The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

December 2, 2009

Interview on the hilarious comic Bear Nuts with Alison Acton!

(Click on the images to visit the site!)

Ahahaha, I just caught up on some new pages and can't stop laughing. It's that good! This comic features weirdly contrasting bear-personalities, who are trapped in a zoo display for the entertainment purpose of silly humans (for now, ha ha). Read about their bizarre daily lives in this great setup! This half-cutesy, half-crazy comic isn't child-friendly so you know, but it sure is funny. Hope you enjoy the interview with Alison.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hey Alison! Tell everybody a little introduction on Bear Nuts, the story of crazy bears and their even crazier lives in a zoo?

Bear Nuts is about 9 neurotic room mates stuck in a zoo exhibit. Zoo animals tend to lead somewhat boring and sedentary lives but the personality clashes in the bear exhibit tend to keep everyone on their toes.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How’d you come up with the idea to do Bear Nuts?

When I was still working in animation the studio I was at wanted to do a 'My Little Pony' spoof. We got laid off shortly after so I fiddled with these bear designs as the obvious next step. Though we did go back to work for a bit before the studio had to shut down permanently, nothing ever came of any of the concepts. I was between jobs but I had these fun little designs to play with. Jason, from DMF Comics who eventually became our publisher, encouraged me to do something more with the bears and thus the comic began to take shape.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How long have you been doing webcomics, how’d you get started?

I've been doing web comics since last August when Bear Nuts went live. It seemed the only viable way to get BN out there as we definitely didn't have the resources to just publish it. I originally started the web comic as a bit of an experiment as I had no idea if it would catch on at all, and as a portfolio piece to help me find comic work. Now it's been over a year and we have a published first volume... who knew?

THE XCENTRIKZ: Have you ever met an animal similar to the bears in your comic?

I have a strange little cat that reminds me of Crack, and a bit of Evil as he tends to be the instigator when he and his sister fight. He's really affectionate with us but terrified of everybody else. He's a total whore when it comes to cookies and meal times, but he has slight bulimic tendencies. I think he just likes to make us clean up his messes.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What inspired your hilarious ideas for the bears’ personalities?

I wanted their personalities to be easily apparent so you could understand what was going without needing to be familiar with the whole archive (though it is a good read of course :). They are based on some pretty common archtypes that we can all easily identify, but hopefully readers will have fun seeing them develop a little more over the run of the comic. For me at least that's part of the fun.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What reactions did the comic get early on? Were viewers generally excited, critical, something else…?

It seems to have been fairly well received. I haven't gotten any terribly negative comments other than feedback about it being too predictable because they're stereotypes. That's something I knew I had to be careful of so it wasn't unexpected. My challenge is to keep coming up with interesting stories that will keep people entertained.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s something that really challenges you in doing the comic?

I guess I touched on this but writing interesting and funny material consistently is always a challenge. When it comes to the art I always have a blast. Some pages are more time-consuming then others and the coloring tends to be one of the longest steps. Sometimes I wish I'd just gone black & white as it would take way, way less time to produce each page, but I think it would lose a lot of it's charm.

THE XCENTRIKZ: In your opinion, what’s one of the coolest things about the comic?

I have a hard time complimenting my own work so I'll leave that up to readers.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What are some of the negative things people say? Did you think the comments were justified?

Like I said before, negatives have been pretty rare and usually run along the lines of "It's just not my thing." which is totally understandable. I have read reviews/opinions that say things like it's pretty hard core or not safe for work or really violent and those make me laugh. Are we even reading the same comic? Sure I don't think BN is child-friendly but it's definitely not 18+ by any stretch :) Perhaps we're just more liberal in Canada?

THE XCENTRIKZ: How’s it been promoting Bear Nuts? What publicity opportunities have worked the best for you?

I've used Project Wonderful which is a great site. We also enjoy going to cons and talking to people. It's really fun when people stop by the table and already read the comic. We can chat about story lines and which bear is their favorite (Death) and where it's going from there, not that I reveal much! In terms of publicity though, that's about all we've done.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Cool. How about some fun personal questions… If you could be one of the bears for a day, what would you do?

I have no desire to be in any of their places! I think they have a very trying existence :) If I had to pick though, probably Prozac; I'd get to be in charge and no one would mess with me, hopefully.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ha ha. What were you like in highschool? Were you into comics back then, too?

I was always into comics and animation, and I've been drawing as long as I can remember. I wasn't much into comics when I was younger as I had no desire to read anything with a super hero in it. By high school though there started to be more options in indy books and manga that were female friendly. That was when I considered it might be fun to persue art for a living.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Do you consider yourself part of a sub-culture? Why or why not?

I don't lump myself with any particular culture, there's interesting bits in every one.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How do you feel about life as a web-comic creator? The pros, the cons, the costs of time and resources. What makes it worth it to you, at the end of the day?

I mainly look at the comic as a portfolio piece. It's a great thing to add to a resume: I have a comic that looks professional and updates promptly so obviously I'm capable of meeting deadlines and maintaining quality. Those are pretty important factors for editors. It keeps me in practice when I don't have anything else going on and gives me a creative outlet. The cons are just the time it takes to maintain, especially with a new baby at home now.

In the end though, it's fun, I get great feedback, and though it doesn't pay any bills yet, there's the potential for it to help us out financially in the future.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Anything else to share about Bear Nuts?

BN has opened the door of self publishing to me and I've got lots of other ideas that I'd like to turn into web comics in the future... when the baby gives me the time. For now, I'll concentrate on BN and hopefully have the second volume ready for print by next fall: I'm planning on introducing a 10th bear but we'll see :)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Good luck on the baby and have fun with the comic! Thanks for the interview, Alison.

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