I remain convinced that John Allison and Max Sarin’s “Giant Days” is one of the best comics of the 2010s. I can’t get enough of it and I’ll be happily rereading the whole series over the end-of-year break. Happily, the two are continuing to work together on a new series for Dark Horse Comics, “The Great British Bump-Off.” This was an absolute joy to read—slightly dangerous though, since I was drinking hot coffee and nearly snorted it out of my nose when I started laughing. And afterwards I had the pleasure of discussing how this book came together with John Allison.
John Allison: In short, I’ve watched a lot of episodes of The Great British Bake Off. At one point, all of them. In fact, writing this series was kind of the end of my relationship with the show because this year I couldn’t face watching it! Once or twice I drew [beloved character] Desmond Fishman on the show in my sketchbook, interacting with Paul Hollywood. There’s even a “Scary Go Round” strip somewhere where Paul corners Des in the kitchen at a party. The idea had been on my office whiteboard for years and I’d had several runs at working it out for one or other of my series.
I have here an old note from your Patreon…
In less positive news, having worked on writing a Lottie story called “The Great British Bump-Off” on and off for months, and finally knocked it into 64 pages of shape, I had to kick it into the long grass. I might go back to it but I think it was so serpentine in its construction that it was more of a technical challenge, if you will, than an enjoyable story to read. I had begun to genuinely panic about it – and that ain’t right.
How did “The Great British Bump-Off” go from this panic-inducing version with Lottie Grote as its lead to the version we have now with Shauna Wickle at its center?
JA: When I pitched “Wicked Things” to Boom I had a huge list of potential stories, and this was one of them. In its original form, Claire goes on the show, someone is poisoned, and Lottie has to come in as a replacement baker, but she’s never baked and has to be helped to “pass” as a contestant while solving the case. But “Wicked Things” was canceled quite abruptly and so I had a large pool of plot synopses that could be reused. I had contemplated doing it as part of my usual slate of webcomics, then Daniel [Chabon] at Dark Horse expressed an interest in it.
The 64-page version I mentioned on Patreon was one of several plot drafts for different applications. When I looked closely at it, every “page” on my breakdown sheet was pretty much two pages. I had to cut that version down to 88 pages when scripting this series. That’s why there’s one protagonist (Shauna) rather than two (Lottie and Claire). I tried several different characters to make it work, combinations thereof, it was tough to find the series’ “voice”, to find some sort of emotional core to it rather than simply being, as I said, a technical challenge.
In many ways, this is a classic Agatha Christie mystery set-up with the suspects limited to a single location, but it also has to have The Great British Bake Off in its DNA too for the concept to work. I can’t help but notice a tension there; in the former everyone is a suspect and several are outright horrible people and in the latter most contestants are rather endearing. I feel like you and Max found that perfect tone that fits both. Was it difficult to get that right?
JA: Well, having watched so many seasons of Bake Off, I’m not sure that the contestants ARE all adorable. Especially in later seasons, contestants with their eyes on the prize—cookbook deals, TV presenting gigs, signature artisan flour endorsements—can be quite grasping. Not all of them obviously, but every season there are at least two or three wide eyed bushbaby-looking bakers who are actually vipers. I think “The Great British Bump-Off” actually represents the ratio quite accurately. Plus, it’s reality TV, it’s all in the edit!
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In some ways, it’s a match made in heaven. The variety of contestants/suspects is baked into the format. And in Max Sarin you’ve found such a wonderful collaborator. They have such an incredible way with body language that plays off your writing in a way that I can’t help but read into every nuance for hints of motive. How does writing for Max instead of yourself change your approach?
JA: There’s no change of approach. I don’t ask Max to draw anything I wouldn’t want to draw—big crowd scenes, undrawable compositions communicating multiple actions, they make an artist’s life miserable and as an artist myself I know what I’m asking for. Max’s toolbox of visual tricks is much more refined than mine so I hand over a script (and in this case, rough panel breakdowns) knowing it will look better than I could ever make it look.
We’re going to dive into spoiler territory now. If you haven’t read “The Great British Bump-Off” yet, I would not advise going any further. We don’t spoil the central mystery though.
I remember watching a film once and in the very first scene that the villain appeared, a friend of mine immediately picked him… not because my friend had solved the mystery, but rather because the camera wasn’t interested in that character. He was being presented in a way that was deliberately forgettable. That’s one way to do a mystery, I suppose, but it’s a very unsatisfying one.
In the 88 pages of “The Great British Bump-Off,” even with such a large cast, everyone gets their moment and everyone is memorable. It’s a big part of why I find the ending so satisfying, but I imagine it must’ve been a considerable juggling act. What’s your process in tracking each character? Were there any characters that were a particular challenge for you?
JA: The hardest thing was giving every character their turn in the limited space available. It was important to try to establish motivations (or the lack of them) and provide some small amount of background information. There was a necessary compromise between the mystery aspect and the comedy aspect. There were places where I could use the format of the TV show to help me, and there were places where the furniture of the TV show consumed plot space.
My intention was to explore every character, however briefly, in order that Shauna could consider them. That was why she started drawing little matrices of characters in one issue, to help the reader (and me) keep tabs. But the simple fact was, I had a list when plotting out the story and I ticked off every character to make sure they got their moment in the spotlight.
While I can definitely see how it would have been difficult to balance the mystery and comedy, I can also see a lot of places where the comedy was a big part of the mystery, especially in terms of quickly establishing characters and their point of view. I particularly enjoyed how this was used to show how the same moments could be viewed very differently. (That subjectivity even takes over the art style at times.) You very pointedly use comedy to give the reader better insight into the characters, not just a gag for a gag’s sake.
JA: Multiple viewpoints, multiple styles was something Max really leaned into. I’d experimented with this in other comics—Reverend Penrose remembering his past in the style of old war comics in “Steeple” Volume 3 is a recent one. But I’m very interested in the imperfection of memory, especially as I get older and seem to remember many events and facts wholly inaccurately. I’m glad you find it funny. I never quite know if anyone else will find things that amuse me funny.
You must’ve known other people would love Primrose though.
And the cakes in issue #4 were fantastic, especially the particular piece of Sunil’s cake that ended up on the judges’ cake stand for further tasting. I have to wonder, with these kinds of visual gags, is there much back and forth between you and Max as they develop? Or even just in developing characters, when you see Max’s take on a character, does it change the way you write them?
Continued belowJA: There’s not a lot of back and forth. If Max isn’t sure what I meant in the script, they ask, but they always make good choices. It is incredibly rare that I have to suggest a correction. I’m not sure it has ever happened. On “Giant Days,” everything was funneled through editorial and we had very little communication (this was not ideal), but it did mean that a tremendous amount of trust and understanding was built up under pressure.
I am specific in my scripts, but the things I introduce are like toys once they’re introduced and Max will start to have fun with them in ways I could not have anticipated, and that I always enjoy (and don’t always notice at first!). This is the great gift of working with such a gifted artist. I can approach the work at least 50% like a reader myself.
I couldn’t help but notice my trade collection of “The Great British Bump-Off” has a number one on the spine. I was very happy to see it, and also very intrigued by what shape another story could take. I’m assuming it isn’t about the Baking Wars or Primrose’s time in the Cat Navy.
JA: Without revealing too much, as volume two has not been announced, all I can say is that tonally, thematically, and in terms of the characters (except Shauna), it’s very different. While still being about hobbies. And once again, nobody dies, continuing the great lie that gives the series its name.
If by chance you’ve read this whole interview and do not own a copy of “The Great British Bump-Off” yet, you can remedy this at once by picking one up at your local comic book store or bookstore now.
Written by John Allison
Illustrated by Max Sarin
Colored by Sammy Borras
Lettered by Jim CampbellAn Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set in the world of English competitive baking from Giant Days’ John Allison and Max Sarin.
When she enters her country’s most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle’s goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent. . . and being the poisoner’s next victim!
Collects issues #1–#4 of Dark Horse Comics series The Great British Bump-Off.
