I mentioned on my LJ Shari and I were interviewed for a feature in a magazine. Well, I’m pretty sure the article is now out and about so here’s the raw version:

To go back a little, what made you choose drawing/comic drawing a medium to tell stories?

Fehed: I’m letting you answer this one first.

Shari: I chose to draw comic before I chose to tell stories, does that make sense? I’ve drawn comic long before I realized that it’s a medium meant to tell stories. I don’t think I know why, it’s just something I do, and I discover that I do it alright and I enjoy doing it, so I keep doing it. Kind of like reading. I don’t know why I wanted to read, but I do.

Fehed: For me, I used to write a lot of prose when I was younger and one day thought to myself, it would be cool if these stories were somehow portrayed visually. Shari gave me the chance to pursue this when she agreed to work with me on a few stories. I went from writing prose, to writing things in panel form, to finally writing stories as screenplays, which I found works best for both of us.

Do you think that some themes can only be negotiated via comics and/or graphic novels? What are themes/ideas that you like to explore?

Shari: Comic is a very broad medium and also very flexible, but I don’t think that there’s any story that can only be told in this medium, nor any story that wouldn’t be able to be told in comic form.

Fehed: We have a new book that just got released, titled ‘The Clarence Principle’ which is a perfect example of a story that works as a stand alone graphic novel, as opposed to a series of pamphlet comics. Not all stories work in small chunks. I’ve always had a taste for the darker elements in stories. A common theme both Shari and I share.

Shari: I like to draw story with a lot of action, or larger than life theme, the end of the world, that sort of thing. Mundane stories bore me haha

Do you, personally, distinguish between comics and graphic novels?

Fehed: I’ll let Shari tackle that one. She’s very passionate when it comes to ‘THAT’ question.

Shari: all these terminology confused me, personally, I did what I did, and whatever you wanted to call it is fine by me. Be it comic, manga, sequential art, graphic novels, I don’t give a damn.

Fehed: I agree. I used to look at things differently, but only in terms of the ‘length’ of content, not so much the content itself. At the end of the day, a comic is a comic. Graphic novel to me is just a way that lets me know it’s a big story and not a 20 pager.

If you wouldn’t be making comic books/graphic novels, how else would you share your vision of the world?

Shari: I wouldn’t.

Fehed: Shari is a one trick pony it seems haha but then, so am I. I don’t think I’d get anywhere with the stories I write without someone drawing them.

Do you work through a script before you start drawing? Please tell us a little about the process.

Fehed: It depends on the story. If it’s a story we’re both writing, we both tend to brainstorm ideas which I later clean up and attempt to put into script format, before running it past Shari to discuss rewrites. If it’s a story I myself am writing, I usually jump straight into the scripting process and poke Shari later to give me feedback on what she thinks of it so far. One thing I try not to take for granted is that, she’d never draw it unless she liked it. Drawing comics is tedious work and you have to love the story to put up with the stress of working on it.

Shari: Yes, Fehed will write the script and we will discuss it further, then I’ll draft, which is a way of saying that I do a very, very rough version of the whole comic, to see the flow and keep the page count under limit. This process might take a day or two or up to a week, depends on how many artist’s block I get. After that, we will discuss the draft and then I’ll sketch each page out in detail, discuss sketches, ink, discuss inks, then do the finishing touches, discuss it some more (you get the idea), have a whole lot of arguments, but in the end, we get something good that we both like.

Fehed: Yeah, take ‘The Healing’ for example. Due to page limit and deadlines, we had to cut the story short and we rewrote the end because of this. We had a big finale planned, but we had to compromise and re-script, redraft, re-sketch. Still, we’re really pleased with the end results.

For you, how important is the intention to entertain while making these comic book/graphic novels?

Fehed: It means everything and nothing!

Shari: haha – sorry, inside joke.

Fehed: Everything, because it’s the main reason I think that both of us got into comics. We want to entertain people. But also nothing, because we do it for ourselves. We want to tell a story that we enjoy telling, whether people like it or not. It’s a bit contradictory, but isn’t everything in life? The curse of being human.

Shari: I did it to entertain myself first, and if others find it entertaining, then cool, if not, well, that’s too bad.

Fehed: damn, your answer contradicts mine!

Shari: Haha We are quite different .

Fehed: yes.

In your reading and rendering of it, how do you see the moral universe of graphic novels changing over the years? In the sense, how has the sense of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘hero’ and ‘villian’ etc., change over time.

Shari: Is that a trick question? haha

Fehed: Sounds like one to me.

Shari: Morals are subjective. Good is who’s on your side and bad is who is not. I find the idea of hero and villain terribly, terribly simplified, and while super hero comics cling to that idea, I found myself enjoying a broader sense of good and evil that other kind of comics have to offer. Something that isn’t so black and white. People will still want their heroes and villains pre-identified for them and there will always be that kind of story, there isn’t and won’t be much change. But when you look elsewhere, there’s always been an alternative.

Fehed: I’d say we’re a perfect example of morals changing in comics. For one thing, like Shari said, comics are no longer black and white, in a moral sense and it’s all subjective. But, actually, let me disagree with you on one point. We all know life is complicated and, in my opinion, heroes and villains have changed today compared to say, comics from 40 years ago. One example is the birth of the anti-hero. Apart from that though, I agree with everything else Shari said.

Shari: Anti-hero or Angsty hero?

Fehed: Same thing! haha

Tell us about some of your influences. Things, people, spaces that inspire you and find way into your work.

Fehed: I adore Cinema. Movies have always been a huge visual inspiration to me. The cult classics, mostly. The movies that challenge traditional directing and screen-writing. I enjoy all sorts of movies in general, however. Other influences tend to be from the general music I listen to, comics I read, but none get me as fired up about creating a new comic as a good film does.

Shari: My influences are everywhere. What I see, what I read and what I hear, it could be a very random thing, like a picture of a kitten with bread on its head. I’m easily influenced to say the least. Although, I owe a lot to ‘80/’90 Japanese manga artists, and they will always be my main influences.

Do you feel like animating your work, like see it as movie?

Fehed: Yes!

Shari: yes yes yes and yes.

Fehed: Haha - I have daydreams of me and Shari working together on directing our own animated or live action feature. Storyboarding it, directing it, I really think if given the chance, we could create an awesome piece of film.

Shari, do you see yourself as a storyteller first or an artist first? Do you distinguish between the two?

Shari: I don’t distinguish between the two, no. Sometimes, I have a story to tell, sometimes, I draw for the sake of it.

Shari, please tell us about of the themes and styles that you like to explore when you draw.

Shari: Action, fight scenes, dark themes, gore, mutilations and pretty people. Not in any particular order. I love experimenting in various styles and I’m not committed to a specific one.

Fehed, how does a writer-artist relationship work for you, in a graphic novel? So much to say, so much already being said through the visuals, and so little space…

Fehed: Funny you should ask the question like that. Before I started working with Shari, I used to do the typical mistake that most, if not all, comic writers do. Write for the sake of writing without taking into account the art. Shari pointed out a lot of the narration I had in the early stages of my scripts weren’t needed at all. The art is already telling that part of the story. I started to tone down the excessive dialogue or narration for the sake of finding a balance between them and the artwork. It can be tough trying to find that balance. The same balance also translates over to my working relationship with Shari. It’s hard, we clash often, but we tried different working techniques and we now have a system that works well for the both of us. The fights are still there, but the work gets done!

And lastly, how do you imagine your readership. Do you feel you know them intimately? Sometimes, even more intimately than storytellers of prose?

Fehed: I think Shari has far more experience in that area than I do. She was a published manga-ka for years before I entered the scene.

Shari: I don’t really think about that. I don’t think about who would read my stories and who would like it. I like getting feedback, and like to hear how people perceive my works, but the only reader I know intimately is me. I don’t imagine them. I don’t think I would ever know them intimately, if at all.

Fehed: Actually, now that I think about it, because I’m always attending conventions with Sweatdrop Studios, a manga comic group I’m a part of, I do get to meet a few of our readers face to face. Not many mind you. Can’t say I know them intimately, but from what I’ve seen, it’s a mixed pot. Which is awesome! We seem to appeal to a varied crowd.

Thank you both very much.