The Fabler

-interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Remember Care Bears? Those disgustingly cute, fuzzy furballs of moral fibre from the eighties that took the merchandising world by storm?

Chances are, you not only remember the Care Bears but also what they represented to kids; drearily wholesome examples of those values considered essential to a healthy mindset. The likes of Tenderheart Bear, Friend Bear, and Share Bear taught us that with a little compassion, we could overcome anything.

At its root, Care Bears is a concept that is begging to be satirized.

This is where Ottawa-based illustrator Alison Acton comes in, with her weekly webcomic Bear Nuts.

Bear Nuts follows an assortment of dysfunctional cartoon bears as they attempt to eke out an existence in front of hordes of gawking youngsters at the Discount Zoo.

Gone are Friend Bear, Tenderheart and the rest -  in their place would be the sadistic Evil Bear, the self-medicated Prozac Bear, and the flamboyant Gay Bear. Alison draws these unique personalities (alongside a handful of their other similarly ‘unique’ bear peers) with a polished, lively art style that bounces off the panels and sticks in your head for days.

The high quality of art on Bear Nuts should come as no surprise – Acton, who has been drawing as long as she can remember, started drawing the strip after completing post-secondary studies in traditional animation and working for several Ottawa-based studios.

She founded the website Dooomcat Studios with her husband, artist Jim Charalampidis, and created Bear Nuts under the Dooomcat banner. Bear Nuts is, artistically, a collaborative effort between the two – Alison draws, and Jim colors.

Outside of Dooomcat and the webcomic, Acton is a part-time Jiu Jitsu teacher, and a professional animator/illustrator with an impressive array of completed projects under her belt. The most notable of which would likely be her work on Tokyopop’s The Faerie Path, a manga adaptation of the British series of young adult novels by the same name.

Topping off her busy schedule is Acton’s role as a new full-time Mom.

I talked to Alison about balancing illustration with mom-hood, the origins of Dooomcat, and why her next Faerie Path book might not see the light of day (despite the illustration being fully complete).

The interview is below:

KD: What does a typical day in the life of Alison Acton look like?

AA: A typical day now is a lot different than before the baby arrived and something we’re still adjusting to.  I’m lucky that Jim, my husband, also works at home so I have a lot of help.

Right now, I’m not really working on anything but the webcomic, Bear Nuts, and that’s only when Sammy lets me.  I can see routine starting to establish itself as he’s almost 6 weeks now, but I still have way less time than I used to and it did surprise me how much time he needs.  I have lots of ambitious plans of other comics and things I’d like to start but right now it’s all I can do to keep to my update schedule on Bear Nuts.

KD: It mentions on your Dooomcat profile that you work (or worked, since I imagine the whole ‘childbirth’ thing affected this) evenings at a Jiu Jitsu Dojo. Can you tell me a little about that?

AA: I am on mat leave now but I’ve worked part time teaching and doing admin stuff at two local schools for almost 10 years now I guess, holy I’m getting old…

The dojo is great as it gets me out of the house for a bit and gets me some physical activity, all pretty important when you work at home and wouldn’t otherwise get away from the computer or the drawing table!  I also love teaching kids; they can be so much fun and I’ve learned a lot I can put into raising my own little boy.  I also can’t wait until he’s old enough to get in a gi himself.  And I can’t wait to get back into that routine as I haven’t thrown anyone or been thrown in over 9 months and childbirth destroyed my abs.

KD: What was the original logic behind founding Dooomcat with Jim?

AA: Studio Dooomcat was originally a three artist team but plans fell through somewhat.  Jim and I use it as our online portfolio gallery/web site and we list at conventions under that name as we mainly sell art that we create together.  We have a series of prints called “Melees” that’s supposed to be ongoing but baby stopped that too.  I will eventually get back to them as I have grand plans to print some kind of art book some day.  You can see them at dooomcat.com in my gallery.

I’d like to have multiple web comics running at some point, all tied into the studio banner.

KD: Why Dooomcat? Why not Happpycat, or Dooomcow?

AA: I really like Dooomcow, I’ll have to draw that sometime!  I’ve always been good at drawing cute stuff, though there needs to be some kind of edge so it’s not boring.   Plus we like cats so it just fit.  I also have a comic idea for Dooom, but that’s on the pile of stuff I likely won’t get to for a long, long time.

KD: Could you draw correlations between any of the bears and personalities of people you know in real life?

I can definitely see bits of people I know in the various bears.  Inevitably, people at cons will say they know someone who’s just like such and such bear, or they’ll be able to match people to each bear.  I always wonder a little when they say they know someone just like Gimp or Tanked…

KD: Have you toyed much with the idea of adding any new bear regulars to the motley assortment you have already?

AA: There are three more fleshed out characters to be added.  I’m hoping to bring the 10th male out in the next book and then book three will introduce the last two.  I get asked all the time why there aren’t any females but really, what girls would want to live with those idiots?

KD: How did the idea of Bear Nuts evolve from a perverse parody of Care Bears to the ongoing, character-driven collection of stories you’ve built and shared online?

AA: I was working at an animation studio that wanted to do a “My Little Pony” short spoof.  We got laid off shortly after but we knew it wouldn’t be a long break.  Since I had some free time I figured “Care Bears” would be the next logical step.  Unfortunately, the studio eventually closed and nothing happened with the concepts we’d made.  I did have a lot of fun coming up with the bear designs and a friend of ours encouraged me to do something with them.  The comic slowly emerged and my friend, Jason from DMF Comics, eventually helped us out with publishing the first book.

KD: Based on fan response, are any of the bears more popular with readers than the others?

AA: Death bear is overwhelmingly the favorite and I don’t really know why as he’s had the smallest role so far. He’s the only one with “powers” and a natural need to fly solo so I don’t tend to use him too much.  This apparently made him mysterious and intriguing, and led to lots of complaints that I didn’t use him enough!

KD: How did you end up getting involved with the Faerie Path? Was manga an area you previously had a desire to work within?

AA: When the animation jobs in Ottawa all went Flash I submitted some comic pitches to Tokyopop, back when they were still looking for great original manga ideas.  My first editor there contacted me because he liked my art and we went through a couple of tests for other books before I got Faerie Path.

I went the manga route as it was a style that seemed closest to mine and Tokyopop was hiring.  I often get told my art is too cartoony for more serious stories and I can see that.  It doesn’t stop me from making my own cartoony stuff as gory as I can at times.

KD: Are you presently working on the second volume of the Faerie Path, or have you completed illustration on the project?

AA: Volume 2 was finished off at the end of the summer but unfortunately I don’t know if it will ever get published.  I had the great misfortune of having my first published work come out during a recession when publishers and distributers were going under or severely cutting their catalogues back.  I don’t think sales on vol 1 were good enough to warrant a vol 3 and thus vol 2 is in the air.  Perhaps it will come out online some day on Harper Collins’ site or on TP, I just don’t know.  Unfortunately that leaves me out of work.  Fortunately, it’s perfect timing for the baby.

KD: How has your experience working on the second volume differed from your experience with the first?

AA: I changed editors twice with all the upheaval in the industry which was disorienting and disappointing.  I did really like everyone I worked with but the overall attitude in the publishing industry was definitely negative and cast a pall over the whole process.  Vol 2 went faster since I knew what I was doing, but I had way more fun on the first one.  It’s still a great feeling of accomplishment when it’s done: 150 pages pencilled, inked, and toned!  Even if no one ever sees it.