By Zack Quaintance — For today’s Kickstarter comics interview, I spoke with writer Andrew Clemson, who recently launched (and rapidly funded!) a new book called Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S., which is illustrated by Mauricio Mora and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The concept for this book is basically D&D meets The Man from U.N.C.L.E., or if you prepare alliteration — elves meets espionage. You can read our chat about the book below, before heading over to the campaign page to back the book.

Enjoy!

Andrew Clemson Interview

ZACK QUAINTANCE: So, part of the tagline for Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S. uses the combination of Dungeons & Dragons, James Bond, Charlies Angels, and Zelda can you tell us a little bit about which elements from each of those show up in your comic?

ANDREW CLEMSON: Damsel is a book set in a fantasy world. As you might imagine, that world is chock full of fantasy tropes and homages to both fairy tale and established high fantasy characters and settings. What we’ve done is thrown a little curveball into the mix in the sense that the world has a unified peacekeeping organization akin to MI6 or U.N.C.L.E. that operates in the shadows to help maintain order between the various races and kingdoms. We’ve got nods to things players of Elder Scrolls or Zelda will recognize, but also all the best gadgets and secret agent cliches from Jason Bourne to Austin Powers!

I cant really say too much without giving away the punchlines, but creating Bec’s colleagues at the agency is just my absolute favorite thing about the book. Plucking fantasy archetypes and plopping them into espionage is so much fun.

ZACK: I really like the title being evocative of the old damsel in distress trope, kind of subverting that. How conscious of this were you as creators while making the book?

ANDREW: I started writing this coming off of Star Bastard. That book is 100% super over the top machismo-parody in comic form. I wanted to do something similar, (I like snarky smart arse characters) but I figured if we throw a female character into a traditionally male occupied space, it gave us a lot of room to subvert and flip the existing tropes or standards to create something unique. The name was just a eureka moment that hit me when I was driving, god knows where it came from. Before it came to me, I was going to do another Sci-Fi story. I tried for ages to come up with an actual acronym for D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S, but never could so it’s a bit of a running gag in the book itself.

Once we had a concept in place, it became especially important to not just make it another chain-mail-bra situation. We’ve been extra careful to strip away the more lecherous or seedy aspects of the Bond archetype and in terms of costume the glamour of the Charlie’s Angels side of things. Bec was designed to be more indicative of what a female adventurer might wear, over the usual battle-bikini style we so often see.

Bec is the agency’s top operative, and the only woman working as a field agent. The literary cliche lends itself to a world where she has to overcome the bias and discrimination that comes from being a woman in a male dominated job. She often uses that bias to her advantage throughout though, even though if she is clearly frustrated by it at times.

ZACK: A lot of this has to do with family secrets. How much (if at all) did you own family history inform the characters and plot of the book?

ANDREW: Haha, no I’m afraid my family history has nothing exciting to mine for dramatic ideas! I guess a lot of the humor in the book does come from growing up with things like Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses and Red Dwarf constantly being on in the background. (My design notes for Bec’s Dad was just a folder of Lord Flash-heart images and clips.) But no, no-one in my family has left me an Heirloom sword and told me to follow my heroic destiny.

ZACK: With this being your third Kickstarter campaign, can you talk a little bit about how your experience with the platform has evolved? What have you learned for this campaign that you maybe didn’t know during your first or even your second campaign?

ANDREW: I ran my first kickstarter for Star Bastard in 2016, followed by a second issue in 2017. The book then got picked up by Scout so we went straight to monthlies. Last year I wrote a book called Bete Noir through My friend Matt Hardy’s Publishing line Mad Robot Comics. The benefit of that campaign was that Matt is a kickstarter genius, so a lot of the stress (printing, fulfilment etc) unfortunately fell on him more than I. We should be launching campaigns for the rest of the book starting in February or March 2021, and I’m super proud of the work we’ve done on it so keep an eye out!

Damsel is the first campaign I’ve had to run solo since I really started to understand both the platform and the comics scene in general. Its certainly been my most successful yet, and I think that might be due to the potential readership, D&D stuff is doing great right now, as are female-centric books, so this seems to be a beautiful meeting point of those two trends!

ZACK: Finally, the artwork in this book is fantastic! How did you and Mauricio come to work together?

ANDREW: I initially had a shortlist of artists I wanted to get on the book, but around the time I was deciding I found some of Mauricio's work on Instagram. I contacted him, and the rest is history. Sometimes it really is as easy as that to just stumble upon the perfect collaborator. For that reason I’ve started scouring social media more than I used to, and creating a kind of wish list of artists so that I'm not just searching for talent around the time I’m looking to start work. You never know when someone amazing will post something that grabs your eye.

He’s brought an amazing, almost Disney-esque style that he blends perfectly with a sublime eye for composition and color. I couldn't be happier with him, and he’s an amazing artist to work with. (Note to other writers - please do not steal him!)

Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S.

Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S
Writer: Andrew Clemson
Artist: Mauricio Mora
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Damsel tells the story of Bec - Abandoned as a child by her adventurer father, she has fought her way up through the ranks of the kingdoms premier espionage agency to become their top operative. When a Dwarven princess goes missing, it’s up to Bec to overcome the ghosts of her family’s past and to save the day!Back It Now: Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S.

Damsel from D.I.S.T.R.E.S.S.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.