Hello, everyone, my name is Pembroke W. Korgi also known to some as Robbie Allen, but I prefer you call me Pembroke. I’m going to be doing a weekly little article here. I haven’t decided which day I’ll be doing this, but it will definitely be weekly, and it won’t be confined to one subject, no it will be whatever subject I feel like talking about. Why? Because I’ve got ADD and get bored easily when I stick to one subject. So expect these posts to be as random as possible.

Now the topic for today’s post is me, myself, and I. This isn’t some ego stroking thing about how great I am, because quite frankly I think I suck. Damn self esteem, always getting me down. No, this is to let you guys know about me, so that you can identify with the person writing, as well as get an idea of the other works I’ve done on this lovely place of fear known as the World Wide Web.

To the point, as I said, I’m Pembroke, I love video games, sodas, food, candy, comics, animation of all sorts, toys, movies, and pop culture in general. In fact my brain is the equivalent of one of the capsule machines you always see in the supermarket, except instead of giving you toys it gives you random pieces of pop culture randomness. Like the yellow ghost in Pac-Man Arrangement is named Kinky or according to the cartoon show, Thundar The Barbarian, our world was supposed to end in 1994. Pretty random and useless don’t you think? It’s awesome at parties, though.

My biggest and bestest project on the internet is Femmegasm. It’s an awesome little comic starring June July, a tamarin, and Shelly Mander, an axolotl. The comic pretty much an over the top mockery of pop culture or anything that pops into my head. Which ranges from video games to cartoons to even weird internet fetishes (it’s hard not to poke fun at some of those). It’s a fun strip and I recommend you guys take a look at it. It’ll definitely give you a good idea of what to expect from me.

Another project of mine is called, Prepare For The Randomness or PFTR), and you can see it on Youtube along with other videos of mine. Currently it’s a little short video I put together of me reviewing classic video games. I’d like to take it further than just doing video games, but for now that’s what it is. You can view it and all my other Youtube videos here.

Adding to the insanity is my weird photo comic/mock journal, The Adventures of Blue Grimlock, it documents the weird misadventures of one of my favorite toy, Generation 2 Grimlock. It has no consistent update schedule at the moment, because I know the moment I try to take it seriously, it will lose all it’s fun. None the less, I recommend checking it out, because it’s amusing how weird and random (and dare I say cute) this little journal gets sometimes.

Last but definitely not least is the fact I contribute a lot of comics to publisher, Radio Comix, which gets published in a variety of their titles, especially Furrlough. These stories include adventures of Shelly and June from Femmegasm as well as other comic ideas I have, the most common one being a fun little comic called DB and Co (I really need to finish that site). This comic is about a group of small animal miscreants as they cause trouble throughout the world and get into weird and messed up adventures. Here’s a list of the books I’ve supplied work for. Check them out, you won’t regret it.

Well, that’s all there is to know about me. I’m also going to try and do some sketch dumps here, hopefully weekly as well. I’m also doing a daily SNK gal for the entire month of January as a little art challenge for myself. You can see all the entries at either my Deviantart account, my 1up.com journal, or the SODAS forum. Hope to see you peeps next time.

Webcomic overlooks greatest trivial moments of 2008

COMIC REVIEW:
http://rextarget.comicdish.com/

INTERVIEW:
Josh Lesnick of Girly and Slipshine (Slipshine is an adult only site.)

I know i didn’t say it in the podcast but I want to send extended thanks to Dave Davis(hpkomic) of The Scienteers who made all the arrangements to have Josh on our show. It wouldn’t have happened without you man. Thanks!

Girly is a webcomic created by Josh Lesnick which generally centers around the romantic relationship between two girls named Otra and Winter, as well as other citizens of the city of Cute-Town.

On October 15, 2005 Girly became a part of the Dayfree Press collective, and on June 28, 2006 the first Girly print collection was published via Radio Comix.

1] Hello! Tell us who you are, and what you do.
I’m Josh, and I draw comics, and I run an adult comic site. Aaaaaand that’s about it. The comics are Girly and Doctor Voluptua. The adult site is Slipshine. Together all my comic work helps me eek out a living. Not enough to buy a yacht, but enough to buy a nice pan of lasagna every once in a while.

2] How long have you been working on Girly? What is it about?
Girly is primarily about a cartoon relationship, the one between Otra and Winter. It’s hard to describe it without bringing up Cutewendy, the comic I wrote in the early 00s. Cutewendy was a simple comic I made about two girls, one of whom is the sidekick of the other. It was a simple gag strip where crazy shit happened. Girly is actually the sequel to the comic, taking the concept, while inserting a story, some humanity, and a bit of romance to the mix. In short, it’s about lesbians.

In most of the stories, Winter and Otra live for adventure, searching all over their town for something resembling it, and creating it themselves if they can’t find it. Many other characters muscled their way into the comic over the years, and their stories started and ended. The new chapters are mostly about the two girls returning to their roots, whilst being chased around by a grumpy but hot police officer.

3] What are some of your influences in your art and writing?
As a kid, Jim Davis. Because boy howdy could he write a fine comic about cats that hated Mondays. Eventually I moved on to Berke Breathed, despite my being too young to really understand what his comics were about. I drew my own little comic strips on graph paper during this time, biting elements mostly from these two artists. Very little of Davis’s influence is still with me, of course, but the occasional snarkiness of Berke was deeply ingrained into me.

The art in Davis’s other comic U.S. Acres, drawn by the rather brilliant Brett Koth, was tangential in passing my interest from newspaper comic art to cartoon art. Not many people know this, but the original U.S. Acres comic was pretty underrated, and MUCH better-drawn than the cartoon was. I know Watterson called it a “travesty”, but I think he was being just a tad harsh. I’m not saying it was a great comic, but it was still a step up from Garfield, and Momma, and Crock, and The Wizard of Id. Etc.

So I was into that, and from there a friend showed me his Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics, drawn by artists like Ken Mitchroney, in what I’d later learn was the “CalArts” style. Not without its flaws, but still a lot more organic and full of life than the TMNT cartoon that was running at the time. I was pretty impressed when I saw it, and got a subscription for myself.

So there was the TMNT artists including Mitchroney, Garret Ho, Mike Kazelah, and Chris Allan… and that’s when Tiny Toons went on the air, which had storyboards and layouts by a lot of these same CalArts guys. Tiny Toons was not a good cartoon and its premise of trendy 90s Looney Tunes for tweens was godawful, but it was nevertheless an important cartoon, because before that, and “DuckTales”, and “Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures”… there was.. nothing. there was Filmation and 80’s Hanna-Barbera. Finally there were shows that reminded impressionable young artists like me that cartoons could be cartoony.

This Renaissance helped bring forth the man who is easily my biggest influence, and a man who has a thing or two to say about cartoons that are cartoony. I’m talking about John K, of course. Say whatever you want about him, he knows his shit. He knows a lot of things people have blissfully forgot about over the years. And he knows how to invigorate us cartoon artists. I don’t agree with every single thing he says, but kudos to him for saying it.

Also in 1993, I found anime. Welll… to put it simply, I learned a few good habits and a lot of crappy habits from it. It gradually leaned me in the direction of learning proper anatomy, structure, and scenic drawing while at the same time, the life and character my art contained was completely buried for several years. It totally had me spinning my wheels. I will say that the biggest influence during this time was Ryusuke Mita, the creator of “Dragon Half”, and at least he did have an art style that stood out among many. Regardless, I’m obviously not very proud of that whole phase, I encourage artists not to let it happen to them.

It was fairly recently that I grew out of this, which is not to say elements of manga are gone from my comics. Obviously, that’s not the case, and it would be impossible to get rid of them without forcing it. I tried my best to make sure the more generic elements were phased out. I can’t remember exactly what it was that made me return to my roots of cartoon art, but in any case, John K is once again one of my top influences, both in art and attitude, and there’s also Bruce Timm, Shane Glines, and Dean Yeagle who have all provided much inspiration in combining cartoony with sexy. And Evan Dorkin, another artist who’s great at both storytelling and critiquing the profession. He was actually an influence as far back as ‘93.

Shutting out all of Japan would be just mean though. Monkey Punch and Kiyohiko Azuma remain pretty prominent influences in art and writing, respectively.

Finally, my peers… Sam Logan, Bryan O’Malley, Meredith Gran, Kyle Carrozza, and other friends who I’ve talked with over the years and have become SO MUCH BETTER THAN ME.

That answer probably 100000 more words than was necessary. Basically I like cartoonists who draw cartoons!

4] Can you tell us about some of your other projects?
One project which is officially on indefinite hold now is an animated project called “Pop Star Becky”, which is about a pop singer who aspires to expand her career further in the field of acting and other talents, only it doesn’t work out too well because she’s not very good at anything except getting stoned and sleeping around. It sounds kind of like the plot of “Perfect Blue”, and there are a lot of breasts in it, but that’s where the similarities end, honest. I’m hoping to get into the apparently untapped market of “R” rated internet cartoons with this, but unfortunately, working on these kinds of projects over the internet is insanely hard, and I’ve been thinking I may have to wait until Girly is over before this can happen.

There’s also the occasional porny comic I do for my Slipshine website. A recent one was about coal miners who have a thing for each other. The next series of stories I plan to do for the site all feature an upgraded design of my ol’ Wendy character, which is a strange return to form for her. I don’t think many people are aware that she was initially designed to be some kind of sexy pinup porn starlet-type character before I created that silly webcomic about her, and now that that’s been over for years, I guess she can go back to doing that.

Aside from that, I’ll do occasional one-shot things and post them on my journal or somewhere, mostly to keep things fun and to keep my brain from exploding.

5] So, you do adult-oriented comics and run a site called Slipshine and now you are doing a webcomic called Doctor Voluptua. How do you balance adult cartooning and the more general work?
It can be kind of tricky, because I do tend to prioritize Girly over everything, even though I have to work the hardest to generate any income from it. It’s more due to Girly being my “baby” at the moment; the long-running project I’m determined to see through to the end. Ultimately, I do have to contribute to Slipshine, since there are people who subscribed to see my work, and I have deadlines to keep me in line there.
Doctor Voluptua has a low priority even though I do love working on that comic. I’m actually on break from it for a moment, but I’m hoping that will be over next week. Of all my sites, that one is still the most “experimental” one. One of the reasons Slipshine is a pay site in the first place is because the internet doesn’t make it easy to offer adult content for free. I enjoy making it more accessible to everybody, but it’s really hard to get the financial boat going.

6] What are some of your favorite webcomics? What makes a good webcomic?
I have a ton of favorite webcomics, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave several of them out, but I’d say my ABSOLUTE favorites at the moment are U.F.O., Sam & Fuzzy, Pictures for Sad Children, and Gunnerkrigg Court. U.F.O. is just a fun comic about an alien invasion and the unlikely hero who must defend the earth. the comic is really creative in so many ways, and half the story is told from the alien’s perspective. Momo draws some of the best comics for my Slipshine website as well. Sam & Fuzzy is the best example of a coic that started out as a gag-a-day strip and developed a continuing storyline. PFSC is comparable to Achewood in that it’s a minimalist comic with great characters and dialogue. Gunnerkrigg Court is a story-based comic full of pretty interesting mysteries and unique ideas.

What I like to see in webcomics is creativity, effort, and soul. By “soul”, I mean artwork that has some semblance of an organic quality to it… artwork that conveys warmth and personality. Just about anything loose and hand-drawn can accomplish this. And it’s a pity so many of the more well-known webcomics rely on cutting and pasting, and geometric shapes.
Artwork is really important to me, and it’s baffling how in webcomic circles, I seem to be among the minority. It’s amazing that people get mad when I say that stick figure comics are inferior to fully-drawn comics by people with art backgrounds. How in the world is an opinion like that controversial?
There are always exceptions to the rule, here and there, but generally I’d like to see more comics that are as fun to look at as they are to read, and I’d like to see more people talking about them.

7] Do you work exclusively digital these days, or do you like to dabble with pencil and paper once in a while? Did it take long for you to get a handle on digital production?
I used to do my comic layouts in pencil, but I stopped that pretty recently. I’m still not sure if this was a good idea or not. On the one hand, there’s less of a mess around the place, but on the other, I almost never get away from the computer anymore.

I’d say it took about three years to be able to duplicate my hand-drawn work on a tablet. It’s certainly not something that can be picked up right off the bat. Cutewendy was a pretty useful tool in the learning process. Unlike all my other comics, that one was drawn straight to a tablet without any layouts or anything. They were scribbles at first, but as time went on, I wanted it to resemble an actual comic, and I started learning ways to do it. I don’t know if it’s the best learning method, but it worked for me.

8] The Puppy Club doesn’t update nearly enough. What will you do to rectify this?
The Puppy Club was an attempt to start out a second regular series that didn’t quite pan out. The thing is, when you manage to get a webcomic going and build up a decent audience, it’s insanely hard to get another one going. It’s like people only want to read a single comic from one author at a given time. Even Doctor Voluptua, with all its tits and everything, has had trouble with audience growth.
I do love working on The Puppy Club, but ultimately, it’s fallen into the group of low-priority projects.
If I ever do decide to try drawing it regularly again, I may use the rather brilliant idea Randy Milholland had, and throw that and other comics up on the same page as Girly, so everyone can conveniently view my latest comics all on one page. Of course, I won’t be able to do that with Doctor Voluptua…
You’re right though… It’s been too long since I’ve drawn it. I still need more practice with foreign accents. Maybe I WILL rectify this soon!

9] Josh, what the hell is up with all the horses?
I like the sound of the word “horse” for some inexplicable reason. I’m not sure exactly what got me started on it. It could have been the Refreshments song named “Horses”. I’ll go with that.

10] What do you like more, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Farscape, Futurama, or Firefly?
I’d have to go with “Futurama” because it’s a cartoon and I’m obsessed with cartoons.

2 ) How long have you been writing webcomics?
Pray For Death is my first published work. However, I have been writing comics and studying the craft for over 7 years, since college while studying to be a playwright.

3 ) How did Pray For Death come about?
Pray For Death originated with two other projects. The first was a similar comic that I was working on with PFD artist, Daniele Serra. I wanted to use the detective from that series in a new series that would put her in the starring role. The second project was a short film that I had worked on with a friend from college. One of the earlier drafts featured the killer that would eventually become the Pray For Death Killer along with most of the plot for the first 8 screens of PFD. As the story developed, I realized that my detective’s personality had changed just enough that she was no longer the same person and I changed her name to Jenkins.

4 ) What attracted you to Zuda as a delivery platform?
The DC name drew me to Zuda. I have always associated DC with quality comics. I grew up reading Superman, Batman Wonder Woman, watching Superfriends and especially, the Christopher Reeve Superman films. I wanted to be a part of that company and its tradition of excellence.

5 ) What are some of your favorite webcomics?
I love Girl Genius, Saving The Day: Tales of Awesome, The Night Owls, Bayou and High Moon. I may sound a little Zuda biased, but most of my Webcomic reading truly takes place on that site and I’m always excited to see what the next contest brings. Melody is another great one that I can’t wait to see update.

6 ) What feature attracts your attention most in a webcomic? What are some of your favorite webcomics?
I like to see the kind of stories that you don’t normally get to see in print. Webcomics allow creators the freedom to try things that a print publisher would never dare risk spending their money on. Girl Genius is quirky in a way that most other comics aren’t.

7 ) Do you have any advice for creators, particularly those who wish to compete in the Zuda competitions?
I think that if you want to do well in a Zuda competition, a great concept is only half of it. You need to use your 8 screens to tell a story, not the whole story, but more than a teaser. You also need a good cliffhanger and you need to show your readers what they will get. Some of the comics I see on Zuda don’t even introduce the main character in their contest submission. I think that’s a mistake. If you want my vote, I want to know exactly what I’m going to get for it.

8 ) How did you and your artist (Daniele Serra) decide on the comic’s visuals? Was it something you both determined, or was it mostly Daniele’s decision?
Dani is an incredible artist in every sense of the word and I put my faith in him. When I first sent him the script for the original 8 pages, he said he wanted to try a very dangerous style. After those eight pages were posted, a lot of readers complained about his style. He listened and came back with a new look for the comic that really wowed them.

9 ) What does a horror comic need to do to be scary? Is it harder to be scared by a comic than it is to be scared by a movie?
A horror comic needs to get into your psyche. It is much harder for a comic to be scary because a comic can’t suddenly pop out at you and roar. A comic has to get into your mind and under your skin. It has to make you uncomfortable where you live.

10 ) What is your favorite sci-fi/fantasy show/movie/game/comic/book?
I was a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on TV. The Frighteners is my all time favorite movie. Jonah Hex is the best comic on the stands right now. No Way To Treat A Lady by William Goldman is my Favorite book and, hands down, the best video game ever is the punisher! What other game allows you to hide in a casket at a mafia funeral, then pop out and gun down all of the mourning mobsters? It’s pure genius!

I am a playwright, screenwriter and most of all…a comic book writer. In the comic world, I am currently working on “Pray for Death” with my artist, Daniele Serra. In the past, I wrote “Dynasty of Power” for Affinity Press. Regarding other media, I wrote for the animated web series “Elm Way.”

Additionally, I had the following five plays produced at the Chautauqua Theatre Festival in Santa Cruz, CA: “Bear Huntin’,” “Sh*t Happens” and “Lunch With Satan” in 2001, “Superhero” in 2002 (of which my wife was a cast member), and “Castle Walls” in 2003.

I have also written sketches for the comedy troupe “Pool Party Massacre.” I am a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

2. In your books you mention that the graphics are generated by a computer program that you commissioned. Care to elaborate?
SCS: Well I started using CGI to do comics back in 2002 when I did Spider-Man for Marvel comics.
It was an experiment and I think it came out ok.
But I knew I could do better.
Fortunately my animation studio was doing well. We were making some money on projects like Aliens vs. Predator and X-files.
So I was able to hire some extremely talented modellers and designers and such to help me create the world of Dreamland.
That was 6 years ago…and I’m still learning every day.

3. How does it feel to work in CGI, and what is involved? Do you ever face criticism for your choice of medium?
SCS: CGI when I first started using it for comics felt cold. I came from illustration. I’m a painter by trade.
But my career took me into video games and eventually into animation for film and tv.
So I had the skills I needed to try something different. When Marvel came calling. It seemed like a good fit.
After doing it…I wanted to push it more.
As for criticism. Ha. I get that A LOT!
No comic publisher would touch Dreamland. The most common excuse I’d get was “Comics should be DRAWN”
So I self published.
Online…people are a bit more forgiving. But really… People still pick out a frame or two and say “Gaah! It’s HORRIBLE”
It happens.
It’s all good though. I do my best and never expect everyone to like it.
You can’t please everyone.
But all that said…I’ve been extremely fortunate to have for the most part positive crits.
People have been extremely kind.

4. Clearly you have some fairly good artistic skills yourself, yet in most of your works you are listed as the writer, not the artist. Care to comment?
SCS:Well thanks first off…
Dreamland is a full time job in that I write and illustrate.
So when I have other stories like Pet Robots, Ed’s Terrestrials, Gary the Pirate, and more…I can’t do both the writing and the art.
So I save my pennies and beg and plead with talented artists such as Diego Jourdan or Tracy Bailey to work with me.
Cookies, manual labor, my first born….anything to get them to work with me.
I’ve been quite blessed to get to work with these talented artists.

5. What are your chief influences on The Dreamland Chronicles, and what inspired the story?
SCS: The Narnia Chronicles, John Carter of Mars, The Hobbit, Little Nemo in Slumberland, The Princess Bride, The Neverending Story.
Those are my chief influences.
My inspiration started from my own vivid dreams. I always had an active “night life” so to speak. So dreams were always part of my childhood.
In college we read about Windsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland.
It was EXACTLY what I had been writing about in my journals.
Then the thought of “what happened to Nemo when he grew up?” entered my head.
That had to be explored.
And…the Dreamland Chronicles was born.
6. You’re probably the only webcomic artist (to my knowledge, anyway) to sell action figures of your characters. What gave you this idea?
SCS: I don’t know if I’m the only one…so I can’t confirm that.
But I do know that ANY creator would want to see their characters as a figure. It’s just the COOLEST.
We’re making 2 more for the series. Alexander and Felicity. I can’t wait.
I have to thank my cousin Russ for helping to pay for these. He’s been loaning me money for some of my endeavors and it’s a real blessing.
I doubt too many people have a cousin who “stashed” some extra money away like my Chiropractor cousin did. And is willing to loan it out.
So thanks Russ.

7. I’ve noticed that you have made it clear, on a regular basis, that your comic is designed for all audiences. I know you’ve made a strong effort to make TDC kid-friendly. How does this reflect in your actual readership?
SCS: Well I see people when the recommend Dreamland on forums as “It’s kid friendly…but try it anyway”…ha ha.
But other than that…I haven’t seen an adverse effect to having an All Ages book.
Quite the contrary. I get quite a few parents and younger readers that I think most other comics COULDN’T get.
So it’s pretty cool.
It IS hard to do an all ages book though.
I have to be vigilant about the ads that go up on my site. Who I link to. And what people say on the forums.
Gotta keep it clean.
On the other hand…
I still get parents who think my book is too “racy” for their kids.
You know…I have “cleavage” and show belly buttons.
But you can’t please everyone. And that’s not what I’m trying to do.
I try to make my family happy. If my 5 year old boys like it (which they do)…then I’m happy.

8. Tell us about your other projects outside of your webcomic.
SCS: I have several books printed and in production.
Ed’s Terrestrials and Pet Robots are in my store…but will be re-released as smaller books to go into stores.
Upcoming books are Gary the Pirate, Hyperactive, Dino Wars, and My Grandparents are Secret Agents.
I’ve also got a few other books I’m writing too.
It’s great fun and I love to see other artist’s work with my writing.

9. As a devoted father and husband, what does it mean to be a webcomic artist?
SCS: It means I get to be home with my kids every day.
It means I haven’t missed a THING in their lives.
It also means my wife is going to have a nervous breakdown because I don’t have a “real job”
It means I’m happy regardless.

10. Favorite ice cream flavour?
SCS: Chocolate Ice Cream with Hershey’s Syrup and Ovaltine mixed in.
Check out the Dreamland Chronicles at http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com.

This week we talk to Ryan Sias of Silent Kimbly. Ryan is a creative within the field of animation.  He’s best known for designing and storyboarding the characters in the animated sequence in the Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine”.  From there he went on to storyboard for 20th Century Fox and Bluesky Studio’s movie Robots.  The he worked on “Pinky Dinky Doo” for Noggin.
His cartoons have appeared in Mad Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, Found Magazine, and the “Flight Anthology” for Random House.
Ryan is currently working a freelance Illustrator and writing and drawing Children’s picture books!To see Ryan’s Illustration portfolio go to www.ryansias.com.

1] Tell us a bit about yourself.

I draw funny pictures ever since I was a little kid. I’ve been working in animation for the last 15 years. I’m best known for designing and storyboarding the characters in the animated sequence in the Oscar-winning film “Bowling for Columbine”. From there I went on to storyboard for 20th Century Fox and Bluesky Studio’s movie Robots. My cartoons have appeared in Mad Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, Found Magazine, and the “Flight Anthology” for Random House.

I currently draw Silent Kimblys while writing and drawing Children’s picture books and TV show pilots!

 2] What’s Silent Kimbly all about?

Kimbly is a place where visual puns and cute wordplay literally come to life. Follow Kimbly , a spunky space girl, her pet “Binx”, & her adorably fuzzy friend “Tenderness” as they find the joy in everyday.

It’s fun drawings with puns, for all ages

3] It’s very interactive! How do the fans like it? Do most of them get the jokes?

The fans seem to really enjoy it. On wed I post a “guess the pun” comic where I post the comic with out the pun and everyone gets to guess, It normally gets 75-150 guesses. Which is really great!

I’d say about 80% or more get it right. So everyone wins! J

4] Why are you so keen on puns anyway?

That’s the strange part. I’m not practically keen on puns. I don’t make any puns in real life. I grew up watching the Muppets, so I think that has something to do with it. But drawing puns, it’s been an evolution. Kimbly started out more as “sayings” then over the years turned into puns. I’m not sure how it happened, but that seems to its thing now, so I’m going with it! ; )

Now I see it a challenge, take a BAD pun and make it visually funny. The more I’ve done it the stranger I find our language to be. Where do these words come from? Mostly I do words that seem like other words and play with that.

5] Can you pick your three favorite strips you’ve done?

Humm, this is hard. They are normally more current ones; I always love the NEW bad pun. But some of my favorites are Pancake, Caterpillar, and Fisherman’s Warf.

But I love all most all of them. I just got the proofs for a new book collecting last year’s comics, and as I was reading it was chucking at a lot of them.

6] What other projects do you have?

I’m always working on new properties. I’m currently work on some TV show pitches, kids books and a novel. So all that plus Kimbly keep me very busy!

7] what are some of your favorite web comics? What makes a webcomic good?

My favs are American elf, Dinosaur comics (which always get a laugh outta me) Diesel sweeties, dreamland chronicles, kawaiinot,

Sinfest, pvp, BOASAS, and tons more, I’m always finding new webcomics!

I think what makes a web comic good is a unique perspective, plus some good art. That and being consistence. I like comics that update at least once a week.

8] Do you see kid-friendly web comics as a rarity? Any reason why they would be? How vital are groups like Lunchbox Funnies to likeminded creators?

Yeah, All age’s comics are kind of rare on the web. I don’t think they need to be, but even I realize the most people who surf the web are guys 16-36, so it’s kind of hard to get TONS of traffic. Yes I realize everyone is on the web, but these guys make up like 2/3d of it. But I’m seeing more and more kids, so who knows.

I don’t know if LBF is vital, but it’s good to have someplace to go to find a few others all ages comics.

9] Make up a science-themed pun for us! Please?

If you have ideas let me know. I’m always looking for more puns!

10] What’s your favorite sci-fi/fantasy show/book/film?

I have a few favorites. I became a sci-fan from the Hitchhikers guide the galaxy books” so I’ll always love those. I also love the Foundation series, which I read every few years. But I really love modern Sci-fi, stuff written in the last 10 years or so. Out of those books, Single to noise blew my mind, as did Blood music. I think but my current fav is William Gibson’s “pattern recognition” Which I know takes place “now” but he makes it feel sci-fi . It all about looking for the creator of a web movies. It’s awesome.

Special thanks to Ryan for participating. Do you think you know a creator who should be interviewed? Contact us and let us know!

How did you get started making webcomics about movies?
At first, Theater Hopper was an excuse to teach myself how to design web pages. I wasn’t comfortable building mock ups unless it contained content I was passionate about. Design, cartooning, writing and movies fit the bill. Also, I was just starting to get into reading webcomics at the time. Citing Penny Arcade and PvP as influences, I looked at the creators and thought to myself “If they can do it, why can’t I?” Five and a half years later, here I am!

Thanks, Tom!

Theater Hopper can be read at www.theaterhopper.com.

Drawing a single panel comic about a turtle (Charley) when he was 9, JT knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. That didn’t work out.

Later a short stint in High school as a DJ for its low wattage radio station and on stage in the schools Plays and Musicals gave him a taste for show-bid-ness (that didn’t work out either)

So, when in 2005, (deep breath) after dropping out of college, joining the US Navy (5 years on the USS Spruance DD 963), marring a great girl, finding the Internet, having 2 Awesome kids, Finding webcomics, leaving the Navy, trying that cartooning thing again with Gecko Nation, and founding NightGig Studios (With Ken Prince) to help other Web Cartoonists, (breath) podcasting was born, he decided he wanted to be heard again and created… (wait for it) … The Gigcast.

Taken from JT’s Gigcast Bio.

1) Hello! Tell us who you are, and what you do.

Hi, I’m JT (Tim) Shea, Co-Founder of NightGig Studios, and host and producer of The Gigcast.

2) What about the origins of NightGig?

Back in the day, during the Drunk Duck Crash of  ‘03, Ken Prince and I decided to start a site to host comics for a few friends, but we also wanted it to be more.  We wanted to open our new site up to all sorts of artists, 3D, animation, musicians, writers, poets, etc.  We called it NightGig Studios.  Since then NightGig has gone through more than a few changes, and has basically settled down to a loose hub for a few friends who have some kind of art on the web.
We Have a moderately active forum and the Nightgig.com front page keeps a running list of rss feeds for all our members so it’s easy to see who has most recently updated.  We still host a few comics on the server, Kevin Hayman’s Sweatshop Studios, home of Errant Apprentice, KC Green’s Rumblo.com, and Scott Gallatin’s MadScott among others.  We also claim affiliation with Webcomics like Crimson Dark, The Gods of ArrKelaan, and PC Weenies.

(Note: Ken Prince, the catalyst of NightGig, fiancee of Kit White and friend,  passed away soon after he graduated form 3D animation school, He had given up a soul sucking programming job in a conveyor belt factory, to chase the dream of making his art his day gig.
It’s not what you do to live, It’s about what you Live to Do – Ken Prince)

3) How did the Gigcast come about?

In 2005, Gecko Nation had started and stopped many times and was basically dead, NightGig was a strong community, but I still wanted to do something creative and I was looking for a way to promote NightGig.  i had recently found podcasts through Leo Laport’s TWIT, I then found Slice of Scifi, The Signal and others, and I thought, “Hey if people are making these podcasts about things they enjoy, why not a webcomics podcast?”  I figured it was a great fit with NightGig, we could report on NightGig news and well as news from all over the Webcomic world,and maybe even do Interviews.

So I talked with some of my NightGig friends, and with Karl Kuras and Jo Craft (Now Mathis) co hosting, The Gigcast launched in Aug 2005.  On the second show we interviewed Scott Gallatin, who was later to become my right-hand man and co-host.  The first few shows were a definite learning processes. With Karl in Switzerland, Jo in Kansas and me in Florida, it was fun trying to arrange a schedule that would work, and i wouldn’t recommend listening to those first few shows.  They hurt.

Things got better, Scott joined up as permanent Co-Host (and partner in the running of Nightgig), sound/production quality improved, interview skills grew and news reporting became more natural.  We expanded out interviews to include other Nightgigs, interviewing authors and musicians, while keeping our roots in webcomics, reporting webcomic news and interviewing cartoonists such as Brian Anderson (Dog eat Doug) Howard Tayler (Schlock Mercenary) and Jenny Breeden (The Devils panties). Our audience grew and in 2007 we were contacted by and joined The Farpoint Media Indie Podcast Network.

4) Tell us about Gecko Nation.

Gecko Nation is what got me involved in all this.  I had a lot of free time in 2002, and with the help/advice of Kit White (Blue canary) I applied for a KeenSpace account, and started drawing (badly) a comic about a tech savvy Lizard who heads for the Caribbean on a self aware AI controlled sailboat, and finds out he is the direct descendant of a famous Pirate captain with a lost treasure.

It basically became an exercise in experimenting with as many art styles as I could find, and in learning HTML, and in website design, Well after about 50 strips in twice as many weeks, with story unfinished, i hung it up.  It was Gecko nation I was updating when Drunk Duck crashed and gave birth to NightGig.  So if ya want to blame anyone it’s Kits fault, she got me started and introduced me to Ken as well.

5) What are some of your favorite webcomics?

I hate making lists like this, you always forget some. I do most of my reading during breaks at work, which blocks all of DD.  But if I had to list a few favorites I’d have to say:  In The Blog Comic category: Planet Karen, The Devils Panties, MadScott, Real Life.  In The Other Category: Schlock Mercenary, Errant Apprentice, Gods of ArrKelaan, Penny Arcade, Pinkerton Park, C’est la Vie, XKCD, SuperFogeys, Dr McNinja. Evil inc. etc etc etc…(seriously, I forget to read 3x the comics I want to read each day)

6) What feature attracts your attention most in a webcomic?

Honestly, it’s the writing.  A good gag, a good story , good pacing and good character development keeps me coming back.  If you have that and art skills good enough to get your point across, and I’m happy.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m attracted to the shiney just like anyone and beautiful art only ads to a comic attraction.  But for me, I was raised on Newspaper comics, back when the only color was Sunday, so big colorful art is not a requirement, but a well paced, well written script is.

7) What are your goals in regards to Nightgig and the Gigcast? What’s the next step for them?

As for Nightgig, there is a site redesign planned.  If we had the funds time and talent, I’d love to expand NightGig to meet the original vision Ken and I had, a hub for all artists who put their Nightgigs on the web. But baby steps. We are also looking to expand out hosted comics this year, as we have the space and the band with.
NightGig will continue, with The Gigcast, to promote it’s members, hosted and otherwise. For example, each year we have attended Megacon In Orlando, this year, 2008, will be our third year and we’ll have 10 or so members attending. Should be a blast.  We also have produced a Webcomic Sampler each year as well, the proceeds of which go to help pay for hosting/promotional expenses. The Books are available on indyPlanet.

The Gigcast will continue to report on the world of webcomics, and to interview the people behind the best Nightgigs on the web.  With the help of Farpoint Media, we hope to expand our audience so we can continue to do what we have been doing.  Help turn peoples NightGigs into Day Gigs. They have already given us some leads on a few big name interviews (You’ll have to subscribe  http://gigcast.nightgig.com/rss to find out who ) We also hope to add some more per-produced spots, maybe add more reports like the DrunkDuck report Jenny Lui and Steve Rowles do for us.

In both cases, we hope to step up the promotional aspect of both NightGig and The Gigcast, but as these are our NightGigs, there is only so much time to do all we would like to.

What is some of your favorite music to listen to? How do you determine what music you’ll play on the Gigcast?

The main thing about finding music for The Gigcast making sure it is “Pod Safe”, meaning the powers that own the copy-writes have given permission for the music to be used in a podcast.  Sites like the Podsafe Music Network, make it easy to find podsafe music,  but finding good songs for The Gigcast that’s another story.
When it comes to the music we play on the show, I let my inner Geek do the choosing.  I’ve always enjoyed songs that tell a story.  Singer songwriters like Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffer and Simon and Garfunkel, as well as the Irish folk songs I grew up with, all played an big part in my musical development.
So I look for musicians like Jonathan Colulton, Beatnik Turtle (who wrote our Kick-ass Theme song) George Hrab, Mark Gunn and The Brobdingnagian Bards. All people and groups who are trying to make their Nightgigs work for them.  And if the stories their songs tell are about Firefly, Lord of the Rings, computer Programming or The Great Robot War of 2318, all the better!

9) Hadron Collider: Gateway to a new scientific era, or source of our future extinction?

Both!
Although not the way you think. No Micro black hole slowly eating the planet one atom at a time theory, but I go for more of a  “research leading to the development of super intelligent quantum multi-dimensional computers, which of course leads to the Great Robot War of 2318″ theory.
Thank you oh Great Robot Protectors

10) What do you like more, Star Trek, Star Wars, Futurama, or Firefly?

As a well rounded geek, I’ll have to take the 5th on this question, Mostly because the Star Trek, Star Wars and Fururama fan boys would get all upset with my answer, so yeah, I’ll take the 5th. (By the way, you forgot to put Battlestar Galactica on that list)

Thanks for participating JT!

Taken from the Wikipedia article on No Need for Bushido:”No Need for Bushido is a webcomic started on April 11, 2002 on Keenspace (now Comic Genesis). The comic is drawn by Alex Kolesar and written by Joseph Kovell. Its content and title are based on various influences from such anime and manga as Tenchi Muyo! (which has a series of volumes titled “No Need for Tenchi”) and Rurouni Kenshin, a famous manga/anime series which No Need For Bushido obviously parodies at many points. Alex’s artistic style too is influenced by, but not restricted to, the manga and anime styles, while Joe’s writing style is famously humorous, unique and random. The series is a mixture of anachronism, exaggerated action, veiled drama, and comedy based in a parodied feudal Japan.”Be sure to check out the comic if you haven’t already!

1 ) Hello! Tell us who you are, and what you do.

Alex: Alex Kolesar. The artist, and creator for No Need for Bushido. I eat, sleep, and webcomic. I also do web design work for all the money I need that the comic doesn’t provide me. I’m also a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, with a BFA in Illustration.

Joe: Joe Kovell. I’m the Writer and website guru for No Need for Bushido. By day I’m a graphic designer – which mostly involves putting logos on things.

2 ) How long have you been collaborating on NN4B? What are the origins behind it?

Joe: 6 Years, although the concept for NNFB started a year before I got involved. Alex made a short comic featuring Ina and Yori as part of a High school project, which he intended on continuing. I got involved during our Freshman year in college and the comic grew from there.

Alex: If I ever find that original highschool comic, maybe I’ll post it on the site…or maybe not since it’s incredibly embarrassing in its crudity.

3 ) Earlier on in the comic, there was a slightly more anachronistic aspect (the character of Matrix) to the comic that seems to have slowly vanished. Was this an aspect that was planned and ultimately glossed over, or is there going to be a reveal concerning this in the future?

Joe: Matrix is definitely still a part of the comic and will have a more important role later on. Her most recent appearance wasn’t too long ago, page 293, where she’s wearing a more traditional outfit. Who/what Matrix is will be explained by the end of the story, although I suggest you don’t think too hard about it.

Alex: Matrix is a character that is going to have a whole lot of screen time later on in the comic. My hope is that when she finally starts interacting with the main cast more, she’ll quickly become a fan favorite. Obviously the comic, in general, has had quite a few anachronisms, but Matrix stands out as the most prominent, what with the black trenchcoat and sunglasses and whatnot.

4 ) What tends to influence the art and writing in the comic? Can you guys cite any particular sources or examples?

Alex: When I came up with the comic, it was originally going to be more of an outright parody of fighting based anime. But the story definitely developed into its own original entity.

Joe: The characters have become so established in my mind that there is very little conscious outside inspiration when it comes to their dialog. A lot of the situations the characters find themselves in can be traced back to anime, like Rurouni Kenshin, or historical figures and events, like a few similarities of Hirotomo to Oda Nobunaga.

5 ) What are some of your favorite webcomics and what features attract your attention most in a webcomic?

Alex: One of my favorite webcomics is Zap! At http://www.zapinspace.com/. I’m good friends with the artist/co-creator Pascalle. We have a bit of an art rivalry going on. I honestly only read a handful of webcomics, because I find it difficult to keep up with a large number. I tend to like comics with a continuing story and a lot of humor. Having fantastic art will definitely get my attention, too.

Joe: I read a ton of Webcomics that range from joke-a-day (The Book of Biff) to long form (Sluggy Freelance), or from simple art (The Order of the Stick) to the more complex (Zap!). If the comic sets up good characters, that’s just about all I need, but even that isn’t always necessary (XKCD).

6 ) How long does it take to produce a page of the comic? What’s the process of writing like?

Alex: Even though I’m always trying to streamline my process, I seem to continue add to the complexity of the pages, always making them more time consuming to complete. I think nowadays it takes between 15 to 18 hours to complete a page. I may have to start scaling back, I never have any time after work to do other things!

My process consists of drawing, inking, and scanning the page into Adobe Photoshop. Then I vectorize the linework and add in the base colors in Adobe Illustrator. I then paint in all the backgrounds and shade all the characters. After that there are little texture details, highlights, and lighting effects. Then there’s the lettering. It’s a time consuming process, but I think the end result is usually worth it.

Joe: Writing is a fairly unstructured step in NNFB. I might turn out a month’s worth of rough scripts in one night and then not do any serious writing, beyond tightening the dialog up, until that script is almost all used. The overall story to NNFB has been mostly finalized, but future story arcs are added and scrapped all the time.

7 ) You have a rather detailed timeline on your site concerning events during the comic, as well as things that are canon and have occurred outside of the comic. Was a detailed backstory planned out from the beginning?

Joe: Not at all. When we started we knew the main cast members, a few of the “badguys,” some of the political background that the story would take place in and the ultimate end or goal we wanted each main character to reach. The rest developed as we went.

Alex: Actually, Ken’s first appearance happened only shortly after I decided I wanted an angry guy with a giant sword in the comic. We didn’t even have all of our main cast figured out when the comic started!

8 ) You seem to have a very active fanbase, which must be totally fun. Any advice to those who wish to earn a fanbase with their own comics?

Joe: Nothing gives me a big boost like hearing from readers. We try to give people a lot of different ways to comment and participate in NNFB – like the tagboard for example. Responding to emails is still my greatest failing when it comes to fostering a community, but I’m working on that!

9 ) What’s your favorite style of martial arts?

Alex: Kenjutsu. More specifically Hitenmitsurugi Ryu. DON’T TELL ME IT’S FICTIONAL! More truthfully, I’m enamored by any and all forms of martial arts, but have never truly practiced any. I’m still young, though, and ‘join a martial arts dojo’ is on my list of lifelong goals.

Joe: Any fighting style based on absurd pseudo science.

10 ) What do you like more, Star Trek, Star Wars, Futurama, or Firefly?

Joe: Futurama – because I don’t need to add an “except for when…” tag to it AND had a good run. It helps that Futurama is a comedy and is written by geeks, I mean, math lovers.

Alex: Why is Stargate not on this list?? Either way, I am a lover of all scifi, and am an avid fan of all these franchises. If I had to pick one… Firewarstrekrama.

Thanks Joe and Alex, keep up the great work!

Dave Roman is the co-creator of the Harvey Award nominated series Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden (AiT/PlanetLar), and the Ignatz award winning, Teen Boat (Cryptic Press) both with artist John Green. He works for Nickelodeon Magazine, where he is the Associate Comics Editor and has contributed to the critically acclaimed Bizarro World anthology for DC Comics. Dave’s own illustrated work has appeared in Flight 3, Flight 4, Not My Small Diary, Alternative Comics 9-11: Emergency Relief, and on GirlAMatic.com His website is yaytime.com and comicsbakery.com.

Be sure to read Astronaut Elementary!

1 ) Hello! Tell us who you are, and what you do.
I’m Dave Roman, a guy who helps edit comics at Nickelodeon Magazine and writes and draw a bunch of other comics in his “free time.” Those comics would include Astronaut Elementary, Agnes Quill, Teen Boat, Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, and contributions to the Flight series. I’m currently co-writing a series of shojo manga-inspired X-Men graphic novels for Del Rey.

2 ) How long have you been working with Nickelodeon Magazine? What’s it like?
I’ve been at Nick Mag for almost 10 years, which completely blows my mind to reflect on. I get to eat and breathe comics while collaborating with an insane amount of talented artists. My typical days are spent responding to emails, routing things, and going to meetings, but the end result is comics I’m really proud of that get read by a million or so average kids.

3 ) What are the origins of Astronaut Elementary?
I was asked to contribute to a shojo manga anthology that Tintin Patoja was editing for the School of Visual Arts. So, I came up with a Japanese schoolgirl named Miyumi who lives in the future and gets hit on by a conceited boy with a big pompadour. I wrote it as if it was badly translated into English with lots of run on sentences. I had so much fun making the strip that I kept drawing new pages and expanding the world they lived in.

4 ) Why did you choose to do a webcomic? Any differences between working for the web and working for print?
GirlAMatic had a call out for submissions and I thought that Astronaut Elementary might be a good fit. Lucky for me, the site’s editor, Lea Hernandez agreed and invited me on. Being a part of the GAM site was great motivation to draw pages on a constant basis rather than shooting for a deadline based around an upcoming convention. With the web you can obviously get instant feedback on whatever you do. With print it usually takes longer to show your art to people and if you wait till your story is printed in a book, it might be too late to improve it. When I started Astronaut Elementary, I used to cram a lot more onto a page. But when I see them online I don’t appreciate all the details and side business. So after doing it as a webcomic, I slowed down and opened the panels up a lot more. The pacing got a bit breezier too.

5 ) What are some of your favorite webcomics?
Everything on Lunchbox Funnies of course!
The ones I read the most often (assuming they update) are Wigu, Overcompensating, Dinosaur Comics, American Elf. Nemu Nemu, Diesel Sweeties, Octopus Pie, The Tenth Life of Pishio the Cat, Space Office, No In-Between, Copper, Dr. McNinja, Power Glove, Smile, and anything by Jessica McLeod. I also read a lot of random fan comics on DeviantArt.

6 ) What feature attracts your attention most in a webcomic?
Art first, then humor, and often consistency. Pretty much the same as for any other form of comics, really. But like many people, I probably have less patience for longform stuff on the internet.

7 ) Do you have any advice for creators?
Make sure you REALLY love to draw comics before you can expect it to be a career. Prepare to be in it for the long haul and not make a living from it. The more pages of comics you draw, the better you’ll get and the more chance of success. What works for one artist won’t work for another though. There’s no formula that anyone can copy and turn themselves into a famous cartoonist. You just have to keep drawing and do the best work you can. to And if you aren’t that great of an artist you better hope you have really original ideas! I also encourage creators to support other artists and the comic industry in general. We’re all in it together!

8 ) As someone heavily involved with the print-world as well as the web, do you see a competition of sorts between them, or do you see webcomics and print comics complimenting one another?
More often than not, I think they compliment each other. Obviously some people who work in one medium fear or dismiss the other, which is too bad. Print is all about money. And the web is all about instant satisfaction.

9 ) If you were a videogame, what videogame would you be?
Dynamite Headdy.

10 ) What do you like more, Star Trek, Star Wars, Futurama, or Firefly?
I grew up loving all things Star Wars (even the Ewok TV movies) but the prequels kind of burnt me out on it a bit. I’m sure we can fall in love again someday. Star Trek: The Next Generation and I had a fling in high school and I really admired its ability to tell nerdy self-contained stories. Firefly was great. It didn’t last long enough for it to get messed up! I probably SHOULD give Futurama more of a chance to win my heart…

Special thanks to Dave Roman for being the first test-subject of our little-experiment.