The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

November 15, 2009

Interview with Anne Szabla, the brilliant mind behind Cealdian!!

(Click on images in this interview to visit the site...)

Even though it's relatively new, Cealdian already has a good following of viewers - It's no wonder why! With an epic, compelling storyline and some of the most fantastical illustrations on the web, Cealdian is a must-see-comic. It was so much fun talking with the creator, Anne, and hearing how she puts together this lovely tale. Enjoy!

The Xcentrikz Team: Hello and thank you for talking with me, Anne! Could you please share a little insight on your wonderful work on Cealdian, for the new readers?

Anne: Cealdian is a Norse/Celtic fantasy about thirteen siblings born into royalty who have been gifted with a mysterious and dangerous power. When the old king is assassinated, his eldest son December must take the throne, prove his innocence, rule a country and at the same time discover the secrets behind that dark power.

It’s a pretty intense fantasy epic, but contains a lot of nuance as well, so there’s something for everyone. It’s a lot of fun!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Well said and very true! So how did Cealdian originally come about? What inspired you?

Anne: Well, back in elementary school a couple of friends and I started a story together about a bunch of people who were brought together because of these mysterious magical objects. After a while we grew up and didn’t have time for the story anymore, but ideas for it were still rattling around in the back of my head.
So one day I decided to write Cealdian as the prequel for that story. Of course, these days it has totally evolved and now stands pretty much on it’s own.

I’ve also always been a huge fan of old historical epics and myths like Beowulf, King Arthur and the old Norse sagas, and I think those influences come through pretty clearly in Cealdian.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What was your career and educational background, before Cealdian? How do you think this influences the comic?

Anne: I’m currently in my fourth year at the Rhode Island School of Design, an art school in New England, majoring in illustration. It has been really great for improving my art as well as my ideas, and it’s great to be able to get feedback and have discussions with tons of other artists.
It has definitely been a huge influence on Cealdian. Mostly on the art, of course, but it’s also great to be able to run ideas by my fellow students and teachers to see if they’re coming across the way I want them too.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What was it like telling people about Cealdian, when you were just starting out? How did the public react to promotions you tried? How did your friends react? And most importantly, tell us how YOU felt about their reactions!

Anne: I knew that if I wanted Cealdian to get anywhere, I would really have to push promotion, so I put a lot into that the first couple of months. I posted on forums, ran a few project wonderful ads, and wrote emails to some of my favorite webcomic authors to show them my work. I actually got a pretty good reception from the public from all of my promoting! My friends and family of course have always been very supportive of me, even if they bug me nowadays for being such a workaholic…
As for me, well, I’ve been really surprised! The story is still in the introduction, so to already have so many people following it is great!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Amazing! That's really nice. What is your brainstorming process usually like? Does it take a lot of planning and inspiration to do each page, does it vary, or are you more spur-of-the-moment?

Anne: For brainstorming I’ll just let my mind wander and think of things I want to happen in the story. Ideas will usually just pop randomly into my head while I’m doing other things and I’ll write them down somewhere before I forget (my workroom is overflowing with tiny scraps of paper covered in ideas) and then eventually that’ll get worked into the script.
A lot of planning does go into each page, because I love the idea putting hints into earlier pages that will come back later on in the story. So I’ll always have some idea of what I want a page to look like and what elements I need to add to make it convey what I want it to.
I do leave myself with some room to change things, though. Up until I put the page up on the site, I’m constantly tweaking and refining both the dialogue and the art.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Cealdian’s art style is really professional and eye catching. Just beautiful! Tell everybody about some of your techniques!

Anne: Thank you! I think the most important part of my comic making process begins before I even start the final page: I layout all of my panels in a little sketchy thumbnail so I can think about composition and angles without having to deal with actually drawing them out nicely. Then, when I go to the final page all I have to do is refer back to that thumbnail and just focus on the actual drawing.

I draw all of my pages out on Bristol paper and ink with a ballpoint pen (I find I can get a more interesting line than I can with technical pens sometimes.) I then scan the page in at 300 dpi and then edit and color in Photoshop CS with a Wacom tablet.

Beyond that, how I get my pages to look the way they do has been through lots and lots of practice and experimentation! If I know I’m bad at drawing something, instead of avoiding it I’ll try to draw it over and over again until I can do it without thinking.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s your favorite part about making new pages for Cealdian?

Anne: For me it’s not so much about making single pages, but when I get to look back and see all of the pages come together to make a successful story. It’s hard sometimes when I’m working on a page to see that I’m working towards something bigger, since it can be a very slow process. So I guess it’s when I’ve just finished a page and added it to the work I’ve already done, that’s when I get to finally relax for a moment and feel accomplished. Of course, only for a few minutes, because after that it’s on to the next page!

THE XCENTRIKZ: How did you come up with the intriguing main characters? Are any of the characters inspired by real people you might know?

Anne: Well, Cealdian has been sitting around in my head for years and years so I’ve had a lot of time to think about the characters and how they would react to different situations. While they’re not based entirely on any single individuals I know, I take a lot of aspects from people’s personalities that I’ve observed and exaggerate them or tone them down accordingly, whatever I think will benefit the plot more.

As all of these bits and pieces build up, the characters take on a life of their own. I think the most important thing to do when creating a character is to be sure to give them many facets to their personality. You’d never find a real person being only happy or only sad their entire life: they have moods but still manage to retain their individuality. That’s what I try to go for when creating my characters.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What are some of your favorite fantasy characters, by other authors? Did they affect the creation of your characters?

Anne: I have a real soft spot for the anti-hero in any story. Or any character who is more than just “good” or just “bad”. For that reason I love the characters in Old Norse myths: they can be gods, but they still have problems of their own, and can either help or hinder based on how they feel in that particular moment. A lot of that has gone into my characters, who are never necessarily just antagonists or protagonists.
I don’t think there are any singular characters from other fantasies that have affected my characters. If anything, it’s more of an amalgamation of all of the characters in all of the stories I’ve read over the years that influences them.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How do you feel about the dialogue you write? What are some of the best moments between your characters?

Anne: Hahaha the best moments are yet to come!

Actually, writing the script for Cealdian is one of my favorite things to do. I love writing and I’ll even go as far as reading it out loud and acting out the characters to make sure it sounds authentic. I especially enjoy dialogue that can engage the reader and tell a story without being too obvious or telling. Since in the end, Cealdian is a story about how far people can be taken to the edge, it’s most fun to write those moments just as every emotion is escalating and about to explode. I’m big into melodrama and Romanticism so I love writing those deep epic moments too.

THE XCENTRIKZ: You're doing wonderful so far! And how do you feel about the art style of Cealdian? Anything you’d improve?

Anne: Haha, well, I’m never quite satisfied with my art, which I think is actually kind of motivating since it means I’m always trying to improve. Lately, I’ve been trying to work on more interesting camera angles in my panels, which has always been a weakness for me. I also feel like I could stand to improve some of my anatomy and bring more life to the characters.
It’s always a struggle, but the best part about working on a comic is all of the practice I get. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not drawing, so hopefully those elements will start to improve with time.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Has Cealdian ever been regularly seen in a newspaper, magazine, or popular web-comic collective? If not, do you prefer staying an independent, web-only comic?

Anne: Cealdian is pretty new, so it’s only ever been available on the web. It is, however, a member of the Rampage Network, which is a community of some really great webcomics!

While Cealdian will always be available on the web, I have definitely been sneaking around publishers lately. It has always been my dream to get Cealdian into bookstores, though I’m adamant about retaining my rights as the creator, so I’ve been going at it pretty carefully and testing the waters. Until something like that can be arranged, I’ll probably start self-publishing once I get more of the comic finished.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's great to hear. So doing comics can be really fulfilling. Although especially since many web-comics are for free or non-profit, it can be challenging for some creators to reach all their goals. Is doing Cealdian more of a hobby, or a job, for you?

Anne: Well, let me put it this way: If it’s a choice between working on Cealdian and eating, then I will work on Cealdian.

I went into this project with the intention of being as professional as possible. I treat Cealdian like a job, because it’s my hope that some day it will be. Right now I still have schoolwork and day jobs to worry about, but no matter what I always make sure there will be time for comic making, even if that means working late at night or sacrificing some free time.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Amazing, good for you! Did you take classes or workshops on cartooning before Cealdian? If so, how did it go? If not, did you feel better off being self-taught?

Anne: When I was maybe 11 years old I went to a summer camp that had these classes, and one of the classes was a comic book class. I wrote a comic about a crazy nonconformist secret service agent. It was pretty bizarre. I thought it was the greatest thing ever, hahaha.

Aside from that, I am actually taking a, er, more legitimate comic storytelling class this semester at RISD. I absolutely love it! I look forward to it every week and go in early and just ask the teacher question after question nonstop. He’s probably pretty creeped out by me at this point.
People put a lot of hype into being self-taught and talk about how you don’t need classes if you already know how to draw or write comics. For some people being self-taught is great! However taking a class will never make anyone’s work worse, so I’ve never understood some people’s aversion to them. They can be great catalysts for improvement, and this class I’m taking has really challenged me to become a better comic artist and to create stories that really bring emotion to both the visual and written aspects. It’s especially important to take one if you’re like me in trying to become a professional comic artist, because they can really help you get a sort of scope of the industry as well.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How about opinions on the “web-comic industry!” Do you think its future is promising?

Anne: I think the future is very promising! Webcomics are easily accessible and there’s just a huge number of them- the industry is really growing. The viral nature of the internet also makes promoting and getting new readers easier than ever, so it’s really a no-brainer to publish on the web, I think. At the same time, the more nuanced stories I have been discovering lately in webcomics are filling a niche in the comic industry that had previously been rather empty, and it’s these kinds of stories that people are really drawn to.

However, being the geek that I am, there’s a big place in my heart reserved for actual books and thus, the so-called “dead-tree-format” comics. Going to the comic book store and coming back with a big stack of comics to read is one of my favorite pastimes, and I think there’s a lot that a webcomic artist can learn from the “greats” of comics, like Herge and Moebius. So in the end I think the future of comics really lies in the combination of webcomics and print comics, and not necessarily choosing one over the other.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Can you name a time when the Cealdian’s viewer reactions significantly affected the story? If so, why did you listen to their ideas?

Anne: I think the biggest reason I chose to publish on the web has to do with getting reactions from the readers. It can be difficult as the author because I am very close to the story, and there are times when I can’t tell if I am being clear enough in my visual storytelling for other people get what’s going on.
Like I said before, the actual story is all written out so not much of that will change, but if something is not reading correctly and the readers see that, then I’ll definitely make changes there.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Interesting, thank you! Any other fun Cealdian topics, to share today?

Anne: This is actually the second time I’ve started Cealdian! I actually first began the comic back in high school. It ran online for two years and was about 80 pages in before I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. The art wasn’t quite up to snuff either so in the end it just didn’t make it. The biggest problem was that I didn’t have a script!
So I restarted the comic from the beginning this spring, updating the art and writing the entire script! I’m actually pretty glad that I had a chance to do it over, since the first version taught me a lot about creating comics as well.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How about any new Cealdian developments? Where’s the story going, can you tell us anything there?

Anne: Well, Chapter 3 is scheduled to start the first week of December! It’s actually one of my favorite chapters, so I’m pretty excited. There’s been a lot of sitting and talking lately so we’re really going to see a change because there’s going to be a shift to a lot more action. Also, we’re going to delve into the past a little bit!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Oh boy, flashbacks? Thanks for sharing that. It’s wonderful hearing your answers and I bet Cealdian fans will enjoy it. Please visit this very compelling comic, gang!

Anne: Thank you for having me! This was a lot of fun!

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