Hi Gamma Heads!
This week is a special one, it’s finals week for me! But there is something even more special. I got to interview the amazing Laura (Laurz) Helsby. I found Laurz on Twitter a few years ago and have been a fan since. They are punk af, can draw hands like no one else and are just an all around amazing person. They got me into bands like The Clash. One day I’m going to get to work with them on a crazy punk comic.
Let us get into it! I’ll regroup with you at the end with some other stuff!
AJ: Can you introduce yourself for our audience?
Laurz Helsby: Hey everyone! My name is Laura, Laurz if you're cool. I'm a comic book artist and illustrator from Manchester in the UK, credits include THE CLAIMS ADJUSTER, BUMP, THE COLOR OF ALWAYS, TALES FROM THE PANDEMIC.
AJ: What’s an essential comics run that you think people need to know about?
LH: "Essential" is tough, there's so many, Aja's run on Hawkeye springs to mind artistically, I love his work so much, but I'd probably have to say the Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti run of Harley Quinn, they really changed the game for her as a character, and i'm sure they got on some 'higher ups' nerves when they got more literal with Harley and Ivy in the early days, DC were hesitant at first to permanently severe Harley from the Joker but I will always credit their run with it, and with some badass art and funny stories thrown in too.
AJ: What’s an essential music album that you think people need to know about?
LH: Damn, again with essential… hmmm. Picking one album is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. I wanna say; 'Unknown Pleasures' and 'Replicas' and 'Another Music in a different kitchen'. There's so many I would deem essential. But, right now as I'm saying this the one that springs to mind, is 'Another kind of Blues' by UK Subs, it really fuckin opened my mind to what punk music was, my first foray into punk music was the Buzzcocks and the Pistols (like most kids I imagine) but then I discovered The Clash and Subs and they both just got me, I was like yeah,.. this is me, this is it.
AJ: What inspired you to get into comics? What advice do you have for aspiring artists?
LH: This one kinda goes full circle I guess, I read comics since I can remember, but my first proper cape comic was Batman Black and white: An innocent guy, when I was like 8, a bit young for such a sinister looking book perhaps but I picked it up at a random shop when I was at the beach with my dad and read it cover to cover on the bus ride home, then when I got home, I drew what was in it, I drew Batman. I still have the A4 sheet with my scribbles on, they weren't bad. I think from there even so young I was sure I wanted to be an artist, deciding I wanted to be a comic book artist though… that was a while later, probably around the time of the Connor, Palmiotti run on Harley, I had just really started reading regular issues and collecting some older ones, it was around this time I think that I thought, this is what I wanna do.
Advice, my advice is cheesy but true, don't give up, keep working, keep trying, you really can get there in time. Also, one thing I always like to say here, try make time to READ comics, when you're making them it can be easy to not find the time, but nothing inspires me more to get drawing than when I've just had my mind blown by some comic and I put it down, and pick up my tablet. Oh, also, have fun, it shows in your work, enjoy it!
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We didn’t get to address it in the interview but Laurz has had some new work coming out since this interview. Comic writer Jarred Luján, who I’m a big fan of, is launching a Kickstarter for his book SOUTHBOUND. As Jarred puts it “ SOUTHBOUND is a new series that brings cyberpunk to the Lone Star State in an explosive series about redemption, family, and change.” Laurz provided an amazing variant for this series that is shown below! If you want to to support a great project sign up to be notified here!
If you enjoyed this interview share it with friends, it really helps us get more eyes on future projects! Next week’s newsletter will be a special update issue.