THE SKINNY
Books
The Bold Type Glasgow-based BHP Comics’ Sha Nazir on their new Bold Collection, the challenges of indie publishing, and fostering more diverse voices in the Scottish comics scene Interview: Heather McDaid
May 2022 — Feature
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here’s a certain joy that comes with running a publisher, discovering new writing talent and bringing that out into the world. But there are some projects that start at a more granular level; instead of seeing what writing is out there already, you’re able to start at square one and craft something from scratch. This is the origin story of the Bold Collection, the new offering from Glasgow-based BHP Comics. After weathering the past few years that threw up many challenges for small companies across the board, they’re returning with a whole new universe for readers to enjoy. “Gary [Chudleigh] and I set out with a plan to create comics we wanted to read,” explains BHP founder Sha Nazir. “So we both made a long list of ideas and pitched them to each other. From there we created a shortlist of eight ideas and then wrote a short synopsis of each. We then threw it back and forth until we agreed on the four ideas we moved forward with. At that point, the focus was about making each story work in its own world and making that story as complete as possible. Most of this is done by Gary and I writing up a bible for each idea, with character breakdowns, synopsis and story beats long before it’s handed to a writer to execute.” The resulting four comic books each tell a “jam-packed, self-contained story in 20 pages, but when combined, the comics tell a bigger story within a shared universe that explores the dynamics and consequences of power,” Nazir explains. Readers can travel through the new Bold universe via Storm Hunter, by Gary Chudleigh, Lorna King
and Kat Hall, featuring mythical warriors fighting giant beasts; Principle, by Umar Ditta and Robin Richardson, featuring an immigrant superhero who fights for justice; The Losers' Club, by Tara Mallen and Chris Stefanova, with a group of superhero sidekicks in hiding; and Agents of Mi7, by Kumail Rizvi and Daniel Coloma, spotlighting the elite spy squad who take out supervillains, all lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Though this project started as an idealistic ‘What would we want to read?’ affair, it too allowed the publisher to support exciting writing talent. BHP are keen to not only be at the forefront of new, bold comics publishing, but to continue to foster emerging creators across both writing and illustration. “I’ve always mentored or tried to help others around me,” explains Nazir. “There was nothing there for me when I was coming up, and it’s in my nature to want to share knowledge. We support talent in lots of ways, from practical help, advice on pitches and their journey and importantly opening doors and shedding light on the industry knowledge I’ve accumulated. And equally it’s about getting more diverse voices out there in comics which is a predominantly white space in Scotland. “We didn’t have any preconceived ideas [for the comics themselves] apart from quality – the look of each book and who we assigned to the projects for script and art duties almost came as a gut feeling. The artist had to have something to offer the characters and the writer challenged our ideas and made their own input without going out on a limb.
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