Rat Queens Artist Roc Upchurch Talks Drawing Fantasy, Women, Monsters And More

With issue #8 hitting stands today, Rat Queens has already earned a devoted, sizable, and vocal fan following. The series, published by Image Comics, comes from writer Kurtis J. Weibe and artist Roc Upchurch, and follows the often irreverent adventures of an all-female adventuring party in a fantasy world.

Those four characters – Hannah, Dee, Violet and Betty – are what draw readers to the series. Weibe's writing and dialog imbue these characters with equal parts sass and skill, making them both relatable and empowering.

And equal praise goes to Upchurch, whose character designs have already inspired more than a few cosplayers, while his action sequences are a thrill to read and his expressive character acting conveys these characters booming personalities and wealth of emotions.

The series nominate for and Eisner Award and was recently picked up to be adapted into an animated series. In the midst of all of that, at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2014, Upchurch managed to spare a few minutes to talk to us about this fan favorite series.

Rat Queens was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series this year. When you and Kurtis Wiebe were planning the series, did you have any idea and would be this big of a success?

Not at all. It was really just something we wanted to do. We were going to Kickstart it at first, because it was something we wanted to do, and the way we wanted to do it was just to have fun with it. The fact that Image immediately wanted to pick it up, and the fact that people have responded the way they have, it means the world to us. I mean, we didn't expect it at all! To just do something that you think is fun, and is something you wanted to do just to have fun with it, and to have people love it, that just means a lot.

How did you guys come up with the idea for Rat Queens? I know a lot of people read it and it reminds them of their time sitting around a table playing Dungeons & Dragons? Is that was spawned the series?

Well, Kurt is a big D&D guy, but we both love fantasy, and we wanted to have women as the lead role because we both love that idea. I love drawing women, and he loves writing them, and we have strong women in our lives that we look at as inspiration or these characters. So we just knew fantasy, and we knew women, and we kind of came up with Rat Queens.

Actually, at first it wasn't Rat Queens, at first it was something called Goblinettes. It was an all-girl punk band. Goblins though. It was a little silly, so we reworked it, and that's how Rat Queens came about.

As you mentioned, Rat Queens features and all-female main cast. Occasionally, we see the "Big Two" publishers clumsily struggling to introduce diversity into their comics, and here you are making it look easy with this successful, creator-owned series starring four women, and no two of them look anything alike. Would you have any advice to offer on how to make that kind of diversity work?

I don't know, we didn't know if it would work or not. The thing is, with us, we're not trying. We're not trying to do anything, we're just telling the stories we want to tell. It's not like we're trying to push a certain agenda, or trying to be "female-friendly," or any s**t like that. We're just to do what we want to do, and it just happens to kind of work. It is what it is, and if people like it, people like it. We're not trying to force any ideas down people's throats or s**t like that, we're just having fun. We like women, we like adventure, we like this s**t, so we just use it.

One of the things about the series that seems to resonate most with fans is the character designs. They've immediately become popular cosplay subjects, and you've even started selling real world outfits based on their designs. What was you creative process when you sat down to design these characters for the very first time?

Kurt had given me some backstory on each of the girls, and kind of a fashion sense for each them. That's what I need. I need personality to create a character. As soon as I had little pieces of their personality, I visualized it and started to sketch, and started to come up with, what would they look like? What would they wear? What would their bodies look like? It plays into everything.

That was pretty much it. You take those little cues, and you get into to the head of each character, and basically become them. What would I wear? How would I act? What would the musculature be, because I do certain things?

Are any of the Rat Queens a particular favorite for you to draw?

I love Betty, because she's so animated. Actually, the first concept Betty was not so thin and waif-like, she was chunky, and it didn't really work because we wanted to be the thief, like sneaky and ninja-ish. So I slimmed her down. She's a little cartoon, really exaggerated.

You've gotten to draw some different monsters for the series already. How do you enjoy drawing them as compared to the civilized characters?

I love the both for different reasons. I love human characters because they're so relatable. I love to act with the characters. I love to make people feel and experience what these characters are feeling through body language and expression. I love that.

But I also love drawing monsters. Monsters are just fun. You can do whatever, and just have fun with it and make it as cool as you want it to be. No rules. That's always fun.

Can we expect to see some bigger, badder monsters going forward?

Yeah, there will definitely be some bigger and badder monsters coming up. It's kind of building, so yeah.

It was announced not too long ago that Rat Queens will be adapted into an animated series. How did that come about?

Basically, kind of the same interest sparked from Kurtis' other book, Peter Panzerfaust. The same guys kind of wanted to see what they could do with Rat Queens.

How involved in the adaptation do you and Kurtis plan to be?

Well, we'll be involved creatively, but as far as art, I won't be doing anything. But it will be pretty close to the actual book, as close as possible.

Is there anything you want to tease that's coming up soon in Rat Queens?

Violet doesn't use a razor in the next issue.

Rat Queens #8 is goes on sale today, and the first collected edition, Rat Queens Vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery, is already available in bookstores and comic shops.