Thread "Gillespie interviews Hunchdebunch of The Door, Last of the Wilds, and others!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 2:08AM, Aug. 5, 2009

This interview is of Hunchdebunch, whose comics are: The Door, Last of the Wilds, Dark Lightand others!
(interview conducted by Gillespie!)

1. I noticed that you work on MULTIPLE comics! How do you manage a schedule for them?

I work mostly on Last Of The Wilds and The Door, with Dark Light and Love Cat as sort of background work that I only work on when I have ideas, as they donâ€™t have scripts. It depends really, but at the moment Iâ€™ve stopped drawing pages for Last Of The Wilds as I have 44 pages drawn out for it, and Iâ€™ve been drawing pages for The Door instead. However, Iâ€™ve been colouring pages for both comics recently.

2. Who would you say are your inspirations?

Well my main inspiration would have to be David Peterson (creator of Mouse Guard). Really it was his work that encouraged me to try harder at making comics, and also Iâ€™ve emailed him for advice a few times, and heâ€™s been very helpful and encouraging. But Iâ€™m also inspired by other comics/graphic novels Iâ€™ve read, such as World Of Quest (Jason Kruse) and Amulet (Kazu Kibuishi). Iâ€™m also very strongly inspired by films, tv series (mainly sci-fi or fantasy), video games, and music. Music has a very strong influence on my work, as I sometimes quote songs in my comics, and Last Of The Wilds is actually named after a song by Nightwish.

3. How long have you been making comics? You seem quite experienced at them!

Well itâ€™s sort of been an on-off kind of thing for a while now. A few years ago I made a 34 page black and white pencil comic with no real storyline but it was comedy. Then a year or two after that I made my Primeval fan comic, and that was when I realised I really enjoyed making comics, so I stopped that and started making original comics. My first was Keep Off The Grass, but it never got very far as I was too busy. I then decided to try colouring comics on Photoshop, and since this was quicker and still looked good, I started making comics seriously again, and hopefully this time Iâ€™ll be able to finish them. Also it got easier since people in my class at college have been very encouraging, and since I joined Drunkduck Iâ€™ve gained more confidence with my work too.

4. You have a mix of drawing humans and anthropomorphic characters. Which kind do you prefer to draw? Did it take practice to do that?

One thing thatâ€™s good about the fact that Iâ€™m working on Last Of The Wilds and The Door at the same time is that I get to draw a variety of different characters, so I donâ€™t get bored of drawing humans or anthros. I used to prefer drawing anthropomorphic characters, but more recently I like drawing both human and animal based characters. As long as Iâ€™m drawing characters that I think look good, Iâ€™m happy. I think for me the animal based characters just came very naturally to me because I love animals, but I found learning to draw people a lot harder. I had this folder of characters Iâ€™d made up where I would redraw them as they got older, and that helped me improve a lot.

5. Your username….why Hunchdebunch? Does it refer to something or was it just random?

One day when me and my sister were walking home from school she said I was walking with a hunchback, so she started calling me Hunch. The â€˜De Bunchâ€™ part was added later, because it rhymed I guess. I just like the fact that it rhymes, I find it amusing.

6. Stories aren't easy to come up with. What do you do when you're writing one?

I have a few different ways of coming up with stories, but usually I either think of a character and what kind of situation they might get into, and just follow on from that, or my ideas come from weird dreams I have. The Door came from a dream. Last Of The Wilds was originally a silly little film that me and my sister made using some of her toys, which happened to be a leopard named Pippin, a wolf named Coryn, and a white tiger named Shandi. Iâ€™m constantly coming up with new ideas for stories, but it can take months and months for the idea to be ready to turn into a script.

7. Some people are possibly curious, but what do you use to make a comic?

I draw The Door and Last Of The Wilds on paper, in pencil first, then ink them with pens. I then take a photo on my digital camera and transfer the pages to my laptop, and colour them on photoshop. With Last Of The Wilds this is also when I add in the gutter. For Dark Light I draw it roughly in pencil, and ink it with pens and then the page is done. In a way, Dark Light is the simplest to make, despite the fact that I work in a very different style from my usual. Love Cat is made completely on photoshop. I use the line tool to draw everything, then just fill it with the paint bucket tool. This actually takes just as long as Last Of The Wilds or The Door, since Iâ€™m not used to drawing on photoshop yet. However Iâ€™m sure Iâ€™ll get better with practice.

8. Do you see a future with comics? I hope I certainly have one with it!

I really really hope I have a future with comics, Iâ€™d love that. To be honest Iâ€™d be fairly happy with any art related job, but to have my comics published and just see them in the shops would make me so proud!

9. When making a comic, what keeps you focused on finishing it? Do you have trouble even starting one?

I think Iâ€™m pretty good at starting comics, thatâ€™s the easy part for me. I find keeping them going harder. Iâ€™ve never finished one yet, but it looks like The Door will be my first finished comic. Iâ€™m very careful to choose a story that Iâ€™m going to stay interested in for a long time, just in case it takes a long time to finish. Some other things I do to stay focussed are: 1. If Iâ€™m finding it hard to work on a page for any reason, such as not being able to draw a character right, or literally feeling like I canâ€™t be bothered to do it properly, I stop. I stop working on the comic for as long as I need to (usually a few days to a couple of weeks), and when I come back to it Iâ€™m practically rabid because of how badly I want to work on it. 2. The fact that I work on a few at a time helps make sure I donâ€™t get bored of working on the same comic over and over.

10. How did you discover Drunk Duck? Was it by research or just random?

One of my friends, known as Vair on here, told me about it. I originally came on here to read her comics, but then I read some other peopleâ€™s work, and eventually decided I wanted to post my own work here too.

11. For the people who don't know you, would like to say why they should read your comics?

Well, I like to think Iâ€™ve got a bit of variety with my comics (in style, genre, etc.), so maybe thereâ€™s something for everyone? If you like animals, fantasy, sword fights, and adventure, Iâ€™d recommend Last Of The Wilds. If youâ€™re more into a story that involves a cute mother-son relationship, a creepy butler, and a bit of mystery, then you might enjoy The Door. If you like a comic with a dark, rough style, romance, fantasy, dark magic, and telepathy, you may enjoy Dark Light. Finally, if you want comedy, romance, rejection, and a bit of slap-stick comedy, you might enjoy Love Cat.

12. Last off, it was fun trying to come up with these questions. Hope they weren't bad. Anything else you would like to say to the Intoxicated Bird?

Um…keep on Drunkducking?

Posted at 6:08AM, Aug. 5, 2009

I agree with question 4! Humans are hard to draw.
I believe it is because we are more discerning about human faces, so if they are even slightly off we think they are freakish, where as with an animal faces people are more forgiving.