A Modern Historical Murder Mystery

Interview with Ben Rankel

By Suzette Chan
July 16, 2018

Calgary-based comics creator Ben Rankel grew up in Southern Alberta, travelling through the Rocky Mountains on a regular basis to visit family in British Columbia. He became fascinated with the Frank Slide, an odd formation that was actually the result of a mountain slide that decimated the town of Frank, Alberta.

After working as a professional designer and having made smaller comics projects, Rankel used the Frank Slide as the basis of his first graphic novel, Frank!, published by Renegade Arts Entertainment, which is headquartered in Canmore, Alberta, less than an hour's drive along the Rockies. The impending mountain slide looms over a fictional murder mystery that introduces readers to characters that represent the diversity of demographics and circumstances that led people to the tiny town of Frank in the early 1900s. Eve, who had high hopes when she moved to resource-rich Frank, is disillusioned and on her way to being crowned the town drunk. But when her former lover disappears, she finds herself doing sharp detective work to find out what happened.

Frank is beautifully written and drawn by Rankel, with lettering by Ryan Ferrier. I had the good fortune to chat with Rankel when he visited Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton for a book signing in May. He graciously agreed to a follow-up email interview. My questions and his answers are below.

Sequential Tart: What were your first pieces of art like? Did you draw or paint as a kid?

Ben Rankel: It’s tough for me to remember exactly what my first art was like. I remember making flipbook animations after watching the end credits on the 1980s Astro Boy cartoon, though. As a kid I was constantly drawing, doodling, painting, etc.

What inspired you to take up art as a career?

BR: I’ve always loved drawing, and I always intended to pursue some sort of a creative career. I made that decision as a kid and reinforced it in high school. As to what inspired my creative interest, the aforementioned Astro Boy cartoon and Mr. Dressup at his drawing table are my earliest, most memorable inspirations.

ST: How did you get into making comics?

BR: I’ve drawn comics for myself forever and that turned into doing webcomics in my early- / mid-twenties. Even while holding down a career as a creative professional in-house for a real estate development firm, I kept taking on small comics projects as often as I could handle. I think my partner's career as a comics artist [Editrix's note: Ben's partner is Fiona Staples] helped to keep me interested in the medium as well. Eventually, someone decided to have me make my own graphic novel.

ST: You've mentioned that your family drove by Frank quite a bit when you were a kid. When did you first hear of or see the Frank Slide?

Ben Rankel: It’s hard for me to remember exactly when I first experienced Frank Slide, but it was probably when I was six or seven years old. My dad would load all of us kids into the back of his Mercury Topaz, with my mom holding my youngest sister; then we’d head through Crowsnest Pass on our way to B.C. to see my grandparents. My dad would offer a passing explanation about "a landslide that buried a town a long, long time ago", and that was enough to capture my imagination for the rest of the trip.

ST: Why did you want to tell a story about it?

BR: The story of Turtle Mountain falling on the town of Frank was just one of a number of interesting stories I discussed with publisher Alexander Finbow in our lead-up to working together. I was passionate about using comics to tell a story that was Albertan, set in our history but being something original and engaging. Twisting a murder mystery around such an epic natural disaster just seemed like a perfect fit. If it happens to show other creators how much fun it is to set stories in our home province, cities, and history, I’d be pleased as well.

ST: I was interested in the diversity of the cast. One character is named Gilbert Ware. Is he related to or inspired by the great African-Canadian cowboy John Ware? What inspired the other characters?

BR: Gilbert Ware was definitely inspired by Alberta’s first cattle rancher, John Ware, as well as by the many African-Americans who migrated to Alberta in the mid 1800s. The cast in general was inspired by my interest in showing an Alberta that more accurately reflected the diversity we had even back in 1903 that has probably been skewed by the prevalence of photographs and stories of white, European settlers. A good story should show us ourselves, and Alberta has always been a diverse place.

ST: Did you revisit the town of Frank or look up archives for reference?

BR: I did both! I wanted to get a sense of scale for the setting, as well as shoot reference of the mountain and landslide site, so I took a trip to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre before I started writing my script. I was able to walk around the landslide site, and, as a bonus, the interpretive centre had an abundance of archived photos and information from the disaster that was super helpful to me in trying to make my made-up murder story feel real and grounded in history.

ST: The dialogue made me feel like I was right in the action, like the story was happening now. Was there a conscious decision to go with modern diction instead of old-timey talk?

BR: I really wanted to make sure the book was accessible to readers who might not generally be interested in either historical stories or comics. Like many of my creative decisions on the book, using modern language was largely in service to that goal. I also super didn’t want to have to spend ages trying to affect speech patterns from the era accurately.

ST: At the end of the book, you talk a bit about your process, like starting with the very detailed thumbnails. Did the story develop as you did the thumbnails, or was the story was complete in your head, and then -- BAM! -- thumbnails?

BR: I had the basic story worked out in a single-page outline that I had approved before getting to work, but the story really did find its defined shape as I thumbnailed the book. I was able to think about how the characters acted, physically, and how they expressed themselves, which helped them become who they were before I had to write dialogue for them. I was also able to define my setting and side characters as a necessity of scenes, as opposed to just inventing characters and trying to fit them in because I had already put work into them.

Click to enlarge.

ST: This is your first graphic novel, so I wondered which stuck to you as big decisions, because there are many stylistically different things in the book, like the use of bright pink for sound effects, thoughts, and moving objects; borderless speech bubbles; and the vibrant colour palette, rather than a sepia tone that might have been chosen for a story set over a century ago.

BR: The most defining decision for me was about trying to tell an accessible story. About making the book approachable to anyone, even if they didn’t think they were into comics, or wouldn’t generally dive into a historical story. That really informed all my others decisions. All the other stuff like making the story a murder mystery, using modern language, [having] brightly coloured art, and a bold cover were done to support that.

ST: Do you have any future projects that you'd like to let us know about?

BR: I’ve got a number of different projects I’m excited to get started on, but I’m having a bit of trouble deciding on exactly which one to work on first. And after a few years working on Frank, I’m happy to take some time deciding. I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out, though!

Frank — Official Webpage at Renegade Arts Entertainment
Ben Rankel — Official Website