INTERVIEW: Richard Starkings continues to ‘Ask for Mercy’
Image courtesy of comiXology / Provided with permission.
Ask for Mercy, the successful comic series from Elephantmen’s Richard Starkings, recently returned for a second season, offering fans a one-shot featuring beloved character Budgie and a five-issue arc entitled The Center of Everything That Is.
These new stories feature Kasa, Mercy, Ratmir and Budgie as they are summoned to the land of Lakota shaman Medicine Bear, according to press notes. There they learn about the nefarious ways of Ikto’mi, otherwise known as the Spider-trickster, and how he has been tormenting the local area. It’s up to the team of monster hunters to save the day.
Helping Starkings on this comic is artist Abigail Jill Harding. Fans can check out their work on comiXology, the top digital comics company, which previously distributed Ask for Mercy’s first season, The Key to Forever. A third season is on the horizon.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Starkings about his most recent projects. Starkings, who has been in the comics industry for decades, used to edit for Marvel UK in the 1980s and founded the lettering studio Comicraft in the 1990s. His lettering can be seen on Batman: The Killing Joke, among many other titles, and he has written for The Real Ghostbusters, Zoids, Transformers and Doctor Who. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
When did you realize that Budgie would be such an important addition to the story and needed a separate one-shot?
Both Abigail and I took to Budgie immediately. He’s an Innocent, and we kind of knew readers would start feeling the same way! He kind of emerged out of nowhere — we wanted a character that might have emerged from a Beksiński painting, but he ended up as part dragon, part pussy cat and all Budgie! His name came to me instantly when I saw Abigail’s first sketch.
When we came to start season two, I knew Budgie’s role would be somewhat diminished, so Ask for Budgie was intended as an origin story, fleshing out more of his relationship with Alizarine, Kasa and Ratmir — it’s a triple dose of Budgie so that readers didn’t miss him too much while his friends were involved in the Battle of Little Big Horn! Season three, issue 3 sees Budgie’s return to active duty so to speak!
When you wrote season one (The Key to Forever), did you know there would be a season two (The Heart of the Earth)?
No, I had pretty much imagined a done-in-one story, but even in its telling, it begged for new stories so that we could get to know these characters better. We are very fond of our little group of Monster Hunters. Our second arc was determined by our Lakota Sioux character, Kasa, the White Buffalo Woman of legend. I also wanted a story and environment that was dramatically different to Nazi-occupied France and Germany and yet also addressed human greed and foolishness. Once we found Ikto’mi, the Spider/Man we knew we had a creepy monster for our team to take on — of course, Ikto’mi isn’t the real monster in the story!
How much of this comic world have you defined and drawn out just for your own knowledge? Are there many characters and plot points that are still waiting to be published?
Abigail and I talk about this constantly. When I was in England last year we sat in my brother’s conservatory and mapped out seasons two and three together. I think it’s fair to say that Abigail’s sense of story is very intuitive and emotional, whereas mine is concerned primarily with plot and Big Monster scenarios! Abigail’s imagination is utterly inspiring — I know what she is capable of drawing and feel a responsibility to share that with our readers! Halfway through scripting issue #3, I came up with a new monster that lives in the Void and watching Abigail bring this to life was just amazing!
For season two, you include a Lakota shaman by the name of Medicine Bear. Did Native American practices influence any of your story and dialogue? Did you conduct any research?
Very much so — but Medicine Bear is just a small character in the bigger story of White Buffalo Woman, Ikto’mi, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. I went to McKay’s used books store here in Chattanooga and came back with a dozen books on the Lakota, the Battle of Little Big Horn, Custer and President Andrew Jackson. I only learned about the Trail of Tears here in Tennessee. I don’t remember that being taught in English schools. The Heart of the Earth ties all these elements together in a way that frankly surprised both Abigail and myself. The Lakota Sioux [are] a very spiritual people, and their story is full of tragedies and injustices that still haunt the Americas today. When Mercy takes on Andrew Jackson, much of his dialogue is taken straight out of the history books!
Do you feel that there is a lot of commentary in these stories about issues impacting communities and individuals in 2020?
I think so, yes. First and foremost we are creating a fantastic action and adventure story about human beings fighting monsters! Of course, dropping our characters into times of great conflict and cultural discord is bound to determine how they act and react. Both Abigail and I want to hold up a mirror to the world we live in and ask what it means to be a human being — and what it means to be a monster!
Will there be future Elephantmen stories?
Absolutely! Axel Medellin and I are just about to start work on the last issue of our third season of stories for ComiXology — which launched July 7, 2020 — and I’ve been really happy to see how Elephantmen 2261 has developed. Hip Flask and Farrell acquired a new robot sidekick in season two who is still a big part of our new story, Theo Laroux Meets the Elephantmen … a Weird Weekend in Los Angeles 2261 featuring a British documentary maker, anxious to interview and experience the Elephantmen for himself. Other characters from season one and two crop up in this story, too, so we’ve almost-but-not-quite reimagined Elephantmen for our new ComiXology readership. That said, if any of them are curious about the 90 issues published by Image, they are all available for catch up on ComiXology — all seasons of Elephantmen 2261 are also free to read in the U.S. if you have Amazon Prime!
Have you been surprised by the success of this title?
Yes and no. I was well aware when I started the series at Image in 2006 that I wanted to commit to a series for at least 10 years or 100 issues — whichever came first. I have spoken to thousands of comic book readers over the years, and I know that what primarily keeps them coming back to comic book shops are regular titles by consistent teams of creators. Looking back on my own comic book reading experience, I grew up reading Simonson’s Thor, Claremont/Byrne’s X-Men, Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Miller’s Daredevil, Dave Sim’s Cerebus, the Hernandez Bros on Love and Rockets, and Ezquerra and John Wagner’s Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd. The commitment I made to myself was to remain loyal to my characters and my readership. I have invested myself completely in this series for 14 years now, and I have been blessed to work with incredible artists like Boo Cook, Moritat, Axel Medellin and Ladrönn. Axel has been on the title for 10 years now. How many other artists stay with a book for that long? I am very, very lucky indeed. I still love these characters and have many more stories to tell.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ask for Mercy Season Two: The Heart of the Earth by Richard Starkings and featuring art by Abigail Jill Harding is now available from comiXology. Click here for more information.
