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Q: Why hamsters? A: Why not? I mean, yeah, cliché standards are that rodents are used for simple, light-hearted tiny kid stories. But, really, what about Nimn and stuff? Not that it matters. I chose hamsters because, frankly, the Hampster Dance owned my mind at the point I came up with the original story about the band and Darin, and I really really really wanted to show up Hamtaro and make it look even more pathetic and lame than everyone already knows it is. :) It really shouldn't matter that the cast is rodents. I wish everyone would quit whining about it. I can't continue on with this sentance without being blocked by school filters. Q: How long does it take you to make a comic? A: Depends. Flashbacks tend to seem to get done quicker, as shading is something I'm rather good at. Color, however, takes a while. In all truth, the amount of time it takes is getting longer all the time, as I get more and more into adding little details and improving my backgrounds. All in all, though, each page takes several hours. Q: How do you write your comic? A: From my head. Which is why I can't sleep at night. From there, it gets on a piece of paper, which is scaled, then edited and cleaned and stuff, usually in Fireworks. Yup. Q: Where do your characters come from? A: A few, like J and Sam, come from real life, but many are made up entirely. For the closest influence to Hiaté, I would say... Danielle at first, but she's turned into her own thing. It's hard to say. They say all of an artist's work shows a part of themself, so I suppose that's where most of these guys come from. Q: Where'd the idea of this comic come from? It's like Redwall isn't it!? A: I never read Redwall. Saw the cartoon a couple times. This comic came more from Hamtaro and the Hampster Dance, and DBZ. Most of those sources was, "I can do better than that..." And I like to think I do better than that at the moment, too. The comic's come a long way since then. Also, all of my stories seem to say something about prejudice... this one especially. Q: While you depict yourself as a hamster, which of the main races would you prefer to be/wish you were more like? A:Well, anyone who sees me outside of the comic knows I act more cattish. Sam probably acts more like a mouse than a hamster... more of a logic guy than an action dude, though he has his limits. Really, though, a hamster suits my fursona quite well in terms of a more accurate appearance, and the only cat you'll see in HP anytime soon is Bobo, and he ain't too bright. Q: Has the comic gone in the direction you find the best thus far? A: The comic is heading towards one goal, and the road curves and twists new ways all the time. I'm always working it to how I want it, and how I want it changes as I make new plans for the future. So, it's always as I find best, but how I find best tends to change... Q: When you originally started drawing The Misadventures of J'Aime & Sam, did you plan for it to develop into a story this complex? A: Gads, no. J&S was originally just going to be the two of them on a quick little side project to kill time while I pondered the real story. It ended up growing into Legend of the Rod, however, and now you notice I don't even differentiate between it and the original story, because they've grown so interwoven I can't. The Caravan and the Band interact regularly, and eventually both have the same goal, though different (yet still related) roles. Q: What are the origins of your name (in this case, this is refering to the name "Zaron X")? A: Some gnome whispered it in my ear? I dunno. My screenie came about from me always wanting to make these unique and odd names, and thus I have something nobody else really uses. Makes me happy. I guess there are other Zarons out there, but I am the X. After much thought, though, I'm forced to realize that perhaps this came about because of my grossly common name, "Sam Boyd." My first name is insanely common, and my last name ain't much better. So perhaps I was striving for something less known. My middle name's common, too. "James." Such common names for a nut like me... How'd that work out? Q: Are you aware of what "J'Aime" means in French? A: Let's just say that to say that you're the first to tell me would be a blatant lie. "I adore," "I love," etc. I get various little differentations, but it all means about the same thing. Honestly, the first person to tell me I think was J herself, so I'm well aware. :) Suits her quite well, too, as it's fairly hard to get her to blatantly hate you or something. I mean, for Pete's sake, she thinks I'm cool. I'm like, geeknoid. She claims to be a geeky person, too, tho, so... yeah this has gone on way longer than need be. Next? Q: OMG! WHY COMIC BLACK AND WHITE?!?!!!?!!one?! A: There's two possiblilities. One is that you're reading a flashback. The other is that I just didn't feel like coloring it. Flashbacks *always* have a black page back instead of the normal white space, so that way you can differentiate. Also, I've started giving newer flashbacks an amber tone for that aged paper look, and that sets them apart as well. Usually as a result flashbacks will have color bits while present day comics will have black and white or grayscaled everything, even sound effects. Q: Will you tell me what happens next / in the near/distant future? A: I have a lot of close friends I don't tell this stuff to. I tell maybe two or three people (probably two) what is going to happen in the future. One is my test subject for odd reactions, the other is my anti-cliché device whose memory serves him so poorly he couldn't tell you future plot points if he'd wanted. And even those two are in the dark about most of the less obvious outcomes. Suspense keeps you reading, friends. If you all knew what I was going to do every week, would you keep reading? Honestly, if I knew what I was doing every week, I probably wouldn't even write the thing. |