mindpollution.org

Last week, I had a fun interview with Steven Cloud, whose webcomic Boy on a Stick and Slither is another personal favorite of mine. My favorite part of this interview is our chat about his upcoming “Mongol Rally” trip from London to Mongolia via a 1-liter Nissan Micra. Part of me wants to join him, part of me would rather appreciate it from a distance - like, perhaps, without leaving my apartment.

As always, the rest of this Steven Cloud BoaSaS interview is posted over at ComicMix.

Boy on a Stick and Slither creator Steven Cloud claims that he’s been publishing his webcomic since 1999, but one gets the impression that BoaSaS has been around quite a bit longer than that, growing in the margins of sketch pads, notebooks and crumpled pieces of paper discarded long ago.

The structure is fairly simple, with only two major characters in essentially the same position from one strip to the next, but the subject matter, well… that’s another story. The topics of conversations for the primary characters, Boy on a Stick (a stick with a boy’s head, just like the name implies) and Slither (a green snake), range from simple observation to complicated existential analysis. One strip will contain dialogue that could just as easily be found in a supermarket checkout line, while another will directly address complicated sociopolitical debates of the modern era.

So, yes, it’s a bit hard to “sum up” BoaSaS… and it seems like Cloud intended it that way.

In fact, it’s probably best to let my conversation with Cloud speak for itself as the best description of the strip, its creator and why it should be a part of your weekly reading list, as we discuss the origins of BoaSaS, the current debate over profitability in print- versus web-based comics, and his upcoming participation in a road rally that spans several continents.

COMICMIX: Thanks for taking some time to talk with me, Steven. What are you working on tonight?

STEVEN CLOUD: Honestly, I was just goofing off, surfing some old sites I’d bookmarked but forgotten. But my intention was to start drawing comics. I have the file open. That’s half the battle.

CMix: What’s the plan for the comic you’re working on tonight? Do you already have it thought out and need to work on the art, or are you still brainstorming a bit?

SC: I still need to brainstorm. I have it 90-percent drawn and maybe 50-percent written. I have a vague notion and I’m trying to turn it into an idea.

CMix: Is that how things normally work with BoaSaS? What’s the creative process normally like for you?

SC: I work probably four hours a day on average, including weekends. I have a full-time job that pays the rent. I have to draw comics during my off-hours. I normally just sit at the computer and draw fun backgrounds while surfing and IM’ing. Then I try to think of a clever premise/joke and lay it on top of the background.

It’s very free-form. Sometimes the background inspires the idea. Other times an idea will strike and drive the process. I just go with the flow and have fun with it.

CMix: Where did the initial idea for the strip come from? A boy on a stick talking with a snake about some fairly deep subject matter… it doesn’t seem like the first thing one would jump to when setting out to create a webcomic.

SC: I see my comic as an extension of me. It’s what I’m thinking about (or reading about). It’s a creative outlet. I didn’t have any interest in creating a backstory or premise. It’s difficult for me to stay focused. I felt a comic with a storyline wouldn’t play to my strengths. I wanted a gag comic with very few rules.

I envy comics like White Ninja beause they have zero rules, little consistency, but it’s always funny. If I ever started something new, I’d be a comic like that. My characters are arbitrary. I knew I needed at least two characters, and one would necessarily be different from the other.

Boy on a Stick was a doodle with no body in my sketchbook, on which I added a stick. Slither was also a doodle. But when I put them together, the magic happened. They looked iconic to me and cute. I didn’t think I’d get tired of looking at them. So I started drawing comics.