New to the comics writing world, Jim Hardison launches his first title today from Dark Horse, a four-issue miniseries entitled The Helm with artist Bart Sears. At his “day job,” he’s a marketing expert whose specialty involves creating backstories for characters such as the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Kool-Aid Man. Maybe they can fight in his next project? One can only dream.
We also have a limited supply of Helm posters, signed by Jim, to give away to lucky HeavyInk customers! We’ll pick randomly from subscribers to The Helm sometime early next week, so read the interview, buy the book, and win a free poster! Simple enough.
First off, what’s the “elevator pitch” for The Helm?
I pitched the Helm with the question “What if you had a magical superpower and it hated your guts?” That line was what got Dark Horse interested enough to read a treatment of the entire story.
The “reluctant hero” is a pretty classic story device…it sounds more like this story features a “reluctant superpower.” What’s the dynamic between your lead character and his own destiny?
I wanted to create a superhero who had a conflict with the power that made him super. This idea has been done before—usually in the form of a character who can’t control his power and consequently sees it as a curse more than a blessing—so I wanted to try something different. My key thought was to build a character who didn’t appear worthy of his power or appropriate for his role—somebody “un-heroic” so that I could explore what it means to be a hero and mine that exploration for comedic purposes. In terms of “destiny,” I wound up with a character who believes he is destined for greatness, but whom destiny would much rather reject.
What brought you to comics, and what have you found most appealing about writing for this specific artform?
I’m a relative newcomer to comics—not really having read many since I was a kid—but then a friend of mine (Will Vinton) did a graphic novel with Dark Horse (Jack Hightower) and I went to a comic shop to buy it and I was overwhelmed by how much comics had changed since the last time I’d seen them. And really impressed. I’ve been a writer in all kinds of different media and I started thinking about doing a comic.
As to what I’ve found appealing about the art form, there are a couple of things. I love the speed with which stories can flow from idea to finished work. I come from a filmmaking and animation background and those storytelling forms crawl in comparison to comics. In addition, I love the flexibility and freedom I’ve encountered working with Dark Horse. My editor, Dave Land, has been completely open to everything I’ve wanted to try and hugely supportive of the story and the process. Finally, I’ve really enjoyed the collaborative element of bringing the story to life—from my interactions with my editor, to seeing the pencils turn my words into images, to watching them solidify with the inks, bloom with the colors and then seeing all the pieces come together with the text.
What made Bart Sears the ideal choice to pencil this title?
I was going for irony with this story and consequently started thinking about a classic superhero/Conan style of art to serve as a commentary on the poor condition my hero is in. My editor suggested Bart because of his talent and history in comics—he does the “Brutes and Babes” stuff so well. Bart has been tremendous to work with—I love seeing his interpretations as they come in and I’m continually impressed by the level of detail, humor and art that he works into every image.
Your “day job” involves creating stories and characters for marketing, right? Tell me more about that…are we talking the “secret origin” of Kool-Aid Man type stuff?
In my “day job” I have worked on the Kool-Aid man…and Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit and the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Quaker Oats Quaker and the Maytag Repair Men and Mr. Clean and…well, pretty much all the major branded characters. My company is called Character. We also work on characters for entertainment—like Popeye the Sailor, a couple of characters for Discovery Network, PBS, etc.
My work in the marketing world is all about helping brands focus on the principles that underlie great stories and resonant characters. Many people in branding assume that the relevance of a character is dependent almost entirely on how the character looks—we remind them that all great stories and characters are built on conflict and connect to the audience by expressing some fundamental truth about the human condition—even if they’re just animated lumps of dough or anthropomorphic M&M’s.