The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

Interview with the talented writer and artist of Evil Diva,

Pete Menotti and Brinson Thieme!

July 4, 2009

Wow, what a fun opportunity! I had the privilege to talk with those neato folks from Evil Diva. This fun comic is about a young girl and her devil family. It's whimsical, cute, quite family-friendly and offers nifty character development and fun surprises. Check it out! The talented writer/illustrator Honoel A. Ibardolaza also contributes to the comic, although Honoel wasn't available this week for the interview. But I did have a really nice time talking with the series creator, Pete, and that talented artist gal, Brinson. Have fun!!!

July 4, 2009

The Xcentrikz Team: Thank you so much for the interview, I hope it’s lots of fun for you guys. Please tell everybody a bit about your unique and hilarious comic, Evil Diva, to encourage them to view it too!

Brinson: Evil Diva is about a little girl named Diva who just wants to be good. There's just one small problem: Diva is a devil.

It's a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with mahou-shoujo sparkles, except that Buffy was actually pretty awesome when it came to staking vampires. Poor Diva is borderline incompetent at this whole do-gooding thing. Luckily for her, she's got a magic wand.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hehe! She's so cute though... Okay guys, tell me about your early days doing illustration and comic work. What were you like as a kid?

Brinson: I was a weird little girl -- I was pretty nerdy, not very good at making friends, and scared of just about everything (heights, enclosed places, violent movies to name a few), so I spent a lot of time in my room making up stories and copying Disney pictures. I went through a period in middle school where I was trying out identities and I decided that being an artist would be swell, because that's what social misfits do best, right? Unfortunately, I didn't take into account all the hard work it would take to succeed, and I very nearly failed out of art in the tenth grade.

That scared me off drawing until I was nineteen or so. I started reading Blade of the Immortal and Sandman and realized that comics would be the ideal medium for me express both my interest in storytelling and art. Instead of partying through college, I spent most nights cooped up in my room reading comics and attempting to make my own. Fun times for me, though!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Your hard work paid off! So how did you decide to start Evil Diva? What inspired it all, and why a comic about devils?

Pete: It was inspired by my daughter. On a trip to Disneyland, she draw a picture and came up with the name "Evil Diva". I thought it was cool, but the idea sat in the back of my head until April 2008, when I gave Brinson the title and she quickly sketched out Diva on a Post-It note. Next came Angela, then the whole Beelze family; we liked the visuals but were stumped for a concept until I came up with the idea that she was a little devil who just wanted to be good. It all happened in the span of an afternoon.

Brinson: For me, it wasn't so important that the comic was about devils or angels, but that Diva was going against her cultural norms. My family always accepted me for who I was, but the books and movies and TV I grew up with always seemed to advocate changing yourself to fit in. I wanted to create a story where the girl struggles to be herself, rather than someone else.

Concept art - 2008

THE XCENTRIKZ: Fun behind the scenes stuff there... I do like the moral to the story you guys have in your comic's theme. How do you feel about the way the comic has evolved and grown since it started?

Pete: Frankly, I'm amazed. I never thought it would become as popular as it has. I thought we had a quirky little comic that maybe 50 people would read. I'm thrilled with the way it's growing, especially now that Joe Cashman (our writer) is on board.

Brinson: Artistically, I'm really happy with where it's going. I feel pretty comfortable with the characters at this point, and it shows -- I feel like the art is getting looser in a good way. In terms of story, we're having a ton of fun planning for the future. This is the first project I've been involved in that is truly a collaboration.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What was it like early on to publicize Evil Diva and get the word out? Do you still work hard at advertising, or are you pretty satisfied with the existing fan base?

Pete: One, it was extremely painful and expensive. You know, initially, it was running me about a thousand dollars a month and I was placing ads on Project Wonderful, Topwebcomics, Buzzcomix, and Onlinecomics.net. However, we've stopped advertising at this point, and we rely primarily on word-of-mouth. But that initial advertising was absolutely crucial to building our userbase.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Wow, well congratulations on your success with that. If you could travel in time to change something in your cartooning career, and thus affect its future… What would you attempt?

Pete: I would have hired Brinson a year earlier.

Brinson: That's a really good question! I suppose I would try to draw more -- it seems like a such a small change, I know, but at this point I've discovered that I have to work that drawing muscle every day to stay in shape. Before I started work on Evil Diva, I hadn't drawn seriously for a year, and it took me a good six months to recover from that.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Yep you can't get rusty. So what are your favorite parts about doing Evil Diva? Do you have a favorite character to draw or write for?

Pete: My favorite part is just coming up with concepts for the stories. ... And throwing money at it. Spending my daughter's college tuition on it.

Brinson: I admit it: I cackle in glee when I get to write Virgil. In a lot of ways, he thinks like I do -- when it comes to big stuff, he doesn't hide things, but he doesn't give away more than is necessary, either. (I'm not nearly as mean as him, though, as much as I'd like to be a cranky old woman.) I also enjoy writing Diva, just because she's naive and it's fun to play that off of everyone else.

As for drawing, Diva comes easiest to me at this point for obvious reasons, but she also has the most elastic expressions. She makes really silly faces, and those are always the most fun to draw.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's great you guys are so passionate about your work, I bet your readers appreciate it. What do your friends and family think of Evil Diva? Do they give you ideas that you use?

Pete: My daughter's constantly trying to give us ideas, and my wife hasn't stopped me from spending money on it yet, which is probably a good sign.

Brinson: My mom really likes it! ... Okay, I guess moms are supposed to like everything you do. Still, she's an elementary teacher, so she's always giving me advice on how to keep it G-rated. (I suppose it's a supreme irony that Pete, Joe and I are writing such a happy, family-friendly comic when we all swear like sailors.) I enjoy bouncing ideas off my sister and her boyfriend (they love movies, so they have a good sense of storytelling). A lot of people help me indirectly by inspiring characters, even if they don't know it.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Is there something you really can’t stand doing for Evil Diva? How do you overcome (or avoid!) this problem?

Pete: I wish I could find a local inker. I wish there was someone who lived in a twenty-mile radius.

Brinson: I haaaated inking. Hate hate HATED. I'm a perfectionist, so I have a habit of fixating on individual lines -- not a good idea when you have a whole page to finish! Fortunately, I found two awesome inkers (HAI and Jayd), so at least I don't have to worry about that anymore.

... Of course, filling in flat colors has replaced inking as my hate du'jour, but at least I can watch DVDs while I do it!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Doing cartooning can be super fun. But many web-comics are for free or non-profit, so it can be really difficult for some authors to make serious living out of it. How do you feel about this?

Pete: I run a design agency, so we have day jobs. Brinson's day job is Evil Diva, but running a design agency pays for it.

Brinson: I feel incredibly lucky that I am making a living off of it, especially because I see so many great artists struggling to make ends meet while turning out quality pages week after week for free. It's a conundrum, though, because I don't see webcomics themselves being profitable, as most readers don't seem interested in paying for content. Which, by the way, is completely understandable. I can get how it would chafe to pay for something as ephemeral as access to a website.

... On the other hand, it's not unusual for artists to put in 10+ hours a page. When they're putting out three pages a week, that's almost a full-time job. It would be nice if they could receive some sort of compensation for their time. With that in mind, I try to buy print editions and trinkets from my favorites, as well as vote. And while comments and emails won't pay the bills, they do provide a great deal of moral support. Everyone can help their favorite comics.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Thanks for advocating that, it's absolutely a great idea to support each other. If you had an “ideal day,” what would it involve?

Pete: Disneyland!

Brinson: ... Pete's pretty easy to please. As for me, I'd probably like to sleep in (for once -- I'm looking at you, loud cats), perhaps roll out of bed and attend a fabulous brunch in Hollywood. Then, maybe some movies, or video games? Mostly, my ideal day would involve being a gigantic louche, though on an ideal day I'd probably get some awesome sketches done in the evening.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ha ha, cool, and sorry about the loud cats in your neighborhood. If you had a super power, what would it be? Would you use it for the comic, your personal life, to affect humanity, or something else?

Pete: That's a really good question. Jedi mind powers? X-ray vision? It would definitely be for my personal life. All for me.

Brinson: I would never get tired! As much as I love to sleep, I lose so much time that could be spent doing something useful to passing out in the nearest soft place. I would use those oodles of hours to work on stories and work on learning stuff I always avoid, like perspective. (Ewwww, perspective.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Any thoughts or predictions, on the future of comics, and their place on the quickly-evolving internet?

Pete: It's the wild West, but that's the beauty of the internet. Anybody with a Wacom and a scanner can put out a comic. It gives you the opportunity to see anything you might want to read a comic about. In the future, I hope entertainment companies will be looking to these comics for ideas. (Hint, hint!)

Brinson: For years and years, indie comics have been trying to interest readers in stories that aren't about dudes in tights, but distribution problems coupled with a general unwillingness to take a chance on new titles (and really, I can't blame consumers-- who wants to pay four bucks for a book that turns out to be a turd?) have made it an uphill struggle. I'm really hoping webcomics can provide that push needed to make the big publishers realize that people are hungry for creative new content. In my dream world, people like Der-shing Helmer (creator of The Meek) will be packing the halls at San Diego in five years' time.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Great perspectives you guys have. Where would you like to see Evil Diva in 1 year? …5 years? Anything you’re hoping to improve with it?

Pete: 1 year, television. 5 years, film. A guy can dream, can't he?

Brinson: I would love for it to blossom into an epic storyline, perhaps with a dash of saving-the-world. I think every artist secretly longs to draw huge battlescenes. (Okay, well, I do.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Anything else to share about Evil Diva? Perhaps a hint on what will happen next…???!

Pete: I'd love to tell ya, but then I'd have to kill you.

Brinson: He'll be here all week. Try the veal.
... No, but seriously -- at this point we've planned a few issues ahead, and we're planning to develop some of the secondary characters. This issue has been about Dad, Diva, and Michelle, but the next will shift to Angela and Gabriel. (Why does Angela hate Diva so darn much? Just how much does Gabriel know?) And, of course, there will be plenty of magical girl antics and Virgil being grumpy.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Heh heh, sounds like some nifty stuff as usual. Hey thank you again for the interview, Brinson, Pete, thanks. It’s so cool of you to take the time to do it. And thanks for bringing Evil Diva to the comic world!

Brinson and Pete: Thanks so much for the fun interview!

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