Thread "Group 10 - Anubis interviews spearcarrier of Akashik!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 2:10AM, Oct. 8, 2009

This interview is of spearcarrier, whose comics are: Akashik, Ologist at LARGE and Going Under!
(interview conducted by Anubis!)

1.Where did the idea of Akashik come from? What drugs were you using?
LOLâ€¦ that's easy and hard at the same time. The condensed story is that Taus has always been with me in some form or another. She's just one of those characters that permeates everything you do. I used to tell her story to myself when I was a small child, back when drugs were frowned upon for small children. This would be long before ritlin or however you spell it.

2. What's with that hair? I mean really?
I'll have you know I've been growing this hair since 1989â€¦ no wait. You mean Taus, right? Or Ganji? Um. Yeoman? Okay, whose hair and whome did it strangle?

3. How long have the Writers been doing it?
"It" as in the comic, I should assume? Because if you're referring to another it, we're going to have to take you aside and explain about age grouping and ratings on DD. Be that as it may, it will be three years for us in regards to Akashik this November.

4. Do you use whips and riding crops to get your staff to work faster and harder??
No. I tried using a whip and only succeeded in cutting my own face. Riding crops don't even look menacing, and I think War would like that too much. Mostly I use the power of whine and the lure of nonexistent money.

5. What prompted you to start the comic?
One day I lost yet another desk job and thought, "Screw this! I'm going back to comics!" I assembled a team of people and here we are.

6. Your characters have a lot of quirks to them; do you or your team share those quirks?
Bwa ha ha haâ€¦ yes. Guess which one of us loves guns and which one of us has an aversion to getting arrested.

7. How much say do you have over the storyline?
100%. It's ultimately my story. Yet somehow War's wit and Conquest's tendency to puns creeps in uncontrollably. Akashik was actually meant to be a very serious comic, but sticking three girls and a single chocolate bar together never ends well.

8. What do you find the most challenging thing about Akashik?
Keeping people from losing the plot. It's hard because everything is happening in more than one place at once, so we have to do cameos and flashbacks often. There are mistakes we've made but it's too late to go back now. So we just keep plugging forward, because it's very important to me to see the end of the story. I've other comics I want to do!

9. Do you take inspiration from movies or comics or other sources?
Well, like I said the story has always lived in me. There's a lot of hard-core research that has went into the story from places like Hindu texts and UFO lore. Other than that, we avoid other mediums. The Apocalypse Writers actually have a rule about staying away from pop culture to an extent. We'll cameo characters (there's a smurf in a crowd on one of the recent pages, for example.) and lords know at the very beginning I had to beat War to death to get her to stop with the Firefly references (there *is no* "If Weeden can do it we can, too"). But events and plot devices are at least because it seems natural not because we really loved The Iron Giant. =^-^=

10. Taus is a very interesting character. Is that you?
Look! A butterfly!

11. Is Taus safe?
Is that a loaded question? Because Yeoman might have a loaded answer for you.

12. For the last wee while we have had Ganji being in Taus life. What sandwiches does Taus like?
PB&J. Then there's the dreaded BLT. That's why she can make one without imploding half of the known universe. Sometimes when it comes to bacon, you have to do it yourself. No one else knows the exact state of crispiness that only your tongue enjoys.

13. What happened to Taus marriage?
Didn't you hear her? They just couldn't work things out! =^-^= Rumor has it that there were spoons involved, but I'm not telling.

14. You have a vast collection of characters in your comic. What one of the supporting cast do you like the best ?
Yeoman. No wait. Kris. No wait, she's not been introduced yet. Tack then. No, wait â€¦

15. Which arc is your favorite?
That one in St. Louis. Well, no. The Arc of the Covenant is a definite killer. But if you're talking about the comic, it's all the same arc just from different points of view.

16. The Cerberus project features heavily (since Taus is a former part of that). What is the Cerberus project exactly?
Yeah â€¦ we've never really explained them in the comic have we? So in brief, Cerberus was an elite team of five soldiers. They police the universe by blowing up civilizations. If I had to find a modern day concept equivalent, I'd compare them to conquistadors but with better personalities.
It's a taken for granted fact in the comic world that everyone knows and/or at least has heard the name, so it never gets explained beyond a page or two in military briefings or a quick reminder to the emperor. =^-^= It's purposefully assumed that the reader will pick up on the clues and figure Cerberus out for themselves. Parts of Akashik are not meant for the spoon-fed for the sake of mystery.

17. Serious question BOOOO How they heck do you manage to get such cool merchandise?
Little voices guide me at night on what to do next! And then there are the penguins. They've been very helpful. Santa just threw in a bid last week. We're having a meeting about it at noon tomorrow.

18. You do a few other comics and commission art. How can people contact you about forcing you to make them art for money?
PQ me, I should say. I'm not that difficult to get in contact with. LOL

19. What would you be doing if you weren't doing comics?
Crying. I can't live without the storytelling; it's an ethnic thing. I've always done comics. When I was in kindergarten, I drew comics. The same goes for every other grade. When I was in high school I hooked up with all of the other guys who wanted to be comic artists and drew for them. Now they work in tech support, and I draw comics. It's just what I do.

20. Porn please? Uhh I mean, if you could take over the world and remake it in your own image…would you like toast or waffles?
Well, if I request toast then everyone would BE toast â€¦ and you can't rule the world without a world to rule. So waffles it is. If you burn the edges, you're toast.

Posted at 8:10AM, Oct. 8, 2009

Awesome interview :P
It's not common to see a team of people working on comics on DD, but it's always interesting.
…mmm…waffles.

Posted at 8:10AM, Oct. 13, 2009

<3

Posted at 12:10AM, Oct. 17, 2009

Nice interview, DD has a lot of characters doesn't it?