Talk Panels To Me #3: Artist James Corcoran
Today I sit down with James Corcoran to talk about his comics journey to Alex Automatic, as it reaches its seventh issue, going live on Kickstarter on Friday, 27th March. The collected edition of the first five issues was one of the highlights of the Covid lockdown for me. As well as Alex Automatic with Fraser Campbell, Corcoran puts out his own series, Stramash, which is in its second series. Check out his work at jamescorcoran.bigcartel.com and on Instagram @jamescorcoran78
What was the first comic you read?
Probably the Beano or Dandy was very into that kind of stuff, and the Broons and Oor Wullie in the Sunday Post. I seem to recall my dad taking me to Yankee Mags and I got a Green Lantern and a Laurel and Hardy ( I as very young). I graduated to things like Commando, Victor, Battle and other British comics. 2000AD still seemed like a scary big boys’ comic at the time.
When did you start following a series, and what was it?
I remember hopping around whatever comics I could find on the newsstand, although I definitely collected the new Eagle comic, and I loved Ian Kennedy’s work that I recognised from Commando covers and The Vanyo’s on Deathwish. I wish I had the recall others seem to have about old comics and TV shows. I was quite hyperactive and didn’t tend to settle on one thing much.
Can you name one panel/page/ issue that made you want be an artist?
Possibly Batman Year One, I was still getting my comics randomly from the newsstand, where they got mixed bundles of 20 issues, and I rarely managed to get cool stuff like Batman. I think I got the second and third issue. I later got the others when I started going to AKA comics in Virginia Galleries at the time. I remember being somewhat confused when I got the one issue one day, then it was back to being Barr and Aparo, it was a culture shock!
Who is in your Artists Hall of Heroes?
Mazzuchelli, Ian Kennedy, Moebius and Darwyn Cooke. I don’t really draw like any of them, but I adore all their work. But if I answer tomorrow, it could be four others. I think I have quite wide tastes – my current favourites are Chris Samnee and the French artist Thierry Martin. His silent western, The Last Breath, was very influential for me.
What influences past and present best inform Alex Automatic?
Gerry Anderson shows like Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet. My original idea for Alex was a bit more formulaic Action strip, but Fraser added so much more when I suggested it as an idea to collaborate on. We both love the Anderson shows and old ITC shows like Danger Man.
What is one positive you will take away forever from doing self-published comics?
Just do it! I thought about doing it for years, and regret not starting much earlier. I think I was 43 or so when we did the first Alex.
Name 3 covers that have stood the test of time?
2000AD #310, Batman #406, Flex Mentallo #1 and Moebius The Man From Ciguri. But again, these could change if you were to ask me another day.
What is one comic you could read again for the very first time?
The New Frontier!
If you could take everything you have learnt doing Alex Automatic and apply it to one existing character to take over for a year, who would it be and why?
The obvious one would be to do Joe 90 or Captain Scarlet, but I don’t think anyone would ever let me near it.
From following you on Instagram, you teased a series called ‘American Futures’ that was very much in my wheelhouse. What is the current status of that, and what decisions go into putting a project on the back burner?
It sits in the maybe one day drawer which is rather full. I had a couple of enquiries about doing something with it – one as a comic and one as something else, but both came to nothing, which is often the way. I like the suit designs so I may use them at some point, and if it does resurface, I doubt American Futures is a suitable name anymore.
Outside of Alex Automatic, what does the future hold for James Corcoran?
I have been doing some non-comics bits and pieces over the last year or so, nothing massive, but fun and interesting to be involved with. Comics-wise the immediate future is more of my Glaswegian gangster folk horror comic Stramash. I’m currently drawing issues 2 and 3 of the second series. Beyond that, I have a few ideas for some short strips and for an all-ages Sci-Fi thing.
Fraser Campbell has been kind enough to supply the pitch for #7 of Alex Automatic, which goes live on Kickstarter this Friday, 27th. Speaking from experience, it is one of the most fun comics I have ever read. Each stands alone, whilst being part of an ongoing tapestry of mystery.
In This Issue…
Alex is trapped inside The Schattenbahn, a vast digital panopticon beneath Berlin where Tusk subjects Alex to a series of nightmare scenarios designed to break his resolve. In this first test, Alex finds himself in the Alphaville style city of Epsilon, a place where love is outlawed and the rule of the tyrannical Superintendent Mabuz is absolute. In this dreamscape, Alex is Peter Deville, a trade delegate from the Cyganus Prefecture and he quickly finds himself thrust into the paranoia of a city hierarchy terrified by rumours that notorious freedom-fighter, Alex Ex is at large. With his every move observed, “Peter” meets a woman oddly reminiscent of Alex’s real-life one true love, Sasha Iordanescu, a long dead fellow agent code-named Mercy. In a city where love is a capital crime, the pair soon find themselves flirting with mortal danger.
