Michael Powell is one of the more interesting new voices within the British Comics industry. For this reason it seemed wise for SHIFT to find out a little more. Paul Neal decided to ask a few questions.
Before diving into discussing his writing Michael was kind enough tell SHIFT a little about himself, here is what he had to say:
I don't really have a favourite sports team. I did buy 'World in Motion' by the England Football squad and New Order in 1990 if that counts. I guess that makes New Order my favourite team which is probably about right. They did record 'Touched by the Hand of God' though which I suppose has Maradona connotations...
Favourite meal? I do enjoy Indian food. I'm from the Midlands originally which is apparently the birthplace of the Balti and we're a bit spoilt for fantastic restaurants. I also enjoy cooking a Sunday roast and my potatoes are somewhat legendary in these parts.
I love cinema and I think that there's something to enjoy in most films. Except The Greatest Showman.
Paul: Please tell me all about Circus DeNiro? How did it all begin?
Michael: Circus DeNiro has a long history, going back to the original Kickstarter that Phil Elliott and I launched back in 2020. Phil and I had worked together before for The 77 and Comic Scene. It was originally going to be published as a more conventional comic strip serial for an anthology title I'd written for previously but as the project developed, we decided to change direction and launch it as an illustrated book on Kickstarter. Luckily for us that paid off and it did well. A number of book and comic shops started to stock it including The Cartoon Museum in London so the next step was the new, colour edition you can buy today!
The story of Circus DeNiro has been germinating for a long time. I'm a big fan of folk horror, Edgar Allen Poe and, of course, Swamp Thing and I think all of those elements are evident here. You'll find haunted houses, mad scientists, a bizarre travelling circus and a darkness in the woods lurking between the covers!
Paul: It looks like a rather unique book. Please explain a little more about what readers should expect.
Michael: The book is a collection made up of the illustrated Circus DeNiro story and a collection of comic strips very much in the Future Shocks vein. There's a dark edge to all of them but there's as much dark humour as full-on horror running though them all.
The Last Man tells the story of a future where AI gives us everything we want but not, perhaps, everything we need. Father's Day tells us what happens when a man suddenly starts to hear the voices of his children calling to him, children who went missing years earlier. The Dummy is a tale of a down-on-his-luck ventriloquist who finds out too late that it's his puppet who's pulling the strings.
As well as this, the book contains a special preview of the next project that Phil and I are working on, Starcross'd a fully-painted culture wars love story set against the background of an alien invasion!
If you've read the recent Shift special Edition of Brian Bolland's The Actress and the Bishop, the mixture of text story and comic strips is similar in format to that. To those slightly older readers with a longer memory, it's also a bit of a call back to the annuals of our youth, something which I have very fond memories of. Adrian and the team at Shift have done a fabulous job with it and Phil's art has never looked better in my opinion.
Paul: In three or four sentences what sort of fan the book will appeal to?
Michael: I'm a big fan of the Scared For Life books and podcasts and I think Circus DeNiro has a similar 'flavour', the product of minds scarred by Sapphire and Steel, Noseybonk, The Adventure Game and Alan Moore. If you like horror, romance, magic, folk lore, martians, robots, werewolves, ghosts or acrobats then there's something for you here! If you look closely, you'll also see in its pages original art produced for the book by the wonderful Paul Grist (Kane, Jack Staff, St Swithin's Day) and Lew Stringer (The Beano, Viz, Doctor Who Magazine).
Paul: Tell me more about the artists involved in the pages of the book.
Michael: Phil Elliott has been at the heart of the UK comics' scene since the 1970s. He's probably best known for his work for Escape, his Man from Zodiac series in Marvel's Strip, his run as the artist on The Real Ghostbusters, his work on Judge Dredd, Doctor Who and his collaborations with Eddie Campbell and Paul Grist such as Lucifer and Demon Nic. He's also the creator of Tales of Gimbley and The Suttons.
What I really think is fantastic is the variety and invention that Phil brings to the illustration here. The Circus DeNiro illustrations are really influenced by American horror artists from the seventies like Bernie Wrightson. The Dummy and The Last Man are drawn in a vivid, clear style not a million miles away from Herge's Tintin which really contrasts with the dark endings to the stories. Starcross'd is something different again, a beautifully fully-painted story.
Michael: It's fully self-contained so you don't have to read anything before or worry about buying the sequel. I have got more work on the way though this year including a story in the new American 'Stardust' anthology with Shaky Kane, the next episode of Monkey in issue 3 of 'Falcon' and more horror in the pages of 'This Comic is Haunted' so I'll see you there!
Paul: Thank you Michael.
