Thread "Round 6: Hakoshen interviews kitty17 of Unsound of Mind and others!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 12:03AM, Mar. 9, 2009

This interview is of kitty17, whose comics are Unsound of Mind, KALA KouKou, and others!
(interview conducted by Hakoshen!)

1. For starters, why donâ€™t you tell the readers a little bit about yourself.

My name is Kathy Diaz. Iâ€™m 20 and am currently majoring in Interactive Digital Design.

2. Thereâ€™s a clear manga influence to your comics. What were your inspirations for your style?

Well, thatâ€™s really hard to say. My style has been changing over the years and still is. When I first started drawing comics I was a big fan of Ken Akamatsu, but thatâ€™s gradually changed, and now Iâ€™m not really sure anymore.

3. Maybe a better questions then is what are your favorite comics/mangas now?

Well, Iâ€™m currently reading Doubt by Tonogai Yoshiki, Ga-Rei, flower flower and Deadman Wonderland.

4. What tools/methods do you use to draw your comics?

My main tools are my Bamboo tablet from Wacom, and Photoshop CS, and I always make sure I have ac up of tea and something to snack on when working on comics.

5. How long does it take you from conception to publication to finish a page?

Ahh, that all depends on my mood. It can be from a few hours to a few weeks. Procrastination and laziness are hard to defeat, ):

6. What are your ideal working conditions? You mentioned having tea, but some people work better at different times of day.

Night time. I have three brothers and I usually have to help out a lot around the house, so if itâ€™s not my brothers bothering me, itâ€™s my parents. Night time is the only time I can relax and have my own time. And I have to have music playing as well or I canâ€™t concentrate.

7. What kinds of music do you use?

Usually something upbeat and not slow. If it lacks lyrics or I canâ€™t understand the language, even better. I also enjoy listening to music from video games, like Zelda or even the old 8bt classics, like mega man themes.

8. Your four comics all belong to different subgenres. Is there a particular genre you prefer?

Comedy. I love making people laugh, which is probably why Unsound of Mind has the most pages.

9. On that noteâ€¦ things have a habit of bursting into flames thatâ€¦ shouldnâ€™t.

Lol thatâ€™s right. That all started with my moocow though. Heâ€™s usually the only thing that bursts into flames.

10. There a story behind that or is it just something you thought of to make people laugh?

Oh, well thereâ€™s a story behind moocow. Heâ€™s really a co-op(?) creation, I guess. I first drew him a few years back with my friend Katie, in one of those pictochat game rooms. Insteada of actually playing the game, I drew a cow and we decided to set him on fire.

11. Alright, letâ€™s say one of your comics was picked up to become animated. What songs would you use for your opening and closing?

I donâ€™t particularly listen to the lyrics of songs. SO I wouldnâ€™t know what would fit. Though currently Iâ€™m a big fan of some of the songs people create for Vocaloids.

12. On that same note, if one of your shows was animated, do you have any people youâ€™d choose to do specific voices?

Well thatâ€™s difficult. Iâ€™m a big fan of Aya Hirano, who voices Konata from Lucky Star and Haruhi from Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, but sheâ€™s Japanese. So unless my comics were picked up in Japan, I doubt thatâ€™d happen. Iâ€™m not particularly fond of American voice actors. They always appear to be let downs in anime.

13. So tell me, how do you get inspiration for these comics of yours?

Well UoM usually comes from life experiences. I take whatever happens to me, and twist them in a way so they appear funny. Or at least I hope theyâ€™re funny. Or sometimes my mind randomly tosses an idea out and I just work with it.

14. So are the characters based off of real friends of yours? The iron rib one seemed like one of those things you canâ€™t make up.

Lol yeah, that actually happened. The only ones who arenâ€™t based off real people are the non-human ones.

15. So what knids of hobbies other than comics do you have?

Well I do draw a lot. Especially when I procrastinate.

16. well, any closing remarks?

Well, this interview was fun. I hope you and people reading this can know me a bit better now and hopefully I can continue to be funny (or try to be) with UoM. I should also try to procrastinate less…I'll work on that, someday.

[edit- question 16 fixed!]