The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

Interview with Phillip M. Jackson on his great creation: Sequential Art!

July 1, 2009

Well I had a really nice talk with Phillip about his comic, I hope you enjoy reading it too. Sequential Art is about a guy, his cat-like buddy and a talking penguin friend. Lots of hilarious fun things happen from technology mayhem to wacky fantasy stuff. There's ongoing plots throughout the gag-strips too. If you haven't given it a go already, please try it out! Oh and also, check out his other super work at Collected Curios.

July 1, 2009

THE XCENTRIKZ Team: How did Sequential Art come about in the beginning? Tell me what got you started with this hilarious setup.

Phillip M. Jackson: As with pretty much all of my projects, it started out with lots and lots of sketches on loose leaf paper. This is how I flesh out initial ideas. To begin with, I wasn’t sure what the project was going to be; an issue-by-issue comic or a webcomic. Because of my limited spare time during its genesis, the webcomic approach seemed the most viable option.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Cool. Well Sequential Art has been out a while now and has a successful following of viewers. How do you feel about the way the comic has changed over the years?

PMJ: The artwork is the most obvious thing that’s changed! I like to flick back and forth between the latest strip and the very first. They look like they’re drawn by different people!

The strip also switches between one-strip-gags and longer, multiple-strip arcs. It’s something which I hadn’t thought about doing in the beginning, but which has fleshed out the characters far more effectively than the former method could have.

Oh, and it also gives me a chance to draw high-tech machinery, rayguns and really big explosions.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Alright. So a guy, a gal (cat) and his friend (a penguin)! How did you come up with these charming characters? Why do you think they’re so likeable?

PMJ: The initial three characters were decided upon during the initial sketch-stage that I mentioned earlier.

Art, the main character, was always going to be an artist or cartoonist, but he went through a couple of designs before the human incarnation you see in the finished strip. He started out as a bird-man with a parrot-like beak, then I tried him out as a feline, like Kat. Neither of those really sat well with me. There wasn’t any deep reason for his final design being human, I just kind of liked the idea of an unusual mix of species all living together under one roof.

He was going to be a lot more cynical than the Art you see now, and he was going to constantly be breaking the 4th wall. This version of Art knew he was in a comic and was immensely frustrated that no one else did. I thought that gag might get a bit tired, though, so I ditched it.

Pip was always meant to be a geeky character, but I didn’t want him to be too much of a cliché. He’s a geek, yes, but at the same time he’s supremely confidant (Ok; arrogant) and, I think, actually pretty cool on certain levels; He owns a Bond costume and it suits him!

Kat’s the odd one out because I brought her over from a completely different, and slightly older project. She was the same character and design that you see in Sequential Art, but she had a super hero alter-ego.

Vanity Thorn, Kat’s friend from college, was also ported over from this older project.

People seem to like the SA cast because they can see a bit of themselves in the characters. I get a lot of emails from people saying they’re just like Scarlet or Pip! I think the more a set of characters act like a person would in the real world, be they facing day-to-day drama or crazy sci-fi peril, the more readers warm to them. That in mind, I try to ensure the SA cast make logical decisions, even when facing illogical situations.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Really well thought out stuff, cool. Great to know all that interesting background content! Well, what was it like early on promoting the comic, to get new viewers?

PMJ: That’s the beauty of the internet; you don’t have to do much in the way of promotion. Provided that you supply a steady stream of content, word-of-mouth does a fine job.

When I started out, I told myself that doing the webcomic was just going to be for fun. If people liked it; great, but I wasn’t going to force it on people. I obviously posted a few strips in forums that I already frequented, but beyond that; I did very little myself to get SA noticed.

THE XCENTRIKZ: So did you do other comic work, before Sequential Art? Did you draw or doodle a lot as a kid?

PMJ: I’ve drawn since I could pick up a pen, and I’ve been interested in comics since I was introduced to Garfield as a kid.

I did a very surreal webcomic before Sequential Art, very much like the Spider & Scorpion strip. It was just something I did during my lunch break at my first job. I sent it ‘round the office, it got a few giggles and one charitable co-worker put together a little website for it (www.pipingrad.com).

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do you enjoy the most about doing Sequential Art?

PMJ: Watching the hit-counter on my website go up after I’ve posted a new strip. It’s great knowing that it’s got a nice sized audience, and that I’m doing a good enough job to hold their attention! I get a real kick out of entertaining people.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Wonderful... So are there things that challenge you when doing Sequential Art? If so, how do you work through them?

PMJ: Coming up with new scripts can be a challenge if you’re just not feeling in the zone. There’s no real way to work through that, you’ve just got to wait it out. That’s why I have a notebook full of potential script ideas. I add to it whenever something funny or interesting pops into my head, and when I’ve got writer’s block I leaf through it and use something I came up with earlier.

THE XCENTRIKZ: There’s always a critic… How do you deal with people who are critical to your comic?

PMJ: I love critics. There are two types. The first is a constructive critic; they’ll pick apart whatever it is you’ve presented them and make suggestions on how to improve it. At first this might seem a little grating, but it does make you look at your own work in a different way, and that’s always a good thing.

The second type of critic just points out flaws, often insulting of the material and the artist at the same time. I like these guys too. Their illogical rants provide you with some great comic ammunition!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Heh heh heh!! Yeah. What typically instigates your great sense of humour? Other entertainers or cartoonists (if so, who?!) Or just things you see in your life’s experiences?

PMJ: Aside from some of the more obvious parodies, it’s scary, but some of the funniest things I’ve put into SA; I just have no idea what inspired them. I run through scenarios in my head and sometimes what I see is just really funny. (This can be a little embarrassing if I’m running through scenarios while walking down the street. I have to stifle a laugh or grin which probably makes me look like a loony. Those ideas are usually the best!)

I read a lot of reference books, watch the news and a lot of documentaries, so I have a pretty broad general knowledge. I guess much of what goes into SA is born of that.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Great. What do you think about your fan base?

PMJ: I’m amazed I even have one! Utterly delighted that I do, though! There are some people that have really got into the whole SA mythology that’s been built up over the last few years. I’m really happy to have them along for the ride.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do your friends and family think of your work as a cartoonist?

PMJ: My family’s always had more faith in my abilities as an artist than I have, so they’re very pleased to see it’s working out (thus far) for me.

I have a few friends that have openly said that they’re envious I get to draw all day. I try not to rub it in though. That would be wrong. And they’d throw things at me….

THE XCENTRIKZ: Doing web-comics for a living or a hobby can be really cool. But many web-comics are published for free viewing and non-profit. So it can be hard for some authors, who balance maintaining a free web-comic along with their day-job. What are your thoughts on this?

PMJ: It’s all about priorities. Producing a finished strip takes between 1 and 2 hours for me. That’s a pretty big chunk of time out of your working day, so I can see how it could be considered a fairly thankless effort unless you charge people to view the end result.

However, I, like others, treat my webcomic as a form of advertising. A method of promoting my name and other works. If I didn’t constantly add something new to my website, people would stop visiting it, making it harder for me later on when I have a new project to promote.

If you’re not dependant on generating your own revenue stream, though, and just do the comic as a hobby; don’t break your neck trying to update it every day! You’ll just burn yourself out. Switch to a once-a-week format that doesn’t eat into either your (paid) working time or your leisure time (you need to switch off!). As long as you still update, your audience will stay, and they’ll be there when you need them.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What advice would you like to share with other comic creators out there?

PMJ: First; draw what YOU want to draw. If you’re gonna do something for a living, you have to enjoy it. There’s an audience for just about every conceivable idea out there, and thanks to the internet they’re easy to find!

If you commit to something you’re not passionate about, it’ll rapidly become a chore.

Second; stick with it. If you want to make a successful webcomic, you have to do a lot of work. Don’t expect a huge audience after drawing just a handful of strips. In fact; don’t expect a huge audience EVER, as it may never come to be, but it CERTAINLY won’t come to be if you don’t keep drawing.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Very good advice, well done! Any thing else you’d like to share with me? A hint on the future of Sequential Art…?

PMJ: I’m working on a whole bunch of comic books that I’m hoping to get into print over the next couple of years, be it through a print-on-demand service or a “real” publisher. I don’t want to broadcast too much about them until they’re closer to being finished, though.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Ah-ha! Great. Well thank you for talking about Sequential Art! I really appreciate you taking the time. May you update the comic for many more years to come, Phillip!

PMJ: Thanks :)

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