Drawing their inspiration from a timeless classic

'I'D hardly ever looked at a Stevenson book since I left school," admits Cam Kennedy, looking out the window at the back streets of Edinburgh.

"In fact, I think even then I probably only got four or five chapters into Kidnapped, as it was quite a tough read for a youngster and I didn't really get into it."

For someone who has just devoted almost a year of his life to creating a comic book adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure story, the 62-year-old illustrator is refreshingly frank about his first impressions of the book.

But for Cam - in town with his long-time collaborator, Dalkeith-born Alan Grant, to promote the book - their lack of knowledge about Kidnapped did not stop them agreeing to take up the project as soon as they heard about it.

"We both jumped at the chance," he says.

For the organisers of this month's One City - One Book campaign, which will see 7500 copies of the pair's version of the classic tale given away to schools and education groups, it was surely more than they could possibly have hoped for, with the two men among the biggest names in graphic novels.

Anyone who has picked up a Batman or Judge Dredd comic in the last 20 years is likely to have seen their work, either in Alan's scripts or Cam's illustrations.

Both have worked for every major publisher in America, including Marvel and DC, and have been trusted with handling their biggest superheroes and franchises, from the Dark Knight to Star Wars.

So keen were they to be involved in the Kidnapped project, which will see 25,000 copies of various versions of Stevenson's novel handed out free across the city, that Cam cancelled his summer holidays and devoted nine months to creating the stunning illustrations for the book, while Alan immersed himself in the story, reading as many versions as he could to help him produce the text for the comic.

"He got holidays," jokes Cam. "It took me about nine months to get through all the illustrations and do the inking as well."

"It's true, I did get more holiday time," laughs Alan. "It took me about six weeks to write the script.

"When I read it as a kid I just remembered it being an adventure story. After picking it up again and reading it six or seven times, I started to get the idea that more than anything it was about the friendship between the two heroes, David and Alan, and through that about the relationship of Highland and Lowland Scots at the time.

"It was a real eye-opener for me, as I have to admit I had no idea that Stevenson was such a complex writer."

A year later, the book is now hitting the shelves, one of five new versions of Kidnapped created for the Evening News-backed campaign, being run by Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust board.

Even before the official launch, demand for the graphic novel has been phenomenal, with schools and bookshops both realising that it could be a huge hit with youngsters.

"Kids today don't have the same appetite for books, and they don't have the same motivation - when I was at school if you couldn't read you would get the belt," says Alan.

"They can't do that now. All they can do is tell the parents, and if the parents turn around and say: 'Well, what does it matter, they don't need to read' then they are lost.

"My grandmother taught me to read with comics before I even went to school, things like the Beano and the Dandy.

"So I think it's brilliant, a stroke of genius, that the people behind this campaign decided to get a graphic novel, and to print it in several versions.

"Both Cam and myself just hope it leads kids on to other books, and other work by Stevenson."

The two men have worked together off and on for more than 25 years, from their days working at 2000AD in the early 80s, and have developed a firm friendship in that time.

For men who work in a medium which is geared towards youngsters, they have an unusually strong distrust of technology - Alan doesn't have a mobile phone while Cam once put an axe through his computer.

However, they did keep in touch throughout the creation of Kidnapped.

"We were in intermittent contact with one another, but when you've worked together for as long as we have, it's not a psychic link or anything but you have an idea how the other thinks," says Alan.

"A project like this is very different from creating a new character from scratch, where I would be worried that the artist hadn't drawn it right or whatever. In Kidnapped it was all laid down for us, so it was really just a case of getting Cam a script and letting him get on with it."

Cam adds: "I knew Alan would like the stuff I was doing, because it's not like some new superhero he's created where he's going to complain about the cape or get all upset about the colour of their outfit or something."

Although both men forged careers in America - Alan working initially on Batman, and Cam taking on the task of re-launching Star Wars in comic books - they both live in the north of Scotland (they won't say where for fear that armies of crazed comic fans will track them down).

And they have always been keen to put their home country into their work, although not always in the most realistic way.

"I did a Batman comic set in Edinburgh a few years ago, which was really just for an American audience," says Alan. "I had him up on the Crags of Arthur's Seat and in order to get the villain he dives off and floats down to St Margaret's Loch!

"There was another time we did a special Nick Fury called Greetings from Scotland, and we had Nick Fury climb up the Old Man of Hoy in Orkney, which is a needle of rock probably about as wide as this table," says Cam. "He was looking for a secret Nazi base at the top of it!"

"I did another Batman episode in Scotland where it emerges that he is descended from Highlanders," says Alan. "He turns up at Rosslyn Chapel, and I did that because I'm Scottish, and I wanted Batman to be Scottish!"

"Aye, you can just imagine him with his bidie-in waiting for him back in Govan," laughs Cam.

While getting such references into American comics is a feat the pair clearly relish, working on a more serious Scottish story is something in which they are delighted to have been involved.

"I'm very proud to have done Kidnapped actually, and it was a great honour to be asked to adapt the novel," says Cam.

"I am really pleased with the final version," agrees Alan. "The great thing is there are so many more Scottish novels out there that could make good comics - Treasure Island and Jekyll & Hyde, even Ivanhoe."

So could a sequel be in the works?

"We'll need to wait and see, but I think it's something we'd both enjoy," says Alan.

Cam Kennedy and Alan Grant will be appearing in a special event at the Scottish Book Trust tomorrow at 6pm, to discuss their creation of the graphic novel version of Kidnapped.

MAST

ERS OF THEIR CRAFT
AL

AN GRANT

BORN in 1949, Alan Grant admits comics have been in his blood since his grandmother taught him to read using the Beano and the Dandy.

At Dalkeith High School he was the only youngster in his class who collected superhero comics, and after leaving school he became an editor with DC Thomson in Dundee.

For most of the 1980s he wrote storylines for futuristic law enforcer Judge Dredd, as well as strips such as Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter until, towards the end of the decade, DC Comics invited him to write for Batman.

CAM KENNEDY

CAM was raised in Glasgow, and also worked at DC Thomson before leaving to spend almost five years in France working as a professional artist.

When he came back in 1978 he soon became involved in comics, quickly moving to 2000AD where he met Grant, and worked on comics including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.

He is currently enjoying a well-earned break after his work on Kidnapped.