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First I'd like to start out with some questions about yourself- when did you start drawing? What inspired you to draw and which artists influences your artwork?
Hmm, I've been drawing seriously for around 6 years. I've only been drawing yaoi related things for 4 or so years since that's when I started liking it. Someone I grew up with draws a lot so they inspired me since I admire them so much. As for my influences, I'd really have to say every yaoi artist. Haha I'm not kidding either. Well all the great ones really. Also some shonen artists as well like Kubo Tite for example. I think I get influenced or inspired by any great artwork, manga or not, as long as it strikes a chord with me.
What sorts of mediums do you use for GUGo? (i.e. types of pencils, pens for outlining, photoshopping programs, etc.)
The beginning of of GUGo was drawn on graphing paper but I've switched to regular printer paper now. (since ch4) I think that brings the value up by a couple of cents. I use mechanical pencils, and german sketch pens to ink and finally I use Photoshop for color and finalization.
When you first started drawing this comic, did you think that you'd still be drawing this today and that it would get this popular? (CONGRATULATIONS ON THE FEATURE!!) Was this originally something used to practise your drawing skills, or was the world of GUGo planned?
Thanks. I had no idea!! I am still surprised (especially about the feature). At first I just thought I'd try putting on of my old yaoi comics online since I saw other people doing it but then I figured why not try making a new one. It wasn't planned out at all. If your read my beginning comments you'll see I didn't even have a name for the characters. I just had this general idea. Then when I saw that people were actually reading it I was like “Oh Crap! I should actually write this!” So then that's when I wrote the story out. I still sort of think of it all as good practice.
This comic has been ongoing for over two years now, would you say that your techniques and artwork have changed during that time? What improvements have you made?
It's been 2 years already wow. Drawing is like a very bumpy road to me. When I think I am improving I suddenly feel like I am getting worse. I do think I've refined my coloring technique. However now I sort of focus on doing things quickly so in some ways it's worse. If I could somehow merge with the thoroughness of my old style…
Overall though I feel like my grasp of anatomy and perspective have improved and hope it continues to.
About the theme of “Get Up and Go!”, it's “yaoi” or boys love. How did you first hear about it? And how does yaoi influence your way of drawing and story telling?
I think the first time I heard about yaoi was from someone mentioning a Goku X Vegeta Dragon Ball Z doujinshi. My initial reaction of course was nothing short of vomiting (Actually the thought of that pairing still makes me queasy). Then I actually started reading yaoi series (I stayed away from doujinishis) and I completely changed my mind about the genre. Not only did I find it to be completely sexy XD but some of the stories had really good, touching relationships and I have to admit I became a bit obsessed. I wish I could remember what the first title I read was. After that yaoi is all I seem to be able to draw. So GUGo's art and storyline is of course heavily influenced by that. Sometime I feel like I come up with all of the yaoi scenes first and then create a story to connect the dots. I've even set a rule where only men shall grace the covers of the chapters.
Now on to some questions about your comic- how did you come up with such a creative world with “Skonomen”, “Trofies” and “Zoipans”? Do those words hold any significant meaning?
All of those words are Greek inspired. I didn't want to point that out as I'm sure they are inaccurately inspired (since I just used a dictionary) but since you asked so nicely ^^ Skonoman is based on “get up” What meaning of get up this is I don't know but I'm sure its horribly unrelated. Trofies is based on the word for “food”. And Zoipan is based on something to do with “life”. I can't really remember the exact meaning I was going for. Oops.
Following the story, we've established that Skonomen, after encountering their “first death”, need a Trofy's bodily fluids to survive. Two Skonomen can also marry each other and serve as each others Trofy. Respectfully their offspring are known as Double Skonomen. If two Skonomen are married, and one of the partners die, the other will have to depend on the other's body fluids to survive; but if both die, how do they survive? Would they both have to find another Trofy to sustain life whilst keeping their marriage with each other?
This is actually something that will be explained later on. I will just point out that two Skonomans can marry but they can't serve as each others trofies. Afterall they can't produce energy of their own so definitely a Trofy is always needed.
Can Double Skonomen marry each other? As a result, would their children be extra EXTRA horny? Or rather, horny to the power of four? Because you know… Double Skonoman x Double Skonoman is equivalent to Skonoman x Skonoman x Skonoman x Skonoman = Skonoman to the power of four…
LOL I've never really thought about this. I suppose in theory it would be true. Though now I wonder what if two quadruple skonomans got married. Then their kid would be like skonoman to the power of whatever (I always sucked at math). I think double skonomans are somewhat rare though.
After a Skonoman dies, he is already “dead” and as Hayden put it: “You can't die twice”. Will he feel pain though if he encounters another acciedent? And with their undead state, do they have the ability to heal quicker? Are they able to still have children?
Things that would normally cause death are still just as painful but they do indeed have high regenerative abilities as long as they have an ample amount of energy for it. Hayden mentions when he breaks his neck that he hates when that happens. This is due to the pain he feels. They also can still bear children as we will see later on. In fact everything about them is normal except that they don't use their hearts.
Originally, Mars' love interest is Nate, but it seems with how the story is progressing, Nate may be taken up by a new comer. With the introduction of this new character, will Nate's relationship with Mars be strained? Or will Nate realise that he was in love with Mars all along?
Well we'll just have to wait and see won't we. ^^ That is actually the big question of the story so when we find out the answer it'll be close to the ending. I think you should keep in mind that Nate is as straight as a pin.
How is the relationship with Nate, Hayden, Melissa, and Dio to Mars? It seems all characters share a common interest to him. Phermones pershaps? (cute ass possibly)
Mars sort of has this extreme cuteness about him. So much so that even with my ugly design I think his cuteness still comes through. As for their relationships, well Nate loves Mars like a little brother. Later on it will be seen that Mars' childhood wasn't very peachy so Nate always looked after him and has a strong sense to protect him. Hayden actually feels the same way except he is a little bit ruder and likes to tease Mars. Melissa sort of falls for Mars' said cuteness though I think you will find that Melissa has a habit of falling for every guy she meets. Dio on the other hand is a horny little fella and his first interest in Mars was just that of a trofy but his feelings seem to change since the fire incident.
A lot of the your avid readers lovingly express their adoration for a Mars and Dio pairing or Mars and Hayden pairing. As the mother of these boys, which pairing do you like best and why?
Yea, it makes me a little happy every time someone brings up different pairings but I sort wanted everyone to pick Nate x Mars since they are the obvious pairing. Another reason for that is because I wanted people to be surprised when a different pairing happens. Therefore I don't want to answer who my favorite pairing is because it sort of spoils things XD (I definitely can't mention it now!)
Who is your favourite GUGo character?
You really want me to choose my favorite child? I have no problem with that actually. I mentioned before that I loved Dio but it was actually because of another story that I wrote with him and he is remarkably different. I hope I will be able to draw it one day. He has definitely grown on me since a lot of readers became fans of his. Still always Hayden has been my favorite.
Have any of your characters changed in the two years progression of this comic? Will we expect bigger changes to come? Any characters killed off permanently and/or more new characters? More Skonomen in school? More explicit yaoi? (please?)
I'm not sure about their changes. I've definitely changed the way I draw them but it's only been about a couple months of time passed from the beginning in these two years so I don't think their characters changed much. Dio is probably the only one experiencing change right now. But there will definitely be a lot more changes in all of the characters. I think that Mars will be the only one relatively static. I haven't planned on killing anyone off but you just gave me a good idea.*EVIL LAUGH* No actually I don't plan on killing anyone off, permanently that is. There are new characters of course. In fact the new character that I was mentioning before for Chapter 5 hasn't appeared yet. (I completely disregarded the fact that the Zoipan was a new character). From here on out I think it gets a little bit more yaoi heavy. (Hey if the public demands it…)
Finally, would you ever consider making a “doujinshi” of GUGo? What sorts of ideas would you use for one? Would you strictly follow the original storyline or make the characters insanely different with out-of-character personalities? As a fan and reader of GUGo, I'd request a hot threesome involving Mars, Nate, and Hayden. A humble request, thank you very much u.u.
Hmm besides side stories and back stories the only doujinshi like thing I've considered involved characters completely unrelated. It only involved the Skonoman/Trofy theme. I sort of like the superhero side of a skonoman so I'd do something more with their abilities (and somehow tie yaoi into it all of course). I think I'm pretty rooted in the story so it would be hard for me to break character. I welcome anyone else to of course! XD
Something similar to a threesome happens in Chapter 5 but I won't say who is involved XD (I think I slightly mentioned this before too).
Thank you so much for your time!! It took me a while to think of these questions- some I've been wondering since I've started reading this but I'd never had the opportunity to properly ask! D: Hope I didn't put you to sleep with some of those generic questions but I'm a curious person as you can tell (more nosy rather…) O____O.
And one final and last request please! If you could briefly describe your appearance as I am cautiously planning on putting this in comic form, that would be great. Even a drawing of yourself in chibi form would be cool :D *thumbsup*.
Thank You!. I had a lot of fun answering these. It makes me feel like a pro to do something like this which is of course my dream and makes very happy. Your questions were really good and really funny so I had a blast. Thank you so much for taking an interest in my work. This no doubt took some time to come up with so I really appreciate it. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you. ^^ I feel very encouraged and inspired by you and my readers.
I attached a very cutified chibi version of me. The hairstyle is pretty accurate.
Thanks again and please let me know if you will really illustrate this. I am a fan of your style as well!
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Here's the short version of the interview in comic form:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Sei_La_Vie/?p=518139.
Thanks for reading~!
~Sei.
