Interview with a Demi-God
(or "The Ego That Ate San Francisco")

Q How long have you been drawing? How old are your comic(s)? Do you
draw anything else? (Do you have an "Other Comics" page I should put
in as a link?)

As cliché as it sounds, I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. When I was really little, even before I ever went to school, I always had a few original characters I drew and even made cutout action figures of out of extra manila folders my dad brought home from work. The first comic I remember ever doing was a four-part super-hero anthropomorphic team comic I did back in the fourth grade. I made one of each issue and passed them around to all the other kids at recess each day that I finished an installment.

Q What tools do you prefer to use? Any particular brands? Special
paper? Computer software? Techniques?

For regular drawing and sketching I use any paper and one of my a 0.5 Pentel mechanical pencil with a twist retractable eraser.

To make the comic, first I grab a sheet of any old computer printer paper and then measure out the panel dimensions with my orange translucent Westcott ruler having marked off the measurements for the comic size on it with a sharpie marker. Then I begin penciling the comic with whatever non-photo blue pencil I can get my hands on (I. m really hoping to find some mechanical pencil lead refills of non-photo blue lead someday). After I finish penciling the comic, I use mainly a .35mm and a .25mm with a couple other varying sizes Micron pen for inking the comic with fine point and super size sharpies for panel edges and large black fill in areas. I scan in the comic at 300 ppi as line art (halftone, just basically a black and white picture with no grays). I use Adobe Photoshop and convert the comic to greyscale and if it is going to be a colored Sunday strip, I use the color selection option to select the black line art and copy it onto a new, transparent, RGB file. I keep a copy of the linework intact while I color the comic on separate layers underneath it. I finally flatten the image and shrink it down to 72 ppi and upload it to my account to be updated.

Q How much time do you devote to drawing every day? How much time do
you spend retouching your comics once you scan them into your
computer?

I spend about a couple hours or more total penciling and inking a page and I do about two pages for my comic on a regular week. Other than that I just try to draw fanart or other pictures whenever I have the opportunity and inspiration. Coloring a Sunday strip depends on how many panels there are and how much little things I draw in. It just takes longer to color and shade a street level background in a city than just filling in with the dark expanse of outer space. On average I spend 2 to 6 hours on the computer coloring each page. The black and white weekday strips only take a few minutes to add the logo and word balloons.

Q Do you hope to make a career of your art or do you draw for your
own enjoyment (and ours)?

I. d love to have a career in comics but so far almost all my art has been done Pro Bono. Right now I. m attending College to become a Graphic Designer, the vaguest of all art diplomas. I plan to make bucket-loads of money designing book covers and happy meal boxes and then dump all those funds into creating my own comic books and sustaining an Internet presence with my printed and online comics. But for now I. m just doing it to fuel my own ego and to take my mind off my own lonely, pathetic, sorry excuse for an existence.

Q What influences would you say drove you to drawing your comics?
Books? Movies? Comic books? Online comics? Insanity? Divine
inspiration?

For "Captain Mooki" I. m influenced a lot by the old sci-fi artists such as Wally Wood, Jack Kirby, and more recent artists like Mike Allred and Mike Powell. I also get a lot of ideas and inspiration from shows like "Flash Gordon", "Star Trek", "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command", and any old sci-fi B-movie with a title like "the ---- from planet ----".  I. ve always had characters and stories in my head that I wanted to communicate. I remember when I was little and I whined to my dad about being bored. He asked me if I had a brain. I answered yes; and my dad said that then I couldn. t be bored because I could always just daydream. Of course I also grew up watching a lot of cable TV. Mostly comedy shows and movies. The need for smart-alek remarks, the taboo of not laughing at my own jokes, and the comedy rule of three were all engraved into my skull.

Q Do you feel like your characters sometimes take on a life of their
own? Do you ever try to write and draw one thing and find your
characters doing something else entirely?

I sometimes feel that when I want a certain event to happen in the plot and the dialogue or actions/reactions of a character just don. t sit right. I used to force myself at times to stay with it and end up with a comic that. s somewhat less than par, but now I write each story line as a whole before starting the art.

 

Q What do you do for a living? Are you a full time student? How much
time does this leave you for your art? Are you currently studying art?

I am currently a full time Animation student at Art Institute of California in San Francisco looking for a part time job. This still leaves me with enough time to get the comic out.

Q Do you consider yourself, first and foremost, an artist or writer,
or both? Do you favor one role over another?

I consider myself first and Artist and I use my Captain Mooki for a lot of artistic practice and experimenting with style and such. I. d like to become a better writer, But I. m trying to fix that "Captain Mooki" and with mini-comics and other projects.

Q Do you use your real name or a pen name on your comics?

IT. S ALL ME, BABY!

Q (For all the single, young comic groupies) Are you single?

Yes I. m single. In fact I. ve never even been out on a date, and with good reason. I. m Ugly! I. m like a furry Jabba the Hut with a Bee-stung lip. I can. t go to the beach without people trying to look for the zipper down my back. Tim Burton considers my driver. s license photo "Inspiring". I. m like Marlon Brando trying to fit into an Ewok costume. And over the years I. ve come to accept that my appearance is a sign from a higher power that I was not meant to procreate.

Q What are your favorite comics (on and/or off-line)?

For print comics, my favorites are Fred Perry. s "Gold Digger", both of Kenichi Sonada. s Mangas (or Mangi, I don. t know the plural) "Gunsmith Cats" and "Gun God Exxaxion", Rob Schrab. s "Scud: the Disposable Assassin", Cliffhanger. s "High Roads", Vertigo. s "100 Bullets", Chynna Clugston-Major. s "Blue Monday", Mike Powell. s "The Goon", The new "X-Force" or rather "X-Statics" where everyone is pissed off at everyone else, Larry Young. s "Astronauts In Trouble" books, and Fantagraphics. "Acme Novelty Library", but those are just the top of many I read.

For Webcomics, my favorites are Sabrina Online, Krazy Larry, Fusion D, Melonpool, PvP, Bruno the Bandit, Fans, Ink Tank, Shoot Me Now, Bob the Angry Flower, and Diesel Sweeties. Again, these are just a few of many I read.

Q If you could have any super power, what would it be?

As much as I. d like to control time sort of like in "Groundhog. s Day" where he could just redo the day and always know the right thing to say or do through trial and error, that could just get way to complicated and maddening way too easily. I guess I. d like to have the standard issue super mind power starter pack with such tricks including memory changing so people won. t remember me saying something stupid, telepathy to cheat on tests, telekinesis so I don. t have to get to get something up when I. m watching TV, Clairvoyance so I can make it big in Las Vegas, and hypnosis so I can trick girls into thinking I. m good looking.

Q Anything at all you'd like to add that I maybe forgot to ask? (Feel
free to suggest any questions you feel the readers would find
interesting.)

My Ego bleeds for more Fanart. Gimmie! Gimmie!

The Adventures of Captain Mooki is hosted onKeenspace, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics. Ain't they a great bunch of folks!