Wildly Intelligent, But Not Damaged – Jeff Rider Talks ‘Major Holmes & Captain Watson’

You’ve heard of Holmes & Watson, but never like this. Major Holmes & Captain Watson tells the story of a next generation of detectives with some fun twists and turns. Writer Jeff Rider, artist Ismael Canales, colorist Roger Sorruca, and letterer Justin Birch have teamed up for the final two issues of this series, currently on Kickstarter. I caught up with Rider to ask about the book, its creation, Kickstarter, and more.

London, 1914 – Major Sheffield Holmes, nephew to the great detective, and his mysterious American partner Capt. Imogen Watson have uncovered a secret society known as “The Moriarty,” a dark cabal that has vowed revenge on the Holmes family. Joined by the gruff Det. Inspector Agamemmnon J. Brick of Scotland Yard and the resourceful mechanic Juliette McKinnon, the new Holmes and Watson must defeat the zealot known only as “The Scholar” and prevent Europe from descending into war!

James Ferguson: How did you decide on the characters and their relation to the legendary creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Sheffield Holmes & Imogen Watson definitely stand on their own, pulling themselves out of the shadow of their relatives and namesakes.

Jeff Rider: Wow, that’s a complex answer. The simple beginning was to do a little math with the original Doyle canon, since it was always my intention to set the story in that world. We have a basis for Sherlock’s age in the stories, and from that Mycroft’s age, and assuming the older brother (as many Sherlockian scholars have done) that gave us a young man who would be of the right age to serve in WWI, where our story is set.

Next this NEW Holmes, Sheffield, and his partner Imogen needed to be unique, to “stand on their own,” as you say, and that’s what helped them come to life. Primarily, I wanted brilliant detectives who weren’t broken people simply because of their genius. I really despise what I feel like is a dark turn of anti-intellectualism in a lot of modern Holmes reimagining. I hate the trope of “with genius comes madness,” or addiction or just simply being an asshole. A great many wildly intelligent people are also perfectly nice, and constantly making heroes who are brilliant but damaged casts intellect in a bad light, and the world really doesn’t need that right now. Also, I wanted to give Sheffield something Sherlock didn’t have, a warmth and depth, and the possibility of personal attachments, even romantic ones. That led to even more drama in the story because, as a gay man, Sheffield’s romantic attachments are extremely dangerous to him at that time. He’s a detective and a spy and a soldier and a homosexual when it was flat out illegal in Britain, and that adds a lot of conflict to the story.

And then that theme, that each character has a secret in their very identity that’s a danger to them, something beyond the dangers of their professions and pursuits, hugely informed how our new “Watson” came to be. Imogen’s secret is tied to the Holmes family past, but as an American she’s obviously not a relative of the good Doctor. Who she really is and how she connects to the canon isn’t just a danger to her, it’s a bit of a spoiler as well, so we’re keeping it under wraps. But it’s lots of fun.

JF: How did the art team come together for Major Holmes & Captain Watson?

JR: That’s also a bit of a long story. Major Holmes & Captain Watson originally existed as a web comic, but that project didn’t work out. I gathered together everything I’d done with the original artist (a great guy named Carlos Cabaleiro who did all the character designs) and set about trying to relaunch the series as a print book. I was in Artist Alley at NYCC when I met someone (I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t recall who) who suggested an artistic agency to me called Buxido, run by a really great guy named Luis Aramburu. I literally got handed a zip drive filled with portfolios of artists he represented! I did some digging and came upon Ismael Canales and Roger Sorruca, who had worked together on a really cool book called Athena Voltaire, and their style was perfect for Major Holmes. Ismael was really excited about it when I sent him the first revised script, and he and Roger have contributed a ton of great ideas to the story, and their ability to recreate the time period is amazing! And to finish it off, Justin Birch’s letters have been outstanding. He and I have known each other for a good while, and with a book like this, it’s wordy. Between the detective parlance and the period style of speaking, there are just LOTS OF WORDS. Justin handles this beautifully, he’s one of the best in the business.

JF: How has your experience with Kickstarter been so far? This is your fifth project on the platform. Is there anything you’d do differently with your first campaign knowing what you know now?

JR: I’m a HUGE fan of Kickstarter and frankly, I’m super grateful that the platform exists. It’s imperative for indie creators to have avenues like this to grow their audience, not to mention help fund projects especially in these economic times. Kickstarter has its own ecosystem of comics readers who truly appreciate indie stuff, I’ve even met folks at comic cons who say they only go to shows to try and meet the people who make the things they’ve backed on the platform! That’s always fun. I’ve been frankly humbled by the support I’ve found, and the fanbase I’ve been able to build on Kickstarter. I’ve had people who’ve backed every book I’ve done there, which is great considering how different some of them are. As far as doing things differently, it’s not from the first campaign, but the second that I’d really go back and do differently. For my first KS, a sci-fi book called Gravity Matters, I did a TON of research on the platform, listened to a lot of other creator’s advice, really tried to become an expert fast. For our second, I admit that the success of the first had me thinking “Kickstarter is easy!” and that was a big mistake. I foolishly didn’t pay attention to the lessons learned the first time, and while the second campaign was also successful, it was a slog, and I had to work so much harder to get it funded. I disregarded a lot of the little lessons (like don’t kick off your project on the 1^st day of the month when folks are distracted or have rent to pay, etc.) and that hubris made the second campaign much harder.

JF: This Kickstarter campaign is for issues #3 and #4 for Major Holmes & Captain Watson. Two issues at once, just like the previous campaign. How did you come to that decision instead of one at a time?

JR: I’ve done “one at a time” campaigns before, and I have nothing against them except that I fear you’ll lose audience if the series drags on forever. People have short memories and lose interest quickly, no matter how great a book is. Major Holmes is unique in that when we did the first campaign, there were already folks who had read some version of issue #1, either as the original web comic or the new creative team. By the time issue #2 was ready, it just seemed like the best way to get it out was to launch them together, to give fans who already read #1 a chance to get right at the new stuff if that’s what they wanted.

Then the Pandemic happened, and production schedules on everything got weird. Some projects sped up, others slowed down. With Major Holmes the success of the first campaign meant we were able to very quickly produce issues #3 and #4, even though #4 is a jumbo sized 36 pager! And we really wanted to show fans that this was a serious book. Kickstarter is full of comic series that start strong, but the final issues never seem to come out. We wanted folks who just got their hands on #1-2 to have the whole story as soon as possible, and to see that we were really excited to finish the first adventure Sheffield, Imogen and the rest of the 6^th S.I.S. and get it in their hands. So, why wait?!? With another 2-issue campaign, and this one including the jumbo-sized issue, I hope it has the feel of a blockbuster finale, that folks who enjoyed the last one really feel like they aren’t just repeating the experience but getting even more bang for backing than ever. Plus, fans who are just discovering Major Holmes & Captain Watson will have a chance to pick up the entire first series all at once, which we think is huge. Hopefully they will too!

Comicon would like to thank Jeff Rider for taking the time to speak with us. The Kickstarter campaign for Major Holmes & Captain Watson #3-4 is live now and has already surpassed its funding goal. It runs through March 18^th, 2021.