Why do you make the kind of comic you do?

Is it a story you've always wanted to tell and you tell as best you can?

Did you see/read something that was so good you wanted to recreate it?

Do you really want to be making some other comic but we're worried but rights?

Did you always want to make a comic but artistic limitations force you to be creative regarding visuals and story telling?

Did you read a newspaper strip and ant to make a funny one?

I'm not just talking plot, but writing style and visual style.

I'll go first.

With the new defunct and deleted Malefic I picked something schlonky and disposable because it was my first try, a test run so to speak. It was very ad hoc. At the time I know I could draw single images but I had no experience of inking or digital colouring. I experimented a lot. The writing was in the vain of garth ennis. Lots of swearing and obnoxious characters.

Underbelly started as a short story done with daz studio. As in 3D rendered. It followed a similar writing ethic to malefic but focused on a single character.

B.A.S.O. was one I had wanted to do for a long time. I wanted to make a space opera that wasn't focused on government or military. Not even on a rebellion. I wanted to do an action soap opera in space.visually I knew that hand drawn wouldn't work as I'm not very good at buildings and spaceships. I'm far better at drawing people and monsters. 3d was the only way I could do it.
The format was inspired by game of thrones and gunwallaces character development. Short character focused chapters.

Lore was made because I couldn't find any dramatic sword and sorcery type webcomics. Well there were some but they had either stopped updating or were lacking in some way, or were too manga for my tastes. Far more common were the comedy fantasy straps which don't do a lot for me. The visuals are 3d because somewhere along the line I gave up traditional art due to my lack of colouring skills and poor consistency. I made a choice early on to make it teen rated, but I struggle to maintain that. I keep writing the characters swearing and then modify it.

Interesting topic. Especially for a non-comic, non-art person (me). That's interesting about the teen rating. I've had to censor myself or come up with creative “camera angles” once or twice, but mostly, I altered my view of a “teen rating” based on the “M” comics on the sight. Most “M” level stuff is out of my comfort zone anyway, so I don't need to think about it. If a page makes me uncomfortable, that's when I have to question it.


There were a few factors behind Used Books. For one, I've always enjoyed writing fiction but I can never convince my friends to read anything I write. I come up with different methods of sharing. When I was a teen, I recorded a series of audio books on cassette (woo! dating myself!), and it made me so proud to hear my granddad laughing at my words on long road trips.

A second factor was a desperate craving for plot lines. I had seen the last of the American releases of Case Closed. The mangas were not released frequently enough, and I had yet to master locating subbed versions online. I missed not only the mysteries but all the character-interactions.

The third factor was my roommates. They were such characters. When we watched a series, we used to point out which character was analogous to which friend. I used to joke that if I knew someone who could draw, I'd make an animated series based on them. We were in a mall after the holidays, and my friends were especially in character. I saw a How to Draw Manga book, and got the idea. I told them I was manga-fying them. I started writing characters when we got home and then “drawing” (using the term loosely) rough story boards. It was intended to be for just my friends' eyes. After a while, I scanned pages as a digital back-up. My brother convinced me to upload them. The DD community encouraged me to continue (and improve).

The style was originally poorly adapted from that “How to Draw” book and from Case Closed (which is a bad art style, imo), but altered over time to something I was more comfortable with. It was always done in pencil and still is, but now digitally “cleaned up” post-scan. Because of pressure/suggestions, I came up with a way to color without altering my pencil art.



After a hundred pages or so, I mentioned to my family that I was drawing a comic. My mom was so disappointed that I wasn't talking about the goofy little strips I used to doodle for her as a kid. So, I started making Gelotology to make my mom happy. She was. Then she lost interest. I kept going until ideas dried up.

usedbooks wrote:
Interesting topic. Especially for a non-comic, non-art person (me). That's interesting about the teen rating. I've had to censor myself or come up with creative “camera angles” once or twice, but mostly, I altered my view of a “teen rating” based on the “M” comics on the sight. Most “M” level stuff is out of my comfort zone anyway, so I don't need to think about it. If a page makes me uncomfortable, that's when I have to question it.

I really miss my comfort zone. I've experienced too much to barely even be aware of such a thing anymore.


What does this have to do with the question? It was one of the reasons behind Attack of the Robofemoids. Producers always play it safe just coming up with silly ways to circumvent showing female nipples. So I went all the way in the opposite direction. And while I was at it I also wanted to be as explicitly violent as so many things were that so studiously avoided nudity. All the stuff I had always wanted to see in a sci-fi aliens taking over people movie in one place. And completely over the top. Ridiculous and at the same time with a subtext about how women are treated in the media. And I failed miserably. But it was kind of funny.

I started Undead 20XX after having a dream about a liche that got involved in superhero antics. I wanted to get back into comics anyway, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I could build on that premise. I mean, that premise alone can't carry a comic very far, do I've had to some world building and character development.

As for making it a teen comic, well, I just don't think this story needs enough mature content to justify making it an M comic. I could make it super gory, but I don't see how that would improve this particular story. There will be blood and plenty of corpses since necromancy is a common theme in this series, but I've been taking care in the upcoming story to keep actual graphic violence off-panel, especially if it involves living people. It's one thing to see a skeleton or a zombie get splattered, but another when it's a living, breathing human being, you know? Making these particular characters swear a lot just doesn't feel right for their voices, and sex scenes right now would just be pointless at best, and really creepy at worst. If a story requires a sex scene at some point in the future, I seriously doubt it'll need to lengthy or uncensored.

I've been really enjoying the voice I've been able to use for Undead 20XX. It's not quite a conventional superhero comic, but not quite conventional fantasy, either. Right now, it's these two characters from very different worlds feeling each other out while they're both learning to adapt to an environment neither of them are familiar with. I also want to avoid having tons and tons of supers like you see in mainstream comical Superpowers are rare in this universe, so the awakening of fantastical creatures is going to present some unique challenges for both the existing superheroes and law enforcement. Not having a ton of superheroes and supervillains also feels like kind of a relief, in a way, since I don't feel the pressure to constantly invent new powers, costumes, names, and back stories.

Instead, I've been focusing more on developing creatures, figuring out their habits and origins, what supernatural abilities they may have, and what motives they might have, and letting characters evolve from that. It's just as intensive as making up new heroes, but it feels more natural for me. Heck, I think I may have a superhero or two brewing as a result of this process. In a world of raw magic bubbling up all over the place and no formal study in controlling it, why can't someone be granted powers by it?

I love detective shows!
I especially love funny detective shows. So when I decided to do a comic strip, I was definitely going to do a detective comic strip. I chose to do a Sunday paper style strip because I don't have a lot of free time, and I thought that I would never get off the ground doing a comic book style. Also, I love the Sunday funnies. Garfield, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbs.

So all of this got me looking at Dick Tracy. I thought to myself, I'll be doing something like this. But I never really knew what was going on in that strip. I thought to myself, Dick Tracy would have been better if it had jokes in it, like the other strips.

So that's the Idea for Bruno Harm in a nutshell.

Interesting topic! I first came up with Reginald Parr and Windsock ten years or more ago, half way up a loft ladder. I was tinkering with the characters for a long time, but couldn't quite pin down the writing or visual style. Then a couple of years back I was messing around on another site that used to be popular and found myself in need of a quick, throwaway comic. I pulled out these characters and threw something together.

The planned throwaway comic quickly became quite detailed and then I hit on the orange and grey scheme at the eleventh hour. For some reason, that colour scheme sparked the characters to life and I found myself scribbling out reams of backstory. I knew I had to find a title and start up a proper comic here on The Duck. I can't remember choosing an Agatha Christie/Hitchcock inspired approach to plots, it just seemed like it had to be, but hopefully it comes together with it's own style.

There are other things I'd like to work on, such as my original comic here which crashed and burned for a number of reasons, but this one just won't leave me to my own devices!

Mask of the Aryans started with asking “why not?” Someone had done a poster with gladiators and had avoided showing any female nudity so I came up with the catchphrase “topless gladiators in desperate combat.”as a sort of goof on a Sword and Sandals movie with Nekkid girls. But how to get them topless and how to get them carrying swords?

I had some pictures of some “what if” 1960 female soldiers in full equipment so the two came together. I'd also done a picture of one of my most muscular figure wearing the infamous Chrome destro mask. I figured he'd be the one who takes the female soldiers and makes them gladiators and from there it just snowballed.


Everything else came together in a few brainstorming sessions. Before I knew it I done nearly 200 pages of comic with a World War 2 backstory and commies, paratroops and John Wayne. Incredible for something that started off with a stupid idea like combining “topless gladiators in desperate combat” with M14 rifle toting lady infantry.

Why do you make the kind of comic you do?

A. Is it a story you've always wanted to tell and you tell as best you can?

B. Did you see/read something that was so good you wanted to recreate it?

C. Do you really want to be making some other comic but we're worried but rights?

D. Did you always want to make a comic but artistic limitations force you to be creative regarding visuals and story telling?

E. Did you read a newspaper strip and want to make a funny one?

*I'm not just talking plot, but writing style and visual style.

———————–

A:
I'm just bulking out the Pinky TA universe, trying to tell an interesting story about the origin of Pinky's mecha and what happened earlier in her life to make her what she is later, but the REAL reason for the chapter is to try and develop her character a little more as well as to get a better handle on the conflicts and motivations, to build up other characters… Also there's an attempt at an allegory in there for the struggles of maintaining and rebuilding DD- which was less of a comment on that situation and more of a way of harnessing the emotions and machinations to better tell the story that's actually happening.

B:
I want to try and make my writing as good as all the stuff I read, all at the same time, which is unfortunate because that comprises a hundred different styles so when I try and do it my stuff comes out as a mess.

C:
Nope. I don't like fan stuff.

D:
No, the opposite. I would've preferred to have Pinky TA as a novel, but my style is way too visual. Writing about a person with huge pink hair and their sexy G-sting wearing bum out and proud because they have weird trousers is stupid. Pinky TA works better in pictures.

E:
No.

Q: Why do you make the kind of comic you do?

I love philosophy and physics equally, and I often think deeply on the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics. I also love stories that go beyond nature (but with more of a sci-fi edge instead of supernatural), and one day the kernel of a story idea containing the seeds of my thoughts started percolating in my head, and after a power-hike I had it more or less fleshed-out, and I thought, this must be written down!!

Q: Is it a story you've always wanted to tell and you tell as best you can?

Honestly I’ve always wanted to write a sort of memoir about my thoughts, but realized that’d be interesting to no one (not even me)!! So I got to thinking visually, from a perspective outside myself, and realized I like art too and saw an opportunity to put thoughts and story down and also get better at art!

Q: Did you see/read something that was so good you wanted to recreate it?

No, and maybe that’s why I’m even doing it at all. If I found something very similar to what I’m doing I might have just became a fan of it instead of creating what I wanted to be ‘out there’!

Q: Do you really want to be making some other comic but we're worried but rights?

Not really! I’ll milk other stuff for ideas, but I have a strong urge for my stuff be its own thing.

Q: Did you always want to make a comic but artistic limitations force you to be creative regarding visuals and story telling?

If I were a super-talented artist (and also much faster), and adept at software like Photoshop, etc, I could easily see myself doing this as my ‘job’. I still harbor a small dream that I could make something worth publishing in the near future, but… I also think that window may have closed!

Q: Did you read a newspaper strip and ant to make a funny one?

Not a newspaper strip, but a part of me would love to make a comic that has the sort of off-the-wall humor you see in protagonists like Hellboy, the Tick, Lobo, and recently Deadpool (it’s funny that I’ve never bought any comic about any of those but am well aware of what kind of characters they are). I think it’d be fun to make a female character with that sort of personality causing mayhem in a surreal world!

Q Why do you make the kind of comic you do?

The idea came to me one day and although I had had other ideas in the past, none had motivated me so much and got me creating the next day!

Q Is it a story you've always wanted to tell and you tell as best you can?

Not a story I always wanted to tell. Only by working on it did I discover what else I wanted to say.

Q Did you see/read something that was so good you wanted to recreate it?

No. not at all. I don't know any comic that is similar.

Q Do you really want to be making some other comic but we're worried but rights?

It happened somewhat. I wanted to do a comic with Steve McQueen and approached the licensing company that deals with his estate but they never responded. But I knew it was a long shot so Johnny Bullet was kind of my plan B with part of me secretly hoping the Steve McQueen thing would fail. In hindsight, Plan B is way more fun to work on than Plan A with Steve McQueen.


Q Did you always want to make a comic but artistic limitations force you to be creative regarding visuals and story telling?

The opposite. Unlike other comics in the past, I just jumped in and deal with difficulties and challenges as they appear.

Q Did you read a newspaper strip and want to make a funny one?

For me newspaper strips are different than what most people recall when they refer to them. Comic strips for me are the classic adventure comics. This is what Johnny Bullet is inspired by the most. The entire episodic approach with a cliffhanger and the logo in the top left panel is all inspired by classic adventure comic strips.

Why do you make the kind of comic you do?

A. Is it a story you've always wanted to tell and you tell as best you can?

I was always more interested in the cast of characters than any specific stories. I worked on the characters for a long time, and thought of storylines while developing the characters and their relationships. My stories are often fairly cliche sitcom tales; it's about how these specific characters deal with those plots.

Recently I found some characters I created years ago that have a lot of similarities to my Typical Strange cast - that's a comic I might try to do, if the people and relationships aren't TOO similar to Typical Strange. There's a Penelope type, and a Wade type, etc… (but they're aliens)

B. Did you see/read something that was so good you wanted to recreate it?

There are some X-Men storylines I'm tempted to rip off, but haven't. The MYTH series by Robert Asprin is a huge inspiration. The slackers from High Fidelity, Futurama, and Kevin Smith's movies are the biggest inspirations for my characters.

C. Do you really want to be making some other comic but were worried about rights?

In a way, I'd like to have written Archie and the gang…but I don't know what I could have brought to any existing characters, really. I'd rather do my own characters! The characters in my comic are beloved to me and i think about them almost every day.

D. Did you always want to make a comic but artistic limitations force you to be creative regarding visuals and story telling?

If I had the means, I'd hire a great cartoonist to draw my comic. I like drawing, but I know I'm not very good at it. Reading professional comics lately, as well as some of the amazing work on The Duck has driven home how weak my own visuals are. But I try, and I'm okay with where I'm at for now!

E. Did you read a newspaper strip and want to make a funny one?

I definitely wanted Typical Strange to be funny, as well as emotional (maybe a “Futurama” kind of tone).

Newspaper strips were never huge for me; story-oriented comics (and Archie) were more my thing. I also have a huge interest in horror or horror/comedy, but haven't managed to develop anything yet.

Let's see here.

The Errant Apprentice was a concept I'd had floating around since high school and I finally found a theme and a story I thought was worth telling. It was also a matter of consciously wanting to have a hero and not an anti-hero as the main character. Someone who would always try to do the right thing in a morally grey world and how that could be help change things for the better.

Mailbox? I missed Kota's World and wanted to do something with those characters in a world that wasn't the internet.

Kota's World was originally practice, but it gave me a chance to work on some interesting ideas. It was also heavily inspired by the character dynamic of The Muppet Show. In a way, Kota is Kermit, Mike is Scooter, Munki is Fozzie, etc. It was the first show I remembered watching and some of it came through in those characters. Maybe that's why people have such fond memories of it.