Fleen: Who is David C. Simon?

DCS: He’s a squat, hairy, bespectacled geek who lives in Western Sydney and has a soft spot for Indian food.

Fleen: Are you the kind of Australian who gets annoyed when foreigners ask you about all the kangaroos?

DCS: We’re very proud of our Kangaroos in Australia, it’s always a thrill to see them in the wild. Just don’t ask me about Koalas.

Fleen: Why do I have to read two chapters in order to find how why your comic is called “Crimson Dark”?

DCS: Because if I were to just tell you straight off the bat, that would spoil the fun, wouldn’t it? (my fun, not yours)

Fleen: What kind of nerd spends his entire high school career drawing space ships, and then goes to college and studies Theatre?

DCS: The indecisive kind. I could never work out what I wanted to be: an actor, an artist, a playwright, a director, a musician (and so on). I’d have fun with one pursuit, get bored, and move onto another. Theatre, however, was my first true love. I was quite passionate about it, and still am to an extent. I was involved in some amateur and semi-professional productions, but eventually I ran out of steam – Theatre was great, but somehow it just wasn’t enough.

More recently I’ve come to think of myself as a story-teller, willing to work in any medium which lets me tell a story effectively. The world of webcomics is, by far, the most effective medium that I’ve worked in to date.

Fleen: What does the phrase “a wagon train to the stars” mean to you?

DCS: I first heard Gene Roddenberry utter that expression when I was a child, and in my mind’s eye I saw cowboys and horse-drawn carts walking through space. It’s an image almost as surreal as the sailing ships in space from Doctor Who.

Later I learned that the idea was to treat space as the new West, the final and ultimate frontier. A great many parallels can be drawn between the Western and Space-Opera genres.

Fleen: Why is outer space so brightly lit?

DCS: So we can see all the pretty spaceships.

Fleen: Why does everyone in the future speak in Digital Strip?

DCS: Well they tried speaking in Wingdings, but it was terribly confusing and resulted in some truly tragic misunderstandings. Many have died needlessly.

Fleen: Do you consider yourself a professional cartoonist? Why or why not?

DCS: Like the vast majority of webcartoonists, nobody pays me to do this so I am not a “professional”. But that doesn’t mean that amateurs can’t aspire to create work of professional quality.

I’d love to be able to earn a living from this kind of stuff one day, but my primary goal is to tell a story and know that people are getting something out of it. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

Fleen: How does it feel to be nominated for such a controversial award as the WCCA? What do you think are your odds against such illuminated masters as Kris Straub and Phil Foglio?

DCS: I think I’m still in shock, to think that someone might mention me in the same breath as these truly great artist/writers. I don’t expect to win, not against such quality work.

I’m truly impressed with the other nominations, it certainly demonstrates how rich and varied with world of ‘Science Fiction’ can be. Each nominee in the “Outstanding Science Fiction Comic” category is radically different from the next in terms of style, tone and intention.

Fleen: How would you describe your own comic in terms of style, tone, and intention?

DCS: Wow, I should have seen that coming. This is a lot harder to answer than I thought it would be…

At it’s heart, I want Crimson Dark to be a fun, engaging and thought-provoking story about some troubled people who live in troubling times. It is a drama, but human beings are helplessly funny creatures.

Fleen: What factors go into desiging one of your spaceships?

DCS: In order of priority:

1. It needs to be possible to build for someone with very little skill (ie: me).
2. It’s gotta look cool.
3. It ought to fit in with established ship designs
4. It should reflect the nature of it’s owner in some way
5. It would be nice if it looks functional.

Fleen: How do you balance the needs of the story with the skill you have to tell it?

DCS: I think that this is something that every story-teller struggles with on one level or another. Every movie has a budget, every artist has his limitations.

Ultimately, I think these limitations are as much a blessing as they are a curse. If we were given free reign to make everything in our imagination become reality, then we would end up vomiting our thoughts onto a canvass without paying any real attention to form or function. The obstacles we face in the creative process force us to examine our stories and ask ourselves what they’re really all about. Okay, we can’t have a story where XYZ happens, but do we really need that particular moment to tell the story effectively? What if there’s a simpler way to illustrate the point?

Overcoming these difficulties is not contrary to the creative process, it is the creative process. The result, I believe, is a more refined product, and better story-telling.

Fleen: What is the relationship between art, science, and religion?

DCS: Science seeks to explain the physical universe, to establish a framework of general principles which can be applied with confidence to everyday life. Science asks “How does it work?”

Art goes beyond the predictable, physical world. It explores humanity, and serves as a mirror for society. Through art we experience joy, pain, wonder but most importantly we learn about ourselves.

Religion (as in metaphysics/philosophy) bundles these things together and provides a framework for answering those most complex and vital of questions: “Why?” and “Wherefore?”

Fleen: Eugene, J.Michael, Joss, or George?

DCS: Joss is Boss. Sure, I still haven’t forgiven him for what he did to Wash, but that one small crime is nothing compared to ‘The Phantom Menace’, or the fifth season of ‘Babylon 5′. I think Scott Kurtz summed it up very nicely when Brent said “Joss Whedon is my master now”.

Paul Southworth: Why interview webcomic artists? Did you already talk to every parking lot attendant and janitor in the world? Or do you just have a thing for high school sophomores who think they can draw anime and clumsy gaming references?

Jeff Lowrey: Because if I’m going to pretend to be a journalist, webcomics is about the least important thing I can possibly be a journalist on, and interviews are part of journalism.

Southworth: Have you ever learned something about an artist or writer you couldn’t publish? Can you go into detail about what kind of animal it was, and how Dave Kellett managed to escape criminal prosecution?

Lowrey: Spike refused to answer a couple of questions for the official interview, but provided subtext answers for them otherwise. Dave Kellett is and was “on the lamb” in more senses than one, and we’re all just counting the days until the cows come home.

Southworth: Do you really want to hurt me?

Lowrey: It’s not that I want to. Gary paid me a dollar.

Southworth: Do you really want to make me cry?

Lowrey: Maybe I’m just like my father, 2 bold. Maybe you’re just like my mother … she’s never satisfied.

Southworth: What’s Gary Tyrrell really like? We’ve all seen the mustache; but what about the man?

Lowrey: Having slept in his bed — or at least a bed that he owns — all I can say is that his life is pretty plain. He likes watching puddles gather rain.

Southworth: Name six ways webcomic artists are like teenage girls (teenage girl webcomic artists excluded).

Lowrey:

1. They smell nice
2. Most of them wear pink
3. After one kiss, they won’t stop calling.
4. Every day, it’s a new adventure in drama, comedy, angst and self-doubt
5. They’re always scheming to get revenge on their big brother
6. They’re always asking if that dress makes them look fat

Southworth: What have you eaten today? February is Write Down Everything You Ate in Your Livejournal Month!

Lowrey: I had a Italian Chicken Panini from Einstein Brothers. And a lot of hot caffeinated beverages.

Southworth: What Black History have you learned today?

Lowrey: Don’t even front on George Washington Carver. That dude had skillz.

Southworth: In speaking to as many webcomic artists as you have, would you say that we all share a similar fatal flaw that is keeping us from “hitting it big” and driving us inexorably toward failure/suicide?

Lowrey: Other than the willingness to talk to me, no.

Southworth: When I read one of your interviews, I always picture that guy from Inside the Actor’s Studio, except not really him but Will Ferrell dressed up as him on SNL. You know, with that big pile of blue cards and the funny voice? Remember that?

Lowrey: Will Ferrell. That guy. He’s such a symbol of the new generation of SNL, that was never able to recover from the Piscipo years. I mean, he’s funny and all … but where’s his Sinatra?

Also. Keep me out of your cosplay fantasies, okay?

Southworth: That was awesome.

Lowrey: Huh.

This isn’t really comics related, but it is a follow-up to our interview. In that interview, I talked about ScifiBabe. Well, ScifiBabe is now Pink Raygun, and it’s gone live at www.pinkraygun.com. Shameless press release follows. Thanks!!

Fleen: The main illustration credits the comic to “A.H./A.N.” – who am I talking to?

Alice Hunt: I’m Alice Hunt–I’m the writer, and letterer of the main comic, and the Sunday strip (Venus in Points) is all mine. The artist’s name is Aishath Nasir, but she’s shy.

Fleen: Tell us about your comic – what it’s about, where you’re trying to go, the whole deal.

A.H.: Goodbye Chains is about a Communist from Boston and the oversexed bank robber who ends up pressing him into service as his partner in crime. They are men of loose morals who thoroughly enjoy each other’s company, and who also thoroughly enjoy destroying key pieces of Western infrastructure. It’s less a webcomic than a graphic novel that you don’t pay for, and it’s an actual novel, rather than just a long comic. There are three volumes to it in total, running from early to late 1884, and to say any more would be spoiling it (especially given that the comic is still in early May). Also, it is as historically accurate as I can make it, right down to the version of the Communist Manifesto that Colin totes around. It’s a labor of love, and I’m very proud of it.

Unfortunately, it’s not a very commercial work, so I’ve decided to place it online to try and build an audience for an eventual print version. The change in the art style is in service of this goal; the idea is that the print version would be totally inked and finished as the first few dozen pages are, so that you’d have a real reason to buy the book beyond wanting to support us or having a copy you can read on the bus. We’re taking a page from DVD collections of TV shows, which seems to be the business model that bears the closest relationship to webcomics trying to make it into print.

Fleen: So you’d fold in your annotations from the forum, and add easter eggs like a pop-up panel or one of those sound-effect things like from the hallmark greeting cards – that kind of thing?

A.H.: No, not quite (though some annotations might find their way into the back if the pagecount allowed it). What I mean is that like webcomics, most TV shows are free, so why would anybody pay to have them in a quasi-physical form? Thinking of my own behavior, part of the reason is due to convenience (especially for older shows that rarely or never air anymore) or a desire to have all the episodes in one place so I can watch an entire season at once (like Arrested Development). But other shows, especially those in syndication, offer an additional value not just by adding deleted scenes and nifty little featurettes, but also by restoring scenes that originally belonged but that had to get cut for financial reasons, or by uncensoring some things that usually had been censored. I think if you can appeal to all three impulses–convenience, continuity, and completion–then you have a better chance of selling collections to more than just the hardest-core fans.

Fleen: What is the meaning of the name, Goodbye Chains?

A.H.: “Goodbye Chains” is the inscription on Colin’s first gun; it’s an adaptation of the last line of the Communist Manifesto, and it inspires Colin to go on his frankly pretty stupid mission to rid the West of capitalism by spectacular acts of domestic terrorism. There’s also some symbolic stuff in there somewhere, but spelling that out kind of ruins it, no?

Fleen: You’ve recently founded the Sugarskull collective. Tell us about your reasons for doing this, and how it’s working out so far.

A.H.: Sugarskull is a collective for comics that might not fit into any particular genre, but that are deserving of a wider audience regardless. For all the potential that the Internet has to connect readers with fresh new content, it can be damn near impossible to find an audience unless you fit into one of a very few genres (gamer, geek, or indie snob, mostly). Sugarskull is our way of making sure that good comics that don’t fit into these genres don’t fall through the cracks–and, while we’re at it, exposing fans of one quirky comic to others that they might like.

It’s working out very well so far. We got linked to by a couple of mainstream comic sites (and Warren Ellis watches us), and my audience has sustained a healthy bump. Plus, it’s nice not to work alone.

Fleen: What is the average size of your readership?

A.H.: It’s hard to tell; since the collective kicked up, it’s gotten significantly larger, and I have the feeling that a good chunk of my readers don’t check the site on every update day. If I had to guess, I’d say probably about 1000 readers? It’s very hard to say definitively.

Fleen: What’s your relationship with GirlWonder?

A.H.: I’m a friend of the people spearheading the initiative, and very grateful to them for the opportunity they’ve provided. The site is designed to improve the lot of women in comics (both mainstream and not so much), and part of that mission consists of providing resources to people who want to create but might not have the wherewithal to do it. In case you were wondering, they don’t have any editorial input into the comic; there is no sign reading, “You must be at least this feminist to have bandwidth here.” I’ve got the lever; Girl-Wonder gave me the place to stand. (And, I’ll note, access to an audience that might not normally seek out a webcomic, much less a Western.)

Fleen: Why did you decide to make a Communism based Western?

A.H.: Obviously, because I wanted to make the most popular comic of the early 21st century.

To be honest, I had the idea for Goodbye Chains so long ago (over five years, at this point) that I couldn’t really say; it just seemed like the thing to do. It’s certainly not because of my politics or my love for the genre, so I suppose that this was my attempt to create a Communist Western that I would like to read.

Fleen: What other kinds of things do you like to read? How does that influence what you do with your comic?

A.H.: I don’t read too much for pleasure because I’m busy and picky, unfortunately. I like One Piece and Death Note, as well as a few other Western comics (like Joann Sfar); John Hodgman‘s “The Areas of My Expertise” was probably the last prose book I had the time to pick up. I do love the Colbert Report, though, which does have a bit you read in the beginning and so should likely count.

I’m not really consciously aware of my influences, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Usually, when I read or watch something I like, it inspires me to work harder on my own stuff, instead of stealing characters or situations or jokes. As an artist, I don’t want to copy what someone else has done, even if I admire it; I want to write stories that only I can tell, and following someone else too closely diminishes my chances of saying something truly new. That comes up a lot when I’m doing Venus in Points, actually; I’ll hit upon what seems like a good punchline, but upon further inspection it’s too easy and too close to a hundred such jokes of that type, so I have to keep reworking the joke so it’s novel and therefore (hopefully) funny. I could go into further detail, but I suspect it would be boring.

Fleen: Why do you like to read stories about men with loose morals? Or, on the other hand, why do you like writing stories about men with loose morals?

A.H.: Well, probably because bastards and the unhinged are more interesting to read and write. Who would you rather watch a TV show about–Al Swearengen or the fat guy who runs the newspaper? One gets to drown junkies, while the other just combs his mustache.

Fleen: How do you think your comic compares to other Anarcho/Communo/Socialisto/Libertario-Western comics out there?

A.H.: It is superior to them in that it exists.

Fleen: What are the odds of a Pirate showing up in your comic? Are they better or worse than the odds of seeing a Ninja?

A.H.: Ninjie McPirawesome will be appearing roughly one month after the introduction of Fligsy, the megalomaniacal cyborg Chihuahua who wants to rule the world and tell Linux jokes in the offing (spoiler: he’s sarcastic!). His appearance will kick off a long time-traveling arc where Colin and Banquo must find a Wii nunchuk at retail or risk triggering the heat death of the universe.

Fleen: Why comics?

A.H.: The interactivity, mostly. Comics allow you to control the pacing of a scene better than books do, while at the same time allowing the reader to linger on those parts that he or she finds fascinating (which can’t be done with a movie). There’s also an immediacy to the visuals that a book can’t quite convey, and you can do some neat juxtaposition and formal tricks if you know what you’re doing. Jokes turn out especially well in comics; even if the punchline is kind of weak, a good drawing can save that, and since most of my writing is tongue-in-cheek I figured I may as well give myself the extra insurance that brings.

Fleen: What else do we need to know about you?

A.H.: I work the hardest to be the smartest?

Really, I got nothin’ right now. I’m working on a couple of other comics projects right now, including something with my sister Meg Hunt and another something with the lovely and fabulous Dean Trippe, but there’s not too much to discuss about them just yet. Other than that, I like miniature pinschers and tiny edible replicas of much larger foods.

Fleen: Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, or Castro?

A.H.: Trotsky, if only because his death should serve as ample warning to Colin to not let Banquo hold the axe.

Fleen: Why don’t you start us off with some shameless self-promotion.

Paul Southworth: Man, I’ve never been very good at self-promotion. Just ask anyone who’s ever seen me at a convention. Kellett and Guigar are masters at selling their work and the work of others, sidling up to potential buyers and not only convincing them to buy the book, but also making lifelong friends and potential organ donors. When somebody asks me what my comic is about, I immediately call up the pre-written summary I’ve got stored away in my head, but all that comes out is, “It’s about, uh, monsters…”, followed by awkward silence, shuffling of feet, and leaving; sans book.

Suffice to say that I draw a comic strip on the internet, and maybe if you have time you should read it. If you want. No pressure. OH! And also I’ll be appearing at Vericon at Harvard University on Saturday, January 27th on the Webcomics panel at 1:30.

I think my self-promotion glands are officially drained.

Fleen: Other than that, what’s up with your bad self?

PS: Well! Ugly Hill is currently halfway through its second year as a comic strip, and still running five days a week in full color, despite my diminishing buffer. Back in May 2005 I started this thing with a 6 week lead, but now I’m lucky if I can maintain a paltry two-week safety zone. Every unexpected family function and national holiday gets me one step closer to the crumbling precipice of failure! I’m not one of those guys who can just work day-to-day, and it’s a constant struggle to stay ahead.

Also, I just signed a contract with Viper Comics to run Ugly Hill on their website and publish future Ugly Hill collections, which is pretty awesome and terrifying!

Fleen: How did that deal come down?

PS: I heard about a contest Viper was holding to find a new webcomic to add to their existing quality lineup, “You’ll Have That” and “The Horrible Pirates”. I certainly wasn’t looking to leave Blank Label, but I knew Viper printed some great quality books, and I wanted in on that. Turns out Ugly Hill will be running on its current site and the Viper website, when the time comes.

It’s been my goal since I started doing this to see my stuff in print form, and even though I’ve already done a self-published book, it feels a little different when a company sees enough promise in your work that they’re willing to sink real money into printing an honest-to-god book of your comic strip. It’s a nice feeling, which is immediately overtaken by sheer terror and stomach pains. I’ve only recently signed the contract, so the wheels are just beginning to turn. Be assured that Fleen readers will be second only to me in knowing when the next book is coming out.

Fleen: Where did you learn to draw like that? Tell us about your influences.

PS: If there was something cartoony on TV as a kid, I watched it and was influenced by it. I wasn’t so much into G.I. Joe or Transformers (sorry Willis); I was more of a Ninja Turtles kid, which is pretty much all I drew between the ages of 10 and 15. After that, I was really influenced by shows like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, The Simpsons, Freakazoid!, Beetlejuice, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Eek the Cat. I think I stole most of my storytelling techniques from The Simpsons, but probably the show that most made me want to draw better was Ren and Stimpy. The range of expression John K. imbues in his characters is inspiring, and made me want to step my own drawing up a notch or three. Oh, and also I went to art school or something.

Fleen: Art School? Is that where you met your wife?

PS: We did go to college together, but we actually met in high school! Super-lame! We’ve been married for just over three years, but we’ve been together for ten. She was the first and last girl I ever dated, and vice-versa.

This is the part of the story where the eyebrows start to rise and the audience begins to snicker. But rest assured! My wife is the only one who settled. I’m just one of the lucky ones who got it right the first time.

Fleen: Why is rage such an important part of your artistic life?

PS: Probably because it’s such a non-existent part of my real life! I’m a pretty shy, quiet, mild-mannered hermit of a person. I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at anyone who was not a member of my immediate family, and I’ve certainly never been in a physical fight. I maintain a very calm exterior, but I do get a little hot under the collar at certain people occasionally, and it’s nice to have an outlet for that anger that won’t land me in a hospital or prison. Mostly I like the challenge of writing for a main character who is clearly the Biggest Jerk in the World, and trying to make him likable. It’s also fun to try to get to the roots of that anger, to make people understand where it comes from. I watched a lot of “All in the Family” as a kid, clearly. Give me a racist, loudmouthed, opinionated, pushy main character, and I’m a happy camper.

Fleen: What’s the worst mistake you’ve made in Ugly Hill?

PS: Ooh, good question. Probably the story where I had Eli and Snug meet “Matt Black”, an ex-Halloween store employee who got trapped under some boxes, and now haunted the stockroom as a ghost. It was the only time I really dipped into the realm of fantasy in the strip, which broke my unwritten rule about keeping the stories completely down-to-earth and realistic (to contrast the brightly-colored, Muppet-looking cast). Looking back on the story now, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense, and the ending is really sloppy. With every story I tell, I like to reveal something about the characters, and I don’t think that ghost story really cut it. Also, I tend to pick long surnames that take up a lot of space, like “Krauthammer”, and a new character I’m working on named “Ned Gooseberry”.

Man, if we’re gonna talk about mistakes I’ve made, we’ll be here all day! Let’s move on!

Fleen: How’s your ear?

PS: Ha! It’s fine, thanks for asking! I thought I had a wax buildup because my hearing has been pretty muffled over the past few days, but it turns out I have an excess of glue-like fluid behind my tympanic membrane. Gross! Now that I think about it, it has sounded like I’ve had a seashell glued to the side of my head for the last week. They’ve put me on a regimen of pills and things to squirt up my nose that should help with the drainage. Actually, I’m working it into a storyline! It’s all grist for the mill…

Fleen: A famous comedian once said “Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much much better.” How do you respond to this thought?

PS: Let’s not get into a comedian-quoting contest, Jeff. I’ll fire up the Mitch Hedberg Quote Machine. You’ll laugh harder than you ever thought possible, and then I’ll follow it up by telling you that he is dead, and that will make you incredibly sad. Then I’ll do some Brian Regan and you’ll laugh again. Eventually, we’ll both vomit and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

Fleen: Why do you think you’re hilarious?

PS: I don’t, but I HOPE I am. There’s a big difference! There’s not a comic I write that I don’t agonize over; adjusting the wording, making sure the timing is right, checking Google to see if the joke has been done before. I’ve re-typed this response about three times now, and I’m not even trying to be funny!

I think there’s a clear difference between people who think everything that drops out of the hole in their face is comedy gold, and people who constantly doubt themselves. It all comes down to self-criticism, and how much of it you’re willing to do in order to put out the best product possible. Sadly, without editors, the quality of webcomics (as opposed to newspaper comics) depends on artists and writers being honest with themselves about what’s good and what’s not, judging their own work more harshly than any reader would before it even gets in front of another pair of eyes. Unfortunately, there seems to be a shortage of that particular quality in webcomics, and that’s why we have 99% of them starring anime-ripoff characters rendered in ballpoint pen by what appears to be an arthritic blind hobo, with more jokes stolen from The Simpsons than the last three seasons of Family Guy combined. No wonder nobody takes us seriously!

The day I start thinking I’m hilarious is the day I quit drawing comics forever.

Fleen: Tartakovsky, Murray, Kricfalusi, or Hillenburg?

PS: You can’t possibly expect me to choose. I won’t name my favorite, but I’ll list why I love them all equally, you insensitive philistine.

Joe Murray because he always managed to sneak obscure adult jokes past Nickelodeon into Rocko’s Modern Life (like that time Rocko thought he was grabbing some berries off a bush but it was really a gorilla’s nuts). Also, whenever I read a comic book, I can’t help thinking to myself, “Turn the page, wash your hands.Turn the page, wash your hands…”. John Kricfalusi, of course, who I mentioned above, for his sheer genius in character design and range of expression (even though he seems like kind of an eletist tool in real life). Hillenburg… man, don’t even get me started. If you saw how much Spongebob merchandise I had in my house, you’d think I was either mentally handicapped or trying to lure kids into my Pederast Mobile. And Tartakovsky… well, he’s obviously great, but I was never a fanatic about either Dexter or Samurai Jack. So I guess he’s my least favorite of the four.

Now I feel bad.

Fleen: Why is the future full of bright, shiny colors?

Lisa Fary/John Dallaire: John has color deficient vision, and if all the colors get too close in value, he has a hard time distinguishing one from the other. It’s also a retro future, a future that was imagined in the fifties and sixties.

Fleen: Do the aliens in your comic smell bad?

LF/JD: Quieghel smells bad when he’s in mating season, but to his species it’s a powerful musk. Mr. Ccchh smells like swamp taint. However, in the future, everybody has a universal smell translator installed in their nose, so everything smells like petunias and brownies. Except for petunias and brownies, which, due to hacker activity, smell like poop.

Fleen: Wait… doesn’t that mean that poop smells like petunias and brownies? So… petunias and brownies smell like poop which smells like petunias and brownies which smell like poop…. HELP. SOMEONE GET ME OFF THIS CRAZY THING.

LF/JD: Hey, poop is a state of mind. Sounds like you’re stuck in a Poop Loop.

Fleen: John’s a professional free-lance illustrator – what does Lisa do for money?

LF/JD: Lisa is a special education teacher for an online high school.

Fleen: What’s the average ratio of original content to pop-culture reference per panel?

LF/JD: Lisa can’t answer this because she’s horrible with numbers. When you get right down to it, most of it is pop culture reference, right down to some character’s names. Jenny Anydots is a reference to Cats. Ginsburg, who hasn’t been introduced in the comic yet is a reference to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s verbal mishap. In a speech, she meant to say “international law”, but she actually said “intergalactic law”.

Fleen: How many times have you made a fart joke at the expense of Ms. Anydots?

LF/JD: So far, only two or three times. Her species is feline; have you ever smelled a cat’s ass?

Fleen: What do we need to know about you that you haven’t told anyone else?

LF/JD: Intergalactic Law has been invited to be part of Graphic Smash. We’ll become part of that community this spring. This February, we’re launching ScifiBabe.com, a webzine geared toward the non-militant, modern fangirl, but where fanboys are welcome, too. In the first month, we already have several interviews scheduled with indie actresses, manga artists and costume designers. We’re interested in working with female webcomic writers and artists for ScifiBabe.

Fleen: What’s the motivation for starting ScifiBabe?

LF/JD: It started when Lisa was looking for girl-oriented scifi sites to promote IGL. Most of her Google searches involving the terms “female” and “scifi” was resulting in one of two extremes: the hot chicks of scifi or feminist scifi theory. All she wanted looking for was a fun, shiny place where girls were talking about scifi, which wasn’t out there. Lisa would have just written a snarky blog post or Sequential Tart article about it if John hadn’t poked her in the butt and pushed her to do something more proactive.
ScifiBabe hasn’t lauched yet, but it’s already getting a good response. Based on the number of interview queries Lisa sent out, she’s had about 75% positive response rate, not just agreeing to do the interviews, but on the concept in general. It’s clearly a market that isn’t being addressed. ScifiBabe goes live on February 1st.

Fleen: Why did you decide to go with a blog style format for your website?

LF/JD: So Lisa could do posts from anywhere, without having to email them to John for posting. Since we’re updating on a regular basis with more than just a comic strip, we went with a blog format because they are more readily ranked by search engines.

Fleen: How did your collaboration come about – what’s the real story?

LF/JD: Well, John was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar … no, not really.

It’s not so much a collaboration as it is an intelletual Bartertown, with John as Tina Turner and Lisa as Master Blaster. We’re building a Thunderdome in the backyard to settle any creative differences that pop up.

We were working on some ideas for Rocket Pirate. We came up with IGL after watching too many episodes of Boston Legal and Star Trek back to back. When we were ready to submit by Ellis‘ original deadline, we found out that he had been swamped with submissions and closed them early. So, we bought the domain name and started doing it ourselves.

Fleen: You wrote this experience up into your comic – was that after the fact, or part of your hook for getting accepted at Rocket Pirate?

LF/JD: It was after the fact. We actually abandoned our hopes for Rocket Pirate when we found out that submissions had been closed early. We were pretty frustrated and felt it was appropriate to turn that frustration into something creative, if not mocking. As it turns out, we’re glad we didn’t carry on with Rocket Pirate because of the launch difficulties they’re experiencing over there. However, we’re glad the call for submissions got put out there, because we probably wouldn’t have started this webcomic.

Fleen: What makes your comic stand out in the crowd of other alien legal dramedy comics?

LF/JD: Are there any others? In general, we made very informed decisions from the beginning. We knew we wanted it to have a retro sci-fi feel, so John made artistic choices to make it look like a comic drawn in the seventies. Lisa worked on developing the characters before she even wrote the first episode. Also, we’re not really interested in working with trends and what’s popular; we do what we think is funny. There’s got to be others out there with the same sort of twisted thinking as us.

Fleen: What’s your experience with ClickWheel been like?

LF/JD: Uneven. There were too many technical issues with uploading for a while, so John gave up. However, he did switch the formatting on the comic to accommodate ClickWheel. Tim Demeter said those technical issues are being hammered out. Once we’re notified of the re-launch, we’ll be more active on ClickWheel.

Fleen: Tell us about your past endeavors with comics.

LF/JD: John had a Single Page published in Cerebus Biweekly around issue 18 or so. He also designed T-shirts for the characters in the Tank Girl film adaptation, which led to doing the same for REM’s video “Crush with Eyeliner”. He also did some garment design and separations for Adhesive Comics back when Too Much Coffee Man was part of that crew. John has tried creating properties before this, but has gotten bogged down by the writing.
Other than reading one issue of her older brother’s Akira stash in the early 90s, Lisa has very little experience in comics. Lisa has had several false starts with novels and short story collections, but didn’t seem to have the attention span to finish them. When she was an English teacher, she wanted to use comics with her students to teach reading comprehension; however that was discouraged by the school. Intergalactic Law is the first comic she’s written.

Fleen: You’ve kind of already answered this question, but I’m not clever enough to come up with a replacement:
L.A. Law, Ally McBeal, Single Female Lawyer, or Boston Legal?

LF/JD: For John it’s Boston Legal and L.A. Law. L.A. Law came on after Lisa’s bedtime back in the day, so mostly Boston Legal for her. Part of the Boston Legal inspiration comes from William Shatner, who’s brilliant.

Fleen: Why don’t you start us off with some self-indulgent retrospective commentary about your comic?

Ben Stirling: When I started doing Patrick Grey, my whole original plan was to do up a package of 24 strips, send it off to a major synidicate, get accepted, give a big old finger to my retail job, and go enjoy my cartooning career. Thinking back on it now, that was kinda like walking up to a giant troll named Reality, kicking it in the nuts, and yelling “I’m bigger than you!” After a month of hearing nothing (an outrage in my mind, since I was expecting United Media to specially courier a syndication deal to me, carried by magical fairies or somesuch) I finally started to listen to my girlfriend’s advice about putting my comic up on the web. My usual response to that advice was “Why would I want to do that? Internet comics are crappy!” but desperation was sinking in, so on January 30th, Patrick Grey was released to the world. The fact that I thought my comic about a bitter, angry guy was going to storm the internet with it’s originality just shows that I knew about as much about webcomics as I did about syndicates.
Short version of that story: I really needed a way out of my retail job, and I wasn’t about to let piddly concerns like reality or a lack of talent get in my way.

Fleen: What is the most compelling thing people should know about patrickgreyonline?

Ben: I think it has strong characters. I really try to avoid doing the stereotyped characters, because I have no interest in comics that just throw an angry guy and a stupid guy together in a room, and then just make the punchline some overly creative insult from angry guy to stupid guy. I try to add just a bit more depth to my characters, because it gives a little more varience to the interaction. I also try to keep things pretty gender friendly. There’s quite a bit of sexism in webcomics, and I hate the typical assumption that a girl character needs to be about sex. That doesn’t feel real to me, almost as if some cartoonists don’t get exposed to that many girls (obviously I like picking fights). Although Patrick’s sister is pretty boy-crazy, but that’s more to make a joke about Patrick’s overprotectiveness.

Fleen: Is it fair to say that you try to put more depth into the writing of your characters than the drawing of your characters?

Ben: Ouch, that seemed a little backhanded. It’s true, though. I try to keep the drawings fairly simple, partly to focus on the writing and partly to keep the workload low. I also went to design school, so the phrase ‘less is more’ is kinda seared into my brain.

Fleen: How does it feel to be almost one year old?

Ben: I’m still wondering where that damn syndication offer is. Maybe it got lost in the mail. It honestly doesn’t feel that long. I think most of us in comics don’t even notice the time passing, since we’re all so damn busy trying to meet our deadline. Then we stop, look back and realize “Holy crap, I’ve been doing this for free for that long? And I’ve done how many strips?”

Fleen: What color is your angst?

Ben: Grey, usually. Brown if it’s nice out.

Fleen: How would you describe your drawing style?

Ben: Architectural, I guess. I went to school for Interior Design, and did a lot of drafting while I was there. When I started developing Patrick Grey, I was actually going to have the drawings more like the old Asterix comics, but then I noticed all these straight lines and and crisp angles creeping in. I think the final result ended up looking pretty unique.

Fleen: Tell us about what’s coming in the new year.

Ben: Of the many story arcs I have written and carefully stashed away, this year will probably feature some of the following stories: Tim gets a girlfriend, Abby pulls an all-nighter (for school, not with a boy), Patrick gets dragged to any number of events against his will, and possibly even some heavier, “real life” kinda stuff. Oh, and Patrick and Tim get transported back in time, fight dinosaurs and then get transported to the middle ages, where they are delighted to find out that they get a harem, only to be shocked by how hairy and ugly the women are. I figure I had to eventually do a more “webcomic” plotline. (there I go with the damn fight-picking again)

Fleen: What’s your favorite kind of Dorito? Defend your answer

Ben: Cool Ranch. It makes my taste buds feel complete.

Fleen: What other webcomics do you read regularly? Do you consider yourself to be part of a webcomics community?

Ben: I read Brinkerhoff and A Softer World pretty religiously. I also check out Taking the Bi-Pass and Gingerdead whenever I can, but they’re also friends of mine, so I guess that taints my reasons a bit. For a while I was really trying to become a major player in the webcomics community; I bombarded forums, requested reviews, bought ad space, joined a collective (Hyena Comics), and continuously struggled for a high rank on The Webcomic List. Eventually I became tired, or bitter, and have since stopped trying. My view now is that I sit off in the corner of the class, doing my own thing. If people want to come by and see what I’m doing, that’s cool, but if not I’ll keep doing it anyways. The Webcomic List doesn’t even register when I update anymore, but I don’t even bother submitting any requests to fix it.

Fleen: Are you still working retail?

Ben: No, I’ve since escaped, and now I’m an intern for a video game company. That always makes people think I like gamer comics, which I quickly correct them on. I do still have a lot of friends in retail though, so I like featuring Patrick’s retail job as a laugh for them. (and as a way of purging my own retail flashbacks)

Fleen: Have you changed your mind about seeking syndication?

Ben: Syndication holds no interest for me anymore. When I was originally developing the strip with syndication in mind, I tended to censor myself quite a bit, and was wary of delving too far into storylines or serious topics. I think ultimately that would have limited what I could do with my characters.

Fleen: Do you think you’ll make two years? How is the relationship with the deadline going?

Ben: Yeah, barring total burnout I should make two years. I still have a lot planned for my characters.

Fleen: The majority of your strips are in black and white. What are the constraints you feel preventing you from doing more color work? Have you considered sticking to bi-tone work, but not strictly black and white?

Ben: I honestly just like the black and white style more. Color is fun, but it’s an added layer of work for me, and I don’t feel it really adds anything. I had one strip where I threw in a layer of grey, but I had a good reason to do so.

Fleen: Do they teach you how to paint walls at Interior Design school?

Ben: No, Interior Designers have contractors to do that for them. I?m still getting quotes on contractors to do Patrick Grey for me.

Fleen: Tell us about your fans.

Ben: I think a number of my fans are people who don?t necessarily read a lot of webcomics, or at least those are the fans who contact me more. I know my hardcore base of fans is still the staff at my old job (the Indigo bookstore at the Toronto Eaton Centre). That’s probably pretty lame, maybe one step below ‘My mom is my biggest fan!’ but I don’t really care. Even if my friends were the only ones still reading Patrick Grey I’d continue doing the strip for them.

Fleen: Pei, Wright, Geary or van der Rohe?

Ben: van der Rohe. If nothing else, for the timeless quote “God is in the detail”