The Fabler

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Andrew Johnson’s art, like his subject matter, is pretty dark and compelling stuff. Johnson has a knack for utilizing high contrast, shadow-filled imagery and tense, often anxious dialogue to create a tone that epitomizes ‘ominous’.

The resident of Auckland, New Zealand, has made a home for himself on the Fabler with his ongoing web-based comic, Kingdom.

Kingdom presents a corporate-controlled future dystopia, with a decidedly gritty, almost noir feel to it. Crooked cops, shady drug dealers, and an always present air of corporate oppression form the staples that define the landscape of Kingdom.

“Kingdom focuses on a non specific city, 12 or so years forward from today,” says Johnson, “where Corporations, with their resources and focus have pushed into the last untapped market, governance of the populace  – producing modern versions of feudal lords, though this is not readily apparent or of interest to most people going about their daily business.”

Johnson says that, while Kingdom may share elements in common with the noir genre, he tends not to see it as such.

“There’s an oppressive atmosphere present within the story,” he explains, “but rather than focusing on some hidden truth that is revealed by tenacity of hero, we’ll be hanging out more with the characters being introduced in the initial 8 and how they’re effected by the actions of Richard Marks – who provides the catalyst for the main incidents that occur.”

An admitted long-time fan of sequential art, Johnson’s first leap into comics took him directly to the web.  In addition to Kingdom on the Fabler, he has a collection of his other work (including Golem) available for perusal over on his website, The Black Gates.

“I love the idea of world building with a couple of pages and a marker. I’m a pretty stock pop-culture geek having grown up on a diet of Magnum PI and the A Team… Throw in that I’ve been working in the interactive/web spaces for a few years now and it was almost a no-brainer I’d get involved with webcomics at some point.”

Interestingly, Johnson does not credit any specific comic or movement in comics as the reason he decided to start making sequential art himself. Instead, he says that the biggest motivator which led him into the industry was simply the state of current technology.

“With the web the cost to distribute content and put it in front of eyeballs is insanely minimal,” says Johnson, “From a printed goods perspective, being this far down the world, shipping goods to and from here costs a fair bit.  With the potential to send files up to the northern hemisphere to get printed and shipped on demand, it felt like a good time to get involved.”

This isn’t to say that Johnson is without his comic book influences altogether. He lists Frank Miller as an artist whose ‘can-do’ attitude has given him inspiration in his work, and, from a narrative perspective, Warren Ellis has left a strong mark on Johnson’s style.

“With Ellis,” he says, “It’s an inspiration gained from seeing his work constantly push against the superhero comics mainstream, more towards the mass market, and his online community experimentation, as well as stories such as Desolation Jones and Global Frequency.  Some of my other influences would be the structure and dialogue of Brian Azzarello’s work, through to density and depth found in the television show The Wire. As a fringe creator, these guys are proof of what’s possible.”

Johnson considers himself a ‘newbie’ illustrator, and at this point in his comics career, he’s having fun experimenting to see what works, and what falls flat.

“Part of the looseness is from the crunch of the deadlines,” he says,  “but in general I love the energy that comes from looser work and with these webcomics. I like that they feel quick, dirty and disposable.”

The interesting thing about catching Andrew Johnson at this point in his artistic career is that you can watch while his art evolves. This is especially apparent with Golem, which is about an inadvertently reactivated killing machine who embarks on a brief (but bloody) murderous rampage through an isolated small town.

As you read from the older panels through to those more recently uploaded, you can trace a steady progression from a more general, traditional style of comic illustration to the distinctively unique, sketch-like renderings seen in Kingdom.

“Regarding Kingdom,” says Johnson, “I think the direction I’m going with the art there provides a grittiness which indicates to us ‘these characters will not be having a good time’.”

After checking out a few panels from Kingdom, one certainly gets the impression that tone- be it gritty or otherwise – is an important element to Johnson’s storytelling.

Kingdom also contains a narrative that weaves in and out of stream of consciousness prose, adjusting accordingly as the story veers from ambiguous labs to deserted towns and darkly-lit high-rises.

“We’re in scene setting mode in terms of characters and the world,” he says, “so it seems appropriate to use such an approach to provide tone. Although when it comes time to crack on with plot, the focus will change. One of the benefits of using a fractured snapshot approach is the ability to change direction tonally with the next update if it’s called for.”

To keep up with the latest story arcs of Kingdom, check out Andrew’s creator comics over on The Fabler. For more from Andrew, you can pop into his main website, The Black Gates.