An interview with Richard Littler
Writer, graphic artist, and creator of Scarfolk, a viral internet art project.
Originally published 19 October 2019.
This week I’ve interviewed Richard Littler, a screenwriter and graphic designer who was born in Manchester and has lived in America, Russia, Germany and Ireland. Richard is best known as the creator of Scarfolk, a small town in Northwest England perpetually trapped in the 1970s, where “pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever.”
Scarfolk brilliantly satirises the risks posed by Big Brother when living in an Orwellian nightmare. Which we currently do. It’s utterly deranged and completely brilliant.
1/ There’s something innately British about Scarfolk - how do you reconcile these formative influences with your status as a “citizen of nowhere”?
They say that expats often develop a nostalgic, idealised vision of their homelands, though in my case I would say it was anti-nostalgic. Being a ‘citizen of nowhere’ means I can easily imagine, or reimagine (memory distorts over time), my own versions of places and then mix them up: Scarfolk refers not only to my 1970s childhood in the UK, it also incorporates my later experiences in Russia and the Ukraine, Poland, Germany and other places I’ve lived or visited. Scarfolk’s also informed by the places I’ve visited in fiction: Airstrip One, Gilead, the unnamed city in Fahrenheit 451, etc.
2/ Have you found the positive reception to Scarfolk liberating, or do you ever feel limited by expectations around what your creations “should” or “shouldn’t” be?
I don’t feel limited by the parameters. A well-functioning fictional identity is defined as much by what it isn’t as what it is and expectations should only be managed by the rules of the world itself. Most people seem to automatically know those rules when they play along with the conceit - and it’s great fun when they do - possibly because of shared childhood experiences and feelings.
3/ What inspired you to take your first steps as an artist and has that changed? If so, who or what inspires you now to keep creating?
I’ve drawn pictures and told stories since I was toddler. It’s all I know. Professionally, I’ve worked in drama storyboarding, computer game art, screenwriting and graphic design where I’m typically working towards someone else’s or a joint vision. If not that then, when I have written a personal screenplay, for example, I’ve always had one eye on genre or industry expectations or requirements.
Scarfolk, on the other hand, was liberating because it is instinctively ‘me’ without any considerations or compromises for perceived commercial viability. Until I became fully aware of people’s interest in the oddness of a 1960s-80s upbringing, which lead to Hauntology, I’d kind of assumed Scarfolk would just be a personal thing that others wouldn’t relate to. It’s a cliché but true that you should just try to stay as close to your own vision as possible. People sense when something is forced or contrived.
I’ll keep creating as long as the ideas come. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places: music, politics, personal life, books, art and films. I tend to start with a ‘feeling’ or mood that I want to pursue (or wallow in!) and build out from that.
4/ If you woke tomorrow without any limiting factors, without time or financial constraints, what would you make?
I’d write an intertwined story that crosses multiple platforms and genres, something that I don’t think has been fully or successfully done yet.
Richard’s new book, The Scarfolk Annual 197X, is out now, available from Hive, Waterstones, The Guardian Bookshop, Blackwell's, Forbidden Planet, WHSmith and others.