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Behind the character: The History of Raggedy Man
The origin of ‘Raggedy Man’ as a character from my point of view is very simple and yet speaks of the ethos behind it.
I had an uncle who, when we were kids, was larger than life. He always made time for us, explained things and didn’t lecture or tell us to do things; he simply talked things through and left us to make up our own minds. Through him I learned about conservation, the natural world, how to give back to the community where possible.
When my stepdaughter was young I hoped that she would get to meet and learn from him as I did. That wasn’t to be but it installed the germ of an idea inside me so when Nic Wilkinson was putting together an anthology for a now defunct Scottish publisher and needed some short stories about choices I sat down and wrote the first complete ‘Raggedy Man’ story. The location for ‘Different paths’ was inspired by a cemetery belonging to All-Saints Church in Marple, not far from our home, the whole place has a magical feel to it and even now if I am struggling for a story a walk through it helps.
After ‘Different Paths’ came ‘Grace’ which actually feels like the first proper ‘Raggedy Man’ story. I fleshed out the character and gave him life; I love the character of Grace because she has the same kind of fierce spirit but soft side I saw in Hannah.
Even though ‘Grace’ was fun it wasn’t picked up by a publisher until David Morris at Corvus Press read it and wanted to do something with the character. I have a general rule that when I create something if nothing happens for a set period of time I consider it dead. David came up with his idea of what the character might look like and that took the whole project out of the dormant file and gave me the energy to continue with new stories.
There are now enough ‘Raggedy Man’ stories to fill 3 books and plans for new artwork from some of the most wonderful comic book artists and illustrators in Europe. Team Raggedy look forward to showing you how other artists ‘see’ the character.
RAGGEDY MAN TALES was launched on May 4th 2019 and readers seem very happy with how we have handled the stories. The artwork has brought Raggedy to life and a new generation of fans has emerged around the world.
'RAGGEDY MAN TALES'. Published by Jordan-X, Markosia & GM Jordan (UK).
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