Thread "Round 6: json interviews Hakoshen of Two Weeks Notice!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 5:03AM, Mar. 17, 2009

This interview is of Hakoshen, whose comic is Two Weeks Notice!
(interview conducted by json!)

1. what are you wearing?

Funny you should ask since I just got out of the shower. At present, some faded boxers. By the end of this I'll be dressed for work, so black slacks, a monochrome polo shirt, and some loafers.

2. alright, so tell everyone who are you, and how you got into these here funny papers?

My name's Adrian, and I'm just your average Louisianian. A friend of mine had an idea for a comic we had been kicking around for months, and since I had always been drawing, even making other comics before, I was to be the artist. Well it never happened. Then, when the time came to quit Gamestop, I was such good friends with the people working there I decided to do something crazy for my two weeks notice. And so the first four or five page comic was sketched out in one night, put into an envelop and given to my boss. He thought it was hilarious and demanded I keep it going.

3. since you're a gamer (as am i)….what game are you playing right now (WoW doesn't count) and what game are MOST excited about coming out this summer?

The last thing I played was Empire: Total war, and before that, Eat Lead, and Fear.

4. so what is your book about for anyone who hasn't read it?

It's about an alternate reality where retail chains duke it out with guns, mechs and lightsabers instead of lowering prices and having sales. Our hero finally got fed up with it and decided he wanted to quit, and the comic is the story of his last two weeks.

5. why should people read it (shameless plug for yourself time)?

Mechs? Lightsabers? Gunfights? Martial Arts? What's not to love? And you've got some crazy Zatoichi girl who is surprisingly capable for a blind woman.

6. so, i noticed your story initially started out as a short six page strip(i can relate), but picked up steam…how did that happen?

Well, my boss, Keytrick (aka the bearded one) harassed me for days to add more pages to it, so I eventually conceded. As it so happened, we were BOTH quitting, and he ended up leaving before me, so he wanted to see as much of it as possible before he left (the state). So I said I'd put it online somewhere when I cleaned it up.

7. would it be safe to assume the protagonist and antagonist are based off real life people and how about the other characters?

As of yet, every character we've seen is based on a real person, with the exception of the blind girl. I conjured her up as a strange, deus ex machina kind of thing with the logic of "these stories all have some innocent blind person," but over time, I made her just as lethal as everyone else.

8. i noticed early in your story you had a teaser page of 3 characters that don't exist in the story yet. where do these guys fit in, or is that a spoiler?

It's kind of both. I wanted people to know that it's not just these two guys fighting on and on forever, even though their current fight just wont seem to end. However, those are others who work in the store too, and that's only half of them.

9. what direction is your story headed? do you have a set direction or are you just rolling with the punches in a free-form plot style?

Despite their new hatred for each other, the protagonist and antagonist are going to end up working together more so than against each other in future installments, as other stores and conflicts are introduced. It's one big continuity, from start to finish of those two weeks.

10. you have a very obvious japanese style influence in your work. with that cat out of the bag, who are your comic heroes and inspirations?

Well, I'd be lying if I didn't say Naruto and Bleach, but also Trigun for the shooting scenes, and a weird combination of Hellsing and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles for others. I've got about three bookshelves worth of manga, but I don't count them all as inspiration.

11. with that said, what is your favorite animated series?

In college, it used to be Naruto and Bleach. Me and about three others would gather around my computer and watch the newest episodes from Dattebayo. Right now, I watch Pokemon every morning because it's all that's on. However, my all time favorite is FLCL. Oh, that and Cowboy Bebop.

12. how does the creative process work for you? do you bounce ideas off your friends? put on your favorite CD and a bottle of JackD? what gets your artistic juices flowing?

Well, some pages were drawn while I was drunk at a hotel, others while I'm bored at work, and others when I'm bored at home. I have to have some kind of background noise, usually just the TV, and I do the pencil layout for the page. I scan it from there and redo the lines and coloring in Flash. A lot of pages are done while I'm playing WOW, but dont tell my guild leader that's why my DPS is lacking lately.

13. now that we're talking about your art….how long does it take you to complete a page?

Anywhere between four to six hours.

14. since your comic is in full color, do you use photoshop? and did you find it tricky to make convincing lightsabers with photoshop's layers?

I used photoshop for some of the earlier pages, but photoshop is like a Harley Davidson when all I want is a Kawasaki, so I use Flash. It's a lot simpler to do many of the same effects, to include using layers and glow effects.

15. i noticed in your profile you've written a few novels (but have yet to have them published), any future plans to turn these stories into comics?

Well, the Hakoshen is about a clan of demon hunters, and if it were a comic I'm pretty certain it'd be close to about 15 volumes worth of manga if I transcribed every single thing I wrote in them, and the others are just as long. I don't think I could ever find the time to make them into a comic given how long they are and feel like I did them justice.

16. what do you hope to gain from posting your story on DrunkDuck?

Well, just knowing people read it is all I could really hope to get out of it. I've stepped on too many copyright laws to make any money. Almost every other page rips off a new franchise.

17. thanks for the interview, man. any last words to go out on?

I hope that everyone who reads my comic gets a good laugh, or at least a "hey that's pretty cool" out of it, tells their friends and comes back for more. And give your local gamestop employee's a break. They hate life enough as it is.

Posted at 3:03PM, Mar. 18, 2009

Great interview, folks! It's good to see those who work so hard on their series get the recognition they deserve!
The rest of you need to check out this series and drop back here and give your comments, too!

I'M GIVING YOU TWO WEEKS' NOTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD

Posted at 6:03PM, Mar. 20, 2009

nice interview. It was fun and easy to read. I'll have to give Two Weeks Notice a read right now.