Q&A 43: Hip young gunslingers
Pete Ashton asks:
"In the masterclass video you shared [...} you talked about starting Bad Machinery because you didn't want to keep doing comics about 20-somethings so switched to doing kids. It occurred to me that those kids are 20-somethings. Is this inevitable? I was also thinking about how you manage writing young people as you get older without being all "hello fellow kids". I'm in my 50s now and sometimes wonder if I would be reading about these exploits if I hadn't been following your work for two decades. Is it that it just takes a long time to get as good as you are so of course you're going to be writing about younger generations?"
Oscar Leong wants to know:
"How are you so "tapped in" to cultural phenomenons from over the decades? As a Gen Z, you capture a lot of specific modern as well as Gen Z aspects in such a funny and real way."
These two questions both address something that is increasingly on my mind as I bear down on my half-century. I am not getting any younger, but the characters I write about are not getting a lot older. Or, at least, they aren't aging at the speed I am.
It's true that I didn't want to keep writing about twenty-somethings, which lead to the switch I made with Bad Machinery. But there was another, more cynical, reason that I made that change - I thought I might have a stab at the middle grade graphic novel market, which was growing fast at the time. But once I started work on Bad Machinery, and had enough work that I could begin to approach the sort of publishers who I thought might publish it, I couldn't get them interested. While I was delighted that Oni Press took it on, my hope had initially been to find a UK publisher who would support it, with whom I could work closely within my native industry, instead of having to straddle a cultural divide.
When I began to see the books racked next to Batman in most comic shops, I realised that this middle grade project wasn't going to happen the way I imagined it, and I got back in my lane pretty quickly.
I believe I wrote at length about the disappointments and vanities of middle aged men, men of my age group, in Steeple. I think I could have written a lot more had it continued. I'd like an avenue to do more of that.
As long as you are observant, it is possible to write about younger generations. It's not like I can't find out what Gen Z are up to. They're everywhere, with their mullet haircuts, terrible tattoos and baggy trousers. No one is more out there than the young! Their activities are constantly recorded, often by themselves, for posterity. The energy that comes off young people is enormous, their activities can be joyous to depict. And in the end, I'm not writing a textbook, comics are sparsely written. I only have to get a few things right to "pass".
If I've tired of anything, recently, it's portraying the modern world. I've done such a lot of it. My enthusiasm for the here and now is at an all time low, with good reason I think. We do not stand on a new frontier. It was a relief in 2025 to work on Savage Sword of Susan and NEMS.
But if I decided to draw cavemen or spacemen from now on, I would still want to spend time with young characters and the possibilities that always lay ahead of them. For the young the road ahead is longer than the road behind, and that's a great place to be in my head. Especially as the road ahead is far shorter when I step away from the drawing board.
Comments (21)
Never give up! nice job ❤️
thanks for answering my question, very interesting. u seem to be "tapped in" to specific psyches, aesthetics, trends, and other aspects that is not super common among authors of other generations which is what I enjoy a lot about your work
i would read your sci-fi comedy. any day ever. your cast could make a lost in space movie, with varying degrees of success at holding character on/off screen. now i am really looking forward to it, in my head if nothing else. i shall rewatch galaxy quest now and imagine what you would have done with it.
One thing I’ve noticed is that romance has largely fallen by the wayside. I suppose it’s a bit weird to write that for characters thirty years younger than oneself, but navigating those relationships is a huge part of young adulthood. Anyway, all that to say I wonder why John’s steered away from it more recently.
I don't think this is true. There is romance in Steeple, including a one off romance special, romance in Savage Sword of Susan, lust for the Bat-Like Man in GDxB (this might not count), a two-part romance story in Steeple volume 1 (Boys Like Fun) and I would argue that the current story is also very much a romance story tying up threads of a long running romance plot. Part of the problem may be that there are only three pages a week now, with a lot of ground to cover.
The way your stories shift in and out of various maturity levels can be amusing depending on the kind of overlap they have. The transition from Scary Go Round to Bad Machinery is definitely a big example.
Good point, bad machinery was younger but dealt with a lot of serious things, possibly with more depth than SGR as it was set against the youth optimism of the kids. I do think a lot of the griswalds stuff had the same sort of heart though in sgr. I always remember that page with ester and the boy on the beach talking about university being the first frost and not everything will survive.
My favorite aspect of your work is the way you co-mingle opposites. Your teenagers who are more adult than the adults. The adults who act like kids playing in the yard. The modern world that’s off kilter. The fantasy world that’s a bit modern.
I’m surprised you were aware of the middle grade graphic novel audience so long ago it’s something I’ve only become aware of now as my nine year-old consumes them at a rapid pace. She also reads a huge amount of diary style comic hybrids most of which are vapid and lack substance. I’m much happier when she’s reading the bad machinery comics. In other news as time goes on, I gain a deeper and deeper understanding and appreciation for Mildred’s mother.
As the eye that never sleeps, I always have my eye on literary areas I could have a go at. I was asked to do one of those diary/doodle hybrids (in a rare invitation by the proper literary world) but I couldn't make anything that didn't feel a bit thin to me so I passed on the opportunity.
this made my eyes humid. i just got ssos and both nemses in the mail yester. you're really great, john. i'm team you.
I just wanted to say I've always loved the Tackleford generations in your comics, John whether it's the Bobbins/Scary-Go-Round crowd, Giant Days gals or Bad Machinery kids as each has traversed the challenges of youth, come into messy adulthood and passed on torches to the next. I hope in the future this will continue (probably soon to come are Shauna and Sonny's siblings and whomever their associates may be).
The half century point is in my rear view mirror now, and the yearning to be young again is real. But never to be as I was, but to be there knowing what I know now. Of course, it doesn't work that way. I wouldn't know what I know now if the me I was then didn't do all those things I wish I hadn't (or avoided the things I wish I'd had). In any case, going back isn't an option. There is no time traveling robot for us. Even if there was one, it wouldn't bring us back to be our younger selves. There are some very good points to being this old, though. Dwelling too much on missed opportunities can only interfere with seeing the opportunities ahead of us, can it?
Hm, if you don't want to have to portray the modern world, you could maybe do a story where a character gets sent back in time. Maybe to, like, the 1990s or something. (Nah, that'd just be silly.)
Hey, maybe a fantasy world you get to create and the young folks growing up in it is just what you need. I'd certainly love to read it. Or just an all Blobby universe.
I might return to the world of Savage Sword of Susan (etc - there are several other thrilling projects brewing in that Notes file on my phone) but I wasn't 100% sure how it went across. It does open up the opportunity to draw a lot of "mad shit".
Glad you got some sense out of my "question". I remember after posting it wondering what the hell I'd just written...
It made sense, Pete. Maybe too much sense (stares off into distance)
"It was a relief in 2025 to work on Savage Sword of Susan and NEMS." Both SSoS and NEMS were pure delights, particularly the latter; there's a lot that only someone with a deep and abiding love of popular music could have put there. "If I've tired of anything, recently, it's portraying the modern world." Should you be contemplating a C*n*n-esque swerve into science fiction, it's worth noting that despite the original Buck Rogers being in the public domain (as of last January) and Flash Gordon doing likewise in the next few years, they're both probably going to be trademark-encumbered until the heat death of the universe, if not later.
I'm never going near anything like that ever again
Half-century is also approaching me, appreciate those thoughts. I will also continue to steep in a world of possibilities and energy where I can. And thanks for reminding me I need to grab all the Bad Machineries I can for my middle-schooler who enjoyed Wicked Things.