Bringing Mr. Higgins Home: A Brief Chat with Artist Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
The original graphic novel Mr. Higgins Comes Home, written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and with art by Tank Girl and Helena Crash artist Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, should be hitting bookstores today, and Mr. Johnson-Cadwell was kind enough to offer Dread Central some insight into his work on this uniquely charming book.
Dread Central: Your artwork shows a real talent for facial expression and body language, and visually you seem able to capture and present a character’s personality both quickly and effectively. Is this a skill that you feel was honed more by your previous comics work, or is it more a result of your other artistic ventures (as a concept artist, for example)?
Warwick Johnson-Cadwell: Thank you! I have always enjoyed drawing figures and characters and find their value in storytelling important. I draw a lot of people from life (a combination of documentary and memory) and this exercise helps me plan and tell comic stories.
DC: Your art style is unlike 99% of the comic book art that’s out there right now. I have a friend who called your previous work on Solid State Tank Girl “controlled chaos,” and I’ve described the style of Helena Crash to people as “Punk Rock Picasso”… Overall, would you say that having such a unique style has been more of a help or a hindrance to you when it comes to your career in comic books?
WJC: Haha! I like “controlled chaos”, “punk rock Picasso” too, thank you. The way I draw has been the result of a million choices made along the way, and it will keep being so. I think it’s been a great help in how much I enjoy drawing and want to keep going but I think that the way it looks has made it difficult for people to get into. I’ve seen reviews for my work warning to “check the art style before buying” or that they “liked the style but wouldn’t want to see it on one of my favourite books.” All fair, of course, but I’ve always been a bigger fan of those whose art stands out from the rest.
DC: The style of your art in Mr. Higgins Comes Home does feel a little different from your earlier work. To me it was like you took your previous style and (for lack of a better term) “smoothed it out” a bit into something that ends up looking a lot like a Hammer horror movie as adapted into a scary storybook for children. To be honest, when I first heard you were working on a horror project, I envisioned something a little more gritty and action oriented, but you really knocked the mischievous and whimsical aspects of this story out of the park. Was there a specific, conscious approach that you took to changing up your style for this book, or are the differences in the look just the natural result of the tonal differences of this story compared to something like Helena Crash?
WJC: There were a few factors that changed the way the art came out. Firstly, that this was a total dream project – working with the legendary Mike Mignola (!) and for Scott Allie and Dark Horse Comics. I got pangs of excitement all the way through working on this, physical shots in the gut that reminded me to make the most of every page. Admittedly, the financial support of Dark Horse after smaller projects from the “small press” published Marionette Unit or the creator owned Helena Crash made a difference in how I could budget my time on the work, but the main difference here was the subject. Being able to put together a story with the components of classic horror to Mike Mignola’s superb script. Had it been a slasher comic then the Helena Crash work may have been more suitable but Mr Higgins demanded a different class of Gothic style.
DC: Your art is pretty well known for contrasting frenetic energy with quieter moments that are made all the more potent because of their relative rarity. In this book it feels like you had the opportunity to take things in the opposite direction. Scenes like the one in Golga’s crypt at the beginning really show off a moodier, more ponderous aspect to your art that I’d never seen before, but, true to form, are still contrasted brilliantly by the kinetic energy present on the very next page (with the carriages charging down the mountain path). Is this sort of marked contrast between stillness and madcap energy something that you are always consciously looking for the opportunity to exploit (because the contrast seems to come across in the coloring as well – specifically in the way that the vast majority of the book is portrayed in cool, creepy tones until we get to the flashback of Higgins with his wife, which then brings in some warmer hues for the first time, and really drives home that feeling of “happier times” because of it)?
WJC: I think that a varied pace is key to telling any sort of story. Not just in fantasy horror, but anywhere we’re trying to engage readers emotionally, keep the story buoyant and hold interest. Contrasting moods and energies keep a story alive, even undead ones. Having said this, my main job was to follow Mike Mignola’s script and tell his story as best I could without mangling it.
DC: And speaking of the coloring, I have to say that I loved how you handled it here. It reminds me a lot of the tones in Batman: The Long Halloween, but a bit softer – more fairy tale, less noir. It really took me back to my memories of reading the sort of silly/scary illustrated monster books that I consumed as as child. Were there any specific books from your childhood that inspired you?
WJC: I find colouring difficult, it is incredibly important to get right and there are artists that work absolute magic colouring books. I don’t feel as though I’m one of those. I do like to venture out there though, I did the colour work on Helena Crash. I just found it very difficult. Mr Higgins has two big sources from which it came Universal Studios Monster films and Hammer Horror Movies. The Universal movies are almost all black and white of course but those Hammer movies were fantastically highlighted in crimson goop over a lavish variety of colour. Often quite muted too, to let the gore shine through.
DC: Again, thank you so much for your time – and for putting your artwork out there for readers to consume and enjoy! Do you have any projects following Mr. Higgins that you can talk about at this time? Any more Helena Crash heading our way?
WJC: I am currently working on Samurai Jack: Quantum Jack for IDW with Helena Crash writer and all round good guy Fabian Rangel Jr (he’s always cooking up comics) and colour artist Hannah Fisher. 2018 will see the release of an animated film I had some concept design input in and I cannot wait to see how that turns out.
Set outside the continuity of the Hellboy universe and inspired by both the Hammer vampire movies and Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, Mr. Higgins Comes Home features the titular Mr. Higgins being persuaded by two vampire hunters to revisit the scene of his wife’s death at the mysterious Castle Golga, which just might be infested with vampires.
Mr. Higgins Comes Home was released in comic stores on October 25, and has finally been released to general book shops today… Halloween.
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