This interview is of genejoke, whose comics are: Malefic, Malefic Tales, Cubicle and others! (Many of them collaborations with others!)
(interview conducted by ifelldownthestairs!)
1. I know it's the question that every interviewer asks to get an interview started, but… it's the easiest way to get going, so I'll go ahead and ask it.
Do you think homeless people hate knock-knock jokes?
It must upset them a little, it really depends on the individual. Some just don't have a sense of humour… which I find odd, if my life sucked that bad I would need to laugh.
2. But seriously. What led you to comics? Are there any in particular that inspired you, or was it more that you recognized your talent and it just seemed the thing to do?
I have loved comics since I was a kid, my grandpa used to by me eagle and Battle as a way of encouraging me to read. I actually got upset when they got me spiderman instead, which is funny as nowadays I am something of a marvelite.
As for artistic talent, that runs in the family although there are no proffesional artists in the family.
3. Looking over your work, I've noticed that you collaborate a good amount; do you think this is a preference of operation, so to speak? Why or why not? Also, how would you compare the collaborative process with writing everything yourself?
I started doing it on my own because I wanted a creative outlet that I could do in the evenings that I could do alone as I am usually stuck at home alone several evenings a week
and TV is crap and I ran out of porn to download. There is a joke in there somewhere…
Back to the question, If I had known where to look at the time I would have probably tried to do a collaboration as my first project.
Starting Malefic I really didn't know what I was doing and didn't even have a script just some characters and a rough plot. I think it came together fairly well considering.
I offered my services to Elektro for Cubicle as a way of learning how others work, well that and the project sounded interesting.
His script was a challenge because it was clear in many ways yet vague in others, it took me a while to work out how to put it together and make it work.
4. Hey. Say what you must about television, but there is ALWAYS more porn to download. What are the challenges of collaborating? Are there ever any oddball misunderstandings? Wacky happenings? Zany antics?? I smell a sitcom…
Well the first person to reply to my post in community project was Dave7 who does all saints, he said he would be interested in doing a short story for it but he would be busy for a while so it wouldn't be quick. A few months later I get 40 age script, which I plan to get to work on soon, well when things ease up a bit anyway as I have just begun doing work on another comic for Dave7.
The second person to reply was Jabberwockyjones, aka Malcolm Derikx who you may have noticed is now writing Malefic.
He replied yeah I would love to write for Malefic, I am not sure if he realised I was after writers for Malefic tales not Malefic, but the idea lodged into my head, so I left the possibility open. A few days later he sent me the script for "A few hours" 8 pages, few characters and it set the tone perfectly. In those pages he nailed what I had hoped to do with Malefic Tales. A short time later came the script for Eye of the storm, which was short (ish) and had more character and between that and his own comic Ax crazy I knew he would be a good choice to help on Malefic. Some discussion later and BAM! Chapter five was giving me a headache, I actually tried scripting it and kept hitting brick walls so I went on hiatus while bringing Malcolm up to speed and awaiting the script. So I received the script and noticed one minor issue which got a slight dialogue change to make it fit and set about drawing it. Towards the end I noticed another minor issue, A character was seen leaving with an unnamed character who didn't appear in the script, most readers probably wouldn't notice this or care but I wanted to sort it. So when Vicky is climbing the fence "Pam" the previously unnamed gets killed instead of simon who had the gun. His assholish behaviour potentially adding to some drama further down the line. I seem to have derailed the question, back on track… the latest story in Malefic tales is called Bank Job. Originally it was a 12 page script, it has ended up as about fifty pages.
5. There's a lot of self-critique in your author's notes! Are you a bit of a perfectionist?
Hell no, more of a half job specialist, I am far too impatient to be a perfectionist.
I do see the flaws what I do and seek to find ways aounnd them other than hammering at the same piece for days on end.
Also a distinct lack of confidence in my abilities.
6. I really enjoy the gritty feel to your illustration; you make mention of photoshop here and there, is that all you use?
If you'd be so kind, please walk us (the studio audience and myself, naturally) through the process. And don't mind the audience's "woo"s… or mine, for that matter. It's seven in the morning and we've all been drinking.
Yeah I use photosjop a lot, I use a mixture of programs actually. No tablet though, well I have a cheap one that I find awkward so I stuick to the mouse.
I pencil on A4 paper with a pencil (imagine that) and the detail of those varies. I ink traditionally where I ink over it and finish it off, before scanning at 300DPI.
I will the vectorize it to tidy the inks and get to work in photoshop. I duplicate the image and create two more layers and set about doing the flats, seperated into foreground and background.
From there is varies as I add in other layers as needed. My process changes as I learn different techniques.
I used to use Gimp more than photoshop until I upgraded my computer and it became very unstable with the new hardware.
Now I just use Gimp for the lettering as it gives me more control over the size of the fonts. For certain effects I will go to different progroms if i haven't worked out how to do it in another.
7. A feeling of impending doom is often present in your work, is cataclysmic fantasy something that interests you a lot?
Interesting question, I think it has more to do with what I have been reading and watching more than a big interest of mine.
Malefic came about for two reasons. My kids were watching 2012 and I had been playing Darksiders on the 360 around the time.
Okay there is more to it than that but I wanted something disposable and thet was the imediate references I had.
8. So if you had been watching, say, Degrassi, Malefic would've had more whiny characters in a high school setting? And a character in a wheelchair would have started a successful career as an MC?
Never heard of it, and I hope not. I did consider a wheelchair bound character though, could happen yet. meals on wheels.
The thing with Malefic is I wasn't sure how well it would go and I have a number of ideas I am holding onto until I can do them justice. So I wanted something simple and throw away, it just seemed to have evolved a bit.
9. How many kids, and how old? Do they take an interest in your work? If I'd had a dad who drew comics, I'd be hassling him nonstop!
Three kids, Dylan is 5, Theresa 3 and Gabriel is 1. Dylan likes my drawings, although I hide some from him. The all love drawing, in Gabes case all over the bloody walls.
10. Bloody? Are… are you an Englishman?
I am indeed, I live in the south in the seaside town of Bournemouth. In fact I only have too walk a few hundred yards to get to a nice sandy beach where they have attempted to make an artificial reef. Fascinating stuff eh?
11. Haha I think so! About your multiple comics… it's tremendously impressive to see how many projects you juggle at once, it's enough to make a person feel lazy for having just one to update! Does it ever get exceedingly difficult?
Only in meeting deadlines when I really want to be doing something else.
Some days or weeks the idea of doing a page for X is unappealing as i really want to be doing whatever other project Y which is really inspiring me at the time. Some days I just get really inspired.
But of late it has been getting difficult, I got a little burned out, had a virus and was getting run down from the late nights doing comics. It all hit at once, fortunately I managed to finish the
malefic tale I was doing to lighten the load and then I spent a bit of time being a little lazy. But the burnout was the worst part, I had no inspiration for doing it and would fall asleep colouring pages, not good.
12. What gave you the idea to create a spin-off for Malefic?
Experimentation and the desire to explore the demonic apocalypse further. Malefic essentially will follow one group of survivors mostly from the south of england. Initially with malefic I tried a little experimentation with styles for each characters story as they told each iother how they got there. Grehs was my basic style, Vanessa's had a more manga edge to it. Dan's was bright and done in colouring pencils (that was a bad move but I have improved them a little since.) Then for Louis, Toby and vicky I just inked with a sharpie. it didn't seem to work so i tried experimenting with malefic tales instead.
I figured with Malefic tales we could help show the scope of events, the downside is that without having an ongoing story or set of characters how do you keep it interesting?
Hence getting others to contribute, it also might help others like myself who want to draw or write a comic but are unsure where to start.
I only have one conributer like this but you never know who might pop up later.
13. That's really cool, keeping an open door for partnerships like that. Well, I think that's about all I've got for you, so thanks a bunch for participating in the interview, man! Is there anything you'd care to add?
I think it needs some beastiality and twihard abuse, apart from that it should work.
Agreed.
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Interviews
ifelldownthestairs interviews genejoke of Malefic, Malefic Tales, Cubicle and others!
I should add to the answer of question 3.
In regards to collaborations, I love working with others. Some visions/stories are pure and do not need or benefit from other peoples input, but for the most part another persons take on an idea can create something far more impressive.
As a creator collaborations are making me see my own work in a different light and in many ways I am beginning to feel like a producer on Malefic Tales, I have scripts from fellow drunkduckers and a couple from non DD'ers artists of varying style, ability and experience. It is fascinating seeing what people make of my script or even just a concept that they make into a script.
Jabberwocky jones has done a number of scripts for Malefic tales and each has a unique take on it, and I know he has more ideas at the least. One that may be in the works, we haven't heard from the artist in a little while so here's hoping, is similar to an idea I mentioned to him but expanded in a whole different manner from what I had in mind.
The current story running is called Bank job, the original concept was called "putting the syndrome into Stockholm" and would has turned into a much bigger story than I was aiming to do. It got greatly simplified into something more action based and that 12 page script was sent to JZA963. His style doesn't lend to as many panels per page as I had scripted. He asked if I was okay with a slightly increased page count, I agreed and eventually received the better part of fifty pages, much is Josh making some pretty impressive splash pages.
We are working on another one but rather than give a full script, I have given plot for each page, or pages and I will script it after, in the fashion of the old marvel comics I believe. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
I could rabbit on about this far ages yet… I'll shut up now.
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