Canadian Web Comic Interviews

"Q" adn "Neo" Author of "GraveRiver High"

Q: 22, living with sister, goin' to college. I was born in New Westminster, BC. I was delivered through Caesarean.
The umbilical Cord was strangling me. Dad died of cancer when I was 14, mom moved to Washington last year. Neo and I met in High school, grade 11 and 9, espectively.

Neo: I'm 21, 5'3" (short Canadian), female born in Maple Ridge but living in a dinky lil town called Poco. I live with my grandparents while my little teenage brother angsts like a little girl and jumps from here to our parents place. I'm taking a programmer analyst/ web development course. My game plan is that with a stable job I can throw my art and people and hopefully take a few eyes out-- er- I mean catch a few eyes.
I mainly [play] computer or videogame. I have a tendency to over worry, be paranoid and obsess over things I really like. I have an odd sense of humour and love it. I love to draw and rolePlay. I can be super social for a few days and loner the next two weeks. I click well with those who share a common interest with me; especially if its art.

[snip]

What web comics do you manage?
Q: Well, Back in 2000 Neo, myself and two other girls started GraveRiver High. Unfortunately, the other two lost interest. GRH is a comic about a school built on the shores of a flooded graveyard. GRH is loosely based on our high school.
I do an autobiographical webcomic called A Girl Called Kermit. It's pretty bare, since its my catharsis, and I'm pretty sorted out right now.

Neo: I also do my own comic called CrazyAngels about a bunch of pretty boys in high school slowly losing their minds.
Another I do which is currently on hiatus is Scribble: Furries + Too much free time = RandomChaos.

For readers not familiar with your work, can you tell us something about your web comics?
Q:GRH has a lot of history. It's been through the ringer and back, on and off hiatus, swarmed by irritating fans, subject of personal grief and bickers, but also a thing of pride. It's sentimental, and for that reason, it's still alive.

Neo: Its proof of what determination and sheer mule stubbornness can do. It's been two brief comics in the high school newspaper "The Eddie" to a ... Q give me an adjective to describe what it was like online at DreamWater -

Q: inexperienced.. new... virgin!

Neo: -basically. From there it went to keenspace.com , comic hosting central... where the hosting went up and down like... Q give me example of something that goes up and down -

Q: Pendulum! no that doesn't go up and down. Escalator- a broken one. Pogo stick- a fully functional one.

Neo: And there it has stayed.

Q: A Girl Called Kermit is an autobiographical webcomic about the sicker things in life. Two years ago, I was in a bad physical condition. I was in so much pain I just wanted to tear myself open and take out the hurt. I was half asleep and angstingly thinking "Why me?" Somehow I was reminded of the better things in life- like The Maxx. From a quote, a little 'me' was born, and Kermit offered me a way to vent. Because it's such a personal comic, AGCK's style isn't my 'usual' one..but it's very appropriate and atmospheric I find.

Neo: For information about CrazyAngels it would be best to read up on its FAQ page. There's a good lot of info there and goes into greater detail about "Why".

Scribble was the first online comic I ever did. The characters of the comic are actually pulled characters from an original personal series of mine.
Basically Scribble comics are the characters of that series bent out on doing random strange things that have nothing to do with said series at all. There is no real plot. It started with me doodling strips back in high school, scanning them and putting them online. Really bad and really old- I decided to re-do the online comic. Drawing the strips straight out in Photoshop instead of drawing and scanning- like I do in CrazyAngels. A much cleaner and faster way to do pages. Its kind of settle on the back burner for life and lack of time, sadly.

What other writing or comics have you worked on?
Q: I did a fan comic for KarvaKomix a few years back. Neo and I also freeform role-play original characters, and write fanfiction. Most of the fics can be found at our Fic archive.

Neo: I've tried to get together with other people writing and drawing other online comics with them but it always seems to die in the end. I was sucked into drawing a comic with other friends back in the high school days- but the comic went for 3 pages; the writer gave up and the other artist couldn't care less. We have hopes and plans to do other things together and on our for publishing purposes in the near future ie like Fweee: which basically is our lives and our zany hijinx- it makes God cry. [Q and I] also co-run a online Sailormoon rpg called Asylum: A perfect world.[snip]

What was the first online comic you ever read?
Q: Sinfest, Wendy and Thin H Line...Remember when it was called THL? Neo: Wendy (Josh wishes he was Canadian), Thin H Line, Bob and George, A Demon Called Pooka, Tei and Riki, Dramane Grooves (when it was still called that) and Living in Grey Town.

What were your favorite comics growing up?
Q: Can I go on a lil tangent about this please? X-men! X-Men!! My dad and I watched it every Saturday morning, along with Spiderman and The Tick.
If not for him, I wouldn't even be into comics...I grew up with X-men and when he died, I inherited his Marvle's from the 60's to 80's. I also dipped my toes into more unknown regions, I loved The Maxx, and Sam Keith's work, The Darkness and stuff when I was about 18. I still buy Darkness, though I miss the humour in it, and to me, it'll forever be Silvestri's book.

Neo: I was the amazing neopolitan sponge of comics. I had this talent of sucking each and every flavour of comic into my vast and yet very odd comic collection. (I blame the cheap Liquidation sale at some WareHouse). But I'd have to say my VERY first favourites were the cheap thick Archie comics and Sonic the hedgehog. From Archie I learned to draw hands by staring at them. (Batman taught me feet). I was a REAL big fan of Sonic back when Genisis was the king. Twas where my avatar/ online alias bloomed from and a whole series of characters- which is basically where Scribble derived from. Its just one big cycle ain't it? Another lucky fav was Hamster Vice (humanoid hamsters kicking some butt with guns). Later on I was introduced to "manga" and the wild world of "anime". My taste for it has matured much over the years.

Tell us how you landed began working on your web comic.
Q: The four of us, along with the school Librarian, and two guys were in the comic book club, that is, stocking our library with a selection of comic books to encourage the disabled kids to read...Somehow, the subject of a school comic for the school paper came up. After a few days of discussion, the characters were chosen, and the plot (heh..plot...funny) set up and voila. Neo did the first few comics, and one of the girls was supposed to send three strips to the editor of the paper, but she didn't, and as such, GRH was just in one issue (along with a misspelled name, and improper credit, which was later rectified)

Neo: Copy and pasted from the good 'ol FAQ.

Tell us how you acquired your artistic skills. Q: Practice, and an unhealthily vast amount of self consciousness. Those aside, I found staring at other's work, without(I repeat: Without) copying the said image helped me greatly. I found anatomy in the oddest ways. Comics, Posters, my bathroom mirror. Did you know that if you place your palm on your face, your whole hand can take up most your face? THAT's how I learned how to do hand-head size relation.

Neo: I picked up a pencil. When I was a wee lass I used to draw with my grandmother while watching cartoons. We used to draw characters like My Little Ponys and Pinocchio playing around and imagine we were them. I would point to the screen and ask my grandmother to draw a character I liked- she did and then I would. I never felt self conscious or inferior to cartoon commercial images- I always had this little arrogance about me. I guess that's how I really bettered myself. I suppose that's where the roots of rping and drawing came for me. Later I would say Recently Life Drawing has really been a big boost for me as well.

What artists have inspired/influenced your artistic and writing styles?
Q: Sam Keith of The Maxx, Drew Hayes of Poison Elves, Chris Bachalo, A bit of Peter Chung of AEon Flux, just for fun. An itsy bit of Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge. Writing wise is a bit more difficult. I know what I like, I like detail, but not obnoxious amounts, I also like the surreal, and psychological/philosophical...Animal Farm is an awesome book, as is Helter Skelter. But I don't have a favourite author, I find the real prominent ones are either asses in regards to fan-fics, or very, very pretentious.

Neo: No real specific writer has inspired me- save for a book or two.
I can't say there's any real English speaking artist I'm inspired with. As back in my teenage years I kind of all consuming absorbing anything and all anime and or manga related until I popped a blood vessel, a few brain cells, and my spleen. I'm better now. I'd have to say Yukito Kishiru creator of Gunnm (BattleAngelAlita). Aside from adoring those pouty lips of Alita's- I'd say I admire his determination in his series. To pick it up, dust it off and redo the ending he sluffed and do what he wanted to do with it.

Where do you get your ideas for story archs or comedic relief in your comic?
Q:Life. In GRH there's no real "plot". heh. Cute widdle plot. Most the punch lines in GRH are brought on by Neo and I just talking.

Neo: Again, life. Just randomly sitting and thinking about things on a three panel joke level and I can string on running gags like no tomorrow. Staring at people and giving them random punch lines. Sometimes they'll just randomly come to me.

Your thoughts on the online comic community?
Q:A mixture of two things. Huge *Censored* egos, and all consuming voids of self pity.
[ed. note: soapbox begins]
I won't name names but ohhh, do I wanna. I just hate when the creators are all righteous on their comic. Ego's in this community are so freakin' big. Some get so big, that any little thing makes said Egomaniac-artist threaten suicide when one, ONE fan out of 400 say "Dude, you're comic is teh shitzorz".

"So and so hentai-fanboy-furry-gay-lesbian-gamer comic has more hits then me. My Comic is going to retire." Then of course, two weeks later, the comic is back. It just boggles me.Then there's the artists who have everything going for them: Publication, a large fandom, recognition, and they're upset because of one troll, so what do they do?
They whine and get their do-gooding army of anus-suckers to cator to their 'misery'. Please. Also, I hate when the creator puts a paypal link on the main page, pleading for donations so they can pay the rent.
*Rubs forhead* Did I mention I loathe when WEBcomic artists claim to be professional. Are you published in paper by a publisher? Do you have a real work station? Do you get money for your work from a publisher? No? Then you're just an amateur.
[ed. note: soapbox ends]
Jeeze, this is such a heartbreaking industry.

Neo: "l33tl33tl33t WAI WAI WAI! Yo mo'fo wherez the arcade?". If its not one trend its another. If your not a certain genre your out of the running. It's a VERY "cliquey" community. A very depressing, very cliquey community. But not only is it biased, its over crowded too. Everyone and their second cousin have a comic. People start and stop comics all the time. Its like the Earth's population; Consummated, squeezed out, then left for dead in some gutter. It's a hard lil industry sometimes though you wouldn't think it.
Continuing a story that would keep readers interested but also keep yourself interested in drawing it without sluffing and slopping your style. Technically its free- so you get what you paid for; don't complain.

Being non-American, do you feel somewhat removed from many of the more mainstream web comics?
Q:Nope.

Neo: The web is a veritable orgy of ideas, garbage and random chaos. I never really judged someone by where they lived. In retrospect- I'd say no.

Does anything set you apart, being a Canadian comic artist, from other American web comics?
Q: Don't think so.

Neo: Spell check programs annoyingly are made by Americans and gay marriages are legal here.
How, if at all, does being 'Canadian' factor into the creative process?
Q: We put a "U" in Neighbour. S'about it.

Neo: [snip] Sometimes our coloured money reminds me of rainbows and then I feel special. *snerk* Seriously, nothing.

Have you ever attended any Canadian or American Comic Conventions?
Q:I went to San Diego Comicon in '02. Rocked. I've been to some small con's in Vancouver BC....One time Neo and I went to one, but the date moved without notice, so Neo and I were stuck downtown all day. S'ok though, we got to write.

Neo: Twice I've gone to the Yaoi con down at SanFransico. You could tell it as I by the baying sounds of me and my friends shouting "KITTY SMUT!!" shamelessly at every interval.

Do you believe that popular cultures preoccupation with the Anime-style of art has diluted the overall quality of web comics, or improved it?
Q:....*Carefully*...Yes. But not as much as it has deluded the quality of webcomic FANS. I _hate_ 'otaku'. So very much. Neo and I nearly canned GRH last year because of the amount of "OMG I wanna Sexorz Kawaii Cruss-y! BISHI DROOLLLL FUXORZ WAI!!! GENKI YO!! ^____________^" in our e-mails. And no, I don't know what I just said. Don't send us that anymore. I hope true fans of GRH, will respect this request.

Neo: A very good yet touchy question. Stereotyped wise it has drained both Q and I. But anime has heavily influenced all I'd say. We see Japanese American hybrids everywhere now. It depends on the person really. As long as someone whose native tongue is English but draws with anime style influence talks complete and utter English at me with intelligence behind their words- I'm fine. It doesn't bother me. Quality wise- that depends on the person. If its tasteful with good plot that catches my interest I'll read it.
Its all about personal taste really.

What movies, cartoons and TV shows are your favourites?
Q: Psychological thrillers and fantasy. Dark Crystal, Don't say a Word, Tim Burton movies. Cartoon wise it's Hellsing, 90's X-Men, Gargoyles, Sailormoon (yes, it's a horrible dub. Hush.), Boogiepop Phantom, Key the Metal Idol, Devil Hunter Yohko, and Invader ZIM! TV shows it's OZ, Six Feet Under, Law & Order, Will & Grace.

Neo: I have a odd variety in my taste. I will watch something so horrible it hurts but if it has swanky moves or I can laugh or make fun of it- I'll swallow my humanity and watch. Over all I like dark, twisted, ironic, horror, slinky, philosophical, ow my brain! sort of genres. StereoTypes seem to kill my interest on the spot. I like SerialExperimentsLain, BoogiepopPhantom, Sailormoon, Ebichu, Family Guy, Simpsons, King of the hill, Duck man, Mission Hill (when it was new and on), Oblongs, Oz, Six Feet Under, Red Shoe Diarys, Live Action Sailormoon, Key the metal Idol, Devil Hunter Yokho and other random amusing things.
I'm also a big videogame buff.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring with you and why?
Q: All medical stuff aside? Hm...My computer with Internet access, my art stuff, and my scanner. I don't care if they'll not help me in the slightest!

Neo: Providing there's food, shelter, water and things to live off of Fire- to cook, keep me warm and burn things My complete computer setup (ie monitor, tablet, scanner, internet, etc)- because I'll most likely go insane without it Poco- If I'm going to go down- I'm taking my entire town with me! ok that's cheating-- blankets, lots and lots of warm blankets- I hate the cold and I get cold easy.

What books do you read?
Q: I just recently finished Helter Skelter, the story of the Charles Manson Trial, I also read Susan Smith: Victim or murderer. She's that chick who drowned her two kids, claiming they were abducted. Currently I'm reading The Satanic Bible. Seriously. No, I'm not a goth.

Neo: I really should pick up a book more. I guess I like pictures with my words. Even comic wise I haven't picked up a good book lately aside from Yukito's Last Order. If I do pick up a book its usually something fantasy, dark horror.

How can somebody contact you?
Q: First, they have to know that - dude...Type like an adult. No LEET or huge fonts or Otaku-speak or shortcut keys. That aside, my E-mail/MSN is Q_Slash@hotmail.com

Neo: [snip]email/MSN: veryfargone@hotmail.com [snip]
-Neo & "Q"
http://grh.keenspace.com

Strips:

"Super Exams"
"Lack of Arms=Humor?"
"Fresh as a gentle summers rain"
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	Canadian Web Comic Interviews "Q" adn "Neo" Author of "GraveRiver High" Q: 22, living with sister, goin' to college. I was born in New Westminster, BC. I was delivered through Caesarean. The umbilical Cord was strangling me. Dad died of cancer when I was 14, mom moved to Washington last year. Neo and I met in High school, grade 11 and 9, espectively. Neo: I'm 21, 5'3" (short Canadian), female born in Maple Ridge but living in a dinky lil town called Poco. I live with my grandparents while my little teenage brother angsts like a little girl and jumps from here to our parents place. I'm taking a programmer analyst/ web development course. My game plan is that with a stable job I can throw my art and people and hopefully take a few eyes out-- er- I mean catch a few eyes. I mainly [play] computer or videogame. I have a tendency to over worry, be paranoid and obsess over things I really like. I have an odd sense of humour and love it. I love to draw and rolePlay. I can be super social for a few days and loner the next two weeks. I click well with those who share a common interest with me; especially if its art. [snip] What web comics do you manage? Q: Well, Back in 2000 Neo, myself and two other girls started GraveRiver High. Unfortunately, the other two lost interest. GRH is a comic about a school built on the shores of a flooded graveyard. GRH is loosely based on our high school. I do an autobiographical webcomic called A Girl Called Kermit. It's pretty bare, since its my catharsis, and I'm pretty sorted out right now. Neo: I also do my own comic called CrazyAngels about a bunch of pretty boys in high school slowly losing their minds. Another I do which is currently on hiatus is Scribble: Furries + Too much free time = RandomChaos. For readers not familiar with your work, can you tell us something about your web comics? Q:GRH has a lot of history. It's been through the ringer and back, on and off hiatus, swarmed by irritating fans, subject of personal grief and bickers, but also a thing of pride. It's sentimental, and for that reason, it's still alive. Neo: Its proof of what determination and sheer mule stubbornness can do. It's been two brief comics in the high school newspaper "The Eddie" to a ... Q give me an adjective to describe what it was like online at DreamWater - Q: inexperienced.. new... virgin! Neo: -basically. From there it went to keenspace.com , comic hosting central... where the hosting went up and down like... Q give me example of something that goes up and down - Q: Pendulum! no that doesn't go up and down. Escalator- a broken one. Pogo stick- a fully functional one. Neo: And there it has stayed. Q: A Girl Called Kermit is an autobiographical webcomic about the sicker things in life. Two years ago, I was in a bad physical condition. I was in so much pain I just wanted to tear myself open and take out the hurt. I was half asleep and angstingly thinking "Why me?" Somehow I was reminded of the better things in life- like The Maxx. From a quote, a little 'me' was born, and Kermit offered me a way to vent. Because it's such a personal comic, AGCK's style isn't my 'usual' one..but it's very appropriate and atmospheric I find. Neo: For information about CrazyAngels it would be best to read up on its FAQ page. There's a good lot of info there and goes into greater detail about "Why". Scribble was the first online comic I ever did. The characters of the comic are actually pulled characters from an original personal series of mine. Basically Scribble comics are the characters of that series bent out on doing random strange things that have nothing to do with said series at all. There is no real plot. It started with me doodling strips back in high school, scanning them and putting them online. Really bad and really old- I decided to re-do the online comic. Drawing the strips straight out in Photoshop instead of drawing and scanning- like I do in CrazyAngels. A much cleaner and faster way to do pages. Its kind of settle on the back burner for life and lack of time, sadly. What other writing or comics have you worked on? Q: I did a fan comic for KarvaKomix a few years back. Neo and I also freeform role-play original characters, and write fanfiction. Most of the fics can be found at our Fic archive. Neo: I've tried to get together with other people writing and drawing other online comics with them but it always seems to die in the end. I was sucked into drawing a comic with other friends back in the high school days- but the comic went for 3 pages; the writer gave up and the other artist couldn't care less. We have hopes and plans to do other things together and on our for publishing purposes in the near future ie like Fweee: which basically is our lives and our zany hijinx- it makes God cry. [Q and I] also co-run a online Sailormoon rpg called Asylum: A perfect world.[snip] What was the first online comic you ever read? Q: Sinfest, Wendy and Thin H Line...Remember when it was called THL? Neo: Wendy (Josh wishes he was Canadian), Thin H Line, Bob and George, A Demon Called Pooka, Tei and Riki, Dramane Grooves (when it was still called that) and Living in Grey Town. What were your favorite comics growing up? Q: Can I go on a lil tangent about this please? X-men! X-Men!! My dad and I watched it every Saturday morning, along with Spiderman and The Tick. If not for him, I wouldn't even be into comics...I grew up with X-men and when he died, I inherited his Marvle's from the 60's to 80's. I also dipped my toes into more unknown regions, I loved The Maxx, and Sam Keith's work, The Darkness and stuff when I was about 18. I still buy Darkness, though I miss the humour in it, and to me, it'll forever be Silvestri's book. Neo: I was the amazing neopolitan sponge of comics. I had this talent of sucking each and every flavour of comic into my vast and yet very odd comic collection. (I blame the cheap Liquidation sale at some WareHouse). But I'd have to say my VERY first favourites were the cheap thick Archie comics and Sonic the hedgehog. From Archie I learned to draw hands by staring at them. (Batman taught me feet). I was a REAL big fan of Sonic back when Genisis was the king. Twas where my avatar/ online alias bloomed from and a whole series of characters- which is basically where Scribble derived from. Its just one big cycle ain't it? Another lucky fav was Hamster Vice (humanoid hamsters kicking some butt with guns). Later on I was introduced to "manga" and the wild world of "anime". My taste for it has matured much over the years. Tell us how you landed began working on your web comic. Q: The four of us, along with the school Librarian, and two guys were in the comic book club, that is, stocking our library with a selection of comic books to encourage the disabled kids to read...Somehow, the subject of a school comic for the school paper came up. After a few days of discussion, the characters were chosen, and the plot (heh..plot...funny) set up and voila. Neo did the first few comics, and one of the girls was supposed to send three strips to the editor of the paper, but she didn't, and as such, GRH was just in one issue (along with a misspelled name, and improper credit, which was later rectified) Neo: Copy and pasted from the good 'ol FAQ. Tell us how you acquired your artistic skills. Q: Practice, and an unhealthily vast amount of self consciousness. Those aside, I found staring at other's work, without(I repeat: Without) copying the said image helped me greatly. I found anatomy in the oddest ways. Comics, Posters, my bathroom mirror. Did you know that if you place your palm on your face, your whole hand can take up most your face? THAT's how I learned how to do hand-head size relation. Neo: I picked up a pencil. When I was a wee lass I used to draw with my grandmother while watching cartoons. We used to draw characters like My Little Ponys and Pinocchio playing around and imagine we were them. I would point to the screen and ask my grandmother to draw a character I liked- she did and then I would. I never felt self conscious or inferior to cartoon commercial images- I always had this little arrogance about me. I guess that's how I really bettered myself. I suppose that's where the roots of rping and drawing came for me. Later I would say Recently Life Drawing has really been a big boost for me as well. What artists have inspired/influenced your artistic and writing styles? Q: Sam Keith of The Maxx, Drew Hayes of Poison Elves, Chris Bachalo, A bit of Peter Chung of AEon Flux, just for fun. An itsy bit of Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge. Writing wise is a bit more difficult. I know what I like, I like detail, but not obnoxious amounts, I also like the surreal, and psychological/philosophical...Animal Farm is an awesome book, as is Helter Skelter. But I don't have a favourite author, I find the real prominent ones are either asses in regards to fan-fics, or very, very pretentious. Neo: No real specific writer has inspired me- save for a book or two. I can't say there's any real English speaking artist I'm inspired with. As back in my teenage years I kind of all consuming absorbing anything and all anime and or manga related until I popped a blood vessel, a few brain cells, and my spleen. I'm better now. I'd have to say Yukito Kishiru creator of Gunnm (BattleAngelAlita). Aside from adoring those pouty lips of Alita's- I'd say I admire his determination in his series. To pick it up, dust it off and redo the ending he sluffed and do what he wanted to do with it. Where do you get your ideas for story archs or comedic relief in your comic? Q:Life. In GRH there's no real "plot". heh. Cute widdle plot. Most the punch lines in GRH are brought on by Neo and I just talking. Neo: Again, life. Just randomly sitting and thinking about things on a three panel joke level and I can string on running gags like no tomorrow. Staring at people and giving them random punch lines. Sometimes they'll just randomly come to me. Your thoughts on the online comic community? Q:A mixture of two things. Huge Censored egos, and all consuming voids of self pity. [ed. note: soapbox begins] I won't name names but ohhh, do I wanna. I just hate when the creators are all righteous on their comic. Ego's in this community are so freakin' big. Some get so big, that any little thing makes said Egomaniac-artist threaten suicide when one, ONE fan out of 400 say "Dude, you're comic is teh shitzorz". "So and so hentai-fanboy-furry-gay-lesbian-gamer comic has more hits then me. My Comic is going to retire." Then of course, two weeks later, the comic is back. It just boggles me.Then there's the artists who have everything going for them: Publication, a large fandom, recognition, and they're upset because of one troll, so what do they do? They whine and get their do-gooding army of anus-suckers to cator to their 'misery'. Please. Also, I hate when the creator puts a paypal link on the main page, pleading for donations so they can pay the rent. Rubs forhead Did I mention I loathe when WEBcomic artists claim to be professional. Are you published in paper by a publisher? Do you have a real work station? Do you get money for your work from a publisher? No? Then you're just an amateur. [ed. note: soapbox ends] Jeeze, this is such a heartbreaking industry. Neo: "l33tl33tl33t WAI WAI WAI! Yo mo'fo wherez the arcade?". If its not one trend its another. If your not a certain genre your out of the running. It's a VERY "cliquey" community. A very depressing, very cliquey community. But not only is it biased, its over crowded too. Everyone and their second cousin have a comic. People start and stop comics all the time. Its like the Earth's population; Consummated, squeezed out, then left for dead in some gutter. It's a hard lil industry sometimes though you wouldn't think it. Continuing a story that would keep readers interested but also keep yourself interested in drawing it without sluffing and slopping your style. Technically its free- so you get what you paid for; don't complain. Being non-American, do you feel somewhat removed from many of the more mainstream web comics? Q:Nope. Neo: The web is a veritable orgy of ideas, garbage and random chaos. I never really judged someone by where they lived. In retrospect- I'd say no. Does anything set you apart, being a Canadian comic artist, from other American web comics? Q: Don't think so. Neo: Spell check programs annoyingly are made by Americans and gay marriages are legal here. How, if at all, does being 'Canadian' factor into the creative process? Q: We put a "U" in Neighbour. S'about it. Neo: [snip] Sometimes our coloured money reminds me of rainbows and then I feel special. snerk Seriously, nothing. Have you ever attended any Canadian or American Comic Conventions? Q:I went to San Diego Comicon in '02. Rocked. I've been to some small con's in Vancouver BC....One time Neo and I went to one, but the date moved without notice, so Neo and I were stuck downtown all day. S'ok though, we got to write. Neo: Twice I've gone to the Yaoi con down at SanFransico. You could tell it as I by the baying sounds of me and my friends shouting "KITTY SMUT!!" shamelessly at every interval. Do you believe that popular cultures preoccupation with the Anime-style of art has diluted the overall quality of web comics, or improved it? Q:....Carefully...Yes. But not as much as it has deluded the quality of webcomic FANS. I _hate_ 'otaku'. So very much. Neo and I nearly canned GRH last year because of the amount of "OMG I wanna Sexorz Kawaii Cruss-y! BISHI DROOLLLL FUXORZ WAI!!! GENKI YO!! ^____________^" in our e-mails. And no, I don't know what I just said. Don't send us that anymore. I hope true fans of GRH, will respect this request. Neo: A very good yet touchy question. Stereotyped wise it has drained both Q and I. But anime has heavily influenced all I'd say. We see Japanese American hybrids everywhere now. It depends on the person really. As long as someone whose native tongue is English but draws with anime style influence talks complete and utter English at me with intelligence behind their words- I'm fine. It doesn't bother me. Quality wise- that depends on the person. If its tasteful with good plot that catches my interest I'll read it. Its all about personal taste really. What movies, cartoons and TV shows are your favourites? Q: Psychological thrillers and fantasy. Dark Crystal, Don't say a Word, Tim Burton movies. Cartoon wise it's Hellsing, 90's X-Men, Gargoyles, Sailormoon (yes, it's a horrible dub. Hush.), Boogiepop Phantom, Key the Metal Idol, Devil Hunter Yohko, and Invader ZIM! TV shows it's OZ, Six Feet Under, Law & Order, Will & Grace. Neo: I have a odd variety in my taste. I will watch something so horrible it hurts but if it has swanky moves or I can laugh or make fun of it- I'll swallow my humanity and watch. Over all I like dark, twisted, ironic, horror, slinky, philosophical, ow my brain! sort of genres. StereoTypes seem to kill my interest on the spot. I like SerialExperimentsLain, BoogiepopPhantom, Sailormoon, Ebichu, Family Guy, Simpsons, King of the hill, Duck man, Mission Hill (when it was new and on), Oblongs, Oz, Six Feet Under, Red Shoe Diarys, Live Action Sailormoon, Key the metal Idol, Devil Hunter Yokho and other random amusing things. I'm also a big videogame buff. If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring with you and why? Q: All medical stuff aside? Hm...My computer with Internet access, my art stuff, and my scanner. I don't care if they'll not help me in the slightest! Neo: Providing there's food, shelter, water and things to live off of Fire- to cook, keep me warm and burn things My complete computer setup (ie monitor, tablet, scanner, internet, etc)- because I'll most likely go insane without it Poco- If I'm going to go down- I'm taking my entire town with me! ok that's cheating-- blankets, lots and lots of warm blankets- I hate the cold and I get cold easy. What books do you read? Q: I just recently finished Helter Skelter, the story of the Charles Manson Trial, I also read Susan Smith: Victim or murderer. She's that chick who drowned her two kids, claiming they were abducted. Currently I'm reading The Satanic Bible. Seriously. No, I'm not a goth. Neo: I really should pick up a book more. I guess I like pictures with my words. Even comic wise I haven't picked up a good book lately aside from Yukito's Last Order. If I do pick up a book its usually something fantasy, dark horror. How can somebody contact you? Q: First, they have to know that - dude...Type like an adult. No LEET or huge fonts or Otaku-speak or shortcut keys. That aside, my E-mail/MSN is Q_Slash@hotmail.com Neo: [snip]email/MSN: veryfargone@hotmail.com [snip] -Neo & "Q" http://grh.keenspace.com Strips: "Super Exams" "Lack of Arms=Humor?" "Fresh as a gentle summers rain" Posted by B.Scott Return to The Main Page - Canadian Web Comic Ezine