One of my favorites, “i like this music,” has been in the rotation as one of my desktop backgrounds for close to 5 years now — so the opportunity to talk about this series with Brown has been an experience I’ve looked forward to for quite some time.

Q: First off, can you give me a little background about Explodingdog and your decision to start illustrating phrases provided by readers? How did this whole project start?

SAM BROWN: Explodingdog started as completely different website. The drawings were a similar style, but I was working on a big, non-linear story told through pictures. It was a very cool idea in 1998 when I started it. By late 1999, I was sick of the whole idea. So I took it down and put up the first few pictures with a note saying I would draw more if anyone sent me titles. Then it took off. It was only a joke, but I enjoyed doing it, and it felt like good mental exercise. So I kept doing it. Now I don’t know how to stop.

Q: You seem to be one of those webcomic creators who has quite a bit going on outside of the online comic scene, with presence in the art gallery scene, handmade art products and other projects. How does all of this fit together for you? Are they all unique, individual projects in your mind or do they fit together for you as a single, cohesive project?

BROWN: My stuff all fits together because it is all Explodingdog stuff, but it is not too cohesive. Some people that have looked at almost all the explodingdog pictures and everything else I have posted, have pretty strong ideas about how the Explodingdog universe works. It is really interesting to hear their versions — it’s much more cohesive than I imagine it.

I think all the mini projects keep me interested and keep me coming up with new ideas. Though some of my favorite sites have only one focus and direction. I think I would be a failure if I didn’t have all these other projects going on.

Q: You have a special rule regarding the use of monkeys in text people send you. What’s that about?

BROWN: I do not find monkeys inherently funny, so I decided to make monkeys a wildcard. But that doesn’t matter anymore, because I rarely illustrate the titles exactly as they’re written.

Q: When you sit down to start creating a piece, what goes through your head? Do you think about the text for a while and all of the potential ways you could illustrate it, or do you go with more of a gut-instinct approach, taking your first thought and running with it?

BROWN: My process varies. Somedays I pick titles I am going to use and think about them all day sometimes I just see a title and start drawing. I don’t pencil or sketch anything out, and I always allow for changes once I start drawing. So even if I start with a good idea, it often becomes improvisational once I start drawing.

Q: There’s a history with the red robot in Explodingdog and the red robot of Diesel Sweeties… can you talk about that a bit?

BROWN: Way back in the day, Rich [Stevens] who does Diesel Sweeties lived across the street from me. We became friends when he was showing me how to make a website. A few months after Explodingdog started rolling, Rich started Diesel Sweeties. He needed a robot character and asked if I would mind him using the Red Robot. I said no. A short while after that he started appearing in other comics and websites. Rich and I thought that was great. The Red Robot has appeared in hundreds of comics now.

Sam Brown’s Explodingdog updates regularly at www.explodingdog.com. You can also purchase prints of Explodingdog art, as well as skins for your various gadgets (which I highly recommend).

Simply put, if you think you’ve attended a lot of conventions, Breeden’s attended more than you. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. As I learned while covering the convention circuit, Breeden doesn’t shy away from any opportunity to promote DP at every major, minor and backyard convention she can find a way to attend. I had the opportunity to chat with her a bit about Devil’s Panties and get her perspective on the role of conventions in the webcomics world and the the changes she’s seen in shows over the years. We also discussed the DP‘s uniquely diverse audience (which apparently includes my mother) and one of her favorite con activities: “Kilt Blowing.”

Q: By my count, The Devil’s Panties is now in its 7th year on the ‘Net. You’ve mentioned in the past that it took you a while to nail down your vision for the series, so how do you describe DP to people these days, and how has that changed from your pitch 7 years ago?

JENNIE BREEDEN: In the beginning, I’d just say what the strips were that day, I think. It took a few conventions to figure out what quick pitch to use. You only have about a half-second to grab people as they walk by. The artists of Nate and Steve, who I went to college with, were helping me with my pitch. We settled on yelling out, “It’s a pseudo-intellectual exploration of existential humanity in the marketplace!” … “Not Satanic Porn!”

Though now I’ve found that my pitch and the actual comic has veered a bit. I’ll tell the customer whatever they want to hear just to get them to the site. If it’s a housewife, then I tell her it’s about buying a house and not wanting to grow up while still mowing the lawn and cleaning my room. If it’s a young guy, then I say it’s about clubbing. If it’s a girl, I say it’s about luring the boyfriend off of the computer. All these are cartoons that have come up, but there are 2000 strips about life. It’s a little of everything.

Q: So much of DP is drawn from your real-life experiences. How does this affect your relationships with the real-life versions of your characters?

BREEDEN: It’s a double-edged sword. Sometimes a friend will preface a story with “This doesn’t go into the comic…” And sometimes my friends ask why their stories haven’t made it into the comic.

Q: You posted a pretty strong message on your site regarding your trouble with spelling, and with people pointing out spelling mistakes in your strip. Can you give me a little background about why you posted this and the reaction it’s received?

BREEDEN: The rant was in reaction to a roommate more than any online response that I’ve had. Though I did get about three e-mails a week pointing out spelling mistakes in old strips and helpful tips about using flash cards or a dictionary or people offering to edit. These are all harmless offers of assistance and I hardly ever got any real mean letters. Though, three a week for seven years begins to pick at the wound.

The last straw was when I was working on spelling “shivelrouse” (chivalrous). I looked online, in dictionaries, word programs, spell check. It took half an hour before I gave up and asked my boyfriend. A roommate overheard and said, “Oh my god, how dumb can you be? Don’t you know what a dictionary is?” Well, if it’s phonetic and you sound it out, there is no way to figure out that it’s a “ch-” and not an “sh-” for chivalrous. So I lost it a bit and wrote a rant. I’ve had one person say that they couldn’t read my comic anymore after seeing the rant. But now I get an e-mail a week from someone saying that they have the same problems and feel the same way.

Q: One of the things I like to do immediately after (and sometimes during) conventions is to check DP to see what you’re writing about the show, as it seems like you attend every con a creator could possibly attend. As a veteran of the convention circuit, what role do conventions play for comic creators — specifically webcomic creators? Why do you feel it’s important to attend so many of them?

BREEDEN: Webcomic artists get the most direct feedback from fans, I think. But even with all the communication, you’re still sitting alone in a room working your butt off. It’s good to go to a show and see the faces behind the e-mails. I feed off of that energy from a convention where you get to talk to the readers and hear how they feel about specific strips. You get to look at the comic from a different angle through their eyes.

Two years ago, about 2006, I quit my day job and signed up for every comic convention that I could. I use the conventions as the day job and they help me from going a bit stir crazy locked up in my room drawing strips all day. I have cut down on how many of the con strips I put up online, though. All last year was nothing but convention cartoons. Now I’m going to be saving most of those for the printed comic books and post the day-to-day cartoons that people can identify more with — like using dinosaurs to decimate barbie cakes and Halloween pirate adventures. You know, the usual, everyday kind of thing.

Q: How do you feel the convention scene has changed in your years of going to show after show?

BREEDEN: [There's been a] big explosion of anime shows and more women in alternative comics. In 2000, most women at the shows were there with their boyfriends or husbands helping run the table or carrying their maquette. Now, about a third of the show is women who are there for themselves. They run their own table and are drooling over their own action figures. Anime is bringing a younger crowd into the industry. It’s different from comic books, but it’s in the same neighborhood. The anime conventions are a bit more accepting to webcomics than traditional comic conventions. It seems that since the only way to get ahold of the new Japanese animation is through the Internet, so most anime fans already read a lot of webcomics.

Q: Do you have a favorite convention? Are there certain shows that are better for certain types of experiences (i.e. one show generates more sales, while one show brings in more new readers, or one show is friendlier to webcomics, etc.)?

BREEDEN: Every convention is different because of area or purpose of show. Anime shows are full of 16-and-under and have a “summer camp” feel. People make instant friends based on costume and play “duck, duck, goose” in the hallways. Comic conventions are an older crowd who are more interested in who did the work and where they’re published. Sci-Fi shows are more literature-based and have kind of a “Renaissance Festival” feel to them. There is usually a constant supply of beer at the literary conventions and it’s more about sitting around talking about anything and everything. College conventions, or a convention held by a club or small group, is a low-stress con where you can sit and talk with each individual. I sell almost the same amount of books at a college show as I do at a Wizard World show, because the college one you can talk to each person that comes to the event and get them interested in the comic — whereas at a Wizard show, thousands of people show up and look at hundreds of exhibitors, and they only get a few seconds to consider picking up a new comic.

Q: Interesting note: I was first introduced to your series by my mother, of all people. She’s a big fan, and when I told you this the first time I met you (at a Wizard World show a few years back), you didn’t seem surprised at all. Why do YOU think you’ve developed such a broad spectrum of readers? Is it something you set out to do? And does knowing that you have such a wide range of readers change anything about your creative process?

BREEDEN: I’m always floored at the variety of readers. Why I like the conventions so much is being able to see them — housewives and bikers and teenagers all identifying with the same thing. I am a bit nervous at the idea of anyone under 18 reading it, though. I don’t really censor myself and my language. It’s not a violent or sexual comic (sorry) but I have made allusions to ….um…. things. But most of the comics I do because I find myself in a weird or what I think is unique situation, only to find out that people all over the world have done and said the same thing. It’s a very, very small rock on which we live.

Q: Do you have a favorite strip or storyline from DP over the years?

BREEDEN: My mom’s, and most people’s favorite, is the one with Jesus and Devil smoking pot. I remember drawing it at my family kitchen table, but I don’t remember the catalyst for the strip. I might have just watched “Name of the Rose” and the idea of burning people in the name of “goodness” seems to be the epitomy of hypocritical. People seem logical and good, and then they get to voting or religion and everything goes to pot.

Q: On that note, you mix real-life characters with fantasy elements quite a bit in the series. How do you decide when it’s time to bring JC or the Angel or Devil Girl into a story?

BREEDEN: The angel and devil girls have just become my spokeswomen. They make announcements or make the inner monologue comments. My base, carnal thoughts come out with them. JC and the Devil have a mind of their own. I try not to force them out, and as a result they are the most pure and popular and rarely seen characters. I use them for political commentary, and considering the political state of things, I’m keeping my mouth firmly shut.

Q: What’s with all the “Kilt Blowing?”

BREEDEN: With all of the Playboy and Girls Gone Wild and Pin-Ups that are out there, us girls should get SOME form of eye candy. It’s playful fun designed to make everyone feel good. Guys who don’t normally get to play the sex symbol have a few minutes of women screaming for their body and we get to tease and cat call. It’s all in good fun and we’re not actually trying to expose anyone. Just a little tease.

Q: What else are you working on these days? And what’s next for DP?

BREEDEN: I’m setting up Devil’s Panties as an LLC and I’m going to be doing my own publication and distribution through Diamond. I have, in the past, used other publishers. But I want more control over when and how often the books come out and I want to know what’s going on. If they’re late, I want to be able to tell people why and not throw up my hands and say, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Once my finances recover from the printing of Book Three (Archaia is printing Book Two and your guess is as good as mine as to when that will be out), I’d like to get a statue made, socks done up, Zippos printed, and maybe a new deck of playing cards. But that’s not for another six months.

“The Devil’s Panties” updates regularly at www.thedevilspanties.com.

Bernie Hou’s popular webcomic Alien Loves Predator became an Internet phenomenon almost as soon as the first photo-based comic was posted in 2004, introducing the world to Preston, an alien from the Predator film franchise, and his Manhattan housemate Abe, a creature from the Alien film franchise. After a series of starts and stops over the last year or so, Hou recently announced that he’ll be turning his attentions away from the fumetti-style series and kicking off a new series with a decidedly more socio-political focus, If You See Something.

With IYSS taking Hou’s creative talents in a dramatically different direction, I spoke to the creator about his decision to bring to ALP to a close, his favorite moments from the old series and what he hopes to achieve with the new one.

Q: For readers who might not be familiar with Alien Loves Predator, can you tell me a bit about the genesis of the series? How did you settle on this idea for a comic strip?

BERNIE HOU: The idea of a comedy series starring an Alien and a Predator had actually been rolling around in my head since the late ’90s, when I found a pair of 12″ action figures of them at a local Goodwill store. It was almost begging to be done, because you almost can’t look at any horror movie monsters reduced down to tabletop toys – no matter how terrifying the original movies were – and not want to put them in compromising poses or prance them around in Barbie dresses. For the record, I did only one of those 2 things.

It was only in 2004, after I’d quit my first job that I finally had the free time to actually start the comic. I really just set out to make a sitcom based in New York City, since it’s where I’m from, but all sorts of interesting themes introduced themselves from there, such as the fact that everyone is casual yet simultaneously sensitive about all the different races living here. Including the weird ones.

Q: What was the creative process like for the strips? Between the photographs, posing the figures and possibly creating new props, it seemed like a significant time commitment for each strip…

HOU: It sure as hell was! I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, but let’s just say I’ve got bloody stumps where my hands used to be, and lifeless mush instead of eyes, all for the sake of entertaining you.

Everything you mentioned takes up a lot of time, as you can imagine, but the actual “photoshopping” was the most time-consuming part, and fortunately, also the most fun. In each panel, I spent a lot of time re-sizing and positioning elements, arranging layers, creating shadows and reflections, matching lighting, adjusting focus, etc. Seeing it all come together at the end was almost worth the alienation from my family.

Q: You took a long hiatus from ALP a while back, but returned with regular strips again, only to later announce that you’d be ending the series. What kept bringing you back to ALP each time you considered ending it?

HOU: Two things: First: the fans! They kept coming to the site even though I spent a whole year being all wishy-washy like. The sheepish guilt of having all these loyal people constantly checking for new updates that I wasn’t giving ‘em was eating me alive.

Second, relatedly: I know what a huge blessing it is to be able to reach tens of thousands of people with your art, and I’m not about to waste it.

Q: Are you a fan of the Alien and Predator iterations in film and comics? In your opinion, what have been some of the high and low points of the Alien and Predator stories in comics and film?

HOU: I really enjoy the first Predator movie, but I’m a much huger fan of Aliens, the James Cameron masterpiece. I NEVER watch movies more than twice at the most, but I could watch Aliens constantly. In fact I used to watch it with my kids when they were still babies (don’t worry, I fast-forwarded over the Paul Reiser scenes).

The other movie that’s universally loved is the first one, Ridley Scott’s Alien, but honestly I wasn’t as bowled over, since I’d seen hundreds of the monsters and then their queen in the sequel already, so one of them hiding in the dark wasn’t doing it for me. To be fair, I watched it during the day with commercial breaks folding laundry so I really need to give it another chance.

Aside from that, all the other movies are interchangeable sludge as far as I remember, but one day I’ll probably give at least Alien 3 another shot.

Q: What do you know now that you wish you knew back in 2004, when you were planning to kick off ALP?

HOU: I kind of wish I’d known the two Alien vs. Predator movies were going to suck… in which case maybe I would’ve been better off doing a comic about Iron Man or something.

Q: Can you tell me a bit about your favorite moments from ALP?

HOU: In terms of actual comics, #80 (If You See Something) is easily my most popular one, and yeah, I like how it came out. Art-wise, #33 (New World Record) has always been one of my favorite scenes. I’m partial to #197 (Growing Weak). These are off the top of my head; I’m probably missing some better ones.

As far as moments in the site’s history, my favorite is still the very first day I launched it. I sent out the link to a handful of my closest friends, thinking that by the end of the day I’d have gotten 20 or so people to look at the site. My buddy Noah said, “hey this is great! I just posted you on Metafilter” and suddenly thousands of people were streaming in. I was like, “cool!” and he was like “yeah!”, and i was like, “now residual links are coming in!”, but then I was like, “oh shit, I’m gonna hit my bandwidth limit in one day!” and then he felt bad. It all ended up great, though, and I still owe Noah for pulling such an instant, huge readership for me on that day in 2004. For posterity, here’s the infamous post.

Q: What factors went into the decision to end ALP and begin IYSS?

HOU: aLp isn’t what I want to write anymore. Or more accurately, I can’t write just aLp anymore. There’s a lot I haven’t been able to write over the years because I always had to figure out a way to work Abe and Preston into the picture and there’s only so many ways I can think of to do that. Despite what a lot of people say about aLp, it does matter that Abe and Preston are an alien and a predator. I didn’t want that part to be arbitrary. Of course that means I had to work under that self-imposed restriction, and ultimately it became too hard for me to do consistently.

One thing I want to say for the record: aLp is not necessarily over. I did literally say it was “coming to an end”, but that was because I wanted to stop waffling and dicking my readers around. It’s true that I can’t do two different comics consistently at the same time, but I fully intend to do a new aLp episode every once in a while because it’s actually still fun.

Q: Why is IYSS the right project for you at this moment?

HOU: If You See Something is really just a way for me to drop the restrictions and let it all hang out. And it feels like I just put on a pair of boxers for the first time after a lifetime of briefs. I just write and draw whatever comes to mind. Some days I have something to say politically, some days I just want to make a dick joke. Right now the only rule I’ve made is that each drawing I do comes with a link to an article or story on the web, but that’s really just a convenient source of inspiration. Who knows where this’ll take me, though. I’m still finding my way so I might just ditch that rule before long, and bring some characters back into the mix, or settle on a specific subject, or bring in other types of media. You might say the sky’s the limit, but then I’d roll my eyes at you.

Q: Since ALP and IYSS are so different, what have you had to change about your creative process for IYSS (besides the obvious lack of photos and figure-posing, of course)? Do the new strips take longer to create?

HOU: Another big restriction with aLp is that I need to have footage of everything I want to show, and it was getting too hard to make sure of that because – BIG SCANDAL – I no longer live in New York City. IYSS is way easier because I can just draw everything I want. I’m still trying to find a visual style, since I haven’t drawn since I was, like, 15, but man, it’s been fun! I pencil and ink on paper, scan it in, and then color in Photoshop with an old Intuos tablet that I’d thought I’d never use again.

Aside from the pure mechanics of it, the new process is faster because I don’t sweat too many details. In cartooning, if you occasionally color outside the lines, you can chalk that up to “style”. With aLp, one of its main goals is it’s supposed to be photo-realistic. I don’t know if you can tell, but a lot of work went into making it look “kinda good”.

Q: IYSS looks like it’s going to rely heavily on reader interaction from time to time – are you worried about bringing external elements into the creative process?

HOU: I have a page where readers can submit articles they find on the net, but so far I haven’t used any of ‘em. That doesn’t really qualify as “interaction”.

Q: You’re jumping into new waters with these editorial, political cartoons – do you worry about alienating (pun intended, of course) your old ALP readers? It’s a very different style of humor, after all.

HOU: Totally. And you can see from some of the comments I get on the site that some people are actually bitter. I’m sorry. But they need to understand that I simply can’t give them aLp the way they want it anymore. If I could, I’d do it forever. But I can’t. As I said above, I’ll want to do some more after I take a break, but I need to do something else now.

“Alien Loves Predator” image courtesy of http://alienlovespredator.com/

Moresukine was one of those projects that completely fascinated me when it was underway, so having the chance to sit down and talk about it with its creator, Dirk Schwieger, was one of the highlights of my San Diego Comic-Con experience.

I’ve posted an excerpt of the interview here, with a link to the rest of the interview posted after the jump.

Dirk Schwieger's Moresukine is different from other series I've focused on in these weekly webcomic creator interviews for a few significant reasons -- first and foremost of which being that it's no longer updated. The last comic was posted more than two years ago, back in in June 2006. However, when I saw that the German creator was a guest of NBM Publishing at this year's Comic-Con International, I jumped at the chance to include a Q&A with him in this series.

For anyone unfamiliar with Moresukine, the 24-part webcomic chronicled a year's worth of "assignments" Schwieger undertook at the request of readers while living abroad in Japan. Fans would send him tasks to accomplish -- anything from "meeting a traditional swordsmith" to "spending a night in a pod hotel" -- and he would write, illustrate and post a new comic each week based on his experience trying to complete that mission. The aim of the project, according to Schwieger, was to make the most of his time in Japan by offering himself up as someone through which his readers could live vicariously. The title of the series, Moresukine, came from the Japanese pronunciation of "Moleskine," the type of notebook he used to record his experiences.

A few months ago, NBM Publishing announced that it would be collecting Schwieger's online comic and publishing it in print form, complete with extra material contributed by webcomic veterans James Kochalka and Ryan North. Now that the paperback Moresukine collection has hit shelves, I spoke to Schwieger about the origin of the series, his favorite assignments and what we can expect to see from the talented creator in the future.

COMICMIX: Can you start from the beginning, Dirk? How did this project happen and what did you want it to be when you first conceived of it?

DIRK SCHWIEGER: Well, I was in Japan for one year. You could say that it was a travel-logue kind of thing, but the catch is that it's not just about what I deem is important or what i want to tell, but people were invited to send in emails with requests of places that i should go to in Tokyo, where I lived, or certain people I should get in contact with. And I couldn't refuse. I had to do all of the submissions in the order of their arrival.

It started very mundane. There is a webcomics portal in Germany, where I come from originally, and it's called Electrocomics.com. I had some stuff up there and they said, "Oh, you're going to Tokyo. Maybe you should do some sketches regularly." So they created this blog. I never had a blog before, and never intended to have one. I was kind of naive about the whole thing... but now I know. There are interesting blogs.

At that time, it was very important to me to get around the navel-gazing thing. This was one of the reasons to invite others and have this community effort of exploring the country -- to have me sort of remote-controlled from outside the city.

CMIX: What were some of your favorite assignments?

DS: Oh, that's so... hmm... there's so many... that's difficult.

CMIX: How about your least-favorite assignments?

DS: [Laughs] For the best one, the first thing that comes to mind is really Takao-san. It wasn't really that hard to hop on a train and leave the inner city and just be in nature and enjoy it. There were other times when I had assignments saying "Okay, go find biker gangs." That takes so much more time. It took weeks, probably months, before I found them. I was out every day looking for them. They don't just drive by your front door.

So yes, I think Takao-san was one of my favorites -- having this nature experience in the middle of this huge, vast concrete desert was amazing. And it was kind of like taking a break from this strict weekly schedule that had to performed after my daily job, which was quite a challenge.

CMIX: Outside of what you learned from each assignment individually, what else did this project teach you?

DS: There was a lot, really. For one thing, I wasn't a Japanese culture aficionado when I arrived there. I was pretty naive about the whole culture, but all of these people around the globe had such a detailed knowledge of certain places that i should go to, or certain people that i should check out. So just from a travel perspective, it was amazing for me to have all of these experiences that you will never find in a travel guide.

CMIX: You had quite a few personal travel guides, it seems...

DS: Yeah, I would never searched for a traditional swordsmith in the middle of Tokyo, but through the pressure of this project I was forced to find one. I was harassing people to tell me where the fuck I could find a Japanese swordsmith in all of this madness. And yes, I wouldn't have had the energy to see all of these special places without this project.

For the full interview, head over to ComicMix.

One of the first people I met at the party (other than Hastings) was North, and I ended up spending much of my time there chatting with him about life north of the border, his comic and the dawning realization that he was becoming a big deal in the webcomics scene. I can’t say enough how important that conversation was to my appraisal of the webcomic community, as he and I ended up chatting like old friends for quite a while. It was another one of those experiences that served to remind me of the positive potential of comics and the people who create them.

Here’s the text of the interview posted on ComicMix.

Canadian webcomic creator Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics is another one of those projects that defies the norm in the comics world and succeeds despite all of the very good reasons why it shouldn't. I mean, come on, folks: A series in which the art never changes, and readers just get day after day of a pair of dinosaurs chatting about heady subject matter in mid-stomp? Back in the day, no one would've predicted a comic like that would be around five days, let alone five years.

But that's exactly what it's done -- Dinosaur Comics has not only survived, but thrived, in its five-year existence. It's done so well, in fact, that North has been able to develop a complex history for his small cast of characters while also having his creation named among the Web's best comics in one award after another over the last few years. Not content to simply make comics on the 'Net, North has also lent his considerable programming skills to Project Wonderful, a robust online ad-serving system that allows users to bid on placement of their ads on participating websites. Much like Dinosaur Comics, Project Wonderful is a new approach to a long-established system that has left countless others slapping their foreheads and wondering why they didn't think of something similar.

I had the opportunity to chat with North recently about Dinosaur Comics, Project Wonderful and a variety of other topics, including his recent experiments with online photo-sharing site Flickr and the multitude of other projects he manages to juggle on a regular basis. 

COMICMIX: Before we even get started, what were you up to when you sat down to answer these questions, Ryan?

RYAN NORTH: I'm disgusting, man. Sunday morning, I haven't showered yet and I'm covered in stink lines. I'm wearing the clothes I wore yesterday. I've just eaten a burger with bacon built into it, and I have crumbs on my chest. I am the sexiest man, Rick. Tell your readers.

CMIX: Okay, then... moving on. Of all the webcomics out there, I think it's pretty safe to say that Dinosaur Comics is one of the series that changes the least from day to day -- at least as far as the art goes. So what's your creative process like? I would imagine it's pretty different from some of the other creators I've spoken with...

RN: Way back when I started, I once wrote a comic in half an hour. That was a record for me that I've never come close to since! It usually takes me, these days, about 3 hours to write a comic, start to finish. I gather that this is a bit longer than usual, but for me, most of the time isn't spent figuring out what I want to say, it's spent figuring out how I want to say it. Usually about 1 of those hours is spent figuring out the punchline, and the other two massaging everything together so that it's interesting to read and, you know... doesn't suck.

Once the comic is done, it usually only takes a few minutes to write the hidden easter eggs (the title text, email text, and archive title) -- for some reason I find this to be the easiest part. Maybe it's because these bits are sort of outside the comic and sometimes make fun of it. I find it really easy to make fun of myself.

Creatively, I keep a few files of comic ideas: phrases, words, or cool things that I've heard about that I'd like to look into further. This way, when I'm stumped, I can look at these ideas and see if anything strikes my fancy. Some of my favourite comics are the ones that have really cool ideas in them that most people don't know about -- the recent one about the "Great Vowel Shift" was one of them: something I'd encountered while studying computational linguistics and always wanted to delve further into. Yay! Cool-but-obscure ideas that affect the world around us!

CMIX: I've been reading Dinosaur Comics for quite a while now, but after reading the wikipedia page for the series, I feel like I've been missing a lot. Apparently, the cast of DC are involved in some complicated love triangles, and there are a lot of relationship dynamics brewing under the surface. Or is there? What's your take on readers' desire to see so much character development and backstories for the DC cast as opposed to simply keeping every strip a one-shot affair? How do you balance those two aspects of the series?

RN: It's funny -- before I started out, I thought that every strip would be unique, with the character of T-Rex changing day-to-day to match whatever I needed. As soon as I'd done one comic I realized that was crazy -- T-Rex has a personality right there in how he's posed, and I just can't ignore that. You can play with it, but you can't ignore it.

But to answer your question, I try to keep the strip with as much continuity as I can. I remember who kissed whom when and where, and can make references to that once in a while. I like that it rewards readers who have been reading from the beginning to see something from four years ago referenced again, and it rewards me, too! Plus, if I didn't remember who kissed whom, I'd get a thousand emails every time I messed up. So that's a benefit, too!

I don't really see my comics as being one-shots -- certainly, they stand alone, and if I'm talking about threesomes one day, it's unlikely I'll still be talking about threesomes the next day. Maybe that's a bad explain. I have a lot of theories about threesomes. But I think just due to the nature of the strip itself, it's a lot harder to do really involved, multi-year arcs like Goats pulls off so successfully. The strip itself sort of manages these two "gag-a-day / continuity" pulls itself, and I end up in the middle sort of naturally.

CMIX: In addition to producing Dinosaur Comics, you've also been very active in producing software and related systems for webcomic creators, such as the webcomic search tool Oh No Robot, the webcomic-focused RSS reader RSSpect and the ad service Project Wonderful. Could you weigh in on where some of these projects are at these days? How are things going with them and what involvement do you still have with them?

RN: Well, I'm entirely involved since I'm really the only person working on them! I try to make applications that I myself find useful, and then when I'm done I can say, "Hey, maybe I can generalize this out to everyone else, too!" Oh No Robot came from me wishing there was a good way to search webcomics, and RSSpect came from me wishing there was an easy way to generate RSS feeds for websites. They're both at the point where they're pretty much stable and doing what they should be doing well, so they don't take much day-to-day management. With Project Wonderful came the idea of "Man, online advertising sucks. What if we were designing it from scratch today? What would we do differently?" And so, after deciding how to reinvent stuff so it didn't, um, suck quite so much, here we are!

Project Wonderful is the application with the most appeal outside of webcomics (I built it to be ideal for cartoonists, but it's also (or so I claim) ideal for everyone else too. And that's where I spend most of my time these days, adding new features, making things generally more awesome. I really like it: it lets me balance out the two different sides of my brain, doing art in the morning and software development in the afternoon. Good times!

CMIX: Do you have any favorite Dinosaur Comics strips? What about if someone asked you what DC was about - what strips do you think are the best examples of what DC is to you?

RN: I normally grab the one where God first appeared as my example comic (T-Rex decides he's going to find God, and he was hiding behind the couch the entire time). I think I'm easily impressionable: when trying to think of my favourite comics, the ones that people sent me the most positive feedback on came to mind. I still really like the one where T-Rex does aid work in Africa to show up Utahraptor. I admire that commitment to winning an argument.

CMIX: Have you seen the animated version(s) of Dinosaur Comics that have popped up around the 'Net? (For example, this one.) What do you think about them? Have you given any thought to going the animated route with DC?

RN: Yeah, they're a lot of fun! I've been approached a few times for an animated show, but I'd want it to be good. A lot of the pitches were really terrible -- one guy in particular wanted to reuse the animation every time, probably because it would make the show insanely cheap. I tried to explain that comics != cartoons, and that you can't pull the same tricks in both. I can make panel #3 of Dinosaur Comics last 1 second or 5 minutes, depending on how much text is there, but in animation, every scene lasts for as long as it's animated. It just doesn't work! You can pull the "ha-ha their words don't match their mouths" trick once, but it gets a lot less funny the 30th time you've seen it.

CMIX: By my calculations (and with some help from Wikipedia), Dinosaur Comics is just over five years old now. What do you wish you could tell yourself five years ago before you (or as you were beginning to) kick off the series?

RN: This is a good question! I don't really have any cautionary tales to tell myself. I guess I'd tell myself that the future is going to be pretty awesome. Sometimes strangers on the Internet will email you to tell you that they love you, Past Ryan. This is a good way to start your day, Past Ryan! Be sure not to drink 2L of milk before going to bed, because that shit tears up your insides, Past Ryan.

CMIX: The haylookit experiment (in which you had flickr users tag things with the term "haylookit") and qwantzparty project on flickr are just some of the recent ways you've put your name (and in doing so, Dinosaur Comics) out there on the 'Tubes. Why do you think you've had such success in developing an online community around your projects and generating that word-of-mouth attention everyone's after on the grid?

RN: Wow, I really don't see it as marketing myself! The haylookit and qwantzparty tags were really just me wanting others to be able to put stuff up on qwantz.com, too, or not needing my approval before they could post fanart, respectively! When people ask me "how do you get a comic to be successful" I generally tell them to keep at it, update regularly, always try to be better at it, and not be a dick about promoting it. A link to your comic in your forum signature is cool; signing up to tons of forums just to say "HAY CHECK OUT MY COMIC" is not. At least for me, anyway!

CMIX: What else are you working on these days? Are there any other projects you want readers to know about?

RN: Man, just Dinosaur Comics and Project Wonderful! These already take up 26 hours a day.

We get extra hours per day in Canada.

---

You can always check out new Dinosaur Comics over at www.qwantz.com, and if you're looking to get into the online advertising scene, be sure to visit Project Wonderful. Dinosaur Comics is part of the Dayfree Press webcomics collective.

Want more interviews with webcomic creators? Check out the ComicMix Webcomic Interview Archive!

I’ve been a fan of David Willis toy-store diary Shortpacked! for many years now, having worked at a KB Toys store in Crossgates Mall (located in Guilderland, NY) throughout much of high school. Willis’ assessment of life at the toy shop isn’t that far from the reality of the experience, as I remember dealing with many of the same sorts of obsessive collectors, bat-shit loony parents and bosses who seemed to expect their minimum wage, 15-year-old staff to take the job far more seriously than they did – and to do it while wearing “Power Ranger Power Gloves With Power-Action Sound Effects!”

Yes, I worked in a retail toy store during the Christmas Season of “The Power Ranger Craze of ’93,” folks. You want to know what war is like? Try telling a crowd of stressed-out parents and collectors who have been squatting in the store all day waiting for us to open the latest shipment of stock that there is only one Green Power Ranger per box – so we only have three to sell this week. It’s like staring down death and living to tell the tale.

As always, here’s an excerpt of the interview with a link to the full interview on ComicMix at the end of the post.

As the opening day of San Diego Comic-Con International looms ever closer, it seems only right to turn the spotlight on a webcomic that draws from the world of comic books and toy collecting -- the often-overlapping fan cultures that have long provided the backbone of the comic convention scene. With that in mind, this week's interview subject is David Willis, the author of one of the toy scene's most popular webcomics, Shortpacked!

Since ending his celebrated series It's Walky! in 2005 and turning his full attention to Shortpacked, Willis has managed to elevate his semi-autobiographical account of the lives of toy store employees to a prominent role in collectible toy culture  -- so much so, in fact, that Willis currently produces both the original, ongoing Shortpacked series and a special version of the comic for Toy News International, one of the most popular toy news sites on the 'Net.

While much of the series chronicles the oddball cast of characters who work at the toy shop where the series' main character, Ethan, earns a paycheck, the series often detours into commentary on superhero culture, contradictions and fandom, and rarely shies away from poking fun at the fan culture it calls its own.

I spoke with Willis about the origins of Shortpacked, his decision to "pull the drama tag" in the series, and what toys are on his must-buy list for this year's Comic-Con.

COMICMIX: Can you tell me a bit about the reason you started Shortpacked? I know it started out semi-autobiographical, but what elements of your life at the time inspired you to run with Shortpacked and end It's Walky!, your previous series?

DAVID WILLIS: It's Walky! was coming to its natural end, and I wanted to try something different. I've collected toys for most of my life, but what really spawned Shortpacked! was working for a few years at Toys "R" Us. So much of retail work is spoofable. Laugh at the "Customer Protection Rackets" in Shortpacked! all you want, but they're real. They're just called something slightly nicer.

CMIX: Often, strips that start out somewhat autobiographical become less so as time goes on... is Shortpacked still "semi-autobiographical" to you?

DW: As long it's about being a fan of toys and being a reluctant fan of reading message boards about toys, that semi-autobiographical hook will always be there. On the other hand, now I have to write this gay guy. That's really tough, for a hot-to-trot, chick-banging, manly-man such as myself. Seriously, I've had sex with a woman. She even wanted to.

CMIX: I worked in a toy store throughout much of high school, so I get a kick out of a great many of the references in Shortpacked. What made this particular job such a great source of material for you?

DW: As I mentioned above, I've walked that employment road myself. Plus, there's this intrinsic train wreck quality to the retail environment. On one hand, you have the "idea men" up the corporate ladder who've got crazy ideas to make quick easy money... ideas that totally work on paper! And this time, they'll work! And on the other hand, you have the high school and college-aged employees who really don't give a crap. It's just not really a formula for success.

CMIX: The strip definitely took a turn when Robin pulled the "drama tag" -- why did you chose to move the series in that direction and explore more dramatic storylines?

DW: If you insert a reasonable amount of drama and continuity, it really opens up the possibility for a wider range of humor. Comedy is seeing bad things happen to other people. Consider the Drama Tag storyline itself -- sure, Amber's abusive father was introduced, but that created a whole new framework for comedy as Robin tried to "fix" everything. It really opened up the world for more jokes.

Head over to ComicMix for the full interview with David Willis of Shortpacked!.

Jeph Jacques’ webcomic Questionable Content first appeared on my radar 3-4 years ago when a friend told me about this series he was reading that was based in Northampton, MA – just a little more than an hour from where I was living at the time. I was sold from that point on, as I discovered that the series riffs on a few of my favorite subjects: relationships, culture criticism and, well… hipsters.

At one point, Jessica spent a few months working in Northampton at the local National Public Radio affiliate, and I remember searching the town for all of the real-life equivalents to the people and places Jacques uses in the series. In case you’re wondering, there is a coffee house in Northampton, but unlike in the QC world, the baristas there are actually pretty nice.

As always, I’ve posted an excerpt from the interview here with a link to the full interview on ComicMix at the end of the post.

Now approaching its fifth year on the World Wide Internets, Questionable Content has gone through quite a few changes since its beginnings as an indie-rock webcomic that chronicled the life, loves and culture criticisms of "music nerds" Marten, Faye and a surrounding cast of characters (which also included Marten's troublemaking, sentient "AnthroPC," Pintsize).

These days, the cast has expanded singificantly to include fan-favorite characters such as Marten's obsessive-compulsive neighbor, Hannelore, and the relationships between major and minor characters have been explored, dismissed, or in the case of Marten and the "Coffee of Doom" owner Dora, bloomed into long-term (by webcomic standards, at least) plot points. While drama has managed to carve a niche for itself in the world of QC, Jacques has similarly carved out a name for himself among the top-tier creators in the webcomic scene.

After wandering through the QC archives a bit, I was struck by the differences in those first strips posted back in August 2003 and today's QC. Both the art and the focus of the series have shifted dramatically in the last few years -- much moreso than many of the strips on my radar. With that in mind, I recently took the opportunity to pick Jacques' brain about the origins and development of the series and the nature of "indie cred."

COMICMIX: I'm familiar with the area QC is based on, so I think it would be interesting to hear your take on the setting for the series and how it compares to its real-world counterpart...

JEPH JACQUES: For those not In The Know™, QC is set in Northampton, Massachusetts, a smallish town in the western end of the state, home to Smith College. Northampton is a Very Fancy Town that likes to pretend it is actually a chunk of Manhattan that somehow got carried two hours due north (possibly via Hipster Albatross).

The QC version of Northampton corresponds roughly, at best, with its real-world counterpart. Many of the streets are the same (almost all the outdoor backgrounds are taken from real-life photographs) but there are differences. Coffee of Doom, for instance, exists on some bizarre meta-street that does not actually exist in the real world. The exact location of Marten's apartment building is similarly a mystery. Basically, I use the actual town layout when it's convenient, but break the rules whenever it suits me.

As for the cultural setting, from what I can tell Northampton is primarily young, liberal, Caucasian, and college-educated, and the cast of QC essentially reflects that.

CMIX: Originally, the romantic tension between Marten, Dora and Faye played a big role in the series, but you eventually had Marten and Dora overcome that and start a relationship. What went into that decision? Did you worry about the Moonlighting effect - that once the main source of romantic tension was resolved, the series would go downhill?

JJ: My original plan was to resolve the Marten/Faye relationship and have that be the end-point of the series. But the longer I drew QC, the more I got to like the characters and the less I wanted to end it (the fact that I was also making a living off of it was a small but not insignificant factor as well). I came to the realization that if I wanted to continue to work with these characters, I would have to address the Marten and Faye issue in such a way that it would open up more possibilities than it closed off. So, early one morning, I bit the bullet, sat down, and wrote two weeks' worth of comics in the space of about 45 minutes. This was "The Talk" arc, and it effectively (I think) enabled me to expand the story beyond the will-they-won't-they trap.

I knew I was taking a big risk, and frankly I was terrified that I was killing the golden goose, but I knew it had to be done, regardless of whether it would make or break the comic. I honestly expected that storyline to mark QC's peak in terms of audience, but the comic has done virtually nothing but grow since then, and is something like twice as big, traffic-wise, now as it was then. So I guess I did the right thing, or got really lucky, or both.

Head over to ComicMix for the full interview with Jeph Jacques about Questionable Content.

As always, I’ve posted an excerpt here, with a link to the full interview at the end of the post.

When I spoke with Goats creator Jon Rosenberg a month ago, he hinted at big things in store for his long-running webcomic that may or may not involve lasers, contracts and lawn care professionals.

Well, the news broke today, and despite a conspicuous absence of lasers and lawn care, there is indeed a contract at the heart of Rosenberg's big announcement. Rosenberg tells ComicMix that Random House imprint Villard will be publishing collections of the color strips of the series (everything from late-2003 until the current storyline) in a set of 150-page volumes. He expects to have the first volume ready for San Diego's Comic-Con International next year, with two more volumes following in six-month intervals.

From the official press release:

Villard Books will publish the recently completed Goats story arc, The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, as a trilogy —in the style of the great sci-fi sagas Goats so affectionately parodies. Each trade paperback volume will be full color and published at six-month intervals. The first volume, Goats: Infinite Typewriters, set for July 2009, will include newly revised and created material intended to introduce new readers to the colossal and complex Goats universe—and set up the audience for the rest of the epic. Book 1 will cover material published on the Goats website from December 2003 to January 2006. The second book, Goats: The Corndog Imperative, scheduled for a November 2009 release, covers January 06 to March 2007. And the third book, Goats: Showcase Showdown, due out in April 2010, covers March 07 to April 08.

I spoke with Rosenberg about the publishing deal and what it means for one of the 'Net's longest-running webcomics.

COMICMIX: So how did this deal come about, Jon? Who approached who?

JON ROSENBERG: My agent, Judy Hansen, made everything happen. I called her up one day and she said, "Hold on, I'm going to call up Random House and get you a book deal." And I waited on hold for a bit and when she got back on, it was all taken care of.

I'm beginning to suspect that Judy has some supernatural abilities, it has been an amazing education watching her bend reality to her will as she works.

CMix: What can you tell us about the specifics of the deal? Do you receive anything on a per-book basis, or was this a flat-rate arrangement?

JR: This is a standard book-type deal as far as I understand, with a royalty rate and an advance paid on those royalties and that sort of thing. It's a nice deal, I'm not going to retire early on it or anything but I'm quite happy with the terms.

CMix: Are you planning to do anything in particular to format the strips for print publication, or will they translate to print easily in their current form?

JR: There may be a bit of formatting here and there to accommodate odd-shaped strips but everything has been designed in mind with making the transition as painless as possible. The books are 8" square, which means each page can hold up to three rows of comic panels. And even though I publish on the web at 72dpi, I still have 600dpi source files of all the comics in print-ready formats.

CMix: Who's going to write the forewords to the books?

JR: Good question! I'm not sure yet, I always feel like I'm imposing when I ask for someone to write something about my work. Maybe I'll send out my requests for back-cover blurbs and see who's the most enthusiastic respondent.

Head over to ComicMix for the full interview with Jon Rosenberg on the Goats publishing deal.

As always, I’ve provided an excerpt of the interview here, with a link to the full article immediately following the excerpt. Oh, and be sure to check out Ellis’ excellent webcomic, FreakAngels if you haven’t already.

For anyone familiar with the online presence of award-winning writer Warren Ellis, it came as no surprise when the author announced at last year's San Diego Comic-Con that he would be scripting an original, ongoing webcomic hosted by Avatar Press and titled FreakAngels. The concept, the preview art and even the name of the series all seemed quite, well... Warren Ellis.

What has been surprising, however, is the ease at which the longtime print author has adapted to the online medium and managed to create a compelling, unique series with very few blips in the weekly schedule he set for himself and FreakAngels artist Paul Duffield. At a time when top-tier print titles are failing to meet monthly schedules time and time again, Ellis and Duffield have managed to create a consistently compelling, unique series worthy of mentioning in the same breath as many of the more established webcomics out there. The fact that the series also has Ellis' considerable online savvy and the resources of an up-and-coming publisher like Avatar behind it only makes the entire package even more intriguing to anyone with an interest in the digital evolution of the medium.

Avatar afforded me a few minutes to speak with Ellis during the recent Wizard World Chicago convention (where he was the event's Guest of Honor), and I was glad to have the opportunity to ask him about FreakAngels, his thoughts on the online publishing scene, and how it all relates to traditional British storytelling.

COMICMIX: Coming from the print side of the industry, did your creative process change much for FreakAngels, Warren? How did the new medium affect your routine?

WARREN ELLIS: The only thing that has really been affected is the length of the episode. But even then, I'm not really writing with six pages in mind so much as I'm writing with 144 pages in mind. I'm writing FreakAngels in 144-page blocks, so I'm really keeping my eye on the bigger picture as opposed to keeping an eye on the ending of page six. So really there's been no change at all.

I've kind of refused to change. [Laughs]

CMix: Why the decision to work in six-page blocks? Does this story lend itself to that format, or is there another reason why six pages seemed appropriate?

WE: I grew up with British comics. British comics were weekly anthologies and they were full of stories that were around six pages. So I'm being a proper British writer by doing my weekly science-fiction comic, and I'm doing them in six-page episodes.

Head over to ComicMix for the full Warren Ellis interview.

As always, I’ve provided a link to the full interview at the end of this excerpt.

There aren't many people who have been in the webcomics business longer than Goats creator Jon Rosenberg.

After more than a decade creating comics in the online scene (and doing so as his sole source of income for the last few years), the popular creator has certainly earned "veteran" status -- especially by the "here one day, gone the next" standards of Internet fame. In the time that countless other comics have enjoyed celebrated beginnings, mediocre runs and quiet dismissals into digital limbo, Goats has persevered, evolved and gone so far as to develop a rich, complex history that continues to develop to this day.

Yet, as both the series and its creator have grown, so have the elements providing the series' foundation from the start. Minor and major characters have come into their own and prompted various spin-offs and memes that carve out an even greater niche for the series in webcomic history. Whether experimenting with subscription-based content or new hardware for illustrators, Rosenberg's longtime readers have been privy to an ongoing experiment with the Internet's ability to support webcomics. Heck, one might even go so far as to say that the evolution of Goats is a pretty darn good model of the evolution of webcomics as a whole, with many of the trends, pitfalls and successes of the online model represented by different points in the series' history.

And to think it all began with a couple of guys in a bar.

For this week's webcomic interview, I spoke with Rosenberg about Goats, his creative process, the art of the relaunch and the big announcement he has planned for Comic-Con International in San Diego next month.

Oh, and we also found some time to talk about beer, too.

COMICMIX: What are you up today, Jon?

JON ROSENBERG: Today was one of those rare non-comicking days where I did a couple hundred small businessy-type tasks. "Taskettes," really. Customer service email, product design, paying bills, that sort of thing. From the sorts of things I've heard lately, print cartoonists all have assistants and butlers to do that sort of thing for them since they're all so rich, but us webcomics folk sometimes have to get our hands dirty.

Lately I've been working on banging out as good a story as possible and learning to use my new Cintiq at peak efficiency. Electrons is where it's at, I'm never going back to ink on paper. Most of my mental bandwidth has been taken up by a large project which I can't talk about until July, unfortunately.

CMix: Goats really stands apart from other webcomics when it comes to the level of continuity you write into the stories. Many of the arcs run for dozens upon dozens of strips. Can you tell me a bit about why you chose to go with a continuity-laden strip instead of the one-shot architecture used by so many other webcomics?

JR: I think I accidentally stumbled into continuity. I was looking to give the strip a unifying theme that would hold it together beyond beer jokes and random stupidity. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that whatever it was that became that overarching hook would allow me lots of flexibility in the sorts of stories I could tell. So I cobbled together a Goats cosmology from whatever bits of popular science-fiction I had lying around at the time and flung everyone into it.

I didn't want the switch to be jarring so I worked the transition into the strip's storyline. That story turned out to be a lot bigger than I had anticipated and by the time the transition to the new format was made, the strip was just as much about maintaining that stream of continuity as it was about bumming around the multiverse.

Head over to the ol’ coffee shop I call ComicMix for the full Jon Rosenberg interview on Goats.