Since 2007, Zuda had been home to a number of fantastic webcomic titles. It showcased some of the best and brightest comic artists and authors that could be gathered with the right combination of incentives. (ie., DC’s Big Boy clout, a growing social network of comic enthusiasts, and a flash-based viewing platform that, while it wasn’t perfect, still worked as a great ready-made outlet for aspiring webcomickers)

In Maps & Legends, illustrated by Niki Smith and written by Michael Jasper, was one of the more popular Zuda titles of the past year. The winner of the November 2009 Zuda competition, In Maps & Legends tells the story of Kaitlin Grayson, a freelance artist who finds herself obsessed with creating an intricate map of a place she’s never been.

When a bizarre stranger who claims to be from another world seeks to enlist Kait’s help as a true “world artist”, she finds herself on the cusp of an epic, interplanetary adventure.

An adventure that Niki and Michael recently announced they would continue, despite the demise of Zuda as an open webcomic distribution platform.

“I’d had a bad feeling about the state of things at Zuda after they stopped doing the competitions a few months earlier,” says Michael, “which I really missed, because I got to read the pitches for ten really cool comics and then vote and comment on them. With all of the changes happening with the upper management at DC, I could squint and sorta make out the writing on the wall.”

DC officially shut down Zuda on July 1st, just weeks after Michael and Niki had established a weekly update schedule for In Maps & Legends. The reason officially given was that Zuda was to be folded into DC Comics’ “Digital Publishing Initiative” – the goal being greater editorial and digital convergence.

Zuda did not ask Michael and Niki to continue under their banner when they switched to Comixology, so all rights for their comic reverted back to them.

“I definitely wanted to continue the story,” says Michael, “and I’d already scripted the next three issues, up to page 60. After a bunch of emails back and forth, Niki and I decided to publish the comic ourselves, and distribute it everywhere we could.”

No kidding. In Maps & Legends will be available for download on a huge variety of platforms, including Comixology, Robot Comics, Graphic.ly, Kindle, and more.

According to Niki: “If the countless potential readers out there prefer to use a specific device or read a certain format, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from making ourselves available to them!”

This new approach to digitally publishing In Maps & Legends means a drastic overhaul to the methods which Niki and Michael had previously presented their comic to the public. With Zuda, their update style was the typical webcomic standard of one page at a time. Now, they aim to release a new issue every six weeks or so, starting with issue one being available today, September 1st.

In addition to keeping a website regularly updated as an information hub for the comic, Michael says that they will be making the first 8 pages available for free download wherever possible.

“Those were the 8 pages that won the Zuda competition for us in November,” says Michael, “So I figure we can’t go wrong with giving them away for free!”

Some existing readers might harbor concerns about this new, pay-per-issue distribution format for In Maps & Legends.

To those sceptics, Niki has this to say:

“In Maps & Legends has always been written as 20-page chapters, and I think the story’s pacing suffered being released so slowly. So while readers may not be getting 60 free pages (as they would have had Zuda stayed as it was), now they’ll be getting 10 solid 20+ page issues, and a complete storyline. There’s no more chance of being left with a cliffhanger 60 pages in.”

I’m sure many fans will be excited to see Michael and Niki’s comic continue, regardless of what form it takes. The two have already come a long way from their initial thoughts on a collaboration just over a year ago.

“We started working on the comic pretty much on a whim,” says Michael. “I was following Niki on Twitter, and one day last summer she said she was looking to team up with someone on a pitch for Zuda. So I threw 4-5 ideas at her, including the idea for In Maps & Legends, which started out life as a novel that ground to a halt by page 100.  Niki liked that idea best, started doing character sketches, and when I saw her first drawings of Kait, our protagonist, I knew we had a winner.”

From there, they set about applying their respective talents to make a webcomic that would stand out as a top Zuda contender. Michael had never worked on a comic before, which came with its own learning curve, and they to this day have still never met face to face.

“I think we get along pretty well for never having met!” says Michael, “We’ve collaborated via email almost exclusively, with the occasional instant-message chat here and there. I think it’s a really great give-and-take — neither of us pull punches when it comes to perfecting the story, and I think that comes through in the finished product.  I try to give my amateurish tips on the art, but really it’s just nitpicks and continuity stuff — Niki’s art rocks. And she’s taught me at least two Scott McCloud books’ worth of comic-book knowledge.”

Presently, the duo are aiming to finish a ten issue story arc by late 2011.

“We’d love to have a trade paperback publisher lined up by then,” says Michael, and I foresee many more stories springing from this set of characters and their situations, so I don’t see us stopping after issue 10.”

Neither Michael or Niki are particularly apprehensive about the switch to a multitude of digital platforms, although Niki admits to considering some slight revamps to her style.

“I think my page layouts may gradually change,” she says, “As I see how these first few issues work on panel-by-panel phone views. Diagonal or very thin vertical panels may break the flow.”

As for their thoughts on Zuda, both Niki and Michael look at their time on the DC-owned webcomic venture fondly:

“Zuda gave us an incredible boost,” says Michael. “I’ve made a lot of friends online through the Zuda community, and I’ve gotten to read some amazing comics and get to know their creators and editors. As grueling as the November contest was — even though we led the whole month, we felt like we were gonna lose our lead at any moment! — it made us  network and do lots of marketing to get the word out.  I’m glad for the experience, and it shot us much farther down the road than just a website and a great comic could’ve done.  I was sad to see Zuda end, but I’m quite excited by the prospects for the future and our comic.”

“I’m with Michael,” says Niki, “the Zuda community was a great head start of sorts. I know it’s very hard to get a long, somewhat epic, story-based fantasy comic launched and try to build an audience… especially when you’re on a page-a-week schedule. Zuda gave us a built-in community of readers that we owe a lot to. I hope some of them stick around and check out the issue releases.”

To find out more about where you can find issues of In Maps & Legends, check out the newly launched website.

You can also visit Niki Smith and Michael Jasper on their respective personal web pages, or follow Niki and Mike on Twitter.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

The word ‘international’, however,  might seem a little inconsistent with the content we’ve predominantly featured here on The Fabler Blog.

I’ll be the first to admit that in The Fabler Blog’s first year of life, I’ve maintained a strong emphasis on Canadian talent in the profiles and interviews I’ve posted.  This, I believe, is rightly so – with the exception of very few news blogs, such as Sequential and the Joe Shuster Awards Blog, Canadian comickers don’t often receive a load of media coverage.

My contributions to The Fabler Blog have largely been an attempt to increase that load, while also providing  content relevant to the interests of a growing online community of comic artists.

The Fabler Blog’s contribution to the figurative Canadian load, however, may distract some from the true international nature of the site. (Whew, what a mouthful!)

So here’s my pitch: I’m moving all existing profiles, interviews, and news updates about Canadian comickers into a whole new category – a column which I will continue to contribute to regularly.

The title of this column? “The Canadian Load”, naturally.

Ahhh, but I jest. In fact, we’ll be calling it “Canadian Comics“.

The mission statement of the Canadian Comics column will be to continue showcasing and promoting a varied catalogue of Canadian comic book talent. The subjects, as they have always been, will be predominantly indie – but at the same time we’re not at all against showcasing ‘big label’ Canucks as well.

Separate sections of the blog will continue to be about the site, the industry in general, and increasingly we’ll also be featuring profiles of international talent. A while back we profiled some of the contributors on the Fabler Blog, and I think we’d like to start doing that again.

As for now, are some Canadian artists, writers, and organizations you may have missed so far from 2010:

Gibson Twist (of Pictures of You and Our Time in Eden)

Kelly Tindall (of Archie Snow)

Ben Steeves (of Zom-Ben and Our Time in Eden)

Aaron Leighton (professional illustrator and member of the artist collective, Trio Magnus)

Colleen MacIsaac (indie comic artist and writer)

Marta Chudolinksa (of Back + Forth: A Novel in 90 Linocuts)

Eric Vedder (of Aardehn and Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors)

Adam Bourret (of I’m Crazy)

Ryan Sohmer (of Least I Could Do and Looking for Group)

James Turner (on the Warlord of Io graphic novel)

Nick Thornborrow (of The Anthology Project)

Ethan Rilly (of Pope Hats)

Jenny Romanchuk (of The Zombie Hunters)

Evan Munday (of Quarter-Life Crisis)

Damian Willcox (of dorkboy Comics)

Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz (of The 3 Second Rule)

Robin Thompson (Vancouver Comic Art teacher and artist on Champions of Hell)

Jonathon Dalton (of A Mad Tea-Party and Lords of Death and Life)

Angela Melick (of Wasted Talent)

Cloudscape Comics (Vancouver comic collective – we talked to a number of individuals involved)

Jim Zubkavich (project manager of UDON Entertainment, writer on Skullkickers)

Eric Kim (of Streta and The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare)

As always, thanks for reading!

-Kevin de Vlaming

I mean, sure they managed (using black magic and wizardry) to congest Crime and Punishment down to a palatable 85 pages of overview, and yes, Jane Austen is a lot more sensible when you don’t have to muddle through hours of haughty 19th century prose.

Still, do you ever find yourself thinking that they really could have gotten where they were going a lot faster?

Enter Ontario-based comic artist Eric Kim, who answered a resounding ‘yes’ to the above question. To prove that any classical narrative could effectively be reduced to two-to-four panels of dialogue, Kim set about putting to shame one of literature’s greatest icons; the Bard himself.

“My friends and I were all sitting around, having some drinks and watching movies,” Kim says modestly of the project’s humble beginnings, “At some point in the night, someone mentioned Scott McCloud and the notion of condensing a narrative into two panels. It sounded pretty ridiculous, so I tossed off a two-panel version of Hamlet. Turned out it to be pretty funny, actually. My friends all thought it was pretty hilarious, so I kept it up.”

From there, Eric embarked on an epic two-and-a-half-month quest to translate all of William Shakespeare’s plays into glorious, two panel comic book form. That’s right, Every. Last. One.

The results were collected and published Eric Kim’s new book, The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare. I’m delighted to say that Kim’s friends were right to encourage him – his collection of masterly rendered stick-man drawings and modern takes on Shakespearean dialogue are truly, ridiculously funny.

Any author that describes the first part of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the dialogue “Holy shit! I’m a donkey!”/”Well shit! Let’s get it on!” has my vote of confidence.

“It’s weird,” says Kim, on the reaction he’s been receiving from Shakespeare fans, “It’s all been pretty positive. I think it’s because I’ve made an adaptation that doesn’t dumb down the material, and in some cases, actually incentivizes (is that a real word?) the reading of the work. I hate Shakespeare. And now I want to go read “A Winter’s Tale” because of how people have responded to it. It’s kind of fascinating.”

Hate, perhaps, is a strong word. As the dedication to the source material would indicate, Kim’s research on Shakespeare’s works alone shows his appreciation for the legendary author.

Says Kim:

“I’ve read Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. Basically anything that was required reading for high school. My appreciation for Shakespeare is pretty superficial.”

Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

Despite Eric’s extensive research, some plays still proved harder than others to Coles-size into accessible versions of Shakespeare.

“The hardest to summarize was the last one in the collection, Cymbeline,” says Kim. ” It’s a lot of plot to compress into two panels, so that mostly became just two people summarizing everything. Well, I guess most of them are about two people summarizing everything.”

If only Will Shakespeare lived to see the Twitter generation. He certainly could have learned a thing or two about getting to the point.

The easiest play to summarize, says Kim, was Hamlet.

“I know that play pretty well, so I was kind of sad when it was over. I think that it has more of the intent of the book at heart: to compress what people already know and put it into a humourous context. The lesser known plays tend to read more like summaries, which is fun too, but sort of aside from the initial intent of the work.”

I also asked Eric about his influences outside of the Elizabethan area in putting together the book. Specifically, I was curious if he was inspired at all by fellow history-reinterpreter Kate Beaton.

“I have a huge admiration for her work, and also for her depth of knowledge about so many figures in history,” he says. “You can see her passion in it, as well as all the little things that bother her in recounting of history, I think. In comparison, I think I tend to care about literature, so history is just to lend context to the work I’m reading. Admittedly, most of my reading is pretty much pop-culture stuff. I’m pretty fascinated by sci-fi in the mid-eighties. But when I need to research, I go into it.”

Eric says his modern inspirations fall more in the camp of xkcd.

“If it were written by Larry the Cable Guy,” he adds. “I think that Kate Beaton’s writing is much more clever and far less profane than mine.”

Kim’s not entirely sure if he would ever extend the two-panel author concept beyond Shakespeare:

“I’d always pictured this to be sort of a one-off thing. Though I’ve really considered making a “safe for work” version. Ultimately, I’d hate to be pigeonholed as someone that just does this one joke over and over again. There are many things that I’d like to pursue, as my editors at Oni Press are well aware.”

Unfortunately, at this time he can’t say much about his current work with Oni Press. Whatever it is, it has been big enough to keep him from updating his Transmission X webcomic, Streta, for several months now.

“I think I’m going to have to let that one go,” Kim says of the sci-fi webcomic, “I’ve been rewriting Streta ever since I went on hiatus, and it’s just not lining up right. I think I’m freaking myself out, thinking that people want more than what is there. But on top of that, all of my fears as a writer, they’re being realized. I have to stop until I can see where I’m going again. I don’t think it’s going to happen by November, ultimately. I’m not sure when it’ll happen.”

Sad news for Streta fans, indeed.

The good news is that whatever Kim’s working on for Oni Press, he reassures us it will be interesting. And until then, there’s always The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare – which you should probably pick up from Kim’s online store as soon as possible, if you haven’t already.

Consider it doing your brain a favour.

For more from Eric Kim, you can check out his various works on his official website, view recent art updates on his blog, and follow him on Twitter.

While you’re at it, here’s a rad illustration that he did for VENT, UDON’s 10 year anniversary anthology:

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Only…  it isn’t a bar, it’s a fantasy Dungeons & Dragons-style world rife with chaos and all sorts of supernatural baddies. And they don’t ‘walk in’ per se, so much as blitz a trail of destruction as only two battle-hardened mercenaries would know how.

But the punch line is… Ah, forget it. You might as well just read the comic, which is bound to be more entertaining than my misguided attempts at humour anyhow.

Written and co-created by Jim Zubkavich, the comic is called Skullkickers, and  the first issue is due out on the shelves of comic book retailers everywhere on September 22nd. A brand new series from Image Comics, it promises to be an action-packed romp through a fantasy landscape that’s equal parts sass and bad-assery.

Skullkickers stemmed from a couple short stories that Zubkavich wrote and Chris Stevens illustrated for Image’s Popgun anthologies, though on the series, relative newcomer Edwin Huang takes on all penciling duties.

Jim himself is a veteran in the field – in addition to his work on the Popgun anthologies, he has written and illustrated his own OGN, titled The Makeshift Miracle, and has extensive writing and editing credits on the Street Fighter titles from UDON Entertainment.

You also might know him as a co-founder and the current Project Manager of UDON.  In addition to promoting his new book from Image, Jim has also been busy with events relating to UDON’s 10 year-anniversary – that’s right, the Toronto-based comic company has past the decade milestone, an event they recently celebrated at the San Diego Comic Con.

Jim was kind enough to field a whole shwack of questions I had for him, both about Skullkickers and a decade of UDON.

The interview is below:

KD: What can you tell me about the world in which Skullkickers takes place?

JZ: Here’s how I described the world of Skullkickers from the story pitch I sent to Image:

“In a backwater fantasy world filled with all manners of magical beasts, poverty, disease and other horrifying threats, it’s a daily struggle to survive. Most people keep their head low, stay in the village they were born and eke out a life as a farmer or simple tradesperson. The only people strong enough to have anything else are protected by sorcerous powers or in the employ of the demonic.

Except for our two protagonists — They thrive by being stubborn and tough as Hell.”

That’s it in a nutshell. It’s a bleak and foreboding fantasy world filled to the brim with monsters and nastiness. Magic is prevalent but if you don’t have access to it, then it’s something to be feared. It’s a place populated with every manner of creature from my favorite fantasy novels and D&D sessions, alongside corrupt feudal governments and warring factions; a place ripe with adventure.

KD: Complete this sentence: Skullkickers is like ____ meets _____, with a touch of ____ and a whole lot of _____.

JZ: Skullkickers is like Army of Darkness meets Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, with a touch of Hellboy and a whole lot of Conan.

KD: What was it about Edwin Huang’s initial art samples that stood out to you and made you think he’d be a good penciller candidate for Skullkickers?

JZ: Edwin’s pencils showed a real solid sense of storytelling and clarity. I can’t tell you how many portfolios I’ve looked at where the art is completely focused on shallow pin-up poses and detail instead of storytelling and a feeling of motion.

Comic pages that can show a range of action and express a variety of emotions are hard to find, especially from a newcomer. Edwin’s samples showed a lot of promise in those crucial areas and that made them jump out from the pack.

KD: Regarding the character design for the two mercenaries — how did you and Chris Stevens initially come up with the look for your protagonists?

JZ: I described a human and dwarf who were heartless mercenaries and Chris really ran with the ball and gave them a distinctive visual look. The weapons and armor are all based on his visual style and an aesthetic that he came up with including the human’s gun, which stands out as an odd addition in a fantasy-based world, but I came up with a fun story justification for why it exists if we end up digging in to that later on.

KD: What has been the coolest part for you about writing Skullkickers?

JZ: It’s been a thrill using my love of fantasy as a genre as the impetus for new stories. Skullkickers is simultaneously a loving homage and a sarcastic poke at the fantasy novels I love. That material is rich with potential and it’s a fun backdrop for characters to kick butt and get in to trouble around. I hope people feel that inspiration in the stories and jump on to see where it all goes.

I have a lot of Skullkickers stories I’d like to tell, bursting with action, adventure and sass.

KD: Let’s talk about UDON Entertainment’s 10th Anniversary, which happens to be this year.

To commemorate a decade of UDON, you guys came up with the idea to put out an anthology titled VENT collecting the art and stories of a wide range of UDON artists, past and present. (Fans at the San Diego comic con were lucky enough to catch a sneak preview hardcover version of the book, but the rest of us will have to wait until it hits the shelves of local comic retailers on September 15th).

Where did the idea for VENT come from?

JZ: VENT is a project that we’ve bounced around at UDON for the last 3 years. We’ve wanted to create a showcase for our artists and let them run wild, but finding the time to do that while juggling other projects and publishing was tough. Hitting the 10 year mark as a company helped finally make it a reality.

KD: Does the launch of VENT as per UDON’s 10 year anniversary mean the launch of a new anthology series, or is it purely a one-off collection at this point?

JZ: We’re hoping the sales and interest from fans will make it a new series, not just a one-off. All of us are eager to see how well the book does once the softcover regular edition hits stores in September. Based on that, we’ll know where we go with it from there.

KD: On your blog, you talked about your contribution to the book, a pin-up from a story concept called ‘Silverspark’.

You mentioned that it combines your interest in “traditional stage magic/sleight-of-hand with faerie folk and mystery” – could you tell me a little about your interest in stage magic, and that that might play into a story about ‘real’ magical folk?

JZ: Back in Grade 5-6, before I wanted to get in to art/writing, I was obsessed with stage magic and sleight-of-hand. I learned some magic, practiced quite a bit and did some performances for friends/family from time to time. Even after my focus changed, that love of the craft has always stayed with me, even while my actual skills for it atrophied. Taking that as a source of inspiration for a story seemed natural.

The term ‘magic’ can mean two very different things when used to describe sleight-of-hand or actual supernatural occurrences or creatures. Even when people know that a stage magician is tricking them, it’s a way to describe something they can’t understand. If someone had a solid grasp of sleight-of-hand, they knew the tricks and understood the methods, it isn’t really “magic” any more. There’s nothing unexplainable about it for them. The rush of the unknown is lost… unless they find something more behind it, which is where the fae angle comes in. Magic in the story is a symbol for the unknown, the unexplainable and a feeling of discovery and wonderment, whether that’s stage illusion or actual mystical conjuring.

KD: Ten years is (obviously) a big milestone for UDON. What are you personally most proud of achieving with UDON in that time?

JZ: It may sound odd, but I’m really proud that when fans meet us at conventions they’re shocked by how small and tight knit a company we are. The fact that our artwork and related products are big enough to make them assume that we’re a huge group of artists speaks highly of our quality and ability to deliver for major clients.

I’m also proud that in an industry not known for stability or loyalty we’ve gone 10 years with a great group, moving forward and growing without losing a sense of where we’ve come from.

KD: In another ten years from now, what would you ideally like to be able to say UDON has done?

JZ: It’s hard to image a decade from now in any aspect of my life, but I’d like to see UDON fully developed as a place where our artists can work on major commercial projects alongside their own original creations, fulfilling both sides of the creative equation.

You can find Jim Zubkavich on Livejournal, Blogspot, and deviantART. You can also find more about UDON Entertainment on their official website.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

In addition to their close proximity to Canada’s Western Coastline, they share something else in common; founding membership in a comic book collective by the name of Cloudscape Comics.

I was fortunate enough to recently connect with a few individuals involved with the group. My goal was to learn a little about what they do, what they stand for, and how local comic creators can benefit from collaborating through a collective like their own.

According to Jeff Ellis, current Cloudscape President and a founding member himself, the collective’s reason for being is to promote and assist Vancouver-area comic artists and writers.

“There are a lot of talented individuals living in the city,” says Jeff, “but they’re all working on their own, and it’s much harder to get recognition working that way. Cloudscape Comics is a way to support those individuals.  Secondary to that, we also want to build up the reputation of comics in general – we’re trying to make interesting fictional stories that have a broad appeal, not just for kids and not just for really discerning indie connoisseurs.”

Jeff says that Cloudscape was born out of the initial desire of a few Vancouver comic artists to start up a local collective. Without any real idea where to start, he and a friend created a Facebook Fan page, which ended up pulling in quite a few members. They decided to meet in person at Our Town Cafe in Vancouver, which became a weekly event.

“The next idea that came to us,” says Jeff, “Was hey, we have all of these artists making comics – rather than spending money to do our own individual works why don’t we work together and pool our resources to publish something. That’s where our first volume came from, Robots, Pine Trees and Broken Hearts. It was a 48 page floppy comic, and doing that encouraged us to keep going.”

Angela Melick, author of the popular webcomic Wasted Talent, initially became involved with Cloudscape immediately after graduating from University.

“I was searching for structure in my life before I found a job, and Jonathon Dalton told me about a group he was starting up with these other cartoonists,” says Angela, “I said hey you know, I’ve got nothing better to do, I’m unemployed, and I’m looking to get back into doing comics. So I wrote a story for the group and we actually managed to publish an anthology together, which I think shocked everyone in the community.  As many cartoonists could tell you, anthology groups come together very often, and ninety percent of the time they implode.”

She says that publishing Robots, Pine Trees and Broken Hearts was significant in that it showed the group they could actually pull together to release a quality anthology. In doing so, herself and the other Cloudscape artists also learned a great deal about the publication process  and what they would need to tell artists submitting works in order to  make the process flow more smoothly in the future.

“Since then,” says Angela, “we published Historyonics, which was a long book of history comics, and we published Sunday Funnies, which was a color book  – and that impressed a lot of people, because they didn’t know that color was achievable. Our latest book, Exploded View, we really tightened up on the editorial direction and we’re really proud of the emphasis on story-telling in the book. I think with Exploded View, we really hit our stride as a group. ”

As for the origin of the name, Cloudscape Comics was not the group’s original moniker. Back in the beginning, they called themselves Cumulus  – that is, until they found out there was another publisher in Montreal with the same name, coincidentally also doing comics.

“We decided to rename ourselves,” says Jeff,  “after a long meeting at the comic shop we took a vote and Cloudscape was what we ended up with. I think we were looking for something related to the Vancouver weather, so we came up with a lot of names very cloud and rain related. Precipitation Press was another option. (Jeff laughs)”

Over the course of four anthologies, Cloudscape has built an impressive list of over thirty contributors – including the likes of Camilla d’Errico, Colleen macIsaac, Jordyn Bochon, and Colin Upton, to name a few. (We’ve actually featured both Colleen and Jordyn on The Fabler Blog before – click on their respective names to read the articles!)

Of those contributors, Colin Upton would be the member with the longest hands-on experience in comics. He started making minicomics in 1985, and released his first full-length comic, Big Thing, in 1990. He saw his comics published by Fantagraphics and several other Seattle-based alternative publishers throughout the nineties, before returning to the minicomic format around 2000.

“I remember coming across the first Cloudscape anthology,” says Colin, “and being very impressed with this group of young people who were managing to get their stuff together enough to publish in print.  I particularly appreciated this since so many new comic writers and artists choose to put their stuff online, rather than publish in print.”

Another draw for Colin was the fact that Cloudscape was very story-oriented.

“At the time,” he says, “I was seeing a lot of comics that were what I like to call ‘arty-type comics’. That is, ones that don’t have much of a plot or direction where it seems to be mostly about sketching or drawing, rather than anything story-driven.  So I appreciated that about Cloudscape, that they were story-oriented.”

For these reasons, Colin decided to get involved with the collective. He has contributed to every Cloudscape anthology since.

“Cloudscape allows local comic creators a chance to come together and do something larger than a minicomic,” says Upton, “Also, in my case it allows me to connect with what’s going on in the comic scene these days. Just about all of the artists I knew doing comics in the eighties or nineties have gone on to other things – working in video games, graphic design and the like. It gets quite lonely when you reach my age, having very few cartoonists as your contemporaries.

Not to mention, hanging out with a group of younger people involved with web-publishing and the modern world of comic publishing in general helps me come to terms with those developments I don’t yet fully understand myself.”

The value of connecting with local comic creators is, in itself, a significant benefit to collectives like Cloudscape. As Angela Melick points out, drawing comics can be a very isolated experience.

“One of the greatest things for an artist about the internet is being able to find other artists,” she says, “but being able to do that locally is ten times better. You can actually talk to people informally about the artistic process, and learn from their technique as you’re sitting with them, watching them draw.  Even if you don’t ever publish anything in your group, just finding other cartoonists near you is tremendously helpful for anyone.”

Currently, anyone that is presently living in Vancouver or has previously lived there can contact the group about getting involved.

“All of the contact information is on the website,” says Jeff. “We’re currently trying to keep the anthologies grounded in a West Coast perspective, but we also run comic battles as a weekly feature on our website, and anyone can submit something for that.  We post a theme, and anyone is welcome to submit a comic, then we put it up for a week for everyone to vote on. The winner gets the glory (and possibly a prize, depending if we have a prize ready).”

Jeff says that one major goal for the near future of Cloudscape Comics is to establish a distribution method that can get their anthologies onto shelves in a wider radius of bookstores.  Being a sharp sort of fellow, he acknowledges that this is no small feat.

(For those unfamiliar with the world of indie publishing, distribution is traditionally one of the largest hurdles to overcome – largely thanks to the existing, outdated, and non-indie-friendly Diamond-based infrastructure of distribution.)

The group is also working on tightening their editorial control over the next Cloudscape Comics anthology, Journeys, which would hopefully be due out sometime around next March .

“When cloudscape first started, it was very democratic,” says Colin Upton, “which has its problems. But increasingly they are attempting to up the quality of the book by making editorial decisions and judgements and suggestions. Which is great, because in my experience with editors I’ve dealt with before – even from professional publishers like Fantagraphics – you don’t usually get much feedback. Getting that from the editorial group at Cloudscape really helps you improve your story and see some of the mistakes you might otherwise have missed yourself.”

“We’re really trying to up the ante, creatively, ” says Jeff. “We’re trying to push everyone to write and draw to their best ability, and we hope to make something that could maybe catch some critical acclaim. We’d love to attract the attention of, say, the Shuster Awards.” (hint)

You can find Cloudscape Comics  on the web, and purchase any of their four anthologies to date here. They also have a Twitter account!

Jeff Ellis keeps a personal website, blog, and Twitter account. You should also check out his webcomic, Teach English in Japan, which he does with Jonathon Dalton.

Angela Melick writes this super fun and quirky autobiographical webcomic, and she also has Twitter.

Colin Upton can be found here on the web, and he also updates both his Facebook Page and blog regularly.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Melick had been drawing comics in one form or another for almost as long as she could remember,  and she felt that pursuing an education in engineering shouldn’t be a reason to suppress her interest in that form of art.

It was lucky for us that Angela made the decision to find an outlet on the internet – that simple website collecting her quirky, autobiographical sketches on looseleaf became Wasted Talent, a hugely popular and extremely funny weekly webcomic that’s still updating, 5 years later.

The Vancouver-based Melick has been busier than usual lately, between planning (and starring!) in a wedding, and working on her first solo book.

All the same, she managed to fit in a quick interview with The Fabler for your perusing pleasure – the results of which you may gleefully behold below:

KD: Back in 2005 when you put your first Wasted Talent sketches online, at that time what was the extent of your knowledge about webcomics?

AM: There were a few webcomics that I read, but I didn’t know anyone that was actually doing them.  I knew quite a few cartoonists, but I had never met another webcomicker.

I didn’t really have a good feel for the industry, so my knowledge was very minimal. It was a learn by doing sort of thing.

KD: If you could go back and give your 2005 self advice about the webcomic, what – if anything – would you say?

AM: I would say that someday people are actually going to read it! I think that would have made a difference to me to know.

I might not have been able to put any more time or energy than I did into the comic, (’cause I had almost zero energy to spare on it back then) but I think there would have been a few things I’d have done differently if I had known it would go somewhere.

KD: In the five years you’ve been doing Wasted Talent, what aspects of your experience making it have been the most rewarding for you?

AM: Definitely knowing that people all around the world read it, and that it brings a bit of extra happiness into their lives. I think it’s the only thing I could have done that had the potential to make that kind of impact on other people.

KD: On the flipside to that coin, what aspects of your experience doing Wasted Talent have been the most stressful?

AM: I tried really hard not to make it stressful. It could very easily have fallen into the ‘work’ category of my brain, and because I’ve done a lot to mitigate that it hasn’t been very stressful.

That being said, trying to get out to conventions and missing out on opportunities that I would have had if this was a full time thing has been fairly stressful. I wish I could just jump into everything headlong, but you know, you make trade-offs.

KD: Has it been any easier (or harder) to find time to do the comic and convention thing than back when you started?

AM: It’s gotten easier, probably, because the more you do it the faster you get, and you just learn how to fit it into your schedule. Also the more successful you are at it, the better you get at working the logistics behind it.

So the more I go to conventions, the easier it is to get to conventions – because I have a better idea about what I need to do in advance in order to get there. One of the big learning curves for me was learning that certain things you need for conventions, such as table space and tickets, often sell out up to six months in advance. So you sometimes have to start preparing for a convention literally six months ahead of time. Now that I’ve learned all of that, it’s a lot easier.

KD: What’s your creative process like for coming up with a Wasted Talent strip?

AM: Well, I go out and live my life, right? (laughs)  Then anything something happens that’s remotely joke-like or that I think I might be able to make a comic out of, I put it in my little book.

I have a little book that I carry around with me all of the time, and I just write a little note about what happened. Like, this is the situation, and this could be the punchline. Anything that’s just enough to remind me what it was without being too detailed, ’cause then I might forget what was funny about it in the first place.

When it’s time to draw a comic, I go over my notes and pick the ones that seem funniest to me. I sketch them out, and if it looks good I go forward, and if it doesn’t I try an idea.

KD: As I understand it, you’re planning on releasing your first solo book soon. Can you tell me a little about that?

AM: I would love to! It’s at the printer, and it’s completely finished. What I did was I took the best comics from the University days back at the very beginning of Wasted Talent, and I redrew them.  I redrew about eighty comics, and I put that altogether with a bunch of bonus material – pictures from back then, stories, sketches, and a history of the campus that affects the comics a little bit.

I’ll have preview comics together for Anime Evolution in mid-August, and I expect it to be available for sale online September-ish.

KD: With those eighty comics you redrew, did you alter the dialogue at all, or leave that much intact?

AM: I did for some, because I think I’m a much better writer now than I was then. So there are ways that I was able to improve the dialogue, I took out some sections to streamline it a little better, and made things generally clearer. I left the spirit of the jokes intact.

KD: Is there anything else you’re currently working on outside of Wasted Talent, comic-wise?

AM: I’ve done something for every anthology put out by local comic collective Cloudscape Comics, and I’d like to keep doing that. I love writing short stories.

I’m working pretty hard on a book called Lost Omens, which is a fantasy/sci-fi sort of story that I’ve been working on for a really, really long time. I hadn’t found the time to get it going before – I put about two pages up and then I got engaged. I had to redirect all of my energy into the wedding. Now that the wedding and Book 1 of Wasted Talent are done, I’m hoping rechannel my energy into Lost Omens.

KD: Name a webcomic that you find hilarious.

AM: I really enjoy Questionable Content. That should probably be obvious, but I really enjoy the characters and a lot of people identify with them – I have an inner Hannelore myself.

KD: Name a webcomic that you find inspiring.

AM: I’m really inspired by Der-shin Helmer’s ‘The Meek‘; he draws comics that I wish I could draw. I’m also inspired by Rice Boy, I just love Evan Dahm’s world building.

I also admire Dresden Codak for the art, and Anders Loves Maria for the writing and style.

I’m much more readily inspired than I am driven to laughter, I guess.

For more from Angela Melick, you can visit the Wasted Talent website or follow her on Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

A substitute teacher by day, Jonathon fills much of the rest of his time churning out wildly imaginative webcomics for his website, jonathondalton.com. The subject matter of these comics varies greatly – you’re just as likely to stumble upon a story rooted in ancient Aztec lore as you are a humorous vignette exploring the secret origins of Chop Suey.

The former comic, which Dalton describes as a “Mesoamerican fantasy story”, recently earned him a grant from the Xeric Foundation – an organization dedicated to provided yearly financial assistance to committed comic book self-publishers. (If you weren’t already familiar with the grant, it was founded by Peter A. Laird of Ninja Turtles fame and you can read more about it here)

Based in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Dalton is also a co-founder of the Vancouver area comic collective Cloudscape Comics.

I caught up with Jonathon to chat about his own secret comic book origins, receiving the Xeric grant, and his currently updating webcomic, “A Mad Tea-Party“.

The interview is below:

KD: I wanted to point out that you have an impressive variety of webcomic content currently up on your site. What can you tell me about the first comics you ever put up online?

JD: Tianxia was the first one. When I started that, I wasn’t even thinking about putting it on the web. By the time I had finished it, I had also discovered webcomics and thought, “hey, I could put this up on the internet!”

I lived in Taiwan for a year and a half, and that comic came out of an idea that I had when I was there.

KD: What was your experience in comicking prior to Tianxia?

JD: I’d been reading comics since high school. Mostly superhero stuff, for  a long, long time. Even though that was what I was reading, the comics I would draw tended not to be very superhero-ey.  Generally not the kind of stuff that I imagined DC or Marvel would publish.

It was when I discovered Manga and webcomics that it occurred to me I don’t have to work for Marvel or DC. I could do the kind of stuff I wanted to, and people could still see it.  So I kept going with that, and for that reason a lot of my early stuff that I don’t have online is a lot like what I’m doing now – just more amateurish.

KD: Although your various comics each deal with different material and often different approaches to illustration, there definitely seems to be a recurring theme to most of your work. Your stories tend to be interested with exploring totally different cultures, often with reference to some ancient historical context.

Where did this interest come from?

JD: Part of that is from having moved around and lived in a few different countries. Outside of Canada, I’ve lived in Taiwan and London, England. In both of those locations, I did quite a bit of travelling around their surrounding countries as well.

The experience of being a foreigner living in another country really informed the way I see the world, and that comes through in my comics.

KD: Let’s talk about Lords of Death and Life, the comic that recently netted you the Xeric Grant. What can you tell me about that title?

JD: It’s set in the historical context of Ancient Mexico, with Mayans and Aztecs, but there are also these surreal elements to it, like magic and trips to the underworld.

For the most part, I wanted to explore the culture. It’s not one that you don’t really see represented in popular culture. There are maybe two, three movies with that setting in the history of Hollywood movies, and not that many comics or books even.

KD: Congratulations, by the way, on receiving the grant. What was your reaction when you heard the news?

JD: I was pretty excited! Applying was actually a pretty rigorous process with lots of paperwork involved, and I had no idea what my chances of actually receiving it would be. They only give out a dozen of them each year for all of North America.

KD: What do you plan to do with the grant money?

JD: I will be printing Lords of Death and Life as a book. I have been printing it in just small print runs, printing them on my laser printer and putting them together by hand, but that’s not really cost effective and I can’t do much with those books.

Now that I can afford to do a larger print run and have it look really nice, I hope to be able to distribute it and maybe get it on the shelves in a few book stores.

KD: I wish you the best of luck with that.

Moving into more recent territory, let’s talk about A Mad Tea-Party, the title you’re presently updating.  How long have you been working on this particular comic?

JD: I started it in about 2003, I think. A lot of the other comics that are on my site, I’ve been doing those at the same time as A Mad Tea-Party. I have just about 67 more pages to draw, and then it’s done. It’s definitely a title I’ve put a lot of effort into.

KD: Would it be accurate to say that the art of A Mad Tea-Party is the most influenced by Manga of your work to date?

JD: Oh yeah, and the story is too. When I originally came up with the idea for the story, I’d been consuming a lot of Japanese sci-fi manga and anime. I wanted to do my own take on that, but I was more interested in telling the story of ordinary people living in a fantastic science fiction world.

I have a backstory throughout it about a battle between Earth’s genetically engineered soldiers and these alien robots, but really that’s all just background to set up the main story.

KD: I wanted to mention here that you’re actually also a substitute teacher by day. How do you strike a balance between working that job to pay the bills, and putting the necessary time into your passion for making comics?

JD: The two jobs work pretty well together because they’re so different from each other. As a substitute, if I need to go off to a convention I can always turn down work for that day when they call. If I have a print deadline, then I can work on the comics rather than teaching.

One of the other advantages of being a substitute is that when the work comes, there isn’t a lot of work outside of the classroom. Regular classroom teachers do report cards, marking, lesson planning and all that sort of stuff, whereas if you’re a substitute you show up for work and at the end of the day there’s time for comics.

You can visit Jonathon Dalton’s website to view his comics, or you could find him on LiveJournal or Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

The other question is: ‘what do you need to become a successful comic artist or author?’ While again the phrasing might change, the answer to this question is almost always the same: you need to truly love making comics.

Robin Thompson is a comic illustrator, writer, and instructor currently living in Vancouver, BC. And he loves making comics.

Thompson teaches comic illustration workshops for kids and teenagers, and works as an instructor at The Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where he teaches similar content to an adult demographic.

“Starting next week I’ll be doing a comics course for teenagers,” he says of his summer teaching plans, “It’s part of a program that gets kids ready for art college so they know what to expect.”

In addition, he has been illustrating indie, self-published comics for over a decade. In 1998, he responded to an ad in the local paper from someone looking for an illustrator for a comic they were working on.

“It was for this comic series called Champions of Hell,” he says, “and the writer needed something dark and scary, and so I did a few sample drawings for him and we’ve been great friends ever since. His name is Ira Hunter, and that comic series is still going on.”

The first comic books that Thompson can remember taking a serious interest in were Alpha Flight and The X-Men.

“I always loved John Byrne’s art,” he says, “I used to sneak my brother’s X-Men comics out of his room when I was younger, and I would read those without him knowing. I used my allowance money to buy Alpha Flight issues from the racks at a local corner store.”

His first-ever foray into self-publishing was a title called The Highlanders, which he worked on with a group of friends from school. (Note: No relation to Christopher Lambert’s movies, other than a recurring theme of decapitation)

“It was about a group of Scottish vampire hunters, ” Thompson says, with a laugh, “It was a hand-made, photocopied zine style book, and we’d bring it to school and try and sell it to people.”

Outside of Champions of Hell, Thompson says he has quite a few projects on the go. His ongoing goal in comics is to challenge himself to continually produce work that’s both innovative and different from his previous projects.

For example:

“I’m a big fan of sharks and there’s no shark comics out there,” says Thompson,  “so I thought, I’m gonna do one! Right now I’m sitting on a shark story that I’ve completed and will at some point in the future be a new book.

I’ve also recently wanted to do a bit more writing and less drawing, so I needed a project for that. I watch a lot of really crappy, crappy movies, and out of that I did a book called the ‘Fifty Worst Comic Book Movies Ever Made’. It consists of my reviews of these horrible comic book movies, and of course I have illustrations throughout the book.

I made that and then a new one that I want to do is nerds of film. Kind of a review book about nerd films.”

Thompson maintains a firmly positive belief in the Do-It-Yourself approach to print publishing, which is reflected in the wealth of projects he currently has on the go. In an era when digital comics have taken a front seat for new comic creators and mass distribution is all but impossible for the indie self-publisher, his optimism is refreshing.

“There’s always a decent market for self-published stuff,” Thompson maintains, “Especially if you’re dedicated enough to getting your stuff out there. That’s what I love about the DIY approach, because you have that opportunity. Not only does it reward hard work, but you can inspire others into adopting their own DIY approach as well.

The more people that get involved, the stronger the DIY market becomes. Of course, we’ll always be the underdogs to the major distributor stuff. ”

When asked about his beliefs as to why this is, his answer comes as a familiar, two word response. If you guessed ‘reverse synergy’, you probably haven’t read many articles here on the Fabler Blog before.

“Diamond Comics,” says Thompson, “If you’re just starting out and trying to get your stuff out there, Diamond Comics will ruin you. By telling a self-publisher that if they don’t sell X amount, Diamond won’t carry their product, they’re basically telling the new generation ‘if you’re not part of the big boys, then don’t even bother.’”

Oddly enough, Diamond Comics’ position in the market actually had a direct hand in Thompson’s decision to start teaching comic art.

“Thanks to changing distribution patterns,” he explains, “It’s not like when I was younger and I could take my allowance down to the corner shop to buy a comic. Now you have to go to a comic shop, and most kids don’t live near comic shops, and their parents don’t often take them there. They might borrow something like Bone from the library or pick up an Archie comic, but that’s about it.

It’s really nice to be in a position to introduce kids to something new that they might never have known they’d like. Sure enough, over the course of teaching kids about comic art and what’s out there, you really see them develop personal tastes of their own in terms of art style and characters that they like.”

Thompson says that another motivation for getting into teaching was that it would provide a venue where he could share his love for the art:

“I decided to put a proposal out there to a community centre for a  drawing class, and they accepted, and I started a drawing class for kids. Word just got around that this is what I do, and I got offers from other community centres to do illustration/cartooning classes with kids heavily focused on comics.

From there, it went from teaching kids to teaching teenagers, and now of course teaching adults at Emily Carr.”

Thompson says the focus of his courses is generally on narrative storytelling, drawing techniques, and inking techniques.

“I don’t want to assume that everyone has the same interest as I do in comics,” he says, “so I try to keep it broad and more general.  Sometimes on the first day I have a slide show with a little bit on the history of comics.

There’s a lot of stuff that a lot of people don’t know. For example, Santa Claus was originally designed from a political cartoonist. They think that Coca-Cola created that image, but it was actually Thomas Nast.”

In his experience teaching, Thompson says he finds that most newcomers to the field don’t realize how much work actually goes into making a comic.

“I tell them to look at all of the names that are credited on their favorite comic book. Oftentimes, they don’t realize that someone’s doing the penciling, someone’s doing the lettering, someone’s doing the inking, and so forth.  When it’s all done by one person, it can be a really daunting task.

Sometimes people can be put off when they realize how much work goes into it. But then, those who put the time in can find it extremely rewarding.”

Thompson’s most important advice for aspiring comic artists?

“Draw every day, and don’t let comics be your only influence. Most comic artists are influenced by something outside of the comics field. For example, I would go sometimes to the art gallery and use the sculptures as models – which I would then draw, and use those sketches in my comic art.”

For more from Robin, you can visit his personal webpage or visit the Champions of Hell website.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

It’s a sad day in comic land folks. Zuda Comics, DC’s answer to closed open submission policies, and American Idol for Indy comics is officially closing. After more than two years of contests, cheers and tears Ron Perazza of Zuda made the announcement on Zuda’s blog. They did announce that they will be moving some of what Zuda had to offer through their new Digital Initiative, on digital distribution networks like Comixology, and Sony’s Playstation Network. Stay tuned to see what DC does next!

The 3 Second Rule, a webcomic by Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz, is not your typical buddy comedy.

‘Buddy fiction’, as I’m pretty sure nobody calls it, is both a plot device and a genre onto itself. You’ve seen it countless times in the movies, in books, and even in mainstream comic books (think Power Man and Iron Fist). Yet something about the genre keeps consumers of popular culture coming back.

Perhaps it’s what buddy fiction tells us about the true nature of friendship. Or maybe it’s just something we can all relate to – after all, isn’t life just a series of interactions between different personality types trying to find some common ground?

Answer: it’s neither.

Buddy fiction is popular because it’s fun, plain and simple. And when it’s done right, as it is with 3 Second Rule, it can deliver an entertaining, fast-paced narrative with room for both characters to meaningfully grow and develop.

The 3 Second Rule follows the adventures of a very serious, dedicated hit man named Axel and his debonair counterpart Shane.  Axel is the silent gun, Shane the charismatic socialite. You could imagine the sort of dynamic that unfolds.

So what sets it apart from every other buddy comedy?

Arthur Dela Cruz, who writes the strip, has this to say on the subject:

“My original plan was to do a straight forward buddy comedy in the same vein as films like Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon even Pineapple Express. You know, heavy action starring two guys who are constantly at each other’s throats. However, I do tend to write serious subject matter and lean towards the darker side of drama and comedy, so you’ll notice the scripts will veer to back and forth between light and dark comedy, but the action is always consistent.”

In addition to the interesting contrast of light and dark humor, Dela Cruz provides a solid, compelling story that goes beyond much of the more cliché buddy comedy fare you might stumble upon.  But this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, since he came to the project with ample experience in comicking.

“I freelanced as a colourist and designer for the likes of Image comics and Oni Press,  among others,” says Dela Cruz, “before I mustered enough courage to pitch my first ever comic Kissing Chaos to Oni Press at the turn of the century. (2000). At that point I worked on Kissing Chaos in print form for a few years. Because indie comics doesn’t often pay ALL the bills, I would freelance as an illustrator and writer to make ends meet, which I still do to this day.”

In addition, Dela Cruz has been affiliated with web comic collective Transmission X with his digital Kissing Chaos strip, titled “Til I Die” (currently on hiatus).

But of course, only half of the credit for The 3 Second Rule can be attributed to Arthur. His creative partner, Jason Loo, not only draws the comic but helps with creating dialogue.

On his own background in comics prior to 3 Second Rule, Loo has this to say:

“I was self-publishing mini-comics prior to the collaboration. I did a series called Popper Cosmix which was my homage to Tezuka about two aliens that visit Earth to become superheroes. I also self-published a teen runaway-turned paramilitary drama graphic novel series called AWOL’d.”

Arthur and Loo met at a comic convention years ago. They were mutual friends of Eric Kim, and wound up seated at tables on either side of him at the con.

“When I found out we both live in Mississauga, that’s when our friendship developed,” says Loo, “We’ve been going to life-drawing classes and discussing about each other’s work since then and Arthur brought up the idea of us collaborating at one of our lunch meetings. He had a bunch of story ideas and it was after a year talking about a collaboration when we started the buddy-hitman-comedy 3 Second Rule.”

Artistically, Loo says that he’s been drawing a lot of his inspiration for the comic from action flicks and European comics.

“I find the European artists pay a lot of attention to detail especially with the backgrounds. These comics have a great sense of cinematography.”

Another influence behind the comic which Loo lists is… Mexican wrestling?

“I went through a Lucha Libre phase when I was drawing the first chapter,” he explains, “and I thought it would be cool to have Axel wear a Luchador mask during his hits. The skull represents Death, but the yellow adds the flashiness of a Luchador.”

Both Dela Cruz and Loo attest that creating the strips for 3 Second Rule comes as the result of a meticulous process.

“I prefer to finish two months worth of backlog so I can focus on other comic projects,” says Loo, “But Arthur could be busy with his freelance work and I’d find the new script for the next chapter a week or two before the entire backlog is up on the site. So I’ll spend 2-3 weeks pencilling, inking, lettering an entire chapter (that’s worth two months of backlog), then work on my other comic projects, look at the calendar and tell Arthur to have the next part of the script ready, then 2-3 weeks of crunch time again.”

Dela Cruz compares his end of the process to his experience writing Kissing Chaos:

“Kissing Chaos, both in print and online with TXCOMICS.com, is a very personal, almost diary style comic, laced around a fictional narrative that provides the backbone for what is basically stream of conscious writing.

The 3 Second Rule is completely different, in that it’s very meticulously planned. So, often, when I’m caught up with my freelance work my scripts will be delayed, as Jason mentioned. With Kissing Chaos, I could very much feel my way through the story, and produce work on the fly and it will still fit tonally within the framework of the series. However, The 3 Second Rule requires a lot of time to execute the story as planned. So apologies to the fans for the sporadic schedule!”

The end result of all of Arthur Dela Cruz and Jason Loo’s efforts is a webcomic that highlights the best parts of ‘buddy fiction’.

3 Second Rule is fun, well-written, and artfully drawn. Though the majority of the early strips focus more on developing Axel, both he and Shane shine as strong individual personalities sharply at odds with each other.

And you know… I think there’s a little bit of both characters inside each and every one of us.

“I think I lean towards Axel sometimes,” says Jason Loo, “because we both come across as shy and quiet. But when I find my comfort zone around people I don’t know (and maybe after a drink or two), I can be just as social and loud as Shane.”

What about you, dear reader? Are you more quiet, contemplative killer? Or loud, sociable womanizer?

On that note, you can check out 3 Second Rule over at www.kissingchaos.com/3s/. You can also find Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz on their respective web-pages.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming