The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

November 23, 2009

Interview with that hilarious guy, Ben Bourbon, creator of Devilbear!!

(Click on the images to visit the site!)

Here's a hilarious comic with a fun and totally original premise. Hear more about what goes on behind the scenes with its creator, Ben! Have a great time checking it out... (Some content is not exactly family and kid appropriate... :) ) Enjoy the interview.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Firstly - What got you started on this hugely original and very funny concept?

BEN: It was an idea that had been growing in my mind for a few years and I knew that I really needed to do something with it. I ultimately decided to independently publish a couple of comic books to just get the idea out there. During the process of creating that first story, though, I discovered that there is this whole web comic community and I thought “Wow, what a great outlet to reach people! I can’t believe I never thought of this before.” So here we are.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How did you come up with those riotous personalities… Bearalzebub, the bear satan-equivalent, and his pals, the lovely seven-deadly-sin-inspired Daivas?

BEN: The idea really started out as having this really powerful, demon, beast of a character; but that he looks endearing, cuddly, and innocent at the same time. Ultimately I realized, “What’s more endearing, cuddly, and innocent than a teddy bear?” Of course, Bearalzebub evolved out of that idea and he’s not quite as threatening as originally conceived. I started thinking though that as a plush bear he has rather stubby arms and legs and he is rather small in stature. Unless Bearalzebub could change his form he was going to need some assistance with various tasks. So that’s where I developed Lucy. I debated for awhile between having only her and she just changed ‘hats’ for the situation, but in the end I decided it was better to have more characters and applying the seven- eadly-sins to them just brought them full circle back to Hell. It has a little bit of a “Girls Next Door” feel about it now too I think which works really well and makes for interesting sub-plots.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ha ha, yeah. I love the Bearalzebub name that is so clever. And your dialogue is great, how do you come up with such funny lines?

BEN: On the fly actually. I always write out the entire script and plot-essential-dialog before I start anything; but as I sketch and layout the page composition I add the little puns into it. This process really is the result of reading a lot of the big mainstream comics as a kid, that were supposed to be ‘funny pages’ but really didn’t try that hard to be funny. It always puzzled me because its one thing to not be funny but another altogether to not even try to be, even though your comic is labeled as a ‘comedy’. So I try to make every page have at least one attempt at humor if I can. If not, then there had better be something on the page that at least looks really cool or has humor in the art.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Great to know. How much does your real life experience affect Devil Bear?

BEN: More than one would probably think *laughs*. A couple of the Daiva’s personalities are based loosely on real people. And exaggerated obviously. Cerbutt is also based a little bit on a destructive small dog I had as a child. The doorbell would ring and he would just go berserk and try to maul the mailman on the other side of the door despite being so tiny. Additionally, I had a ‘Teddy Ruxpin’ bear when I was a kid and that dog took a pee on it. So he didn’t like teddy bears either.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How much planning goes on for Devil Bear, behind the scenes? How far do you plan into the future? Tell everyone about any interesting process you have.

BEN: I plan a story at a time. I have about ten different twenty-four-page stories floating in my head right now but I’m not going to write them down yet because I will get excited about them and it will be harder to focus on the story at hand. I do write down funny quips and short gags though when I think of them so that I don’t forget them. I also like to take all the pages of the current story that I’m working on while they are still in the uncolored but inked stage and pin them all over my wall. This gives me an idea of how the individual pages compliment each other as a whole and also how a ‘left page’ and a ‘right page’ would work together if the book was in a printed form.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do you enjoy the most about doing Devil Bear?

BEN: The readers actually. I enjoy seeing the weekly readership grow every week and nothing motivates me more than positive feedback. I love it when I get an email from a reader that says something like: “this week’s page made my day”. I love working on the comic and it’s nice to know that someone else loves it too.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Doing web-comics for a living or a hobby can be really great. But many web-comics are published for free viewing and non-profit. So it can be hard for some authors, who balance maintaining a free web-comic along with their day-job. What are your thoughts on this?

BEN: This is very true. I have a couple ads on the site that bring in a small revenue but advertising Devilbear on other sites and such can be expensive so that revenue goes right back into the comic. I feel lucky when I break even. Perhaps someday it will do more than break even, I don’t know; but right now I’m just focused on getting it into the hands of as many people as possible.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Thanks, interesting thoughts there! Are there things that challenge you with Devil Bear? If so, how do you work through them?

BEN: Balancing dialog with art can be a challenge some times. Something might sound great when I write the original script but when I layout all the panels for a given page it might not be a very aesthetic word balloon. Walls of text are intimidating to read and breaking up dialog can mean lots of panels that look the same. When this happens I usually have to find a new way to say the same thing with fewer words or find a way to make similar panels different enough that they are not monotonous and boring. I don’t have very many symmetrical pages. Symmetrical, perfectly aligned comic squares are boring.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's good about the page designs you have, yeah! Okay.... If Devil Bear became a feature film, how would you envision it? Would you pick certain celebrities to play your characters?

BEN: Wow. Well, I guess I hope that it would be an animated film because I think a live action version might look really creepy *laughs*. Fully animated however, none of that Flash stuff. If I could choose celebrities, maybe Christina Ricci for Ipso and Facto, someone a little older and throaty for Lucy Fur like maybe Lucy Lawless. As for Bearalzebub himself, though, I’m really not sure. I would have to hear some things before deciding what his voice sounds like I think. His voice is a bit raspy in my head.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hahaha great choices. Tell us a bit about your personality! It’s fun to get to know who’s behind the comic.

BEN: I would say a certain amount of my personality comes out in the comic. A lot of friends and co-workers say when they read it the first time something along the lines of: “It’s definitely a Ben Bourbon comic”. I have a bit of a comedic/flirty side as well as a more morbid side coupled with a dry humor. I also tend to do things fast. I walk fast, I draw fast, I eat fast. I’m usually the first one to show up for work. So don’t expect the Devilbear updates to be late anytime soon.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Do you have favorite print comic books and graphic novels? Do they affect your work?

Yes, I have several print comics and graphic novels that I admire. If I buy a comic it usually is because it has some really nice art in it. I think the most influence that comes out of those, though, is some page layout ideas. I love dynamic panel layouts and panels that are odd shapes. So sometimes if I’m having trouble making everything that needs to be on a page fit within the space I’ll look to those for ideas to a solution.

THE XCENTRIKZ: For you, what is the comic’s crowning achievement?

I think the biggest achievement is simply existing. When I completed the first issue/storyline I had several hard copies printed and to hold Devilbear in my hand as a real comic book, that was a really awesome feeling. My eyes aren’t limited to that scope though. I have some more cool things planned to be made in the future…

THE XCENTRIKZ: Great. Are there some common misconceptions about Devil Bear? How would you like to address them?

It seems that the few misconceptions that have been vocalized to me come from people that don’t actually read it. “It’s about a satanic carebear” or “it has no story just breasts”. I don’t mind constructive criticism but I think anyone that actually did more than thumb through it and read at least one of the stories to the end would realize that there definitely is more than just puns and innuendo. Like I said earlier the puns are often last minute adlibs. Story and art always come first and receive the bulk of my time. The rest is just frosting.

THE XCENTRIKZ: You have a great attitude about it! Any thing else you’d like to share? A hint on the future of your comic…?

There are a lot more teddy bears on their way to Hell and some more main characters to introduce. At this time, we’re building up towards a wrap up for the second issue/storyline and the third will likely be a big intro for the Daiva of Wrath. I’ve been thinking this one out for a long time so I’m pretty excited about it.

THE XCENTRIKZ: You're a talented writer and we all love your sense of humour, so thank you again for the interview Ben! May you continue to update this hilarious creation much, much more...

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