The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

Interview with Phillip Vecchio on Brax the Alien Rocker!

October 7, 2009

(Click on any of the images in this interview to visit the comic...)

Hey hey heyyyyyyyyy me and Phil decided to gab about his awesome alien dude, Brax and his adventures in the music industry. Check it out! Phil also talks about his cool real-life experiences in da muzak biz AND what's happening next in the world of Brax... HAVE FUN!

The Xcentrikz Team: Hiya Phil, thanks again for chatting about your comic, Brax the Alien Rocker. It’s totally cool! Would you tell the newbies out there about it? So they’ll check it out!

Thanks for the compliment! Brax is an alien who came to Earth to break into the music industry. His best friend is a Manta Ray named Manny and he has a pet Rose named Rosy. The music industry's evil Bots are his bitter enemies. Together, they embark on such exciting adventures as naming their band, talking to plants, and paying for parking at shows.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Heh heh, great stuff. So okay, how did you get started doing webcomics? Were you into drawing and doodling as a kid?

Yes, I've been doodling as long as I can remember. In kindergarten, I wanted to be a cartoonist. The problem is, I'm absolutely terrible at drawing! That's the great thing about webcomics as a medium. I can create digitally what I would never be able to draw by hand. Getting into webcomics has allowed me to fulfill a childhood dream that I would never have been able to accomplish otherwise. My friend Brendan helped me get the stuff I was drawing into finished form and up on the internet, and the rest is history.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Alrighty! How did your comic and its cool characters get invented?

A few years back I had a really boring job. In order to keep from falling asleep in public, I began doodling the characters on the back of papers, notepads, and whatever else was laying around. Since I'm also involved in the independent music business, I started having the characters talk about the various bands and shows I was working with. The main characters are all loosely based on real family and friends, but exactly who's who is a secret.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s your schedule like for doing the art and dialogue?

We have enough storylines and one-off strips written to last two or three years. I wanted to make sure, before we ever posted anything, that writer's block would not be an issue. As for the art, right now it's largely cut and paste with a little tweaking for each panel, so I pretty much put it all together a day or two before it actually posts.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s your creative process, and what media and software do you use?

I put the strip together entirely in Adobe Illustrator. It's a great tool for the artistically challenged. As I mentioned, Brendan and I have brainstormed a plethora of jokes, strips, and stories mostly based on actual events. Once I decide which one I'm going to use for the day, I lay out the characters I need for the strip in each panel, plug in the dialogue, put in some word bubbles, and it's done.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do you usually do to motivate yourself to do updates regularly?

I'm proud to say, I've never missed a single deadline, including strips, blog posts and other regular features on our page. How do I do it? I'm borderline OCD. Therefore, I can't NOT update on time, or I'd pretty much go crazy!

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do you think of your readers? Do you enjoy interacting with them much?

I'm thankful for each and every one of them! I'd love to interact more, and that's probably an area we could improve on. As of now we have comments open on our strips, but we haven't opened up a forum or message board just yet.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s it like for you to publicize your comic creations? Do you work hard at it, or do the fans do the work for you by getting the word out?

Since we're still pretty new to the scene, we're working really hard to get the word out. We've been putting out Project Wonderful ads, using our social networking sites to promote, and we've been getting involved in some of the online communities as well. We've also gone to five conventions, passing out fliers, business cards, and stickers. We even ran a panel at the last one. Next, we'll be at the Dallas Webcomics Expo.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What are some of the difficult moments you’ve encountered, as a comic creator?

Mostly it's been a blast, but I've definitely been getting a lot less sleep since I started the comic.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What usually provokes your great ideas? How do other webcomics, friends and family, or your real-life experiences affect the comic?

As I mentioned earlier, the events and characters in the comic are largely based on my experiences running a small independent record label, pop.vox.music. Since I'm still active in the music scene, and musicians are every bit as weird and quirky as you'd think they are, I have an endless supply of material to draw from.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s the most rewarding part, for you, about doing comics?

Being as obsessive compulsive as I tend to be, I'm constantly checking our daily stats. Seeing that slow but steady increase in traffic has been very rewarding. I also love hearing positive responses from our readers, of course.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Are there other entertainers and other comic creators you admire? Tell us about how the music industry affects the comic.

I'm a big music fan, and that obviously has a significant impact on the comic. I've been running an independent label for almost ten years now, and I have a huge amount of respect for the independent musicians working hard out there. In fact, in a lot of ways, the indie music scene is very similar to the webcomics scene. It's all DIY promotion, hard work, small but loyal fanbases, and the occasional big success story.

Current bands I most admire: Starflyer 59, Joy Electric, Ann Lynn, Writer, Slings, Paravell, Ohm's Law, and many more.

Webcomics that are most inspiring: Dinosaur Comics, Xkcd, Penny Arcade, and all the halfpixel.com guys are the big players I most admire, but my favorite lesser known webcomic is Buttersafe.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Random fun stuff: What’s your best… Talent? Friend? Meal you make? Halloween costume?

Joke telling, my wife, Spaghetti with my own sauce made from scratch, Bob Dole with a cape.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Whaddya like doing most to relax by yourself? And how about with friends?

By myself I love listening to music, going to shows, reading and playing videogames. With my friends it's the same, except we don't really read together. That would be weird.

THE XCENTRIKZ: If you could have a superpower for one day, what would you pick, and what would you do with it?

I'd want super speed. I would enter a school jog-a-thon. You know, the ones where people sponsor you for a certain amount of money per lap that you run. I'd get everyone to sponsor me for a penny a lap. Then, when I run 10,000 laps with my super speed, everyone would have to pay a hundred bucks! Imagine the looks on their faces, since they thought they'd only be paying a few cents! Would that be squandering my superpower?

THE XCENTRIKZ: So how do you feel future of the webcomic biz? And how do you feel about the future of your comic?

Even though it's a relatively new medium now, I think webcomics are the way our children will be reading comics in the future. In fact, we've recently founded a group we call Webcomics Advocates to promote and encourage this awesome movement. We'll have our site up soon, so look for some exciting opportunities for webcomic fans and creators alike when it launches. As for our comic, I think we'll find gradually bigger and bigger audiences, and hopefully someday I won't need a second job. Now wouldn't that be nice?

THE XCENTRIKZ: Okay! Tell us more about that later, sounds cool. So do tell everybody about your unique way of helping promote your site... Those interviews with band members are interesting.

Given the subject matter and my experience with the music industry, I thought integrating real bands into our site would be a great cross promotional tool. It's been working like a charm. Basically, each week Brax interviews a different band from the real world. We post links to their websites and Brax tells the readers a little bit about why he likes each band. The bands love the exposure they get from being on our site, and having an interview to quote on press releases adds credence to the their resumes. Best of all, the bands all link back to our site through their websites, MySpace, Facebook, e-mails, etc., so that their fans can come read the interview. So basically, each week an entirely new group of people are directly exposed to our site. We see a spike in views every Wednesday when the interviews post, and one or two of those new readers are bound to stick around. It's not something every webcomic can do, but similar ideas could be implemented elsewhere. Say, for instance, interviewing webcomic creators :)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ha ha, thanks. So would you like to share anything else? Give everybody a big teaser here!

In the upcoming months, romance is on the horizon! That's right, we'll be introducing a special lady friend for Brax in the near future. Stay tuned!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Heh heh. Awesome. Hey, thanks so much and keep it up doing the fun stuff for us comic readers. Check out this awesome comic, everybody! Have a good one!

Thank you so much!

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