’ve got in mind. After that… who knows? I mean, Elizabeth reigned for 40 years, and there are a lot of adventures to be had in that time!
AO: Without spoilers What can we expect next for and her cast in future adventures? Are there any other historical characters from the period you’re itching to introduce?
DICKSON: Oh, definitely! There are a number of real people I’d love to bring into the story, such as Sir Robert Dudley or Sir Walter Raleigh, or even Mary Queen of Scots. We shall see! I’m very much hoping to include Thomas Cromwell in a future adventure, despite already being dead in this time period. I have something in mind…
Book 2 (The Lost King) will focus on the Queen’s “duty” to marry and have children – and what happens when a potential suitor arrives who may not be all that he appears. All being well, that’ll be published at the end of 2022.
AO: It’s such a fun project so with that in mind is there a single standout moment in this first instalment that you particularly enjoyed bringing to the page?
DICKSON: Thank you very much! I think, in terms of writing, there’s a scene towards the end of the book that involves quite a lot of vomit. You’ll know when you see it. That was tremendous fun to write!
SMITH: Mine might be a bit of a spoiler…I’ll just say… there’s a scene towards the end where some ‘humans’ are dancing in a field… I’ve said too much…
AO: And finally what other upcoming projects can we look to see from you both in 2022?
DICKSON: The Queen’s Favorite Witch, Vol 2: The Lost King! Other than that, I have 2 more historical graphic novels (Auslander about the fall of East Germany, and Chamberlain about the events that led to the second world war), both being illustrated by other artists, which will probably debut in 2023.
SMITH: I’m working on my book Isabella & Blodwen which will be out this year through Cast Iron Books. Icon Books is releasing a new version of Wired Up Wrong to a worldwide audience. I’ve written a book called Good Game, Well Played which is illustrated by the amazing Katherine Lobo and out later this year through Mad Cave Studios.
DICKSON: One last note for UK/Irish readers! If you want to buy the book online, make sure you search for it with the American spelling of “favorite”!
Interview by Andy Oliver
