The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

November 20, 2009

Interview with Jenny Blanchard of the inimitably nifty comic...

(Click on the images to visit the site!)

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy everybody I had the pleasure of chatting with that lovely gal behind the hilarious comic, ENJUHNEER! The comic revolves around college-aged kids in a funny tech school environment. Best of all, it's chock full of girl-powered-goodness. That is, smart girl-power. Not bling-bling-style girl-power, which is totally different. Hahahha.

Anyway, in all seriousness, it's great seeing a comic that highlights the humor and lifestyles of intellectually-empowered women. The comic is relatively new, so please go check it out. I have a feeling... Jenny has a lot more (talent!) up her sleeve where that came from.

The Xcentrikz Team: Thank you so much for the interview, Jenny! Please tell everyone about your comic that “features a tech-school through female eyes”… I’d like to encourage people to check it out!!

Thanks for the opportunity, Eliza! Enjuhneer is part satire, part slice-of-life about what it’s like to go to a parody of an American engineering school, the Enjuhneer Institute of Technology. The protagonist, Penny, and most of her friends are girls, which anyone who goes to tech school can tell you is rare. It provides an interesting view of the school, and lets me show that (a) girl geeks are just like guy geeks, and (b) geeks are awesome in general.

THE XCENTRIKZ: YOU are very welcome, and thanks for the great synopsis there. Yea that's good that Penny and the gals stick together, being the minority haha. So how did you first get interested in webcomics and then decide to make your own?

I grew up on newspaper comics: here are the nearly ubiquitous citations of Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and I throw Bone in as well. When I finally got decent internet in college, the wide world of webcomics drew me in. I’ve been drawing comics since third grade – the internet just lets me share them with more people!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Great inspirations there. Sounds like the comic is partially about your experiences, that’s neat. Tell everyone about your real-life college experiences vs. what goes on in Enjuhneer? And what field(s) of engineering are you personally interested in?

Most of Enjuhneer is ripped directly from experience or friends’ stories, sometimes word for word. What isn’t based on reality is derived from current events or general geekery. The characters themselves were originally direct correlations to people I know, but they’ve grown into their own personalities, so there isn’t as much connecting them to their IRL counterparts anymore.

I’m actually not an engineer – I’m a weird creature known as an “Electronic Arts major.” I was just surrounded by engineers constantly – mainly AeroMechies and Computer Systems/Electrical Engineers, and a lot of CompSci’s. They are my favorite people.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ah thanks that makes more sense. Cool! So. What’s more entertaining – your real life, or the comic? Do you sometimes wish that real life could be more entertaining?

Ooh, that’s hard to tell. Enjuhneer is the funny, geeky parts of my life. Life has its own interesting bits, though, many of which won’t make it into Enjuhneer. (Maybe a different comic, some day.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hehe, okay. How much do you interact with Enjuhneer’s viewers?

I love my readers! They leave comments on the strips, they email me, and they even managed to convince RPI’s school newspaper to print Enjuhneer. They have amazing stories, and they seem to just confirm my belief that geeks are purely awesome people.

THE XCENTRIKZ: WOW great!!! So do you feel satisfied with the amount of viewers you already have, or do you wish Enjuhneer was more well known?

As much as I like the idea of my stories reaching a larger audience, I know that’s just gonna come with time. The audience will grow as the strip develops and gets better. Some day I’d love to be making my living off of drawing comics (whether it’s Enjuhneer or some other projects), but for now I’m happy with where I’m at and how it’s growing.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That'd be nice. What’s it like to publicize the comic? Do you work hard at advertising or not?

I’m playing with Project Wonderful and doing vote incentives for TopWebComics, and those seem to be bringing in new faces. I’ve done two Genericons now, since it’s RPI’s home con and it’s a great little con. There’s some mild interest in getting a table in the next Connecticon’s Artist Alley.

THE XCENTRIKZ: If two of your characters had the ultimate argument, who would win and what would they argue about?

“Is art important?” It would be Penny and either Julian or Nash. I’ve had this debate a lot, and I usually play devil’s advocate to see what the engineers think. The argument in the strip would probably be left open-ended, but IRL there’s been an overwhelming vote in favor of art’s importance. I love the way these engineers think.

THE XCENTRIKZ: HAAA! Sounds like a great argument to have... What do your friends and family think of Enjuhneer? Do they give you ideas that you use?

My friends are comic fodder and they all know it. They’ve even volunteered stories for several of the strips. My family isn’t really geeky, but they find the project interesting and wish it well. If they get a strip, I know I’m doing the accessibility thing right.

THE XCENTRIKZ: It's cool that they help you "test". Tell everybody more about Enjuhneer’s recent “Inside a Character’s Head” segments. They’re really funny and bring the characters to life! What was it like doing that?

The first one was actually a minor crack at IRL Myra and her current fretting about the GREs, and the concept just took off from there. I’ve been able to really flesh out the girls on paper the way they are in my head, so they’re not just shells with boobs.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Yea, heh. Is there something you really can’t stand doing? How do you overcome (or avoid!) this problem?

I can’t stand drawing technical schematics, mechanical drawings, and anything made of metal or straight lines. Kali’s Chibi Alphonse costume took *forever* for me to draw. I try to avoid stuff like that. My style is too organic and curvy, and I generally prefer the aesthetics of imprecision.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hm, interesting. So is doing comics more of a hobby to you, or a job?

I want it to be my job, but until I can make money off of it, it’s my labor of love. I also do freelance projects, some web design, and I work at a music hall, which keeps my inner music geek satisfied.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's good. If you had an “ideal day,” what would it involve?

I’d wake up at noon on a Saturday, have Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, get a week’s worth of Enjuhneer done in six hours (with no writer’s block and no tech problems!), have seafood for dinner, play Rock Band with my roommates, stay up talking about philosophy and the future, and fall asleep at five in the morning in my boy’s arms. Simple is just best.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Sounds pretty nice heh heh. So what do you think about the future of comics on the web?

It’s unfortunate that newspaper strips may be facing their demise, given how important they are to the origin of webcomics. The web is definitely going to be the new home of comics, though I don’t think printed graphic novels or strip collections will lose their appeal.

PRE-EMPTIVE EDIT FROM THE YEAR 2050: The robots have taken over. Now we just have comics streamed directly to our eyeballs while they harvest us for energy.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Bummer, thanks for the newsflash there Jenny. Heh. If you had infinite resources and time to improve Enjuhneer, what would you do?

Learn to use my tablet, utilize more of my drawing skills, add backgrounds to old strips, and probably put together a storyline that I could better use in a graphic novel format (like Tails’ Story, but with the main cast). I’d learn more about screenprinting and merch so that I could run my store out of my room – imagine a mini Topatoco. I’d also do more research on the business end of webcomics, and design more Tshirts.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Yea, tshirts! Where would you like to see your work in 1 year? …5 years? Anything you’re hoping to improve with it?

In one year, I’d like to see Enjuhneer still going! In five, it would be amazing if I could support myself off it (or it, coupled with other projects). I’m anxious to see the art improve over time, and I’d love to introduce new characters and explore the relationships between everyone, and how their classes impact that.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Love that one comic, above. Heh heh. Anything else to share about Enjuhneer? Perhaps a hint on what will happen next…???!

The girls will go to class. They’ll take tests. They’ll deal with awkward situations. They’ll become sophomores! They’ll eventually graduate and move on to other things. They’ll grow and learn and figure out who they are and what they want. And we’ll be there every step of the way.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hmmm, sounds good. Hey, thank you for taking the time to tell us more about your work, Jenny. And thanks for bringing your fun creation to comic readers everywhere!!!!!!! Please view this neat comic, everybody.

No, thank you! This was really fun!

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