I caught up with the writer behind Least I Could Do and Looking for Group at this year’s Calgary Comic Expo, which was his third consecutive convention in a one month period.  He was sick as a dog, draped shoulder-to-shoulder in a LFG blanket, and running roughly 30% on cold medication and 70% on Red Bull. (At least as far as I was able to gauge.)

Needless to say, Ryan Sohmer is also a very motivated individual.

He was at his booth alongside long-time collaborator (artist on LFG and LICD, pictured at right) Lar deSouza the entirety of the weekend, greeting fans, doing signings, and promoting his latest book, Least I Could Do: Noir et Blanc.

In between expos he has been working on keeping the content steady on his webcomics, trying to work the kinks out of production on the long-awaited Looking for Group Movie, and adjusting to the double-whammy of opening a comic shop and becoming a new Dad in the space of under six months.

Oh yeah, and he has a new book out (Looking for Group Vol. 3) this month, plus another five Convention appearances lined up over the rest of the summer.

As you might expect, the most predominant item on Ryan’s mind these days is fatherhood. It’s clear that just talking about the subject still feels somewhat surreal to him.

“I never wanted kids,” Ryan says, “It’s crazy to think of being a father now, because back then I honestly did not see myself ever wanting to have children.”

His son, Caden, was born just this past February. The phrase Ryan chose to describe the change in life perspective he’s felt since then?

“Holy shit!”

According to the (usually articulate) webcomic writer, one of the best parts of being a Dad is being able to enjoy everything again for the first time.

“Like stupid things even,” he says, “Going outside for the first time, seeing the ocean for the first time… Getting to experience all of those first times again through someone else is ridiculously rewarding.”

Ryan has often said that Rayne Summers, the womanizing protagonist of Least I Could Do, is loosely based on an earlier-in-life version of Sohmer himself. It makes sense to wonder if Rayne might one day follow in Ryan’s example and have a cartoon kid of his own.

“I could see Rayne being a father figure to a few people,” says Sohmer,  “but he will never have a child. It won’t work. I did a storyline a little while ago where Noel and his wife are trying to have a kid, so I’m going to use Noel to put my own experiences in there. There’s so much humor that happens when you have a kid, and I’d love to get that into the strip  – but doing it with Rayne would just be a cop-out.”

I mentioned that Ryan also recently opened his own comic shop. Sohmer is the owner of The 4th Wall, a Montreal-based comic shop that opened for business in October of last year.

“For the first two months,” he says, “I was in there every single day. I chose the inventory, and I did what was needed to get it all going.”

Being the ridiculously busy person that he is, Ryan hired Jeff Moss, a friend of his from Toronto, to come in and help manage the store.  Since Moss took over with most of the day-to-day business around the shop, Sohmer admits his in-store duties have somewhat dwindled.

“These days, I don’t do shit,” Ryan says with a laugh, “I pretty much just go in there on Wednesdays for new comic book day to read all the new titles. Jeff’s done a terrific job.”

When asked what the biggest challenge has been so far with owning his own comic book shop, Ryan has a one-word answer:

“Diamond.”

Referring of course to Diamond Comics Distribution, the primary (read: exclusive) distributor for comic book retailers, Sohmer has this to say:

“Any other business in the world, if you order something, you get it. If something has a ship date of X, you get it at X.  Not with Diamond. By the same token, I understand that it’s not always just Diamond – it’s often one of the publishers connected to Diamond being late with a shipment. But if Marvel or DC is late with a title and a fan comes in for that title, they’re not going to blame the unseen publisher or distributor, they’re going to be frustrated with their experience at the shop.”

Much love, Diamond Comics. Much love.

Despite the two new major additions to his life, Sohmer is still dedicated to keeping updates on Least I Could Do and Looking for Group regular and well-written.

Sohmer has been writing Least I Could Do for over seven years now, with Lar de Souza performing all artistic duties on the strip for the past five. The two have also worked together on Looking for Group, a fantasy-themed webcomic featuring the adventures of (among other things) a sadistic undead warlock and a naive elven hunter, since its inception in November of 2006.

“We’ve been doing this so long together that we each usually know what the other is thinking,” says Ryan of his working relationship with Lar, “When we first started it was: I would write a script, he would do a sketch for it and send it back to me, I would make my notes and sent it to him to make the changes… it would go back and forth like four or five times. Now, I send him a script, he sends me the finished version and it’s done. ”

We featured a profile on Lar here on the Fabler Blog just about a year ago where I asked Mr. deSouza to describe his relationship with Ryan Sohmer. His exact words were that it’s “kind of an internet romance”.

“He pretty much nailed it with that description,” says Ryan, “In any other world I would say that Lar and I wouldn’t be friends. We’re totally different people, with different backgrounds, different experiences and attitudes towards things… but for the last ten years, he’s been one of my closest friends. We’re kind of like the odd couple. I tell my wife all the time, ‘I love you baby, but Lar’s my soulmate.’”"

They certainly do work well together, as any fan of their webcomics could attest. So well, in fact, do the ideas of Sohmer mix with the artistic talents of deSouza that Lar offered to redraw the original 127 strips of Least I Could Do (originally done by Trevor Adams).

“When I was working back then seven years ago with Trevor, ” says Ryan, we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing. So they were all shitty DPI and we couldn’t print or otherwise do anything with them. One day I was talking about this with Lar and he just said, ‘I’m gonna redraw them!’  I was like, ‘Seriously? Alright!’ So we did the whole thing and I was incredibly happy with what came out. ”

What came out was Least I Could Do: Blanc et Noir, the latest book released through Blind Ferret Entertainment.  Ryan is nothing if not humble about seeing the origins for LICD finally in print.

“I’m embarrassed of the first 120-odd strips,” he says, “I think they are written poorly. But it is where my writing came from, and it’s not right to ignore what fans have, for a while now, wanted in book form.”

This brings us just about to the end of my conversation with Ryan Sohmer. There is one more thing, however, that I had to ask about – the status of the now almost mythical ‘forthcoming Looking for Group movie’.

Several years back, Ryan and Lar announced that they were developing an animated feature film based on the characters in LFG. Last year when I asked Lar about it, he said they had just decided on a production studio. So what’s the official word now?

According to Ryan:

“We have a production company. The financing is all in. It’s just legal wrangling now, and the Canadian film market is a pain in the ass. It takes time, and there’s so much red tape… I never thought it would take this long. I wish I had just done it on a small budget four years ago, but I didn’t. My mistake. But, it is coming!”

So, Looking for Group fans take heart. One day there shall indeed be a Fwoosh so grand, that it cannot be contained in a mere web-based comic strip.

As for any future projects from Ryan Sohmer, he did rather cryptically mention that we can expect an announcement in the coming weeks. He wouldn’t go into details, but did say it involves him writing for something that is neither LICD nor LFG.

For more from Ryan, you can follow him on Twitter, or visit the official Least I Could Do and Looking For Group websites.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Appearing in the video: Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, Fiona Staples of North 40, Vicious Ambitious, The Anthology Project, Jay Korim, artist of The Sundry Seven, and – of course – the team behind the Fabler. Also featuring cameos from Ryan Sohmer, Richard the Warlock, and Scarecrow.

Dig it:

Whether you were here to witness the legions of Vulcan-ear adorned trekkies swarm for autographs from Leonard “I am not Spock” Nimoy, or whether the combined starpower of Alex from A Clockwork Orange, that surly guy from Dollhouse, and the always creepy “Candyman” Tony Todd wasn’t quite enough to entice you out…

For better or for worse, the Roundup Centre has bid farewell to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo for another year.

Let me tell you, it was a helluva time.

I don’t have access to the numbers, but this year’s expo was definitely on par with last year for traffic. Which is to say, at peak periods in the afternoon (particularly on Saturday) the expo was shoulder to shoulder in the main lanes and throughout Artist Alley.

An ample distribution of cosplaying con keensters further contributed to the crowd problem. Ready for more alliteration? The costumed con-goers caused significant clots in crowd traffic, as camera-wielding expo fans lined up to snap away.

Regarding the popular costumes this year – unsurprisingly, several Deadpools were present. I also counted four Zatanna’s over the weekend, perhaps curiously.

And, as I mentioned before, the Trekkies were out in full force. If the combined presence of Leonard Nimoy and Brent Spiner (pallid-faced android Data) weren’t enough on their own, the hype surrounding Nimoy’s pre-con visit to the small Alberta town of Vulcan contributed the final sparks necessary to reignite Star Trek craziness here in Calgary.

The worst part of this was the children. Dorked-out Dads riding the waves of sci-fi nostalgia from their glory days threw pointy ears on their (usually bespectacled) spawn, fitted them with oversized Halloween Star Trek shirts, and marched them around like beacons of hope for a next Next Generation.

But I’m detracting now from the coolness of some of the more inspired costumes from over the weekend. Here’s a brief sampling of some of the cosplay from this year’s expo:

Panel-wise, Saturday was really the big day for prominent comic creators/authors/artists present. Chris Claremont proved himself as articulate a speaker as he is a writer of comics, sharing some genuinely insightful kernels of wisdom at the Writing for Comics panel as well as the X-Men Q & A. Fans hoping to attend either the Leonard Nimoy or Billy Dee Williams panels were greeted with massive lineups, with the former boasting a lineup that stretched around the exterior of the con, back into the main hall and halfway through the room.

Much of Sunday I was personally occupied with taking video footage and doing the whole interview thing, but I heard the Boom! Studios and Top Cow panels were pretty thoroughly lively. The one panel I actually made it to was an Iron Man spotlight featuring several Marvel Artists as well as a concept artist on the Iron Man movies, John Giang. After ten minutes of anxiously awaiting the presentation in our seats, we were informed that Giang has mysteriously vanished from the Con altogether.

Whether he was abducted by a jet black minivan in the harsh afternoon (pre-rain) sunlight, or whether he simply ate too much of the Coco Brooks’ pepperoni pizza (who could blame him, really), this meant my Sunday was effectively panel-less.

But! No big loss, as I had the pleasure to chat with a few past Fabler interviewees in person, including (but not limited to):

The super-friendly and fantastically talented Eric Vedder, of Udon Comics and now also Transmission X.

New Reliable Press‘ Simon Roy (pictured at left), author of the Shuster Award-Nominated graphic novel Jan’s Atomic Heart.

…And Lar deSouza, webcomic artist on both Looking for Group and Least I Could Do. He’s pictured here with a convincingly costumed Richard, the sadistic warlock and fan favorite character from Looking for Group.

On the topic of Lar, I had the opportunity to interview his creative counterpart writer Ryan Sohmer at the Con. Stay tuned to the Fabler Blog in the coming weeks to see how it turned out. Ryan appeared to be verging on deathly ill when I chatted with him, but, as he confided in me, the sheer power of Red Bull sustained his wits throughout the Expo.

As for the Fabler, we had our own corner booth which we shared with parent company Zensoft Studios.

The artist you see at front is Jay Korim, penciller on the soon-to-be-launched Fabler exclusive webcomic, the Sundry 7. The Fabler team was on hand distributing freshly printed copies of issue # 0 of the Sundry 7 free of charge to anyone who stopped by the booth.

We met a lot of friendly faces curious as to what the Fabler’s all about, and had the pleasure of chatting with some interesting creative talent that had their own thoughts to share about what we’re aiming to accomplish with the site.

We also gave away some nifty prize packs, including several PS3’s and a bunch of copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

As you can tell from the above photo, the air was positively thick with excitement as the winners were drawn. Thick, I tell you.

I mentioned before that Sunday included, in part, some serious video-taking. We shot a bunch of footage with a trusty handy cam that hopefully we’ll get to show you here on the Fabler Blog soon. Among those featured in our video segment are Eisner-nominated artist Fiona Staples, Dinosaur Comics’ author Ryan North, and a few other talents you’ll just have to wait and see. Provided our trusty (read: budget) handycam came through for us.

On a final note, I leave you with this inspiring image of Vince Smith of the Calgary comic collective Vicious Ambitious (formerly of Team Zissou).

If that doesn’t get your short shorts bunched up in enthusiasm, I don’t know what will.

For more photos from the con, browse over to our Flickr page.

Did I purposely avoid mention of Twilight at the Con altogether? Yes I did.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

The gladiator arena of a shopping event known as Black Friday has also come to pass, marking another herald of the soon-to-be-frantic X-mas buying season.

If you’re like me and you don’t start buying your holiday gifts in June, there’s a good chance you’re still scratching your head over what to buy your rolling crew. That’s a crew that you roll with. Like friends, only with more rep. Nevermind.

Anyway, point is, if you have some presents left to buy for individuals even mildly interested in comics – don’t sweat it! The Fabler is here to help.

Presented for your X-mas shopping convenience, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some easily recommendable titles and miscellany, complete with links to their respective websites for online ordering.

I’ve arbitrarily chosen five categories to organize the following suggestions within, and – for bonus convenience – alliterated each of the category titles.

Canadian Comic Holiday Shopping Ideas

Humour

Hark! A Vagrant: Never Learn Anything from History

It is regularly unanimously agreed upon that Kate Beaton is hilarious. Her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, which irreverently pokes fun at great moments (and people) in history, is validly difficult to read without chuckling. Try it, I dare you. Buying this collection of some of Kate’s best strips for someone as an introduction to her work has to be among the best things you could do for a person (providing they have any sense of humor at all).

Bear Nuts: Volume 1

Alison Acton writes a funny webcomic about a group of cute cartoon bears that live together in the zoo. Only the bears have personality disorders. Some have addictions, some dabble in sadomasochism, and still others regularly self-medicate. Oh, and there are actually bears named Gay Bear, Crack Bear, and Tanked Bear. I guarantee you know someone who will find Acton’s perverse imaginings a riot.

Least I Could Do: I Am Not a Credible Source

Ryan Sohmer and Lar de Souza are known for not one, but two famous webcomics. WoW fans might know them best for Looking for Group,  but Least I Could Do has to be their most consistently funny collaborative work. Whether you have a self-aware narcissist on your x-mas list that you’d like to spitefully mock, or if you just know someone who likes sex  jokes often embedded with pop cultural commentary, this collection of LICD’s sixth year of strips is a no-brainer.

Horror/Sci-Fi

Jan’s Atomic Heart

Robots, revolutionaries, and conspiracy plots abound in this future thriller set in Germany. Artist/writer Simon Roy might be new to comics, but his debut effort is a radtastic romp through an impressively fleshed-out alternate universe.  You don’t have to think robot terrorists plot are sweet to be able to appreciate receiving this book as a gift, but it probably helps.

The Nobody

Jeff Lemire appears twice on this list, and for good reason. The Nobody, a modern retelling of Orson Welles’ the Invisible Man, is a contemporary work of genius. Both poignant and faithful in tone to the original, the Nobody successfully transplants the mythos created by Welles to modern small town North America. With art perfectly matched to the book’s somber tone of isolation, the Nobody would make a swell gift for anyone with a love for classic thrillers, small town mysteries, or David Lynch films.

Heartfelt

The Complete Essex County

The second Lemire title that I mentioned, this trilogy collects all of Jeff’s individual Essex County tales (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse) into one indispensable volume. Jeff has a talent for using his imagery an artfully sparse dialogue to tap into some of the most powerful emotions of the human experience; loss, loneliness, and ultimately, the sense of unspoken kinship that universally keeps families together.  I highly recommend this book for pretty well anyone, though hockey fans or individuals who grew up in rural surroundings might get a little something extra out of it.

True Loves (Vol. 2)

Jason Turner, together with his wife Manien Bothma, conspired to create the first volume of True Loves in 2006.  What resulted was an intriguing, genuine look at the beginnings of a relationship between two young residents of Vancouver, BC. Funny at times, while other times introspective and thoughtful, True Loves highlighted the ups and downs of an honest romance out on Canada’s West Coast. They released the second volume this past year, exploring the trials of the pair from the first volume as they endure the very real trials of a long-term relationship once the ‘puppy love’ phase has long since passed. Just a few panels of this comic are all it takes to be hooked. Also check out Turner’s website for samples of the fantastic art.

Hip titles for younger readers

Emiko Superstar

Written by Mariko Tamaki (of the provocatively well-worded graphic novel Skim) and illustrated by Steve Rolston, Emiko Superstar takes on teenage identity transition and self-discovery with a fresh sense of realism rarely present in young adult fiction. I don’t mean this book is filled with sex, drugs, and violence, for those reading into my previous statement – just that it doesn’t reek of the same dishonesty you might see in, say, a coming-of-age film starring some former mouseketeer (or something along those lines). More importantly though, Emiko Superstar really is a fun read.

Jellaby: Monster in the City

The second Jellaby book by Kean Soo is probably best bought together alongside the first, as Soo originally intended them to be a single, 300 page story. This Shuster Award-winning-story spins the tale of Portia, a ten year old girl who just recently moved to a new school, and her friendship with the titular character – a six foot tall purple monster named Jellaby. The story is undeniably charming, the artwork distinctive and eye-catching; really, what Jellaby represents is an instant children’s classic.

Hey, it’s a miscellaneous category!

Overqualified

The least directly comic-related item on my gift suggestion list, Overqualified qualifies as a great gift idea for fans of the webcomic A Softer World. Joey Comeau, who writes ASW, penned this collection of cringe-inducing cover letters as a project that originally started with several fake cover letters he actually made and mailed out. Through a series of these cover letters, Overqualified tells a story of a protagonist rife with human flaws as he candidly spills his guts out to strangers in desperate bids for employment.  Fans of A Softer World will immediately recognize Joey’s trademark dark witticism present in the letters.

Topatoco’s Collection of Holiday Greeting Cards

While Topatoco is an international purveyor of webcomic-related goodies and not a dedicated source of Canadian content, I would be remiss not to point out the excellent selection of Holiday Greeting Cards they have available for order. Be sure to check out card designs by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics and Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant.

Abominable Charles Christopher Signed Prints

Karl Kerschl’s epic weekly webcomic has earned him a healthy helping of accolades for its skilful narration and beautiful art. While technically this isn’t something exclusively released in 2009, you can place orders for recent strips to be printed, signed, and delivered for a very reasonable price.  Who wouldn’t love an artfully illustrated print of the large, furry, loveable (and easily confused) Charles Christopher?

Being able to love your job is an important thing to Lar deSouza, artist of the popular webcomics Looking for Group and Least I Could Do.

DeSouza, who has been drawing professionally for over twenty years, (minus a break in the nineties when he took time off to raise his kids) found his passion for illustrating early. His goal out of high school was to find a program that would teach him to draw “anything, anytime, at the drop of a hat”. Consequently, he wound up going to Sheridan College in Ontario for illustration, finding that it fit the bill perfectly.

Since then, he built a career out of illustration, culminating in the past four years of steady collaboration with writer Ryan Sohmer on the aforementioned webcomics.

Says deSouza with a laugh; “They’re a lot of fun to work on, and as long as people are reading them we don’t have to get real jobs.”

A self-proclaimed ‘illustrator who specializes in cartoon caricature’, deSouza has earned ample praise for both. Last year, he and Sohmer won the Shuster Award for Best Webcomic Creative Team. In addition, he’s won numerous awards for his caricature work – including several from the National Caricaturist Network.

“My teachers at Sheridan didn’t care for cartoon or caricature work, so that was something I did for myself for fun,” says deSouza of his love affair with caricature, “then it was a long while later that someone said to me, ‘you know, people actually pay for this’.”

Well known caricature artists have gone a long way towards influencing the overall aesthetic  of deSouza’s style.

“I still remember seeing my first Al Hirschfeld (the great 20th century caricturist) in a book in the library. It was a broadway illustration of the Bernstein brothers or something, I can’t remember now exactly who they were. What I remember most was the curl, the line weight … I’m a real line junkie, for that reason. ”

Another influence on deSouza’s work comes, perhaps surprisingly, from  Jim Henson’s original Sesame Street Muppets. DeSouza drew inspiration not so much from the character designs themselves, but in the humour the Muppets were able to convey as they moved and interacted with each other.

“You’re a sponge as a kid – I just absorbed everything. The classic WB’s with Fritz Freling, Chuck Jones, and McKinson, Tex Avery, Beany and Cecil. Beany and Cecil’s the first cartoon I remember ever seeing. They’re all in there, and it’s impossible to say ‘this was my leader, this was my biggest inspiration’.”

These influences all played heavily into his later work in webcomics, where he would apply his artistic abilities towards actualizing the ideas of his friend and creative partner Ryan Sohmer.

DeSouza describes his longstanding friendship with Looking for Group co-creator  Sohmer as “kind of an internet romance”.

“Before we did Least I Could Do, he approached me via internet for another comic idea he had at the time called In Other News. He found me on the International Society of Caricature Art website, and emailed me a very professional contact letter with references to his entire body of work at the time. I got to read two or three years of this strangers work, which not only demonstrated a solid work ethic but also a sense of humor that I could really get behind and share.”

The duo made several attempts at syndication with In Other News, which was single-panel editorial style comic with a by line about some relevant happening the entertainment world, but it just never took off. Eventually the project was put on hiatus, conveniently around the same time that Chad Porter decided to stop illustrating Least I Could Do. Porter, the second artist to illustrate LICD after Trevor Adams, had been working on the daily webcomic with Sohmers for two years.

DeSouza, who was a long-time fan of Least I Could Do, didn’t want to let the opportunity slide to jump into another ongoing project with Sohmers.

“By this time I had been working with Ryan for three years,” says deSouza, “and he wound up becoming one of the best friends I’ve ever had. We’ve meshed so well in terms of comic sensibilities and timing, and it’s such a comfortable fit the way that we can challenge each other.”

Providing new challenges for each other is an important aspect of the pair’s working relationship, according to deSouza.  He explains that they continue to motivate each other by setting the bar higher and higher, each bringing out the best in the other.

Though this technique undoubtedly shows in the quality of their work, it does sometimes have its setbacks.

“We do butt heads from time to time,” admits deSouza, “but it always comes with a sense of, ‘we’re going to communicate through this because what we’re doing together is better than what we can do on our own’. Our friendship and work relationship is just too valuable to risk over a miscommunication in an  email.  Really, it’s a wonderful circumstance, and I’m very proud to be Ryan’s friend.”

Least I Could Do stars Rayne Summers, a self-styled Don Juan type with a superiority complex and a flair for pop culture. The strip chronicles his adventures in sexual promiscuity and the bizarre circumstances he finds himself in on an almost day-to-day basis. Needless to say, LICD is not geared towards children – but those demographics that do get the humour will find Rayne’s simple-minded narcissistic antics utterly hilarious. If you don’t, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that you probably don’t have any sense of humor at all.

DeSouza and Sohmer continued producing six Least I Could Do comics a week for three years, releasing one for every day of the week excepting Sunday. Then in 2008, they introduced a Sunday strip called “Least I Could Do Beginnings”, which is a Calvin and Hobbes-esque look at Rayne’s childhood, done in a Sunday newspaper funnies format.

“Ryan had been trying to get me to do a Sunday comic for years now,” says deSouza, “I’ve been resistant just because I thought I should have a day off. He kept saying, ‘just hear me out, let me tell you the idea’, and I would tell him, ‘no, I don’t want to hear the idea!’ Then he told me, and it was, ‘damn! I love the idea.’”

A collected edition of the first 30 LICD Beginnings strips was released June 15 in hardcover format, and is currently available in limited supply over at the Least I Could Do store.

Of course, Least I Could Do isn’t the only well-known webcomic that deSouza and Sohmer collaborate on. The two co-created Looking For Group in 2006 as a fantasy-themed twice-a-week strip with characters based on the playable races in World of Warcraft.

The humor strip, which features characters as diverse as a sociopathic undead warlock named Richard, a naively conscientious Elf, and an unbearably cute bunny with an interesting secret, has earned them massive attention through the WoW and Stratics communities . That being said, Looking For Group can appeal to anyone -its unique blend of quirky, fantasy humor and compellingly epic plot arcs makes for a genuinely engaging read.

“The day to day dialogue is all Ryan, and I’m more involved in the broader long-term planning,” says deSouza, “Then I also have a very broad control over the visuals. So things I do with his suggestions in the script will often redefine his original ideas. The bunny, for example, was originally a throw-away. But I liked the bunny, so I kept drawing the bunny – being carried around with someone, or being in the background. Then when we needed a particular development to happen  later, we thought, ‘let’s use the bunny! It’s perfect!”

Looking For Group is published on Mondays and Thursdays, which gives deSouza just enough time to put together the extremely colorful, full page strips in between his work on Least I Could Do. According to deSouza, while LICD takes him 2-3 hours per strip, and LICD Beginnings takes around 4, Looking For Group usually takes from 8-12 hours to do one comic, spread out over a few days.

When asked if he ever played World of Warcraft himself, deSouza enjoys a hearty laugh.

“I sucked at Pong. That’s how old I am. I’ve never been good at videogames, so I never got into WoW. I’m an old school D&Der, that’s where my gaming inspiration comes from.”

For the past few years, fans of LFG have been anxiously waiting for news of the release of another project that deSouza and Sohmer have said is in the works – an animated Looking For Group feature film. The two have been actively working on it for some time now, even going so far as to release samples of the animation on YouTube. One of those, an extended musical number by the ethically-challenged warlock Richard, has hit over four million views.

“What I can tell you is, we didn’t think it would still be in the works at this point. We thought a couple years would be enough to really see it underway, but it was a much bigger dream than either of us anticipated. We had animators working for us, and tried to do the in-house quality control ourselves, but in the end we just couldn’t do it on our own as we had hoped.”

They have since found a Canadian production company to partner with on the effort, though at this point deSouza can’t mention any names. As a result of the project changing hands, deSouza says the new window on the release is another two to three years.

DeSouza and Sohmer will remain the co-art directors over the film, with the former also assuming main storyboarding duties.

At this point they are reluctant to give any hints about what to expect in the movie, though deSouza has said that Slaughter Your World will not be in the final product.

“It will still be a musical, with I think 7 to 9 musical numbers in the movie,” says deSouza, “I can also say it won’t all be parody, and while some of the story elements will be old territory to regular readers, there will definitely be some new stuff as well.”

Going forward, deSouza and Sohmer have been nominated again in this year’s Shuster Awards under the Webcomic category.  This year, they share the honor with such talent as Karl Kerschl (the Abominable Charles Christopher),  Michael Cho (Papercut), Kathryn and Stuart Immonen (Moving Pictures), and Ramon K. Perez (Kukuburi/Butternut Squash).

“I said to Ramon Perez last year, if volume counts for anything we’ve got this covered,” deSouza laughs, “I mean I would love to pull it off again – It’s a terrific honor, and to be honest ,the ego stroke makes me feel giddy like a schoolgirl. But we’re in great company here, and if we don’t get it, it’ll be because we lost to some great talent. We really are competing against the cream of the crop this year.”

For more from deSouza, he keeps a blog, an active twitter stream, and hosts a weekly Ustream feed where he fields questions from viewers and works on illustrations and caricatures live.