INTRODUCING THE SMITHS Pt.1

When I agreed to write SKID AVENUE, I was horribly aware of the mammoth task I had taken on. Nevertheless, I forged ahead.

One problem I was faced with was trying to understand the personalities of the two main characters. Who exactly ARE John and Jo Smith?

In any fictional character there is a bit of the author. Idiosyncrasies and habits peculiar to the writer are channeled onto the page and emerge in the characters who inhabit the story. All I knew was that John Smith was supposed to be a combination of strip creators John Freeman and Nick Miller (they look very similar to each other – they are often mistaken for one another and John Smith looks like them both!) and Jo was based on somebody Nick knew at art school, but that was it! In the original strip, TheReally Heavy Greatcoat, John and Jo were the ‘straight men’ for a doped-up, talking overcoat John found in a charity shop. Then the greatcoat was passed on to Kevin, John and Jo’s student lodger, and the Smiths gradually disappeared from the strip.

So here I am, the poor writer, expected to revive these two characters and give them new opportunities. Let me introduce you to the Smiths!

JO SMITH

A Really Heavy Greatcoat strip from 2005. The New Orleans branch of Jo's family take shelter in the Smiths' home after Hurricaine Katrina. Note: captions were always added at a later stage and we don't have copies of the script!

Of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, Jo has a large family that only occasionally appears in her life but bring chaos whenever they do. Although she grew up in the go-get-‘em ‘Eighties, she felt more at ease living in an ‘alternative’ environment, running a knick-knack shop selling scented candles, ethnic paraphernalia and patchouli incense sticks. Having surfed the ups and downs of the housewares sector, Jo kept her little shop of trinkets going until the recession killed the market for annoyingly off-key wind chimes. Sadly, Jo closed down her business for good, leaving her with the daunting question: what next?

A strip from 2006, showing John and Jo in the future, mutated after years of exposure to illegal tipping.

Too young to retire, but old enough to be put off starting a new enterprise from scratch, Jo faces an unnerving challenge: working out how to turn over a new leaf when you’re fiftysomething.

As a woman, I can relate! But I know for sure that she’ll be able to come up with the answer eventually. Perhaps this is the time when she’ll finally be able to realise some of her dreams!