Improvisation and Innovation

By Tony Lee

So yeah, this week I was going to talk about comic strips and the Birmingham scene – however, as you also know I spent the first part of the week on the slopes of Courmayeur, and therefore wrote it on the balcony of a ski bar. Don't believe me? Here you go.

Of course, you can see there that the device I'm typing on? That's right – it's my trusty HTC Kaiser. The same one that only moments ago, just as I was about to import my column across onto my laptop decided to spaz out and collapse on me, freezing up the screen and meaning that I have to hard reset the bloody thing. Luckily my saved writing is all on the mini SD card, but the column? You guessed it; it was still on the system, where I was still finishing it off.

And so now I write a second column this weekend, a column that probably has no relevance to the previous one, or what I promised at the end of last week's column. But that's fine, because as I said at the top, the main thing that a writer must have is the ability to perform innovation at a moment's notice. They must be able to take something that at the last minute changes and ensure that they're up to the task of, well, changing it.

And in a way, that's what happened to me this week. Apart from the obvious re-writing of this column, of course. I had a meeting with a new editor.

As many of you are aware, I have a graphic novel with book publishers Walker Books in the process called Robin Hood: Outlaw's Pride, art by the incredibly talented Sam Hart. We've been working on it for a while now, actually – we've been on it much more than we should have, as our first editor disappeared during the design stages and we had eight months where Sam hadn't been told to go with the script, while everyone else thought he had. And so we're running late – but Walker Books are happy to give us the time to work with it because they trust us and love the product.

And I mean they love it. In the meeting on Friday, they showed me some mock up proofs that they'll be taking to a big book fair in Europe later in the year. Although the book is now slated for a Spring 2009 release, they're already talking multiple language deals and suchlike. It was like sitting in a totally different world as they discussed covers and marketing and a whole variety of exciting plans for the book. And then came the question that I really wasn't expecting.

'We were thinking, perhaps we could do more Robin Hood books? '

Now, I'd pretty much written the book as a stand alone. It's a variety of familiar and traditional stories and genres all put together and is really one of the best things I've written, but I had pretty much given it the start, middle and the end. Robin comes home, fights the Sheriff, King Richard turns up as a Monk, whips off the tabard and ta dahh! Prince John's deposed, the Sheriff's fired, Guy's killed and the Merry Men all wander off going 'huzzah' while Robin marries Marion right before he gets his lands back in time for tea and medals.

And now they wanted a sequel.

I'll be honest, and I said as much to them – I was wary of following on. After all, I'd used a lot of the legends in this book – many of them were known internationally. The story was known. And the story had ended.

But then I considered this. Had it? I mean, we all know the joke of Robin's last act, where he lays in his deathbed and grabs his bow, stating 'wherever this arrow lands, bury me' and fires it – and lo, Robin was buried on top of the wardrobe and all that – but there must have been something that led him to this moment. There must have been another story.

But then the cynicism kicked in. Was there really a story? Or was I looking at the rather hefty advance I'd get if I actually did a sequel? I thought long and hard about this. I'm not in it for the money; I'm in it to tell the story. And only if there was a story would I do this.

And there was one. There had to be. The Gest of Robyn Hode, one of the first ever ballads about him, a ballad of almost two thousand lines had given me much of the inspiration for Outlaw's Pride, went on, bringing in new characters, Roger of Doncaster, Robin's treacherous cousin the Prioress of Kirklees, and starts a tradition of tales that went on well past the end of Outlaw's Pride.

But I couldn't do just a 'oh here are some more stories' book. I had to follow the way I had written the first one, with a solid start, middle and an end. And the end was another thing that was a problem. Everyone knows that at the end Robin dies – as shown best in the Sean Connery movie Robin and Marion – but Walker didn't really want this to be the end – for it gave a sombre close to a children's book. So end it, but don't really end it.

I started to wonder whether something like this could be done. My editor was fine with the fact that if I felt I couldn't, that I would walk away from the project. But it had gotten hold of me by then, and even later in the evening, while on a date with a beautiful and vivacious woman, there were points when ideas were popping in my head And not about the date, if you know what I mean. There are only so many arrows and quivers jokes I can make, you know!

And so this weekend I hit the books. I'm a bit of a scholar on Robin Hood these days following Outlaw's Pride and the novel Rahbin Hood that I wrote, and I've hit the websites, especially www.boldoutlaw.com, a site so brilliant I actually credit it in the first book, I read and re read J.C Holt's academic Robin Hood book and a variety of 12th century historical books and texts, looking for something that would help me. I already knew how I wanted to take it – I wanted a few years to pass, I wanted an older, more jaded Robin, stuck in a position he hated, his bow long forgotten. I wanted something to spur him back into action, the 'Rocky', the 'John McClane', the old warhorse having his last fight. I definitely didn't want a son or daughter – there are too many god awful stories out there with that kind of angle, but I decided that I would steal from Rahbin Hood a little, and introduce a little used character from book one, a
small half caste child in Jerusalem that Robin effectively befriends and then leaves. But, to have him at the right age to use, we'd have to be jumping forwards eight or so years...

And then synchronicity strikes. I rely on riding the synchronicity wave a lot in my work; it's like allowing my cosmic editor to give their opinion.

You see, I needed something that allowed the baddies, exiled at the end of book one, to return. And historically, I ended Outlaw's Pride around 1192.

In 1199, Richard the Lionheart died. And Prince John became King John, fighting against his nephew, Arthur of Brittany. And suddenly I had the concept. What if, once Richard died, John and the Sheriff returned? The first thing the Sheriff would do would be to return to Nottingham, gain control again – perhaps over a weak replacement? Would he have an army? Allies? Suddenly Roger of Doncaster, at the end of the tale a sworn enemy of Robin appears in my thoughts again. Why is he an enemy?

And so the story starts to take shape. Eight years later. Robin, an Earl and wishing more than anything to be free of it, to be back in the woods. A child he fostered yet left in Acre returning, a reminder of the man he once was. His patron dying, his enemy crowned. The Sheriff returning and Robin caught with responsibilities that stop him doing what he wants to do. A treacherous cousin who plots against him in Kirklees, and a band of Merry Men scattered across England, working for both sides.

And then a moment, a singular point in time that pushes Locksley past the point of no return, which forces him to pick up the bow once more, to fight once more. But this time there is no returning Richard, no fighting a pretender – this time he fights the voice of the King himself, and there's no turning back. Even if he wins? He'll lose everything. There's no 'stealing from the rich to give to the poor' – this time it's a war. And Robin knows too well about war.

And suddenly? I'm excited. I want to write this. I want to see what happens. And I will have the death scene. But as we know, there's always a man behind the curtain...

Yes. Robin Hood: Outlaw's Return – I will indeed be pitching you. Let's hope the editors still like as much as I now do...

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Of course that's the far future – and we're still in the present. And this month marks the final issue of Hope Falls hitting the shelves, Hope Falls #5 in fact. And to celebrate this, the Laird Boultwood and myself are considering having a Wrap Party in London on the 18th March. Details are sketchy right now, but I do happen to be in London that day, having some photos taken with Doctor Who: The Forgotten artist extraordinaire Pia Guerra at the Doctor Who exhibition in Earls Court – we're being allowed in a couple of days early to have photos taken beside the real TARDIS and as I'm in town, it's just a simple addition to make our way to a bar to celebrate the end of the Angel Helen's bloody revenge. So more news when we get it. Either way, there will be a drink in London that day.

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Talking of drinks, this May is the Bristol Comic Expo, and as said last week, we're reinstating the Two Drunk Guys In A Bar 2nd Annual Golden Champagne Glass Awards for late on the Saturday night. And we're working out new categories. And, in the nature of all awards, we want you, the reader to suggest people for nomination.

The categories we have so far are Best Comic Created By A Friend, Hardest Drinker, Best Journalist (US), Best Journalist (UK), Gayest Creator In Comics, A James Reddington Memorial Award, Hottest Creator, Best Online Podcast, Scariest Fan, Best New Talent, Favourite Writer, Lifetime Achievement Award, Favourite Artist, Favourite 'Other' (Letterer, Colourist, Editor), Best Website, Best 'YoYo' (person who bounces back), Best Shameless Promoter... We might change a few of these, but this is what we're thinking so far.

So, who do you think should be in this? Email us your suggestions to itsonlyacomic@gmail.com and we'll take the best three and put them up for voting in a couple of weeks!

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And we're at the end of another column, just as my HTC splutters back to life. It's predictable, really – that my planned and put together column is knocked aside for an improvised piece – but as I said at the top, if you can't improvise, you're in the wrong business...

Until next week.

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© 2008, Tony Lee

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