This is the result of not having the Drunkduck interviews updated. I decided to conduct my own interviews for the enjoyment of hearing what people have to say about their art. In future issues I hope to interview local artists, illustrators, as well as webcomic artists.
Our first interviewed famous person is Kristen Gudsnuk. She creates webcomics at drunkduck.com, is an anime fan, and loves to make fun of emos. Her webcomic Misfit Assassins is about five psychotic yet goofy teenagers trying to straighten out their pasts as members of the Party of Peace's Assassin squad.
Real Name: Kristen Gudsnuk
Age: 19
Creator of the webcomic: Misfit Assassins
Jillyfoo: How long have you been into webcomics?
Kristen: Well, I didn't even know that they existed until last October. I had been working on my comic just for fun, and forcing all of my friends to read it, when someone said, "You should make this into a webcomic." Misfit Assassins isn't the first comic I've ever drawn, but it's my first webcomic.
Jillyfoo: What's the webcomic that got you into webcomics or (comics or manga?)
Kristen: I'll have to blame everything on my little brother. He made me watch anime, and I'm probably genetically predisposed to otakudom, so it just seemed a natural step to make my own manga. But the deciding factor was (get ready, I'm a nerd) watching Naruto. I thought, "wow! This show is well-written, beautifully animated, and it makes me cry a lot! I shall aspire to this amazingness!"
Jillyfoo: WHAT is your quest!?
(what's the goal of your comic makingness? Why are you doing what you do?)
Kristen: Well, I sort of view Misfit Assassins as a training-ground. I've already learned so much about making comics, and about writing and pacing, and there's a lot more for me to learn. So I'm doing this to solidify my skills and to improve at drawing and stuff. When I finish (which will be in a really long time; the story is pretty complicated in my mind), I plan on winning Rising Stars Of Manga (yeah! WINNING!!!) and then skyrocketing to worldwide acclaim and fame.
Jillyfoo: WHAT is your favorite color?
(Do you prefer black and white or color comics? and why?)
Kristen: My favorite color is SPARKLE!
I personally like to do my comics in black and white because it's faster, and because there's a higher margin of error when using color. Ok, so mostly because I'm lazy! ^^!!
Jillyfoo: I know assassin stories are real common place in the webcomic world, Misfit Assassins feels different though. It's hilarious. How did you come up with Misfit Assassins? How do you come up with stories in general?
Kristen: Well, before I rediscovered anime, I was toying with the idea of writing a short story about friends who get driven by evil old society to rob a restaurant and try to run away, and the story was going to be all about the naivete of childhood and the whole "the best laid plans of mice and men" kind of theme. (It's still in there, though, vaguely! That's Tom and Bertha's past, although they rob a convenience store!) But then I was bored at work and thought, "what if I made my story into a comic?" I thought that if it was going to be a manga, it needed to be over-the-top rather than really introspective, so I threw in superpowers, a futuristic setting, and assassins! And voila!
The story itself isn't really about assassinating people. It's more focused on the "Misfit" part ^_-! In other words, I've been trying to make character development a priority!
Although further along in the comic, there will be more "assassin" business... deep down, this comic is (well... more like, "will aim to be") about the ineffectiveness of government, and yet the pointlessness of revolt. I don't want to spoil anything though!!! (But some major, crazily unexpected plot twists are ahead, in the distant future, and you'd have to be reading my comic with a microscope to pick up on the vague foreshadowing.)
Jillyfoo: I love Eve and Flipper! How did you come up with those pair?
Kristen: I figured that everyone has their tragic pasts in Misfit Assassins, and it would get really dull if everyone wandered around like Tom, clutching their broken emo-hearts. So I wanted Eve to be non-scarred, buoyant and hardy; to recover easily, etc. Even though she doesn't have parents, she's not too bothered by it, because she has Flipper!!!! They're BFFs!!
Jillyfoo: What's with the emo jokes? Where did they come from?
Kristen: Well, when I decided to make a comic, it was in the middle of watching the Haku/Zabuza arc of Naruto. And that story arc was so depressing. Like, it makes your soul bleed. And I thought, "So that's the key to awesomeness! Maudlin, shameless emotionality!" I decided to make my comic as EMO AS POSSIBLE! Tom's got a dead girlfriend and a dead family that he may or may not have killed, King has a cursed eye that has caused lots of problems in his life, Leif and Erika have tragipasts that I shall not disclose... Zombie? I can't even go there! And much later (after the CRAZY PLOT TWIST!) there will be this other character whose sole passion was playing the piano... and whose arms are severed and replaced with giant metal claw things. (I'm a mean author!) But even though while brainstorming I literally thought, "What's the most depressing thing... ever? Dead babies? hmm..." I wanted my comic to be kinda funny too. So I sometimes give it a self-mocking, silly tone.
Jillyfoo: Your work has changed a lot since the beginning... many different materials. Any favorites you use?
Kristen: Well, I really like using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop. I used to not even have a mouse or drawing program other than MS Paint on my computer, so digital art was out of the question then. If I could grasp screentoning I would do it... in fact, my goal for this next plot arc is to do it all in Manga Studio.
Jillyfoo: Top favorite webcomic?
Kristen: HARD QUESTION!!! I have a lot of favorites! Here are some: Rainbow Carousel, Lola, I Come From Mars, Am I Still Here, and of course, the greatest one-paged webcomic ever made, The Killer Reaper!!!
Jillyfoo: Top favorite newspaper comic strip?
Kristen: ... .. I used to like Fox Trot... *cries*
Jillyfoo: Top Favorite country-of-origin comic?
Kristen: probably... Ghost World or something. ALTHOUGH! My brother's friend's mom's cousin is the guy who makes "Bone"! Isn't that COOOOL?
Jillyfoo: Top Favorite manga?
Kristen: ooh, hard one. I really liked Midori Days, and Gravitation, Deathnote, OnePiece, and FMA. Oh, and Ouran High School Host Club!
2 comments:
Interesting Idea!
Thanks for writing this.
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