Thread "Round 8, a little late! amanda interviews Niccea and Ochitsukanai of Mystery Bread!" in forum "Interviews"

Posted at 8:08AM, Aug. 27, 2009

This interview is of Niccea and Ochitsukanai, whose collaborate the comic Mystery Bread and contribute to The Drunk Duck Mafia!
(interview conducted by amanda!)

To start, a nice and easy generic one: tell us about a little yourselves! Who are you guys? Where are you from? How'd you meet?
Niccea: Well Iâ€™m Niccea. Real name is Clara by the way. I am deep in the heart of Texas and a graduate student in Occupational Therapy school. Ochi and I met on the first day of middle school during gym class. I was sitting alone when I heard someone say, â€œHey set with us.â€ The speaker was not Ochi, but her best friend. Eventually Ochi and I got to know each other and became friends too.

Ochi: I am an English major and a history minor, but I've been practicing drawing for several years. The maxim by which I try to live is "don't be a jerk." As Niccea said, we met in middle school, proving that good things can indeed come out of suffering~

Now… about your flagship comic Mystery Bread. A superheroic bread loaf? Clearly you're trying to promote the value of whole grains in one's diet, but are there any other reasons you chose this form?
Niccea: We didnâ€™t choose the form, the form chose us. Ochi and I are apt to random conversations. Midway through the discussion through food in Lord of the Rings (I donâ€™t even know how we got to that point.) Ochi forgot the name of Lampas bread and decided to call it â€œmystery bread.â€ The idea for the comics shot into our heads then.

What gave you the idea to do a story by turns? Has this given you any issues?
Niccea: We both wanted to draw the story. Since we have two entirely different art styles, we thought it would be better to do it in turns like this. It hasnâ€™t given us any issues yet. Though it does make for a fun game. We try to mess up the other person as much as possible. The surfing contest? Ochiâ€™s way of screwing with me.

Ochi: Continuity! In particular, I don't worry about replicating patterns, and I kept changing Angel's hat. Because of that, it became an in-joke for a while to draw completely different hats on Angel without mentioning it, so he'd be wearing a jester hat, then a derby, then a beret…

You're still switching artist duty, but are you also switching author duty or are you writing the story in advance now?
Niccea: Nope, we are still just flying by the seat of our pants. Usually we see each otherâ€™s pages when they are released. Sometimes I try to send Ochi a draft before hand to help with planning. There is little planning between us for pages or for plot. When we are finishing up the third chapter (Bearly Noticeable) we did try to think of something for Mystery Bread to face. And we decided mold.

One of my favorite things about your comic is all the detail and silly objects in the background. I particularly like the bread-box house. What little non-plot-essential background thing still makes you laugh?
Niccea: Well. They werenâ€™t entirely non-plot-essential, but I still like the hole in the wall and the House of Highly Flammable objects. The hole in the wall was actually going to be a plot device once. It was literally be a hole in the 4th wall. But we decided against the silliness of it and patched it up.
Having Exclamatory Man! giving the airlines speal was another highlight for me.

Ochi: Lately, my favorite thing has been a poster advertising Oscar Wilde in the doctor's office. I think it cures depression; when you go to the pharmacy, they give you a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which restores your sense of aesthetics and allows you to see beauty again. Either that or it bores you to death. Either way, your suffering ends.

Mystery Bread's sidekick Bagel Boy is blueberry. How might his personality have been different if he were, say, an onion bagel?
Niccea: Well. Everyone knows that onion bagels are very unhygienic and they can make you cry at times.
Ochi: See, so every story would be a tearjerker. Get it? Get it? -bang-

You're both apparently fond of baked goods. What are your real life favorites?
Niccea: I am fond of croissants and apple Danishes.
Ochi: I prefer pie to cake.

Want to share a plot idea for Mystery Bread that you decided not to use?
Niccea: Both Ochi and I made a first page for Mystery Bread. Mine never showed up. It originally started out at a dance party. Eventually a bomb is discovered by the heroine, Wonder York (not introduced yet). Then Mystery Bread rescues her by sliding down a zip line to safety. He and Bagel Boy get in the Bread Mobile (a car shaped like Bagel Boyâ€™s mask from the back) and speed off leaving a very confused Wonder York.
Ochi: I wanted to do one of those stories where someone is murdered in a secluded ski lodge on a mountain, and Bread must figure out the murderer while everyone is still snowed in.

What real life mystery or crime do you think Mystery Bread and Bagel Boy could (or should!) solve?
Niccea: I want to know how food disappears so fast in my house. Maybe I need someone on the inside (of the pantry) to help me.
Ochi: The single shoe on the highway mystery. Why is there a shoe in the road? Where is the other shoe? If choosing the story for the next chapter, wouldn't you say this candidate is a SHOE-IN? -bang-

Do Mystery Bread and Bagel Boy do anything in their spare time except loaf around? ^.^
Niccea: I actually donâ€™t know. I think Bagel Boy surfs and Mystery Bread plays dress up.
Ochi: Bagel reads newspapers and true-crime stories. Bread doesn't read much, but he watches crime dramas and reads superhero comics. He thinks of himself like a comic superhero, even though his life is mundane; he's a little like Don Quixote.

High Society Bear seems like an unsung hero. Do you have any plans to give your supporting cast spin-off comics?
Niccea: Yes and no. We have talked about expanding on this extra. We thought it would be funny to have different words but the same panels. Kinda like this dinosaur comic Ochi showed me once. But we never got around to it yetâ€¦
Ochi: I've always wanted to do stories about Exclamatory Man and High Society Bear, both of whom also have histories that explain how they ended up as they are. We're explaining them in the main comic, however.

Is there anything you'd like to add about Mystery Bread? Maybe a spoiler or just a cool tidbit that you'd like us to know.
Niccea: Look out for Wonder York. We want to add her as soon as we have the chance.
Also, doughnut was originally just going to be Bagel Boyâ€™s child hood friend. But I thought it would be more stereotypical (in a funny way) if he was a police officer.
Ochi: As for production, I switched from Microns to Prismacolor fineliners. They seem to hold up better against eraser, and they're equally economical!

Regarding the Drunk Duck Mafia comic - for those unaware, want to briefly explain what Drunk Duck Mafia is?
Niccea: The Drunk Duck Mafia is the newest rage in the Forum Games. It is really hard to get into the rules, but game XII is starting soon. The game is a combination between a role play and a mystery game. The mafia tries to over take Townston. A lot of fun and craziness. It is also a sneaky way to plug comics because clues come from peopleâ€™s comics.
Ochi: Speaking of which, have you read Harkovast…?

What was your favorite mafia moment?
Niccea: There are so many. But I must say it is when we made Croctyâ€™s Angels. During that game there were only 3 obvious girls, so a picture got drawn of us in Charlieâ€™s Angels poses.
Ochi: My favorite moment is Crocty's death, of course, unless I'm working alongside him. It's tradition for one of us to murder or indirectly cause the death of the other.

Is there something you'd like to see in a future session of DD Mafia, like a particular theme?
Niccea: As corny as it sounds, Iâ€™m working on a Death Note theme for the game. But there is really nothing I would like to see in particular. But I bet I know what Ochi wantsâ€¦
Ochi: I want a demimonde role that can seduce a person and thus prevent them from using their ability in the night!

In a REAL mafia war, who from the DD Mafia world would you want on your side?
Niccea: ozoneocean â€“ he is too charismatic for his own good.
waff and harkovast â€“ they may be crazy but they make for great comic relief.
humorman â€“ he is a real jerk, but he has his smart moments
Everyone else in the game mafia â€“ so they wonâ€™t kill me for leaving them out of the question.

Ochi: Ozone for ~mystical charisma~,
Crocty for tactical intelligence and my own survival,
Harkovast for unlynchability,
Kitty or Rokulily for good fortune.
But then there's Hakoshen, Product Placement, Aghammer, Exzachly, Parker…it's impossible to choose just three or four… -implodes-

And some closing questions… Do you have any plans for more collaboration projects between you two or perhaps solo projects?
Niccea: There are no planned collaborations between the two of us for now. Mystery Bread takes up enough time as it is.

That is not to say that I'm not working on colborations entirely. Right now I'm working with my brother, Nikkea on getting up his comic, Captain Chaos. I'm also in the planning stages with my boyfriend in drawing a comic for him because art is not his thing.

I, personally, hope to get Red and White running again as soon as I can. There are other projects I wish to work on but I don't see them being started anytime soon because I do not think I have the right style to convey them.
Ochi: I have a mystery/romance/suspense story that I vividly dreamed once. It's not so much a plan as a fervent wish to have the time to draw it. ^^;

Any shout-outs or famous last words?
Niccea: Youâ€™ll never catch me alive! *throws a smoke bomb*
Ochi: Read Harkova-I mean, Mystery Bread! -sinks into floor-