A straight man for Delilah to play against. I just did what felt natural, and that ended up giving me a more or less traditional character foil.

GC4K: What about Selim is he influenced by any particular people or characters or stories? In one way, he seems like he was created by picking a series of traits that are the opposite of those possessed by Delilah.Ĭliff: The process was certainly not that intentional. Mad Men gets a lot of mileage out of it why can’t I? Plenty of opportunity for conflict and jokes at the expense of how outdated those ideas would (hopefully) seem to a modern reader. I just wanted to see a character who was more fun, more light-hearted, and making that character a woman meant I got to play with a lot of the restrictive gender roles from the 19th-century setting I liked so much. The women didn’t feature much at all, and the sword-swinging female heroes I read in late-90s Image comics were similarly serious and, honestly, dull. All the male heroes in the Napoleonic War fiction I was reading were pretty serious and, well, male. Tony Cliff: I’m glad she seems familiar! I always worry that she’s not accessible enough, because a lot of my motivation for making the character came from wanting to see something different. GC4K: Where did Delilah Dirk come from? One of the more fascinating aspects of the character is how familiar she seems, even upon first meeting her, perhaps in large part because she’s the synthesis of so many familiar influences, in terms of characters and genre adventures. We spoke with Cliff about his characters, where they came from, and where they might be going.

Otherwise, Cliff wouldn’t have material for an entire graphic novel, let alone a series of graphic novels (Almost immediately upon the release of the book, publisher First Second announced an in-the-works sequel).

Delilah dirk series