Web comics have presented a new platform for many comic artists looking for an avenue to express themselves. Whether or not they see the Internet as a place of serious business and opportunity, or just want to use it to communicate and share their stories with friends near and far, you cannot deny that many of these web comics are great as a quick read, or a nice story on-the-go. I met Fishball (not her real name) in real life during last year’s Illustration Arts Festival. Putting aside the fact that the Tiger already knew her personally, we were booth neighbours during the event. Previously, I had only seen snippets of her work turning up on my Facebook feed, but I can now say that my heart jumps with that bit of excitement whenever I see a LINE WebToon notification for her web comic, My Giant Nerd Boyfriend. Here’s a glimpse into what she had to say when we met: Congratulations on hitting over 100 strips on WebToons! How does it feel producing the comic strips now as opposed to when you first started with this series? Thank you! When I started drawing My Giant Nerd Boyfriend (MGNB) strips, I drew them solely at my own pace, though I tried to update as frequently as possible (which was once per week). Now I have to churn out three entries per week, which is quite daunting at times! And has your process changed so far? Quite drastically, I would say! I used to draw whenever a particularly funny idea came to me, but nowadays, I jot down any ideas that comes to mind in a sketchbook that I bring everywhere, so that whenever I'm short on ideas, I could refer to them for inspiration. To date, we’ve seen strips that depict your day-to-day lives, a particular event, character “backstories” (like when you have an entire strip dedicated to introducing us to your brother or mother), how did you end up managing these strips and requests? I would say instead of just solely boyfriend-girlfriend interactions in my strips, readers would like a small break from couple strips and have something different for a change. Since my comic strips focus on relationships in general, I think these odd few strips of my brother and my mom (and friends too!) offer something different for readers to relate to, and I'm glad that they enjoy them as much as my usual couple strips! Special occasions, requests, and events could also spice up the strips a little, because let's face it, if MGNB is completely about me and my boyfriend doing couple things together, it's going to get boring real fast. And which kind of stories are your favourite to tell? These slice-of-life strips are my favorite type of stories to tell! Although I would love to try a different genre some time :) How have your readers been to you? I’m sure there have been a crazy variety of them. Oh yes they do come in all shapes and sizes! They have been really kind to me, not to mention very enthusiastic! Sometimes they even gave me ideas for my strips, which I am really grateful for. That being said, I know both you and your boyfriend have been asked the craziest questions at events, what has been the weirdest question so far? "Are your boobs really that sharp?" - GUYS! It's just my way of depicting my lack of boobs, really! Okay, many of us know the story behind how the strips came about, but I think many of us would really want to know - how many outtakes were/are there? Plenty! Sometimes I could hit a specific tone in my strips quite easily, at other times I struggle to convey what I really want on paper... which results into a lot of different takes of a single panel. Sometimes I scrap the entire idea and start a new strip because I don't know how to properly conclude a strip. It could take me from four hours to finish up a strip, to a day just mulling on the execution/conclusion of a particular scene. Any tips to give to people who are on WebToons or considering posting their work on WebToons? DO IT. WORRY LATER. Also once you have fans, do listen to what they have to say about your work! And finally, I think some of us will be interested in this - What is the status of the Pikachu t-shirts in your closet? They are steadily growing in numbers, you can be sure of that :D # A height difference of 30cm and above might seem adorable to some, but it usually causes a lot of minor inconveniences. Follow Fishball as she navigates the Malaysian life with her 199cm-tall, geeky boyfriend. Fishball is a freelance artist based in Malaysia. She lives with her (literally) huge boyfriend, and really likes her banana leaf rice drowned in a pool of dahl. You can check out her comic, "My Giant Nerd Boyfriend", on her WebToons page. Once again, I hope you've enjoyed this interview. Stay tuned for more features and indie works coming your way!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
StoriesMy adventures with in urban speculative fiction. Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|