Round 4: Korosu interviews kyupol of Brood Knight and MAG-ISA!

Posted at 2:02AM, Feb. 20, 2009

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This fantastic reading is: korosu interviewing kyupol of Brood Knight (3 flavors) and MAG-ISA!

1. Let’s start off with an introduction, shall we? Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
So what can I say? Um… I've been drawing comics from an early age. I'd say I started when I was 14 or 15.

Aside from drawing and writing, my other hobbies include reading and occasional video games (Half Life 2 and Command and Conquer: Zero Hour) and watching anime (mostly Naruto and Bleach. I'm not really that much of an anime geek like what I used to be).
I also like to have chickens as pets, but Big Brother wont allow me. Its so dumb. lol

2. What inspired you to create your stories?
Here’s some I can remember…

Anime: Dragon Ball Z, Yuyu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Rurouni Kenshin, Gatekeepers, Oh My Goddess, Naruto, Bleach, Gundam, Evangelion, Spawn, X-Men.

Movies: Fight Club, Matrix, Taegukgi, Saving Private Ryan, 8-mile, various Filipino action movies from the 80s – 90s.

Books: Ender’s Game (the whole saga), Aquariums of Pyongyang, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, A Million Little Pieces, 48 Laws of Power, Sex-ploytation, Healer’s Handbook, Bringers of the Dawn, The Biggest Secret, Infinite Love is the Only Truth Everything Else is Illusion, The Bible, various philosophy, religion, history, and psychology textbooks.

Radio Shows: The Alex Jones Show, Cutting Through The Matrix, Male Mentoring with Henry Makow, Coast to Coast AM, Red Ice Creations

Music: Slapshock, Greyhoundz, Pop Shuvit, Eraserheads, Korn, Metallica, Linkin Park, Limpbizkit, Flobots, A Dozen Furies, Kitty, Queso, COG, Creed, Eminem, Ill Nino, Kid Rock, Wolfgang, etc.

Personal experiences: lmao!!!

3. Is there a particular artist who’s been an influence on your drawing style?
I can't really say who exactly but the closest I can get is Berlin Manalaysay (Combatron) and Ranny Dayo (Tinay Pinay) of Funny Komiks. I remembered reading those comics as a kid. My favorite was Combatron. And although I didn't like the story in Tinay Pinay, I liked the art so I more or less adapted it (then slightly modified it along the way). I remember sitting down copying their comics then ending up frustrated most of the time.

I can also say I was also influenced by Dragon Ball Z. I also remember copying that stuff. I also copied some Marvel Comics. lol

But now I dunno. My art style is just a hybrid of everything I tried to copy from, during the early stages of learning how to draw. I started out copying comics. I only learned to do "life drawing" in the one year of formal art school that I took.

4. Just out of curiosity, where do you see yourself in about ten years?
I don't have a crystal ball. And I don't have a focused systematic plan of action. So I just do things as they come along.

And while I want to have a career doing comics, first thing's first which is survival. I gotta eat and pay bills too. So I will not hesitate to go into any kind of opportunity that presents itself. As long as its not one that would require me to hurt myself and/or cause pain to other people.

5. Which of your characters do you feel you relate the most to? (Or, which character is the most like you?)
I'd say Emmanuel Cruz from MAG-ISA.

But at the same time though, I'd say that Eman Cruz is at least a 5x exaggeration of the truth. Because for one (or rather, a few things):
- Eman's dad is an alcoholic woman abuser, my dad won't even drink beer.
- Eman gets to have pretty girls in his life. lol
- Eman makes minimum wage.
- Eman sometimes says things that I personally disagree with. So don't treat him like a "comic mouthpiece".
- And its not that every single friend I have, always ends up getting killed or having some crazy misfortune happen to them. I'd be going insane by now if that's the case.

6. You’ve done a lot of pages for MAG ISA in less than two years. Have you ever felt you’ve lost the motivation for the comic? And if you have, what helps to keep you going?
Of course I've lost motivation during the odd occasions – when work, social life, or other projects get in the way and I have no energy to do a comic.

But overall, MAG-ISA is my favorite comic. Its the comic so far that I felt absolutely 110% committed to. Brood Knight was more like 80-90% commitment. Because for one, Brood Knight (the original. Not Shattered Hate) DID NOT HAVE A SCRIPT and I wrote it as it went along.

If you were to ask me what keeps me going, I can't really give you a proper answer for that. All I can say is… I feel that there is SOMETHING ELSE out there that is guiding me on this comic. I don't know if you call that "God" or your "Higher Self" or a "Spirit Guide" or "Guardian Angel".

I dont know but I remember being in a "hyper" kind of state when I was writing its script. I remember sleeping at 4 am just to work on the script. I was THAT addicted to it.

I'm telling my readers that I'm committed and I will carry on with that comic. I'll only stop doing it if:
- I have absolutely no time to do comics. If one of these days I just become a workaholic due to the necessities of life.
- One day I just wake up and realize that MAG-ISA is just complete crap and its not really what I wanna be doing. As I grow up and mature in life, I might start having other priorities. I know some of my readers still miss Brood Knight and want me to continue it but as of now, I feel that its an "immature" and "outdated" comic. It was done at a time in my life when I had different priorities and a different perspective on things.

Maybe one of these days, Brood Knight will be re-vamped or possibly have its storyline merge with the MAG-ISA storyline. Because afterall, Claudita is a shared character in both comics. lol

7. What do you feel are the most important themes in your comics? Or to rephrase: what sort of message are you trying to send to your readers?
The most important issue I’m trying to address is the overall state of the world we live in. It is a place full of evil and hate and suffering.

As to WHY that is the case, there are different explanations. Ranging from the existence of shapeshifting alien lizards (as claimed by David Icke and others) and demons (usually from a Christian perspective) who run everything and feed on the fear, misery, and suffering of of the human race… to the suggestion that this is just part of human nature – humans just have the nature to take advantage of others and seek more and more and more.

Maybe its both or a combination of a lot of other factors. I don’t know. This world is already insane the way it is. And I wont be surprised if truth is stranger than fiction.

But the point is, little by little we are losing our freedoms as this world gets turned little by little into a giant prison. All in the name of “keeping you safe” – the favorite excuse to justify more government, more police, and less freedom.

Brood Knight was more of a reaction to this angst I felt in general about this world we live in. Back when I wrote Brood Knight, I was younger. I knew there’s something wrong with this world but I didn’t know what exactly it is. As a result, the angst just built up and just had to be channelled somewhere. That’s why Brood Knight is the more action-packed and violent one of my comics.

In MAG-ISA, there’s still the same angst in Brood Knight but this time, I incorporate political and spiritual stuff somewhere along. I’m just trying to speak out my mind and give my perspective on things. And its up to the readers if they agree with me or not. MAG-ISA came out of the need to speak out on political and spiritual issues using a webcomic as a medium. Because its been bugging me for a long time now.

8. What’s been the hardest part of creating comics?
A weird angle that has multiple people with multiple objects in a single panel – THAT is the hardest thing to draw. The more objects and people, the harder it is to draw. Sometimes it intimidates me and I tend to resort to shortcuts.

Another hard thing is CONSISTENCY. Sometimes my readers spot inconsistencies and stupid stuff in my comics that I just failed to see. lol

9. Is there a certain demographic you’re trying to reach with your comics? Or, what age group do you feel best represents your audience?
When I did my comics, I never had a particular demographic in mind. I know that the kind of people who read my stuff come from a whole bunch of backgrounds – age, gender, religion, political inclination, country of origin, etc.

But I remember doing a survey before among my readers and I noticed that a good number of them are Christians (regardless of denomination). Maybe because of the angels and devils in my comics.

10. Before we finish up, is there something you’d like to say to your readers?
First of all, I’d like to say thank you to all of them… especially those who’ve followed my stuff from the very beginning and comment on every update since I started on drunkduck.

In particular:
Aussie Kid, JillyFoo, SarahN

Also:
JustNoPoint, croxtonhas, worstcase, magickmaker, Walrus, trevoramueller, LanceDanger, krisikas, PeiPei, ghostrunner, BlkKnight, patoborracho, Gohlico, Akki333, and others I’ve failed to mention!!!

You guys are the friends I’d probably never meet. Though it would be great if we can hangout or something. lol

I also like to give a shoutout to the people I know personally who’ve read my stuff and like what I do. THANK YOU. I won’t mention you in this interview cuz I don’t wanna reveal your secret superhero identities. lol

THANK YOU!!! ARIGATOU!!! MERCI!!! SALAMAT!!!

Posted at 6:02PM, Feb. 20, 2009

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hey. nice to see this thread.

Thanks for hyperlinking all the mentions of my comics.