Knave of Krypton: Tell us a little about how you guys found one another and collaborated?
John Zakour: I heard about Zuda and knew I wanted to enter Demons in it . I work with a number of different artists but none of them were right for Demons. So I posted a couple of "help wanted" ads on sites artist types hang out at. I offered money in advance , a lot of people applied. I thought Amy's style worked the best.
Amy Watson: John put up an ad on OnlineComics.net. I answered it since he actually offered payment, and most would be writers who advertise on forums don't... Most (usually very amateur writers) expect artists to see how "fantabulous" their mediocre work is and offer to work like dogs for nothing. Anyway, as it turned out, John is a published author with a number of books, scripts, comics, etc. at companies with recognizable names, and he's over 13, so that made him a diamond in the rough on the internet. Although, I think that particular ad was for someone to do a graphic novel version of one of his sci-fi stories. He suggested I illustrate Demons in the Closet later after seeing my comic work, unless I'm mixing them up. He's sent me scripts and story concepts for a lot of different projects. He's not a one-hit-wonder, for sure. He might be better at pitching than writing though; he's so prolific on ideas.
JZ: Could this perhaps read: EVEN better at pitching...
AW: I suppose it could be changed to that. :P
KofK: Wow, so John, you believed in your project enough that you were willing to pay to get it made?
JZ: Short answer: Yes. Longer Answer: Oh yeah.
AW: John's a professional writer. If he didn't believe he would get paid by Zuda, he would not have paid me. Furthermore, why bother submitting at all if you don't think you have a good chance of success? If we were just doing this for fun, we could have made a goofy webcomic and posted it on a webcomic community site or a personal site and avoided a lot of stress.
KofK: Why do you think it takes that to get an artist you're comfortable working with? I know a lot of people who cannot find artists to collaborate with them, who'll go into as a joint venture, and I know a lot of artists who flat our refuse to work on spec. Why do you think the writers have to shoulder the financial burden?
AW: Frankly, I don't need a writer. I can write and draw, which makes me a one man (woman) show.
JZ: Frankly, I don't need an artist either, I just would have had to do Demons in stick figures (ala Avast Ye) and while that worked for Avast it wouldn't have worked for Demons.
AW: Hey, Avast Ye did much better than I thought it would. Don't knock stick people too much.
In fact, if I didn't write my own stories, I wouldn't have gotten into comics at all. I would work as an architectural draftsman and draw ponies as a hobby (or gotten more deeply into civil engineering or architecture). However, though I don't really need a writer, I do need money. I have a work at home job so that I have the time I need to work on my comics, but it doesn't pay well at all. If someone wants to pay me a decent amount to do a task that I do everyday anyway, I'm likely to take them up on their offer. So, if John had just said, "Here's my story, will you draw it?" I would have said no. Even if he'd said, "Here's my story; if you draw it and we win then you can have half the money," I would have said no, because I 've been burned on that kind of thing before. A certain person told me he had an inside track with an editor at a certain company that printed graphic novels, and he asked me to do character designs for his story submission, which was sure to be printed since he'd been published there before. This person didn't pay me and ended up going with another artist, so I got nothing for my time and effort and can't even do anything with the art because the characters aren't mine.
AW (cont'd): A writer who is not also artistically (visual arts) talented has quite a problem on his hands if he wants to make comics, which are a visual medium. He must find someone who can not only draw well, but who can lay out pages and panels in a logical, appealing manner. Drawing pages takes a great deal of time, not to mention all the equipment and software involved, which can be expensive. A comic artist is like a draftsman. If someone is going to ask him or her to do spec work, I think it only fair to compensate for the skilled labor involved. Comics probably take more work than any other form of commercial art, yet pay the least (for the time invested). The writer is the one who is most attached to a story. It is his creation, his baby, and usually, his copyright. Therefore it is on his head to do what is required to get the story published, which includes hiring and paying an artist.
JZ: That's why writers whine so much.
AW: If the writer happens to know an artist personally, and the artist likes his work, then the artist may work for free, especially if the artist contributes significantly to the plot. This happens, but it's pro bono, and not something a writer should expect. The artist may bail on the project whenever he gets bored, since the project is effectively just a hobby. He's not under any contract, nor does he have any professional responsibility to the writer. It's a big deal to ask someone to illustrate a full length series. It's also very difficult for the artist, since he doesn't know what the writer is thinking, and scripts are often either not descriptive enough, or too insanely micromanagingly descriptive, or try to cram too much into too little space, or something. I've worked on scripts for a handful of writers, and it's always been a headache to convert the text into pencils, if only due to the fact that I wasn't the one that originally imagined the scene. This is one of the reasons many artists refuse to do work for hire.
KofK: Back to Demons itself: where did the idea for this series come from?
JZ: The series actually started a couple of years ago when a company that no longer exists asked me to produce "some sort of magna" for them. The only specifications they gave me is, "it has to be like Death Note and Bleach but different and fun and happier." The concept I came up with was Demons. The company never got to see it because they decided they wanted to get out of comics.
KofK: What are some of the ideas you had that didn't make it?
JZ: Well first I had one about a kid coming from a planet with a red sun, then one about a kid who watches his parents get murdered and become a vigilante, then I had an idea about a kid who gets bitten by a radioactive spider. But then I found out all those were already taken, I was pretty bummed. Then I came up with this concept.
For a while it was called Demons in the Workforce and was all going to place in the DMV, but then I figured, "nah, too realistic." I also toyed with the idea of "Demons coming out of the Closet" about a bunch of demons who stop hiding their sexual preferences but then I figured that's been done to death!
AW: Oh darn, you know, I would have loved that. Somehow I don't think this is the right audience for that, though.
JZ: I kicked around the idea of Dancing with Demons, where each week a different demon would dance with a popular star and then eat them but then I figured FOX must be working on this concept already.
AW: With the writer's strike to contend with, what else can they do?KofK: What are some of your influences?
JZ: That's a pretty personal question! Or you mean on my writing. I come from the pulp SF and cartooning world so I'd have to say: Douglas Adams and Charles Schutlz and Tom Seaver. I'd like to think Ghandi, Einstein, Divinci and Ben Franklin have played in my career but they probably haven't. Though I bet Ben would have loved Demons in the Closet.
AW: Since 2003 my work has been predominantly manga/anime influenced. I fell in love with the beautiful backgrounds and character designs in Escaflowne, Miazaki's works, especially Howl's Moving Castle, and assorted other series. Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, and Inuyasha are also heavily reflected in my work, both by way of character designs and emotional content. Of course I grew up with Disney, Dreamworks, etc. so movies like Fern Gully, The Secret of NIMH, The Lion King, Titan AE, and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron form the basis of what I think a graphic story should look and feel like. I flirted briefly with superhero comics, like Wolverine, The X-Men, Spiderman, and Batman, but presently I prefer softer character designs and supernatural content rather than pseudo science and utility belts. I enjoy stories that provoke a lot of emotion; otherwise I get bored and can't work on them for long.
KofK: What are you trying to do with this strip?
JZ: Make money and entertain people. Not necessarily in that order. It's meant to be a long range kind of project. For instance it ends with Sky becoming president.
AW: Demons in the Closet means a lot of different things to me. If it wins the contract, this will be the first time I've done work for a large company. It would be a validation that I can eek out a living as an artist, which is rather important since to my parent's horror I pretty much threw away a lucrative career path in order to work in comics, which is not exactly known for high salaries, when it pays at all. Actually, I suppose at this point I can say I've done fairly well, since we've made it into the competition, at least, and what's more, we're not dead last in the rank or anything. This is also practice for me, since I'm the sort that does epics (my webcomic, Crowfeathers, is now at 27 chapters and barely begun). My goal is to become the best graphic storyteller of my generation (small goal, yes), so the more comic stories I can manage to complete (either as illustrator or writer-illustrator), the better. This will be my second stab at illustrating a campy, comedy style story. My personal preference when I write is drama interspersed with light comedic moments, so working on this story, which is comedy sprinkled with dramatic moments, will be an interesting change.
KofK: Care to tease any of the other demons we might meet? Are any of them more sinister than the friendly two we've met thus far?
JZ: Ah, yes. The first two are the mellow demons. Others aren't big fans of humans they think they are wastes of molecules (except they love Dick Cheney for some reason.) Of course Amasta has an agenda of her own also. Part of the "hidden message" of Demons is things aren't always how they appear, the world has more shades of gray then we can comprehend. and one person (or demons) good is another's bad or real bad.
KofK: Amy, I noticed you drew yourself into one panel of this series. Was that your idea or was that in John's script?
JZ: That was all Amy's idea. Her quest for the limelight. :)
AW: Yes, that was my idea. It just seemed like the kind of story that would break the fourth wall, make pop culture references, and all that sort of thing. I probably shouldn't have done it, since that sort of thing ticks off the erudite comic critic elitists to no end, but then, it didn't seem to me that this particular story was a work of high brow literature. It's not as low brow as Ren and Stimpy, of course, but certainly campy and not too far removed from Futurama or Disney's Aladdin (specifically referring to Robin Williams' character, "Genie"). At least that was my take on it.
JZ: That's a pretty fair take on it. Especially since I am now pitching Futurama stories to Bongo. (Like Sage says I write a lot.)
AW: I can't say that I know the entire script, and I'm not even sure whether it's entirely fleshed out.
JZ: It's fleshed out but not all written. The next 8 pages are drafted so if DC said, "You win you go live next week" I'm ready for that. I do know where the story is headed but we're at the point where we could still modify things depending on what the readers like and don't like and how things jive and technical stuff like that.
AW: John's sci-fi novels are meant for the pulp fiction crowd. It's also a common feature in manga for the mangaka (head artist) to add editorial commentary either within the story pages or as a quickie comic between chapters or at the beginning or end of a graphic novel volume, so since this was meant to be manga-styled, it seemed appropriate.
KofK: Anything else you'd like to say?
AW: Please vote for us, the winter is oh so cold, and heating oil is so expensive... a contract would be so very nice...
Seriously though, I wish the best to everyone. I thought several of the other entries were worth following regularly, so I hope the contestants consider continuing their comics elsewhere if they don't win. If we don't win this round, I expect we will enter again either together or separately, possibly both, as time allows. I'm not sure what will become of Demons, but we'll see. Also, if you like my work, you can check out my webcomic, Crowfeathers, at http://www.crowfeathers.net.
JZ: Well I'd like say a vote for us is a vote for world peace, but that's probably not true. I've been really impressed with the wide array of talent this month in Zuda, I wish the others luck but I still want to win.
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