Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background working as a DC Comics Creator?
I started drawing comics at age 11, and did it all through my teen years. At uni I studied Philosophy and History, and for a while was thinking of a career in academia. But in my twenties I decided to pursue comics illustration. For two years I had to take classes (mostly in artistic anatomy) to get my skills to a professional level. In 1993 I started getting work from DC Comics, and over the course of twenty years I contributed art to most of their major characters (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, the Justice League, Flash, etc), as well as doing art for the X-Men for Marvel. In more recent years I’ve done my own graphic novels (‘The Furnace’, from Tor Books in 2018) and art books (‘How to Draw Sci-fi Utopias and Dystopias’, and ‘How to Draw Sci-fi Heroes and Villains’, both from Phaidon). I love to write and draw, and comics (sequential storytelling) has always been the perfect way for me to blend both.
How did you first come across Mental Health Innovations - and what does your role as a Shout Volunteer mean to you?
I started volunteering for Shout over a year ago, after going through their training. I had mentioned to someone on the training team what I did, and that I would be keen to help out with graphics or illustration if Shout needed help. And in due course MHI reached out to me with some amazing project ideas.
My role as a Shout Volunteer is supremely important to me. I had wanted to be volunteering in some front-line capacity for some time; it was the loss of my brother to suicide that galvanized me in this particular direction. It’s often quite challenging—some of the texters are in a hard place indeed. But there is always a Clinical Supervisor on hand to support me if I need it, and I always walk away from a shift feeling that I’ve helped someone, at least in the short term.
These are hard times we’re going through in many ways, and people need emotional support now more than ever. I’m so gratified to be able to help with that. Shout is an amazing and vital service.
What was it about the LifeSkills project that appealed to you?
I loved that I was given the freedom to not only create the characters, but to write the script as well. I was given clinical guidance and tips from the team at MHI, but it was nice to have the leeway to really get creative. I was also excited to be able to tell young people about anxiety and ways of dealing with it; this is a huge problem right now, and it’s crucial that young people are informed about anxiety and how it can affect them.
The first topic focuses on anxiety, why do you think it’s such an important subject for young people to have support with?
It’s hard enough just being a teenager—transitioning from adolescence to adulthood is one of the more stress-inducing events in life. Add to that the stresses of performing well in school and extracurricular activities, as well as perhaps trying to get into university, and it’s worse. On top of it all we have stresses peculiar to our age such as social media, the cost of living crisis, the global political situation for example, and it can all feel horrifically overwhelming. The human brain is not designed to cope with stressors coming from so many directions all at once, and it’s normal and understandable that young people might develop anxiety that can almost be debilitating. They need to be informed about what anxiety is and how to cope with it, and they need to know that they are not alone if they are suffering with it.
Tell us about the process behind your designs, how did you decide on the characters and bring them to life? Who did you work with?
For this project I worked with MHI’s Director of Marketing and Communications Clare Bolton and the Senior Clinical Adviser Fiona Pienaar. They briefed me on what the desired outcome of the project would be, and I zeroed in on what I thought would be an inviting narrative for conveying what needed to be: three teenagers, each grappling with anxiety for different reasons, have a chance encounter with an older mentor figure who helps them to understand what’s going on. For the three teens, I wanted a mix of ethnicities and basic ‘looks’, to maximise their relatability (I also gave them a diverse mix of problems for the same reason). I did my best to make them authentic, appealing and likable. The older mentor figure, Coach Summers, is based on a real man at my own upper school, so he was easy. I grew quite fond of all these characters over the course of working on the module.
How has the team at MHI been working with you on this project - including clinical guidance and feedback from young people themselves?
At just about every stage of the project—basic synopsis, script, character designs, actual production of the artwork—I was given guidance and feedback from Clare and Fiona, who were presenting my work to their team of young people. While I didn’t have direct interaction with the young people, I incorporated their comments and was always pleased to hear that they liked what they saw. The amount and quality of feedback I got was always perfect and helped encourage me in the right direction. This project was smooth as silk, and a great pleasure.
What have you enjoyed most about working on this project?
Again, I enjoyed the creative freedom I was given, and the smooth and fruitful working relationship I have with the MHI team. As I said, I grew quite fond of the characters and their lives.
What outcome would you like to see from developing this module on anxiety and what’s next?
I hope that LifeSkills makes a difference in the lives of at least a few young people. I know first-hand from my conversations on the Shout service that many, many young people are floundering with mental health issues, not least of which is anxiety. I have a sense of how hard it is to be a teen at this juncture in history. The more information is out there, and the more engagement there is, the better. I hope this project is conveying information about mental health in a way that is inviting and puts the reader at ease.
I have a variety of projects coming up (I will soon be starting the art for a graphic novel coming out from a US publisher). And I am excited to be starting work soon on the next LifeSkills topic, dealing with growth mindset.
