Ronald Wimberly: 'Time is important with whisky'
New York-based cartoonist and filmmaker Ronald Wimberly is best known for his work with iconic publishers such as Marvel and DC, as well as his cartoons for outlets such as The New Yorker, and a series of graphic novels, many celebrating rap culture. But for his latest venture he took on a totally different task: evoking the flavour of three whiskies created by Islay-based distillery, Ardbeg. Why? Simple, really. ‘I really like Islay whisky,’ Wimberly confesses. ‘I thought this might be an interesting way to engage with one of my favourite whisky companies. Also, I have to pay my bills like most of us.’
For his Planet Ardbeg strip, Wimberly brought onboard fellow artists Emma Ríos and Sanford Greene, each bringing their own visual style to the project. Using Arbdeg’s core range as a creative launchpad, the trio produced a triptych of fantastical tales set on a fictional planet, with deserts stalked by giant birds and crocodiles, mystical djinns, a futuristic copper-built metropolis, and more. As creative director, Wimberly says he brought the binding idea of a time machine. ‘Time is important with whisky, and with Ardbeg An Oa, Ardbeg Wee Beastie and Ardbeg Ten Years Old, what you’re talking about is three different time experiences.’
Straddling the three stories (Guardians Of Oa, The Best Laid Schemes and Take It With A Grain Of Sand) is the mysterious figure of the Quantum Distiller. Dressed in khakis and a pith helmet, we see her entering a time portal next to a rickety jetty on a wee Scottish island in the first spread. She returns nanoseconds later, just in time to receive a postcard from herself, delivered by an astounded postie who has seen the whole thing unfold.
‘I designed the magazine in the tradition, or as a pastiche, of EC Comics and Métal hurlant,’ Wimberly states, referencing respectively the renowned US publisher of horror and crime comics, and the cult French anthology created by Jean Giraud, better known as Mœbius. ‘I read a foreword in a Mœbius comic about his process making the Métal hurlant shorts and they’re essentially gag shorts. It’s a kind of formal conceit. I used this structure for at least two of the strips.’
What was it like working in the shorter form Ardbeg were after, given the longer format the artist is used to? ‘A graphic novel is a work of considerable length, designed for that format from the outset,’ says Wimberly. ‘The Ardbeg project is more of a one-shot anthology. It’s a comic.’ The project has clearly been a success from Ardbeg’s point of view; so much so that a second whisky-themed strip is now available digitally, Ardbeg Heavy Vapours, this time created by Dilraj Mann.