Talking ‘Department K’ With Ned Hartley And Mike Walters

Someone’s got to keep an eye on the multiverse. In the universe of Judge Dredd, that usually falls under the purview of Department K. Writer Ned Hartley and artist Mike Walters are relaunching Department K in the Meg this month and you can learn more about it in the following interview:

Rachel Bellwoar: Having previously worked on other all-ages series like Lowborn High and Monster Fun’s Steel Commando, what excited you the most about taking over for Rory McConville and Dan Cornwell as writer and artist on Department K?

Ned Hartley: I love Rory and Dan’s work so much. When I first started on Department K one of the first things I did was to message Rory to tell him that I was taking over. He was lovely and gracious about it, but I feel I have very big shoes to fill! I think that part of the fun of a comic like this is that you can approach it in different ways.

Rory and Dan had a really lovely Jack Kirby-esque take on Department K and I didn’t want to copy them, so maybe we’re a little more Doom Patrol-era Grant Morrison. The main thing is that I want the series to keep up the levels of fun and excitement!

Mike Walters: For me it was a no-brainer, like Lowborn High before it. I was already a fan of Department K and also a huge fan of Dan Cornwell’s art (it’s a good day when you get to stare at beautiful art all day) so when the offer came through I couldn’t say yes quick enough. My entry into being a comic reader was with American comics from companies like Marvel and DC, and this has some elements which are reminiscent of that to me. It has been fun from start to finish.

Bellwoar: What is Department K about? Can you catch us up on the premise of the series?

Hartley: Department K are a team of dimension-hopping misfit scientists: their mission is to protect Mega-City One from invasions from other dimensions, but they spend a lot of time exploring the weirder side of the multiverse. I love it because it’s an excuse to lean into the stranger side of Judge Dredd’s world. I really enjoy gritty, street-level Dredd stories, but I also love giant, bonkers, universe-spanning stuff.

Bellwoar: In the past Department K used to be included in 2000 AD’s Regened issues. Will the move to Judge Dredd Megazine coincide with any changes?

Hartley: Apart from the fact that Mike and I are on board, it’s just as exciting and accessible as before!

Walters: From an artistic standpoint there’s no change really, maybe the length now being ten pages a time rather than five? But that’s about it really!

Bellwoar: The last time we saw Department K, Afua had just become host to an interdimensional cosmic being. Will this strip be picking up from there?

Hartley: I felt it was important to start with a clean slate, so you don’t need to have read any previous Department K stories to understand this one. We’re definitely going to make sure that we honour previous stories, but I really want to make sure that anyone can pick this up and get it. These characters are scientists, they travel to different dimensions, the dimensions are weird – it’s such a brilliant concept.

Walters: This story is quite self contained, it doesn’t necessarily pick up from where the previous series, it’s kind of dropping in on them at an unspecified point in time.

Bellwoar: Since Afua joined the team there hasn’t really been any down time for the characters to introduce themselves. For example, Estabon always insists he’s not a robot, but is there any truth to that…? And then there’s the question of how Blackcurrant got the name Blackcurrant. Do you have any plans to go into their backstories?

Walters: Not necessarily backstories, but let’s just say I’ve drawn Estabon A LOT during this story, so I’d say he’s kind of the central character here.

Hartley: We’ll definitely be seeing more about Estabon (he’s the robot, sorry, mechanised being) and we’re going to explore who he is, and where he thinks he belongs. I’m interested in looking at the relationships between team members and the roles that they fill in the team.

I’ve got a really great story about Blackcurrant’s backstory, but we’re not going to get to that one right away. I don’t think we’ll tell his whole backstory at first, but I definitely want to flesh it out a bit. He’s such a fun character!

Bellwoar: With all of the teleporting, the team haven’t always had much time to spend in their lab either. Will that continue to be the case, and what’s it been like getting to draw their headquarters?

Hartley: I kind of like bringing Department K to weird, visually-interesting dimensions, so I want to get them out of the lab as much as possible. Mike’s artwork is so brilliant that I love coming up with weird dimensions and seeing how he draws them.

Walters: I think of the thirty pages I’ve drawn, a grand total of one page takes place in the lab haha. Which is a shame because I’d like to draw it some more.

Hartley: I’ll be sitting on a bus and looking at posters for art shows and thinking “Could we make a dimension that looks like that?”. The first story is a three-parter and there’s a lovely chase scene across different dimensions in the third part of this story and Mike’s art will just blow you away. It’s so good, I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

Bellwoar: Assuming that they will be visiting a different dimension or two, is there anything you can share about their inhabitants or what these dimensions will look like?

Hartley: This story is called “Mecha-City One” and it’s about a dimension where everyone is a robot (sorry, mechanised being). The art for this is so fun, Mike has done such a brilliant job. I really liked writing this because the question we’re asking is, how does Estabon feel about a world of mechanised beings – where do his loyalties lie?

Walters: A lot of very hard stuff to draw! Ned’s scripts are amazing to work on but Jesus, every page has been a long haul. I could probably make it easier on myself, but I don’t want to short change anyone. Each episode came with its own set of challenges in this regard.  But reading the first script was “this *tricky thing to draw* happens, and then in panel 2 this *trickier thing to draw* happens, AND THEN…” well you get the idea. I exaggerate to clarify but yeah, fun story but a lot of tricky stuff to pull off, hopefully it worked out.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Ned and Mike!

With letters by Jim Campbell, Department K will be starting in Judge Dredd Megazine.