Today we've got an extra (special) interview done by some users – remember that interviews outside the Quack with the Ducks project are welcome!

So, today we've got Eddie Jensen interviewing the young and talented literacysuks1 of Acrobat! (It was recently featured, in case you missed it!)

Okay lets start with the basics, who the hell are you and what are you doing in my interview?

My name is JD Smith, I'm 17 and currently wasting far too much free time drawing my comic Acrobat for the duck that is drunk.

Oh a comic that sounds intriguing what the heck is it about?

A teenage superhero sidekick has to find his own way in life after his mentor is killed. Hilarity and bloody fistfights ensue.
and he's also dating a super villain.

Tell me more tell me more.

Anyone who wants to find out more can go read it, I assure you the writing is less awkward than my description of the writing.

So whats the process to creating your comic? I'm sure we've all wondered at some point, is it a tablet? a pen? some sort of slave labor? Magic perhaps?

Magic would be easier… I start out with all the writing stuff before pen goes to paper. Outlines and such, then I write a full page by page panel by panel script. I'm usually only an issue ahead of the one I'm drawing writing wise, not sure that's a GREAT practice. Then I thumbnail about half the issue, which is just sketching all the pages really tiny and figuring out my storytelling/figure placement. Not too much detail at this point. Next are pencils, which I do fairly loosely on printer paper and later trace back onto my fancy-ass comic booking paper for the ink work.
The inks are just done with a series of technical pens (copic multiliner SP for those who care) and sharpies for the blacks (it's cheap, you shut up). Then I have a page, scan it, and letter on the computer. Then the agony gets to start all over. tadaaa

I see, is there anything that motivates you while you draw? music? T.V?, coaches shouting slogans?

I switch back and forth between music and TV. I've watched all the seasons of Arrested Development, The Office, Scrubs, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and a lot of others to pass the time while I'm inking. Then being able to listen to all of my VERY LEGALLY obtained albums helps pass the time too. I go kind of crazy if I'm inking in total silence, so having something to listen to is a big help. Though sometimes it can distract me and I'll slip up on a line and need to pull out the ol' white out.

So what got you into the fabulous world of capes and spandex?

I'd say the Bruce Timm Batman cartoon, along with the 90's X-Men and Spider-Man shows. The Timm stuff holds up brilliantly, not so with the others. That led to reading a whole lot of superhero books, and eventually I found myself loving the medium of comics rather than just the characters in it. Of course I still read stuff like the Amazing Spider-Man and Batman as they come out, so I guess it stuck.

Ah any artists or writers that inspire you in your creation of Acrobat?

Too many to list, but I can try anyway. On the writing side…Robert Kirkman's stuff on Invincible, The Walking Dead, basically all his indy books, then BKV on Runaways and Y the Last Man, everything Joe Kelly has ever written, Bendis with Ultimate Spider-Man and Powers, and Brian Lee O Malley with his brilliant naturalistic dialog in the Scott Pilgrim series, and finally Stan Lee, especially his 60's spider-man run. That's like the template for the perfect teen superhero comic.
Artists…Stuart Immonen, Cory Walker, Mike Allred, Ryan Ottley, Mike Mignola, the late Mike Wieringo, Brian Lee O Malley (more in a storytelling sense than a direct style one), and older artists like John Romita Sr and Steve Ditko.
…I bet that'll be like another language to most of the people reading this

So are you all comics or do you enjoy any of these Japanese Man'ga things that are all the rage these days?

I read a fair amount of indy/smallpress stuff, but I haven't really read much manga or anything for the last few years. I'm sure I'd like a lot of it if I'd look past the mainstream, but the stuff in the forefront like Naruto doesn't really appeal to me at all.

I see are there any webcomics that you enjoy or are you all print and no web?

I think the private files of the fowl is my favorite web book at the moment, but that's over at smackjeeves (sorry drunkduck!). I always get a kick out of last place comics too. Then I follow a good amount of the superhero books like Energize, Retake, Heroes unite, etc.
Oh, and Shades. That should have been published and world famous like last year.
and your comic, of course. all two pages of it

Nobody likes a brown noser Wade, oh oops did I call you Wade? you just look so much like your character why is that?

Yeah. Haha. I designed him when I was 14, short, chubby, and had overly long hair. Then I shot up and started cutting it shorter. So viola, it ends up looking like I've inserted myself into my superhero comic. Wade lacks my bitchin' sideburns though.

Plus his hair is brown…not that it makes a difference since the comic is black and white.

So sadly all good things have to end, what comes after Acrobat?

Hm. Hopefully publishing? Acrobat should be over in about 2 years if I don't draw it too quickly, so I'd like to be at the level by then where I can start trying to do my own comics. I'd like to cut away from the superhero genre and try something different. Maybe something with my Hauntbots concept. We'll see I suppose.

Image comics would be an ideal publisher for me, their publisher/creator relations seem really good

Hauntbots? whats that?

Something I came up with with Luke Lopez, who had done some fill in artwork for acrobat and is working on getting his own drunkduck comic off the ground. Basically, 4 spirits from various time periods get bonded to abandoned robot shells and get a second chance at “life” as it were. They end up battling all sorts of old school monsters. It'd be fun.

they can be seen in a two part backup behind Acrobat 14 and 15, but at the moment that's all I've done with them.

Ah yes I read some of that, it seemed intriguing. So is there anything else you'd like to tell your legions of fans? shout outs? Religious Chants?

Sure. Give me money guys. I like your money, far more than I like all of you.

That's a wrap folks, and remember to take a gander at Joshua's comic Acrobat, and he DOES do commissions.

“I bet that'll be like another language to most of the people reading this”

Yeah… but it's only my third language, after German & English.

haha way to plug commissions in there. I shouldve done that…