The Royal Mythological Society

The RMS boffins were originally going to be three interchangeable male professors called Bromfield, Shelwick and Sackville – after Landmark Trust properties where Roz and I have stayed.

I think I always knew the names were just going to be placeholders. As the idea developed, Bampton “Bammy” Bromfield remained (in honour of the brainstorming week we took with Martin and Leo at Bromfield Priory Gatehouse near Ludlow) but the others became more clearly defined and differentiated, in the form of Dr Cyril Clattercut and Dame Sepia Belchamy.

The panel of them explaining the green comet to Jack is from episode 5, now the opening of Chapter Two in the Winter novel. If you spot the deliberate mistake, award yourself an RMS silver medal. I often find Leo’s and Nikos’s style on “domestic” panels like this to be reminiscent of the work Guy Davis and Dave Stewart are doing on B.P.R.D. – anybody else think that, or is it just me?

Digging around in old files, I found this scratchy copy (below) of the original pencils. In this version you can see Jack still has the more modern looking army uniform that we later decided to drop. That’s surprising, as I wasn’t aware the pencils had got so far (this is page 29 of the book) before we made the switch. On the other hand, I don’t often remember what I had for lunch yesterday…

Incidentally, if you haven’t yet caught Bromfield and Clattercut answering RMS correspondence, pop over and take a look. We’re planning to give Dame Sepia her own spot before long. More news about that in a month or so.