I know it’s been a while since we have had a Geek of the week, but we are back and to make up for that I give you our first couple to proudly have the title! I have been a fan of Onezumi’s work for years and not just because of her style and humor but, because of how she also gives back to the community of webcomic artists both locally, and online as well. Onezumi and her husband Harknell are people who firmly believe that a comic isn’t as good as it could be, without a healthy community supporting it. Harknell runs also runs awsom.org a website that gives away wordpress plugins, that he and his team of developers have developed free to webcomic artists, to help them put out the best product they could. They are currently just starting up The Webcomic central app service where they are helping to develop iPhone apps for webcomic artists free of charge. I got to sit down with Onezumi and Harknell in between panels at Philcon and they told me a bit about how not only do they keep producing a great comic week after week, but how they plan to keep trying to make the webcomic community better as well.
Onezumi, so tell me and our readers a bit about yourself and your webcomic.
Onezumi: I’ve been doing Stupid Insane Defenders Against Chaos Since 2003, but it really wasn’t the same comic, so technically this launched in I think 2007. The characters are based off of kind of Harknell and me. There is Lovecraft stuff, and there’s a parallel universe. Once I got into the comic a little further, I kind of missed the joke a day thing I use to do, so I launched My Annoying Life right underneath it. It’s kind of like a screwed up Dilbert in a Lovecraft universe. You know because everyone’s boss is Cthulhu I think. That pretty much what I do, that’s me.
I know you have been doing webcomics since 2003, what inspired you to start and what’s kept you going all these years?
Onezumi: Oh god that’s interesting. Well I have been drawing since I was 8 years old because you know, I was poor I had a pencil and a piece of paper, but I didn’t have a summer vacation. So I always played with the idea of doing art for a living, and everyone was like “your never going to go anywhere, you’re never going to do anything with it.” Given that I was poor and I had to get through college, I kind of gave up on it. I eventually got through college, surprisingly in a completely unrelated field. My brain got more educated and I started to see the world a little differently. Then one day a friend of mine, more like a frienemy actually, while we were watching anime said “you should do a comic like that Penny Arcade”, and I was like, “Ok”. This was probably because I always did draw funny little comics of people crapping in places, there was a lot of poop humor and craziness. So I was like all right I’ll start something.
So I got it in my mind I was going to do this professionally, because I went through college not knowing what my degree was going to lead to. My major was Women’s Studies so I could be a social worker and make under $30,000 a year. I really actually am drawn to the whole social work thing, because I really do like people, but I kind of needed to make more money than that because I lived in new jersey. So I ended up doing this and people started reading it, and I was like, “ok, this is cool” so I kept going.
I would be lying if I said it was a straight upward trajectory, and it was all fun. Because it’s kind of like, I envision the Behind the Music Special of Harknell and I, 10 years from now, and you know its like “this is where she sat in her room and gave up”. I would be lying if I didn’t say I gave up a few times, but that’s usually 5 minutes, and 5 minutes later I am like “gonna do it!” I think working with Harknell, who is a great outside perspective, and it’s the same thing when Harknell gives up on his stuff I am kind of like, “Well you know, you gotta keep going.” Its like it’s not an option to quit, because I want to get out of debt from college, and I want to do well, and ultimately I want to start art programs for people who are underprivileged. The whole thing is to give back to the community.
I go to these cons and I see these girls, also boys, but I identify with the girls more because I am one, but I do identify with the guys as well. These people look just like me 8 years ago, and I can’t just turn my back on that. I’m the kind of person that will sit there with them for five hours talking with them about their art even if they are clearly just starting and need to improve. I know what they need to hear about their work that’s honest, but also constructive so they take that and they can go somewhere with it because I know where they are coming from. I should bring my stuff to these cons from when I was fourteen, to show them this is what I did when I was that age.
When I was fourteen I went to the Pittsburgh Comic-con to meet Julie Bell, because she was a strong female artist I admired. A lot of the other people I showed my little kiddy portfolio to were kind of like yeah, whatever kid. You know, like cool but get lost. But when I went to show it to Julie, she sat with my portfolio for at least 10 minutes, it could have been longer but I left, I was so shy. But she’s looking through it and she’s telling me everything, and I remember like leaving there thinking maybe I can do this. My family was very skeptical, the same way when you say “I wanna be a rock star!” your moms like yeah, that is not going to happen.
My family is a bunch of realists and I think they are shocked today, because it did work out. But at the time they were like you need to go and be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a dentist. So my mother gave me this reinforcement, and I did give up doing art a few years later you know transitioning into college, but it never left me. I was still sketching during class. But that meeting with Julie bell was a pivotal moment, and I haven’t seen her since I started doing the con circuit. I would love to sit down and tell her what an effect she had on me when I was fourteen. Some people think I am only at a con to sell my stuff, but I rather not sell anything and sit down with people and do my job, and be the best person I can be to the people and give back what I got.
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