Check Please
Ngozi Ukazu
You are credited as still having the most funded webcomic on Kickstarter ever. And what advice do you have for others who want to launch their own webcomics?
I would give 3 pieces of advice:
- Start your comic now! Don’t wait until you’re better! You have to start now. (Spoilers: Starting now is the only way to *get* better.)
- Start something short. Brush up on your storytelling and comic-making skills by telling a short story first–5, 10, 20 pages. After you finish this initial story, you can use that knowledge to launch a quality long-term webcomic.
- Start….lowering your standards? Perfectionism is an artist’s worst enemy, especially when they’re just starting out. “Lowering your standards” might sound counterintuitive, but the likelihood is, if you’re reading this, you have some sort of expectations for yourself. And those expectations are probably high. Dial that down for your first few chapters, be kind to yourself, and focus on developing the most important skill of all: the ability to finish a comic.
Check, Please centers around the game of hockey. If you could build a dream literary hockey team, what fictional characters would you put on it?
This is one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked! I’ll restrain myself to a simple starting lineup
- Peter Parker – Goalie : flexible, quirky, a bit of a loner–perfect for minding the net. Spider-sense will come in handy, I think.
- Toph Beifong – Defense: literally a brick wall. Also, her ability to sense vibrations would give her great ice awareness. But please Toph, stay out the penalty box.
- All Might – Defense: He might have to take shorter shifts, but his heavy hitting will be a smash.
- Captain Jack Aubrey (A) – Right wing: Jack Aubrey is virtually indestructible on water–so frozen water counts as well. And he’ll bring his team good luck!
- General Okoye (C) – Center: Okoye has a sharp eye and the mind of the hunter–she’ll be the one to expose a goalie’s weakness. She will also keep a cool head, even when her team is down.
- Lydia Bennet – Left wing: An utter disaster, she will be the teams wild card and enforcer
Our festival slogan is “Read Everything.” What book would you like to see on our Read Everything list for 2018?
- My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Kabi Nagata is an 18+ autobiographic graphic novel that ingeniously–whimsically– depicts depression and isolation. Dreary yet hopeful.And the art style is so cute and loose.
- Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian is the first in a 20 book series that is filled with a beautiful friendship, exciting battles, and an overwhelming amount of nautical happenings. These books came out in the ’70s but I’m recently I’m addicted.
- Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I just read this book this year! P&P is 100s of pages of 20-somethings flailing around, the social warfare of a ballroom dance, family drama, and romance. A roller coaster of sarcasm and miscommunication.