LONDON — Comic writer Mark Walker makes sure to have his English character says “bollocks” now and then to make sure the readers know he’s English.
“How else would they know?” said Walker, the current writer of fan favorite misanthropic Brit, John Berry. “Berry’s costume is a trench coat and suit. It’s not like he’s wearing a flag or anything which would make my life easier. The comic rules are simply, English characters say bollocks, Australians say mate, and Africa is considered a country and not a continent. It just keeps things simple. I didn’t get into writing comics to give characters nuance or backstories more than something tragic happened.”
Gary London, a long time fan of John Berry and his adventures, finds the whole thing patronizing and lazy.
“These daft wankuhs have no idea how the British have a good natter,” explained London, calling from a red phone box with Big Ben in the background. “I mean, I go up the apples and pears, get on the loo, and try to read my comic and every English bloke is ‘bollocks this’ and ‘innit that’. It’s just bollocks, innit?”
Creator of John Berry, Alan Shaw, said he doesn’t really care how the dialogue is written, he just wants royalties from his creation.
“I wrote Berry as a side character in an issue of Mega Giant in 1978 for the scale rate of ten quid or something,” said Alan, who also created dozens of other characters that have gone on to huge multimedia success. “Now he’s in a billion dollar movie franchise, a monthly comic, a tv show, its spin off, and a video game and all I get is a thanks to Alan Shaw in the credits of the third movie. I don’t even get to do a cameo like that credit-stealing bastard Stan Lee. And John Berry is from Liverpool so I don’t know why they always write him as a Cockney.”
As of writing, Mark Walker is working on an original French character named Claude Eiffel Tower de Monde.
