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

When the combined comics of one creative Calgarian threaten to overwhelm the humble corner of the interweb that they occupy…

One name resounds clearly amidst the din. (the din?)

Damian Willcox is… dorkboy.

(cue theatrical John Williams knockoff score)

Damian Willcox has been making comics for over fifteen years, an impressive span by any standard.

‘dorkboy‘ represents his fictional alter-ego , a superhero in a world similar – but substantially more ridiculous – than our own. Over the years, dorkboy evolved into ‘dorkboy comics‘, a banner under which Willcox has created a number of totally different comic strips, each featuring their own unique artistic approach and distinctive tone.

One of those comic titles is ‘skully.‘, which features the curiously human encounters of an unassuming, well dressed spectre of death. Another is ‘workin’ jones‘, a much more realistically drawn portrayal of an average person in his everyday interactions with the people around him.

‘sketchbook comics‘ is yet another example of the diverse interests which appeal to Willcox’s creative side. sketchbook comics is the most overtly autobiographical of his creative corral, featuring a super-cartoony version of Willcox in short vignettes taken from his everyday life. The art is, as you might guess, very loose and sketch-like.

You’re probably getting the point by now that Damian Willcox is hard to nail down in a particular artistic niche. Which is for the best, really.

dorkboy comics, which originated as self-published minicomics before Damian moved the majority of his work online, is all about variety.

In an attempt to make sense of the creative cornucopia that is Damian Willcox’s comic book canon, I tracked him down for an interview.

The interview went as follows: (rest assured, dear reader – there’s very little alliteration in the actual interview)

KD: How did dorkboy comics start?

DW: Oh boy. I made the first one in 1995. When I was in college a friend of mine was in the printing program at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). He was doing a zine kind of thing, and he had one last page to fill so I ended up drawing a comic for that out of the blue.

Probably a year or two after that, I decided to make a minicomic as a christmas card from my friends and family. That would’ve been the first official 11×17, folded dorkboy comic.

People liked it, and I had fun making it – so it just kept going from there.

KD: Fifteen years is a long time to be involved with one comic concept. Does it feel like it’s been that long to you?

DW: No, it’s weird – it’s actually gone really quickly. The thing is, as I’ve gone along I’ve just started up a new comic whenever I felt like doing something different.

When you’re doing comics, you can change the presentation and you can change the content so much that you can create totally different story experiences.

There are certain stories I could only do with one of my comic titles that just wouldn’t work with any of the others.

KD: What methods or programs do you use to create the strips?

DW: Right now, I lean more towards digital methods. A big reason for that transition from pen and ink was that I was getting tendinitis.

I’ve tried a bunch of different programs, but the main two that I’ve settled on are Adobe Illustrator and Manga Studio. Using the second one, I’ve been able to reproduce the linework very closely to when I used to draw in pen and ink.

KD: On the topic of drawing digitally, I know you like to experiment with a lot of different mediums. Lately, what have been your favorite platforms or programs to play around with?

DW: (laughs) I’ve been doing comics on my iPod Touch, using SketchBook mobile. I’ve actually made six or so comics on that tiny little screen.

KD: How much of your time does dorkboy comics take up these days?

DW: Usually, the comics take up about ten to fifteen hours of my time per week. I can stay regular so long as I’m not too busy with work – during a busy period, it gets pretty hard to free up fifteen hours out of nowhere.

KD: What does your dayjob entail, exactly?

DW: I do product design for software. I don’t do any of the programming or anything, but I basically design how the program should work for average people to be able to understand it.

KD: Your collection of work tends to venture all over the place, and it becomes sort of hard to readily define. What do you tell people when they ask you about what dorkboy comics is?

DW: I try and break it down into the different titles. There’s no real way to summarize them otherwise – I mean, most of them tend to be more of the humor category, but then you have ‘workin’ jones’, which is much more serious.

KD: How did your approach to making comics change when you shifted from print to almost exclusively digital?

DW: With print comics, I would end up spending more time on the business side, on running around putting them together, and on distribution. Ultimately making comics is not something I want to be a job.  It’s something I enjoy doing, and once it becomes a job, it loses that portion of its appeal.

Anytime I’ve experimented with taking my comics in a direction where I could make money from them, like for a while there was interest in a tv series based on them, it just turns into an unenjoyable experience.

I just want people to read the comics and enjoy them really, and the nice thing about the web is I can do that without a lot of financial risk or commitment.

KD: What would you say is one important thing for an aspiring comic creator to know in the current state of the industry?

DW: I would say to have realistic expectations, and be realistic about where they’re starting. A lot of people might decide, “Hey, I’m going to do a daily webcomic” and then a month into it when they don’t have a million followers, be discouraged. The workload for that could get pretty huge, and it can seem daunting when you’re not getting the reception you hoped for.

The most important thing is just to make comics for the sake of making them, and get better in the process of doing that.

KD: Do you have anything else in the works that you might like to share?

DW: At this point I feel like everything’s been pretty much transparent in terms of what I’m working on. I pretty much post everything (laughs). If I do a crappy little sketch comic, it’ll either show up on the website or on Twitter.

I’d like to pull together my kernel corn and my workin’ jones stuff and maybe put together a couple of individual books. So that might work out in time for next year’s Calgary Expo.

For more from Damian Willcox, you can check out dorkboy comics, his blog, twitter feed, and the dorkboy comics Facebook page.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Its themes of directionless youth and awkward/witty attempts at human connection will resound with you as genuine, just as you will very likely find yourself fascinated with the kind of idiosyncratic conversation that can be produced by a nondescript cartoon ghost.

This is the world that author and artist Ethan Rilly has created; a place that you will be able to relate to while keeping you guessing where the book is going with every page turn.

The story of Pope Hats centers around a young woman named Frances Scarland and her self-destructive roommate, Vickie. As Vickie careens down a path of alcoholism, Frances does her best to help her friend – but Franny has her own issues, which often come out in her interactions with a literal ghost named Saarsgard.

Ethan’s deft ability to construct a sincere narrative laced with convincing dialogue, combined with his knack for breezy, expressive illustration, contributed to Pope Hats winning a Xeric Foundation Grant in 2008. At the time, Pope Hats had manifested only as a limited-distribution minicomic.

Pope Hats # 1, a 32 page black-and-white comic book, saw wider distribution in 2009 via Adhouse Books.

The reason that we have yet to see a second issue of Pope Hats is owing to Ethan’s decision to follow the first comic with a longer length graphic novel, which he states on his website that we can hope to see in late 2010.

Being the impatient sort myself, I tracked down Ethan for an interview about the new book, his illustrative beginnings, and some general miscellany about what he’s up to outside of Pope Hats.

Read on, humble reader, and be enlightened:

KD: How far back does your interest in comic books go?

ER: I started reading comics in the early 90s around when Marvel was re-launching the X-Men books with Jim Lee as the main artist. I’m Asian, so I guess that was a pretty big deal for me. But those early books almost never cross my mind anymore.

KD: When and how did you decide that you first wanted to try your hand at making a mini-comic?

ER: I started a couple gag-ish comic strips for a campus newspaper when I was a student at McGill University. I needed an outlet that felt like the opposite of academia. My first mini didn’t require a lot of deliberation – I just xeroxed all those terrible strips together into a book and sold it in Montreal. To my surprise, people really responded to it.

KD: What formal education have you received in illustration?

ER: None, except for high school art classes. I guess I’m a little skeptical about art schools in general, though I am impressed by a lot of the young illustrators graduating from OCAD in Toronto. I’m more interested in good writers, which is a different ballgame.

KD: On your website it states that in addition to cartooning, you work for the Ontario government. Are you still occupied there?

ER: Yes, but recently I’ve been lucky enough to take some time off work for comics.

KD: How do you typically draw a balance between the responsibilities associated with your job and the sheer time commitment that being a professional artist entails?

ER: It’s never a perfect balance when I’m working full time. I don’t really have any good tips other than forsaking sleep (laughs). I sometimes dream about getting some kind of “bonus year” where I don’t age, don’t have any social or job obligations whatsoever, and where I just work intensively on comics.

Of course, in reality, that would be the end of me.

KD: How far along are you with the forthcoming Pope Hats graphic novel?

ER: A fair chunk is drawn, if I keep it down to a modest size.

KD: At this point, what are you able to tell me regarding what it’s about?

ER: It’s partly about failure. And there’s a part where I had to draw a whole lot of snow.

That’s all I’m going to say for now!

KD: Are you self-publishing it? Do you have plans for it to be distributed by AdHouse?

ER: I’m holding out until I finish it before I officially look for a publisher. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

KD: How much of the story in the new graphic novel did you already have in mind when you put together Pope Hats # 1?

ER: Not much. Some of the parameters are the same. There’s something in particular I’m trying to capture, that Pope Hats touched the surface of.

Even with other projects I’m working on, it feels like I’m generally aiming for the same thing.

KD: Do you feel at all daunted by expectations for the new book, since the first Pope Hats received so much positive attention?

ER: To be honest, I don’t think there’s a great deal of expectation for my new comic or “graphic novel” or whatever you want to call it. Which is perfect. Agonizing over such things is hazardous.

KD: What else are you currently working on that you might like to share some info about?

ER: I’m working on a project where I interview real people and turn it into a wordy comic. I’m trying to marry comics with personal anecdotes that you would only tell when you’re at your most vulnerable–like at a seedy bar at two in the morning or something like that.

I like the project because it’s got “bad idea” written all over it. There are a bunch of logistical challenges. And it also satiates my interest in documentary-type stuff.

For more from Ethan, you can check out his official website. Popehats # 1 may be ordered directly from AdHouse.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Authors who demonstrate a willingness to candidly discuss both what they perceive as their greatest strengths as well as what they perceive to be their greatest faults or weaknesses typically produce the most interesting, compelling material in this genre.

Adam Bourret, author/artist of the autobiographical comic book I’m Crazy, has produced a true-life tale brimming with unflinchingly intimate honesty and characterized as much by its simple charm as it is by its moments of agonizingly personal revelations.

In short, Bourret has created something that you should definitely read if you haven’t already.

I’m Crazy deals with a variety of themes, though chief among them would be Adam’s experiences living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, how that affected his relationship with his boyfriend, and how he coped with feeling isolated and ‘othered’ as a result of his OCD.

It was originally published as a graphic novel in April 2009, though after I’m Crazy won a Xeric Grant last year, he put the money towards rereleasing a more polished edition later in the year.

Adam has also been posting I’m Crazy as a serialized webcomic, with updates every M/W/F.  As recently as last Friday, April 16th, he posted the final update on the comic – meaning that you can now read it in its entirety online at Im-crazy.com.

A Xeric Grant wasn’t the only accolade Bourret has earned with this work – he is currently a finalist for Best Emerging Comic from the Doug Wright Awards and he also recently won Best English Comic at Expozine in Montreal.

The Fabler caught up with Adam for an interview, which you can read below:

KD: I’m Crazy, right from the get go, was a very personal, intimate look into your life. From some of the deeper inner-workings of your psyche, to intimate moments with your boyfriend (both in and out of the bedroom).

To what degree was doing this comic – and choosing to be so candid with its content – a cathartic experience for you?

AB: I don’t remember giving myself a specific limit, and the relationship was happening at the same time, so I just got swept up in it all.  Now it doesn’t really affect me.  It’s a little embarrassing at first, that strangers know all this stuff about me. But now that I’ve told my secrets, I felt like I’ve done away with them.  They aren’t part of me anymore.

KD: Looking back at where you’ve gone with the comic, is there anything you were particularly worried might be ‘too personal’ to put in? Is there even such a thing as ‘too personal’ when making a work of this kind?

AB: I really didn’t want to tell my biggest secret. I wanted the book to end with me whispering it in my boyfriend’s ear or something. But it wouldn’t have been as good a story without that big reveal at the end. I felt like I’d come a long way writing it and it was just one more step.

KD: How have you found other people with OCD (or any other disorders, for that matter) have responded to I’m Crazy?

AB: They love it! OCD people love it, people with anxiety disorders, people with depression. I get a lot of mail from people, especially people in their teens, wanting to share their own problems. I think that’s great.

It’s nice to write something that gives people a little comfort and guidance. I like to think these people read the book and feel less alone.

KD: As it is an autobiographical work, why not use the webcomic to continue to write about your life as it happens?

AB: Webcomics are a great way to get your stuff out to a large number of people, but personally, they’re not really my thing.  I wrote “I’m Crazy” because I’d had these experiences that very few people knew about, and I felt I had something to say about them.

So no plans for a day to day diary comic. I’d like to concentrate on fiction now.

KD: You recently won Best Comic at Expozine, and you’re also up for a Doug Wright Award this year. Before that, you had won a Xeric Grant.

What’s it like for you to have your work recognized (and indeed, lauded) by the comics community in general?

AB: It’s awesome.  When you self-publish the biggest question on your mind is “is anyone going to read this?”  Being nominated for awards means a lot to me, because it means people are paying attention and appreciating my stuff.

A lot of people warned me that self publishing was going to be a tough slog, and it is for a lot of good reasons.  But I’ve found a lot of support and approval in the comics community, and for that I feel really lucky and grateful.

KD: What experience did you have in comics prior to doing I’m Crazy?

AB: I’ve been drawing comics since I was a little kid, but “I’m Crazy” was definitely the first big thing I’ve done in comics.

KD: Would you do something like this again? Be it another autobiographical comic online or in print… or even just could you see yourself doing another regularly updated webcomic of any sort in the near future?

AB: I probably won’t do autobiography again, I think I’ve said all the juiciest stuff about myself.  There’s not going to be an “I’m Crazy AGAIN” or anything. I’d like to have an Ang Lee sort of career – where I do one thing and the next year I do something completely different.  This new book is like that, it’s all fiction and really different from “I’m Crazy.”

KD: Can you talk at all about any other projects you’re currently working on or have planned for the future?

AB: The new book I’m working on is called “Mighty Ernestine.”  It’s about a cold-hearted, ugly, enormous teenage girl whose kind of bullying her whole school into submission. So the school hires this hapless guy to try to rein her in an teach her how to be friendly.  I think it’s a lot of fun.  It’s a really lively, funny story.

Drawing it takes up a lot of my time, but I’ve got some other ideas.  I’ve been thinking of doing a comic about how to grow and cook your own food. I also had a pretty brutal nightmare that woke me up a few months back. It was really scary, but it also had a really good plot.  I think I might get a book out of it.

For more from Adam Bourret, you can head over to I’m Crazy (the webcomic), or check out the Facebook group.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

The parameters for this award would include:

- ability to render epic-level fight sequences skillfully and with non-clichéd flair.

- uniquely imaginative portrayals of characters of extraordinary and/or otherworldly origin.

- demonstrated comfort with gratuitously graphic content, though never to the point where the violence and/or sexuality overwhelms the subtext.

- bonus points for sequences involving mass evisceration.

With this checklist in mind, absolutely the first name that would grace my shortlist of contemporary Canadian artists would be Eric Vedder.

Vedder, who resides in St. Catherines, Ontario, is the author, artist and creator of Aardehn – a dark fantasy/sci-fi webcomic of epic scale.

Aardehn, which launched in February of 2008, chronicles the adventures of Celeste – a demon hunter who is herself marked by darkness and carries a burden of prophecy.

Prominent secondary characters include Aveenda, a fiercely independent elf currently held in captivity, and the demonic Lady Skar – as delightfully twisted and sadistic a villain as one could hope for, really.

Last September, Aardehn was officially added to the Transmission X roster of high-quality webcomics.

Outside of Aardehn, Vedder works on concept and character art for videogame development companies, and has worked as a penciler on various titles from Udon Comics.

In fact, recently he was drafted to share penciling responsibilities on the latest Darkstalkers miniseries from Udon, the Night Warriors – a job which Eric was particularly (and understandably) excited to work on.

Eric was amiable enough to do an interview with the Fabler about Aardehn, Darkstalkers, and beyond.

That interview….(dramatic pause, for effect) is below:

KD: What have been some of your most prominent influences with Aardehn? I would guess that you have some pretty distinct influences in anime/manga – would that be totally off the mark?

EV: You guessed correctly. I’ve been a huge fan of anime/manga for quite some time and they have totally influenced Aardehn. The first anime I watched was Akira and it opened my eyes to a whole new world. Here we had violence, swearing and slight nudity all in a cartoon format… I loved it! Then I saw Ghost in the Shell. Well, that was it. I collected anything I could get my hands on that had Masamune Shirow’s artwork on it.

Following that was Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura and Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. Two phenomenal manga’s that completely influenced Aardehn’s art and storytelling style.

KD: Aardehn seems as much of an epic adventure in high fantasy as it is an experiment into different artistic styles.

Can you tell me a little about your decision to use Aardehn as a testing grounds of sorts for your art?

EV: From the get go, I made the decision that Aardehn would be where I grew as an artist (hopefully).

Basically it comes down to the fact that I appreciate all art styles and if the mood strikes me to play with other styles, then I wanted to use it in my crazy world. It’s also a way for me to help break through my many bad habits and barriers that have grown stubbornly over the years. I always feel I can do better or rather should be doing better, so this keeps me trying new things and I find that’s the best way to learn.

KD: Aardehn is definitely not a G-Rated comic. If the violence/glimpses of nudity you’ve had in the comic prior weren’t enough of an indicator, this a point you certainly drove home with your January 25th update (featuring what we’ll call the “uninvited tentacle” scene).

Were you wary at all about posting that particular update/was there any consideration of portraying it differently?

EV: Ah, the infamous tentacle scene. This page definitely gave me pause and posting it made me feel a little uneasy. I struggled with other ways to portray it or perhaps take a completely different approach but in the end it felt right. I had to establish how unflinchingly creepy Lady Skar was and hint at some of her bizarre powers.

Having said that, I can now limit how many times, if ever again, we see that same scene. A simple shot of her arm unraveling should be enough to let the viewer know what’s coming next.

KD: How early on in Aardehn’s conception did you make the decision not to censor the more graphic elements of the comic?

EV: I loathe censorship of any kind. Let me decide what I want to see, read, hear and ingest. That’s basically my thought process when it comes to comics as well. Years before it was on paper, I knew I wanted Aardehn to be un-censored.

However, I will say I feel that there is a time and place for all things and over-doing anything will just turn out poorly, in comics and in real life.

KD: Can you give any hints as to where the tales of Celeste and Aveenda will be heading in the coming year?

EV: Think dragons, archers, aliens and spaceships… ok that might be too vague. Over the next year, we’ll see Celeste grow into much more of a leader and we’ll learn how Aveenda is connected to her and to many others.

I have a long story to tell so hopefully people stick with me.

KD: You officially joined up with Transmission X last September, adding Aardehn to the TX Comics stable of high-quality webcomics.

What are some of your thoughts on working with Transmission X this past year, and on working with a webcomic artist collective in general?

EV: Joining Transmission X was a huge moment in my life. It also made Aardehn seem more real. Those guys are all professionals and really force you to think and act like a pro more and more. They really challenge me to be better as an artist and as a person and I’m so stoked and grateful to be moving forward along side them. We have big plans ahead so make sure to check out the new website and the new store!

I think working in a collective can only make your comic better. Also, you are part of team to a degree and a lot more gets accomplished this way. I really think more people should try hooking up with other artists and help promote each other, especially in the beginning stages of your comic/art career.

KD: I understand that you were a pretty big fan of the Darkstalkers universe prior to being asked to pencil the new miniseries.

What has it been like for you, having the opportunity to work on this particular franchise?

EV: I’ve been a huge fan of Capcom, particularly the Street Fighter series, for years and years now. Going back to the earlier question of influences, the artists from Capcom blew my mind. I would try and draw like them for years and still do!

Kinu was perhaps my biggest influence as her mix of cartoon and life drawing like style resonated within me.

Along comes Darkstalkers with its insanely designed monsters and sexy heroines. I couldn’t believe the characters and being a fan of monsters and women, this game was made for me. Also, not many people know this but, Morrigan was my inspiration for Celeste and yes, she too was originally a succubus.

When Udon approached me to split the penciling duties on the 3 issue mini series, I was shell-shocked. It really was a dream come true for me and was a long time goal of mine. Getting to draw the comic with my good friend Joe Vriens was awesome and made the experience even more special. Needless to say, I was really happy.

KD: Do you have a particular favourite Darkstalker character to draw?

EV: I love drawing Capcom characters in general, particularly the females.

Hands down my favorite character to draw and for obvious reasons is Morrigan. Beautiful and deadly, a perfect combination.

KD: My questions so far have been focused on your experiences as an artist of comics and webcomics, but you also have a strong background in videogame art design.

Can you tell me a little about the specifics of your work in gaming, and what it entails?

EV: Currently I work on a game called Sacred Seasons. I’ve been working with them for over a year now dabbling in almost every aspect of art for it. Initially I was doing character concept art for them, which I then transferred into in-game character art.

As we are nearing the end of our first content update, I’m finding myself doing website design, item and weapon art as well as advertisement art. They are great bunch of really talented people to work with and look forward to continuing on with them.

KD: How do you portion your time between working as a comic artist and your work in the videogame industry?

EV: It’s a bit of a juggling act at times. For the most part the videogame comes first as it’s a full time job. Aardehn is only a weekly update (for now), so the time needed for it is much less and splitting the penciling duties for Darkstalkers provides a little breathing room… but not much!

KD: As a final question, what’s next for you outside of Darkstalkers/Aardehn? Are there any projects that you’re particularly excited for coming up in the near future?

EV: After Darkstalkers, I’m not sure what Udon has lined up for me. Aardehn however, will continue on as scheduled. There is a secret project being released later this year that I’m very excited about but I can’t share with you just yet. You’ll just have to stay tuned!

For more from Eric Vedder, you can check out his website, Aardehn, or his page on deviantART. You can also follow him on his blog or on Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

This is a point that Marta Chudolinska drives home with her graphic novel Back + Forth: A Novel in 90 Linocuts. Back + Forth, originally published last October by The Porcupine’s Quill, was just recently announced as a finalist for this year’s Doug Wright Award for Best Book.

It presents a story that examines the relationship between time, geographic place, and our sense of self-perception. If that sounds vague, it’s because it’s meant to be – one of the advantages of structuring a narrative based purely around visual impressions is that it allows much to be left to the reader’s (or more accurately, the viewer’s) interpretation.

Marta credits Roland Barthes’ essay The Death of the Author as a significant influence on her ideas about creating a wordless narrative.

“I think the best part about it,” she says in an interview with The Fabler, “Is that people can bring their own interpretations to the story, and see something that maybe I didn’t intend or connect to something that I didn’t think was there. I also like the potential for emotional resonance – it’s sort of like when you’re adding words to something, you’re taking away from the power of the image. Without words, the image is allowed to become so powerful it can smack you in the face with the emotional charge of it.”

The emotional resonance of Marta’s images in Back + Forth certainly succeeds in carrying across the struggles with identity, sexuality, and isolation depicted within its pages. Beyond that, the powerful imagery she concocts also serves as a sort of melancholy love letter to two distinct Canadian cityscapes – Vancouver and Toronto.

“I had this desire for a few years before I made Back + Forth to make a book that celebrated Canadian places, and Canadian cities,” says Marta, “I had been reading Douglas Copeland, who was writing about Vancouver, and I thought ‘this is so cool that somebody’s writing about Vancouver instead of choosing an American city’.  Also I really wanted to create a story about Toronto because I haven’t really encountered many, and I thought there was really a lot of potential to use it as a setting.”

As is indicated by the title, Marta’s first major foray into graphic novels is also unique in that it is composed entirely of linocuts. To choose to take on a project like this and do it entirely with lino-carved prints falls into an ‘epic endeavour’ category in my books.

“I think part of the reason I was able to pull of the project,” says Marta with a laugh, “Is that I didn’t know how much work it was going to be. I mean it was in my last year of studies, and I also did a thesis in drawing and painting so I did a fully body of work for that in addition to doing the book. The last few months of that whole process were absolutely insane.”

When asked if she’d do it again, Marta doesn’t dismiss the idea.

“I think that finding that exact motivation might be hard again,” she says, “But maybe getting involved with a publisher or just having a really, really strong idea would push me to do it.”

Chudolinska, who says that the book was largely based on her own experiences, describes her initial reaction to the momentum generated by Back + Forth as amazement.

“When I first started the book, it was very much a personal project. I made it on a small scale by myself, and then talked with the publisher, and I didn’t know what to expect from my first published work. Just seeing it slowly build up into what it is now and then seeing it nominated for this award has been very, very amazing.”

Regarding the Doug Wright Award for Best Book, Marta is up against such major Canadian comic creators as Seth and Marc Bell – a fact that she says she considered ‘jaw-dropping’ when she initially found out that she was shortlisted.

“Even before I found out about the shortlist,” Marta says, “One of the first things that really amazed me was when my publisher forwarded the request to me from the Doug Wright Awards asking for several copies of my book to review.  It said something like, ‘please send five copies to the head of the jury, Chester Brown‘. For me that was like, ‘holy crap, Chester Brown is gonna read my book’.”

Achieving recognition from the comics art community is especially significant to Marta because of her longstanding interest in comics herself. Marta says she has been reading comics since she was a little girl.

“I fricking love comics,” she states, “I was born in Poland, so I had a bunch of Polish comics – my brother had a bunch of Marvel superhero comics and I ate that stuff up too. I read Archie comics like crazy, and my Mom would actually threaten to take them away when I was spending too much time reading them.”

In recent years, Marta has moved more away from serialized comics and into the realm of graphic novels  – she also says that she doesn’t read so much superhero fare anymore, with a few exceptions.

“I also read a lot of webcomics,” says Marta, “I have an extremely long list of links to comics that I check regularly. There are probably about ten people whose webcomics I follow daily.”

Some of the webcomics Marta visits daily include Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics, Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant, Dorothy Gambrell’s Cat and Girl, Gunshow by KC Green, and xkcd by Randall Munroe.

Her top picks in graphic novels include Epileptic by David B., The Lagoon by Lilli Carre, Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan, and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth – among many others.

As for what’s next from the wonderfully talented Marta Chudolinska, she is reluctant to divulge specific details but does have this to say:

“I do have an idea for my next book, which has fermenting in my brain for probably the last two years or so. I’m really not sure how it’s going to manifest, but I’d really like to do a project based on my family history. My family immigrated to Canada from Poland in the early 90’s and I’d like to explore that, as well as some of their history in Poland. I’d like also to explore the different perspectives on history I’ve learned between attending Polish school on Saturdays and what I learned in regular Canadian public school.”

For more from Marta Chudolinska, you can check out her sketchblog and a blog she keeps specifically for news about Back + Forth.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

From an animation about the unassuming friendship between a kite and a bicycle to a minicomic layering fairytale text over the everyday morning routine of an elderly lady, the Alberta-born animator and illustrator has built a solid portfolio largely around the emphasis of life’s simpler pleasures.

Even in the more fantastically-themed minicomics she has worked on, (either independently or collaboratively) whether the setting is a post-apocalyptic snowy landscape or a future where off-planet colonization is a reality, the actual focus of the art is still generally on the simple, relatable quirks that define everyday life.

Strange as that might sound, Colleen actually pulls it off quite well.

However, I don’t want to paint her into a corner here – lest you assume the extent of Ms. macIsaac’s talent begins and ends with the un-extraordinary, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Why, one such example to the contrary could be found in the form of a webcomic macIsaac did collaboratively with Jordyn Bochon. The webcomic – titled ‘May’ – follows the oddly-mannered title character as she sells suspicious ice pops that may or may not be poisoned to children, enjoys a good mid-evening bludgeoning, and generally wears less (or more) clothing than is appropriate.

Bochon, who has the humble distinction of being a 2009 Fabler interviewee herself, wrote the story, and macIsaac brought it to colorful, illustrated life.

The two have actually known each other for going on seven years now, and have collaborated on a number of comics together.

In macIsaac’s own words,

“Jordyn is an amazingly talented lady, and she’s working on a lot of exciting projects right now. I’m proud to know her!”

Well, Fablerites – we’re proud to present an interview with the (also) extremely talented Colleen macIsaac.

Without further ado:

KD: You’ve done some serious cross-Canadian bouncing around; from Spruce Grove to Vancouver all the way to the other coast.

Can you tell me a little more about your adventures in trans-provincial relocation?

CM: I grew up in Spruce Grove, a suburban Albertan city, but went to school in Edmonton; upon graduating high school I moved out to Vancouver to study animation at Emily Carr.

When I finished my undergrad my partner Dorian and I decided to explore a different part of Canada. Neither of us had ever been to Halifax (he hadn’t been East of the Saskatchewan border), but it sounded like a creative and fun city, so we took the plunge and headed towards the Atlantic!

KD: Is illustration/animation/drawing comics a full-time occupation for you, or if not, what else do you do for  work?

CM: I work a number of part-time jobs to make ends meet – I do freelance illustration and animation work, but it’s always an ebb and flow; it’s nice to have flexible employment that I can go back to during dry periods that also lets me take time off when things get hectic.

Right now I’m mainly working as an actor on a historical brewery tour where I wear a costume and pretend that it’s 1863. I also work in a few theatre box offices and at an art gallery from time to time, and I feel very lucky to be working in places that are related to things that I enjoy.

I find that I enjoy working in a variety of places; it keeps me on my toes!

KD: From perusing your work online, I’ve noticed a recurring theme of people presented in context of their everyday life, often combined with a focus on nature and simplicity.

Is this totally off the mark? What can you tell me about what you like to draw the most?

CM: I would say that’s a pretty fair assessment! I feel very scattered in terms of my artwork; there’s definitely things that I keep coming back to when I draw, but I don’t really have a conscious focus with my work at this point.

I enjoy making small and quiet drawings about people going about their lives in their communities, I suppose. I’ve become drawn to the idea of art with a local slant, of connecting to people through geography, and I think that’s a theme I’d like to explore more in the future.

KD: Who (or what) do you consider to have influenced your style the most?

CM: I think the single biggest influence on my style would have to be access to the internet. I tend to spend more time online than I should, looking at the work of artists from hundreds of years ago to people producing amazing
contemporary work.

I’ve never worked at having a specific style and sometimes I fear that’s a big detriment and leaves me too open to influence by what I see around me, but at the same time I think that living in an age when we can call up a million different images at a single click has been a huge boon.

KD: How far back does your interest in comics go? What got you into making them yourself?

CM: I’ve been interested in comics since I was in elementary school and have been making awful little comics since childhood.

In high school, I was lucky enough to get involved with a group of artists who published a trilogy of perfect-bound anthology comics. Once in university I continued on with making little books and sending them out into the world, this time with a collective called The Radar Friends (which included Jordyn as well).

Most of the comics that we made during that time were collaborative photocopied minicomic anthologies, as it made things easier when it came to amount of content and sharing printing costs and table fees at the Vancouver Comic Con.

KD: What sort of comics interest you? What sort of comics don’t?

CM: I’m interested in comics that have a story to tell, comics that challenge me, comics that are beautifully drawn, smart, funny, original, and comics that have a good heart.

I’ve never really gotten into superhero comics, and I enjoy reading comics in longer books or graphic novel format rather than in tiny chunks where the story is broken up into a million different issues. I’m generally willing to give most things a shot.

KD: Where do your ideas for comics typically come from?

CM: I’m a really scattered person when it comes to a ideas….I have many half-finished notebooks with jots here and there about stories that get abandoned halfway through.

I don’t think that I’m a very good writer and I find it extremely difficult to just come up with a coherent story, so a lot of my notes are just scribbling down an idea or an image that I think might be able to be twisted into something.

When I decided to go for it and make a comic I’ll look through the random ideas I’ve compiled and try to make something out of them.

KD: It seems that making Kate and Bradbury was a pretty big focus for you in 2009. What can you tell me about that animated short, and the inspiration behind it?

CM: I originally pitched Kate and Bradbury for the Atlantic Filmmaker’s Coop One Minute Film Scholarship (http://afcoop.ca/omf), which is a really great program where people who have never made a film before get a chance to learn all the steps involved in making a 16mm black and white film.

I came up with the original idea with my partner Dorian Lang, and we fleshed out a storyboard from there. The idea originally germinated in the new bicycle that I had purchased recently and the people who fly kites on Citadel Hill here in Halifax, which is up the street from our house. It was a definite learning experience, but I had a lot of fun with it and I’m happy how it turned out.

KD: Animation-wise, what are you planning to follow it up with?

CM: I’m currently working on a new film that I hope to finish sometime in 2010 about a girl who is obsessed with items she finds on the ground. It’s still in the fairly early stages and I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but I’m looking forward to tackling it. It will be about 5 minutes long and animated with watercolours and crayons, and if all goes according to plan I will shoot it on 35mm.

KD: What else are you presently working on, by way of minicomics/illustration projects/et cetera?

CM: I’ve gotten pretty distracted by theatre recently and haven’t been doing as much drawing as I’d like to, but I will probably be attending TCAF this year and I’d really like to make some new comics for that.

I’m in the midst of a whirlwind of projects during March, so I’ve decided I’m going to try and make a small comic every week and then focus on something bigger in April. I’m also slowly edging back into the groove by making some tiny watercolour illustrations based on old photos. There’s so many things that I want to be doing all at once – comics, animation, theatre, drawing, being involved in my community – that sometimes it’s a challenge to fit everything in. I sure enjoy trying, though!

For more about Colleen macIsaac, you can visit her website littlefoible.net or check out her Twitter feed. Below is her animated short kate and bradbury, linked from Vimeo.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Our Time in Eden, which is written entirely by Twist, is an adult-oriented tale of teenage innocence and naivety lost.

This week, we bring you the other side of the proverbial Our Time in Eden Coin; an interview with Ben Steeves, the artist collaborating with Gibson Twist on the  project.

But the fun doesn’t stop there! Steeves also writes and illustrates his own webcomic about a zombie-by-night superhero named (what else) Zom-Ben.

Zom-Ben, which also features colours by Manny Peters, tells the story of everyman comic illustrator Ben Benson.

Benson is given a mystical bracelet by the Egyptian God Anubis with the ability to transform him into a (relatively) invulnerable zombie. From there, he does what any other comic fan who came into possession of a superhuman ability would do: he suits up, and sets out to fight crime.

Zom-Ben is first a humorous webcomic, second a superhero story with a heavy emphasis on the relationships that hero has in his ‘civilian’ life, and (contrary to what you might assume) the fact that the main character is a zombie slides in as a distant third aspect to the comic.

Zom-Ben has been called corpsetacular, cadaverlicious, and pretty rad. (The last by me.)

But seriously. Both Zom-Ben and Our Time in Eden showcase Steeves’ talent as an extremely capable contemporary comic artist, each presenting a totally different side to his work.

Slam that down arrow key to see the interview with Ben below:

KD: Can you provide a brief insight into what got you into comics and doing comic art yourself?

BS: I always remember having a handful of comics around, from a really young age, probably belonging to my older brother. What got me into comics, though was when I started spending my weekly allowance on the early 90’s Marvel Universe and DC Universe trading cards.

Not only did seeing the cool  characters on the cards inspire me to find out more about them by buying the associated comics, but I’d also create my own characters, drawing them on lined paper, and writing the vital stats on the back. I think my first attempt at doing a full comic was in grade 5, and then my first completed one came in grade 7. I’ve been hooked ever since.

KD: This interview will mostly focus on Zom-Ben and Our Time in Eden, but for those not familiar with your other work, what else have you done pertaining to comics/webcomics?

BS: My first webcomic was called Apt. 24 and detailed the “true” events of living in an apartment with co-writer/artist Colin Turnbull. Sometime after that I started doing a photo-comic starring my action figure collection (because I’m an enormous dork) with Jordan Roherty, which we called Pulp Stiktion. I later started posting Colin and I’s zombie epic Evil Dawn that we’d started in late 1999 and eventually finished in 2005.

I’ve also done guest comics on Gibson Twist’s Pictures of You.

KD: When Gibson approached you for Our Time in Eden, what was it about the comic that made you decide it was something you would like to do?

BS: Gibson originally pitched both Eden and Pictures of You, (this was some time before he started it in its current incarnation on Smack Jeeves) and both were intriguing to me, because they were so different from anything I’d worked on up to that point.

I’d covered super-hero comics, an action/horror comic, and irreverent comedy strips, but Pictures and Eden were both very real, dramatic stories. I’d opted for Eden, citing that Pictures of You seemed very close to Gibson’s personal experiences, etc. and he’d probably pull it off better himself. “His baby”, I called it. Since then I’d always seen Eden as potentially a very important comic: very mature, very dramatic.

Though it features children for two full chapters, there’s nothing childish in its content. Our Time in Eden is hard proof that comics aren’t just for kids.

KD: If you were to pick a single aspect of the story that resonates most with you, what would you say that aspect would be?

BS: The overall theme of Our Time in Eden is the loss of innocence and the difference between what you think your future holds as a child and how things actually turn out.

The fact that I’m currently working at a store and doing comics for free on the Internet, as opposed to being a well-respected member of the professional comics industry at this point, should tell you how much this theme resonates with me.

KD: How do you approach illustrating Our Time in Eden differently from Zom-Ben?

BS: The style I use for both comics is essentially the same cartoony style. I always liked the juxtaposition of my cartoon style with Gibson’s dark writing. But with Eden, I try to keep it more believable by keeping the facial expressions and body language more subtle than the sometimes goofy and over-the-top ones in Zom-Ben.

Definitely I need to be in a different headspace to do each comic. I tend to listen to more moody, less up-beat music when working on Eden, whereas I usually skip to the more energetic stuff on my perpetual iTunes shuffle to do Zom-Ben. Although I feel I do my best work on Eden, it probably says something about my personality that I find it much harder to work on Eden with its more heavy/dark subject matter.

KD: Switching focus more to Zom-Ben now, what is it about zombies that captures your imagination?

BS: Zombies are the only movie monsters that actually get a bit of a scare out of me. With vampire or werewolf stories, they come in, cause some trouble, and by the end the problem is usually solved.

With zombies, though, the stories are usually far more apocalyptic and that’s why I love them: they’re so darn hard to beat! On top of that, zombies are US. They’re our families and friends, the kid who mows your lawn, the friendly guy who helps you take in your groceries.

No one’s gonna fight Grandma off until she’s already close enough to take a bite out them!

KD: With Zom-Ben, any traditional Zombie mythos in the comic seems to take backseat to both Ben’s escapades into super heroics and the relationship-building in his un-undead life. Was that a conscious decision you made about the comic early on, or is that just the way it evolved?

BS: This is absolutely intentional. While I wouldn’t say Zom-Ben is a traditional zombie he does have that infamous hunger.

It was briefly mentioned in one of the early chapters and in the out-of-continuity 24 Hour Comic I did, but it’s more something that will creep up throughout the story than something that’s right there in your face.

KD: Why a superhero zombie anyway? And moreover, to what degree is the character (zombie attributes aside) based on yourself?

BS: There are a lot of zombie stories out there and a lot of different takes on them and “zombie super-hero” just seems like something that’s untouched in general and in comics specifically.

Zom-Ben was actually created out of boredom. I wondered what I would be like as a super-hero what my powers would be, so I blended three things I love: super-heroes, zombies, and Egyptian mythology, and voila!

The power to turn his drawings into reality came from me finding a really strange pencil in real life that looked to be entirely made of metal. I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if it were mystical and could make my drawings come to life?”

The character is based on a past version of me. He’s very clueless and at the time of his creation I had been making a lot of stupid decisions that put me in some less than desirable situations. Though I can still be fairly absent minded Ben Benson represents that younger, “dumber” me.

KD: You had a recent poll on the Zom-Ben forums to determine who would be the next villain. You’ve also stated that you’d draw anyone who made a donation into the comic, and overall, it seems like having a dialogue with your fans is something that’s important to you.  How important do you feel it is to maintain that interactive element with the people reading your work on a regular basis?

BS: I love fan feedback and, moreover, I love being able to respond to their questions and comments on the spot in the way that only webcomicking allows. You might say I’m addicted to it. Having a dialogue with the people that appreciate my work is important to me because I can show them that I appreciate them as well.

Regrettably, putting donors into the comic became more of a chore than I’d thought, coming up with reasons for other people to be around when a good portion of a chapter is just two people talking alone in a room, etc. So, while it was fun to let the fans see themselves as I’d draw them and in a comic they like, I had to stop doing it.

There will be future polls for new villains, though. I started the Zom-Ben comic for me, to create the stories I wanted to see, but it’s the fans that keep me doing it. Without them I’d have given up on this comic a long time ago.

KD: Last, is there anything else you’re currently working on that you can share some info on?

BS: Aside from attempting to get paying work in the comics industry, there is an Evil Dawn prequel I’ve been developing with Gibson Twist that, as of now, is still on the back burner.

You can check out Zom-Ben for yourself at Zombenstrikes.com, and Our Time in Eden can be found here. For yet more Zom-Ben goodness, you can also head over to the official Twitter feed.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Tindall is no stranger to collaboration with Grecian. Though Proof predominantly features Riley Rossmo as the series artist, Tindall has himself done colours for the title, illustrated a Proof feature story, and he writes and draws his own regular backup stories (which can be found towards the end of each comic).

He answers his phone and asks me to hold while he turns off his background music – Judas Priest, because he says listening to heavy metal while he illustrates helps keep his mind from wandering. Something about the pacifying voice of Rob Halford.

Kelly has been illustrating since he was a just a kid living in a small town in Northern Saskatchewan. As he describes it, he had a knack for drawing early on, and “as soon as you have a discernible talent in a small town, everybody’s like, oh go be rich and famous so we can all say we knew you.”

He did, of course, pursue that talent – moving from Saskatchewan to Calgary to attend the Alberta College of Art and Design.

As I talk to Kelly now, he is living in Montreal, where he moved with his wife two years ago.

He answers my questions with an almost giddy enthusiasm, clearly an individual who is both an astute conversationalist and very eager to talk about something he is passionate about.

We talk about He-Man and TaleSpin, Snow Leopards and pint-size werewolves. And through it all, I find myself thinking, “you know, this guy can really talk.” And I mean that in a good way.

But see for yourself, the interview is below:

KD: What are the earliest things you can remember getting really into drawing?

KT: She-Ra villains. (laughs) When I was a kid we had what we called ‘farmer vision’, which was like three channels we could get on our television. My parents used to rent a lot of VHS, and they used to bring home a lot of He-Man and She-Ra.

She-Ra had the best villains. I didn’t have any of the toys, ’cause they were girl toys and no boy wants to play with girl toys, so instead I drew the villains and cut them out and played with them that way.

KD: Hordak was a way cooler looking villain than Skeletor.

KT: Yeah, he was just messed up. He had like a bat skull, and he was part vampire or something… But there was a bunch of them. There was like a scorpion girl, and there was a girl that had sunglasses and turned into a panther… It was rad, I love that stuff.

KD: After Art College, how did you go about pursuing a career in illustration?

KT: It was dumb luck, and just the right positioning more than anything. I don’t mind talking to people at all, so I just basically make it known that I’m an illustrator, I do the convention circuit, and I talk to a lot of people on the net. From there, the work just comes.

KD: Where did your involvement in comic art begin?

KT: I’ve always loved comics, ever since I was a little kid. Again, the small town thing; my parents’ friends ran kind of like a supermarket/convenience store, and when they used to return comics they’d rip the covers off and just send those back. So they’d end up with hundreds and hundreds of coverless comics in these big long boxes. They’d give me like four or five hundred a shot – old stuff like the origin of Galactus reprints, Alf comics, Justice Society, that sort of thing.

So I was interested in that from an early age, and I just started drawing from there. My parents also bought me a bunch of posters of different Batman stuff, and through that I got to know the difference between the Jim Aparo Batman, the Norm Breyfogle Batman, and the Neal Adams Batman… So that’s kind of where I discovered style too, actually.

KD: Moving into Archie Snow, the main recurring character you feature in your backup stories for Proof.

This was a character you originally created for a series of minicomics a few years back. Where did the idea for the character originally come from?

KT: My friend Mike had come up with a few characters that he just liked to draw for no reason, and I was at a point where I felt like I’d like to start writing some stuff myself. So I said, well, why don’t you let me write this character for you. He said okay, and I came up for this origin story and everything for the character – and he hated it, he absolutely hated it.

I was like, ‘this is pretty good though… do you mind if I do something with this?’ His response was, ‘yeah, whatever’.

So I took different interests I had, like anthropomorphic animals, weird mythology, sword-fighting, gun fighting – and I just mixed it all together, and Archie came out of it.

KD: How has Archie changed from what you originally conceived him as to what he appears as in Proof?

KT: In the beginning, I spent some time trying to figure out the animal that Archie was going to have the head of. I was originally going to give him the head of a Himalayan Bear, but I also wanted a big part of Archie’s origin to relate to flight – because he was originally a commercial pilot before he became an adventurer. Problem was, it was too much like TaleSpin. Kind of a Baloo the Bear as a pilot thing. So I was like okay, I gotta move away from this idea, and that’s how the Snow Leopard thing came about.

Snow Leopards are very noble, they’re predatory, mysterious, and on their own ninety percent of the time… and that just fit with Archie’s character.

KD: Do you have any overarching ideas for where you’d like to take Archie in the future?

KT: The thing about Archie is that he’s not really like a Hellboy or a Proof or anything like that because he hasn’t always been this weird creature.  He’s relatively new to the world of magical things. So he’s got this sky-high BS detector, and has no patience for any of it but it’s just become his lot in life.

I want to get into what kind of person he was before that, and how who he was affected his current attitudes.

KD: Outside of the Archie Snow stories, you’ve done some coloring for Proof, a few other backup stories for the title, and some work on a main Proof feature. How far back does your acquaintanceship with Riley Rossmo and Alex Grecian go?

KT: Well I met them both in jail… (laughs) But seriously. I went to ACAD and Riley was in the class a year behind me in the visual communication program. So that’s where I first met him, and I got to know him from there. Around the time that Proof was starting up, I had finished my first Archie Snow minicomics, and Riley took a look at them and said, ‘well you should work on Proof with us’.

This was months before Proof was picked up, before Image had even indicated an interest in the book.

KD: What can you tell me about Squeak, the graphic novel you’re currently working on with Alex Grecian?

KT: It’s a pretty simple premise: it’s the story of a mouse, a completely average Beatrix Potter kind of mouse, that gets bitten by a werewolf. So whenever it gets dark and the moon comes out, he turns into a two inch long werewolf.

We’re publishing through AiT/Planet Lar, and it’ll be out sometime this year. We’re getting pretty close to being finished, and I’m actually inking part of the last third of the book today. We’re hoping to get it into shops as soon as we can – within a few months would be great.

I really like working on it too, I mean it’s really expressive, there’s lots of energy, and lots of action. There’s almost no dialogue as the characters are all fairly realistic animals – snakes and owls, that sort of thing.

KD: To end the interview on a bit of a different note, if you weren’t illustrating or involved with comics at all, what other career could you see yourself doing?

KT: I actually helped run a theatre before – like an actual ‘theatre’ theatre, where people put on plays – when my wife and I were living together in Saskatoon. One of my first loves was the stage, and I did a fair share of acting when I was living in Saskatoon and when I was living in Calgary. I could see myself going back to doing something like that.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Just a brief update today, concerning Fabler interviews as well as (unrelated) the upcoming Convention season.

We featured our first interview of the year a couple of weeks back with a profile of Gibson Twist, creator of Pictures of You, but otherwise the blog’s been slow to ramp up with 2010 creator features.

The start of a new year marks a renewal of responsibilities, and – in some cases- incites people to refocus their efforts on their work, so the slow ramp up wasn’t unexpected.  Turns out some artists and writers have their priorities out of whack, and talking to a relatively obscure comics blog about their work sometimes comes secondary to actually doing it.

Can you even believe the audacity?

Neither can I, which is why we’re churning out a bunch of consecutive interviews the next few weeks in place of typical blog-opinion fare. Not because I think you don’t want to hear me digress on the Kirby lawsuits or tirade meanderingly about classic characters from the days of early Pulps.

More because you would probably rather hear about the interesting lives of those who regularly churn out the content that breathes life into the industry of making Comics.

Wish fulfilled, Fablerites. Fablerers?

Speaking of interviews, if you’re doing something cool in comics, we operate a non-classist blog – drop me an email at kevin (at) thefabler (dot) com, and I’ll do my best to get back to you about potentially showcasing YOUR work/ideas/art on our little corner of the WWW.

Moving along through February, we’re also growing ever-nearer to the beginning of Comic Convention season. (Which I suppose doesn’t really qualify as a season per se, as the largest Comic Cons in North America take place over roughly a six month span – but if you say ’something season’ is coming, it’s easier to get excited about it. Like how the mere mention of ‘wabbit season’ was enough to get Elmer Fudd all frothy at the mouth, or how the phrase ‘Hockey season’ seems to infect most Canadians with an excitedly aggressive demeanor, and a heightened thirst for beer.)

Among the more significant cons in the next few months are the Emerald City Comic Con (March 13-14) in Seattle, Mega Con in Orlando (March 12-14), Wizard World’s Toronto Comic Con (March 26-28), Wonder Con in San Francisco (April 2-4), and – the festival that I’m most excited for -  the Toronto Comic Art Festival (May 8-9).

To date, we’ve featured no less than nine of the exhibitors appearing at TCAF 2010 in the past year on the Fabler Blog. That, and the ridiculously awesome list of additional indie comic/webcomic talent, makes TCAF our kind of scene. Check out the full exhibitor list here.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention our own upcoming event here in Calgary, the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo in April (on the 24th and 25th). I will most definitely be present and accounted for both days of the festival myself, so if you’re going to be attending, hopefully I’ll see you there.

Rumor has it the elusive Bruno Stepphun, creator of the Fabler and brains behind Zensoft Studios, will also be around.

Regrettably, there are no pending Comic Cons in Boise, but I’ll keep you informed if that situation changes.

-Kevin de Vlaming