The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

November 18, 2009

Interview with Erin Ptah, creator of Shine, the webcomic!

(Click on the images to visit the site!)

Check out this awesome manga-style comic which was originally inspired by the Hellsing series. It's now developed into a storyline in its own right, and Erin has done a fabulous job of it. Enjoy, and look forward to the spoiler at the end of the interview!

--- Eliza Schrieber

Eliza from The Xcentrikz Team: Thank you so much for the interview, Erin! Do tell everybody about your very fun supernatural adventure comic, “Shine”. I'd like to encourage new people to view it.

Erin: Thank you for the offer!

Shine started as a Hellsing fancomic, and has developed over the years into a Massive Multiplayer Crossover. (Yes, I talk in TV Tropes.) But plenty of people have told me they didn't get into Hellsing until the comic introduced them, so non-fans shouldn't be put off.

It started out with cracky, random adventures, then developed some more serious and involved adventures, and now it's approaching the plot of the main Hellsing series - so expect a lot of death and destruction. Still with a punch line every day, though. It's more fun that way.

THE XCENTRIKZ: So tell me about your early days. Did you do comics before this one? Has your work changed much, since you started with Shine?

Erin: I started Shine when I was a high school freshman, so I had never had the time or opportunity to do anything like it before. In retrospect, I was always drawing random comics - somewhere in my room there's a box with maybe half a dozen pages of a magical girl story, which is basically Sailor Moon at summer camp with cat-people. But without any feedback or incentive to focus I never got through a full story, let alone something as long and involved as Shine has been.

A lot of readers actually tell me how much my art style has improved since the early days. Which isn't much to brag about, considering the incredible awkwardness of those first strips. (I comfort myself about them with a sage quote from Chuck Jones: "Everyone has 200,000 bad drawings in them. The sooner you get them out, the better.")

People don't comment as often about the writing, and it's less obvious, but that's changed too. For one thing, I've gotten more comfortable with violence and psychological darkness, not to mention sex. (At the time I started the strip, I had yet to even kiss anyone. How's that for perspective?) The comic still holds to a PG-13 rating, but I think it's more well-rounded now, even if these aspects aren't explored as deeply as they could be.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Now, what events led up to starting Shine? Anything in particular?

Erin: A couple of things. A friend of mine had introduced me to webcomics recently, sending me half a dozen links (I remember Venus Envy was among them, but I couldn't tell you the others), and I was hooked. So the idea of archiving such things online, and that ComicGenesis (then Keenspace) had all the code set up for easy automatic updating, was fresh in my mind.

And then I was introduced to Hellsing, and it was love at first sight. Which leads neatly into the next question...

THE XCENTRIKZ: Why’d you get inspired to create a spinoff of the popular anime/manga series, Hellsing?

Erin: High school anime club. First episode of Hellsing. (The TV series. There was no OVA in those days; the first volume of the manga wasn't even released in English until a year later.) My dad picked me up afterwards, and I spent the whole ride home excitedly rehashing the plot. If my life were a movie, they would call that foreshadowing.

It wasn't until the third episode that I realized I was in mad fangirl love with Integra. A couple of good friends and fellow club members were also becoming fannish about the show. So I drew a short series of comic strips involving the main cast of Hellsing being attacked by fangirls, who latched onto them and ranted excitedly about how awesome they were. My friends were amused. I was encouraged. A feedback loop was born.

THE XCENTRIKZ: The comic’s world is also partly inspired by the series Victorian Romance Emma. Tell us what interested you about this series?

Erin: This is actually a long and convoluted story, and it starts with a reader I had been talking with for a while, who was a fan of Read Or Die. There was no Megaupload or Sendspace or any of those services at the time (also, we walked seven miles to school in the snow!), so he transferred the entire TV series (R.O.D The TV) to me over AIM, one episode at a time. The plot was a bit hard to track on first viewing, but I adored the characters, especially Nenene. And the potential for a crossover was obvious.

I mentioned somewhere that I would love to work the series into Shine, if only I had a good premise to get the characters together. At some point Xuanwu (he currently runs the Create a Comic Project, and also writes for Strange Candy) spoke up, saying in essence "Hey, I have this very long and complicated idea for a crossover, involving Read Or Die, and this other series called Victorian Romance Emma, and also time travel. Are you interested?"

We got to emailing, and we clicked instantly, and eventually hashed out the whole six-part crossover, timey-wimey twists and all. Basically, an unlikely team combining the Hellsing Organization, the Vatican's Section XIII, and the British Library ended up thrown back into Victorian London, where they have to up and foil a plot to kill one of Integra's grandparents. It's right in the middle of the events of Dracula, so everyone thinks the target is Abraham Van Helsing.

The twist, of course, is that they've got the wrong guy: the villains are going after Integra's grandfather on her mother's side. That would be Hakim Atawari, one of the principal characters of Emma. So the whole reason I got into the series was to be able to handle that crossover properly.

People still recommend series to me based on their crossover potential with Shine. I haven't done anything else nearly this big in terms of the comic, but I've gotten to see a lot of great shows, which is always fun.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Fun stuff to know there, wow. Okay how about this: If Shine were featured in an animated series, what would you imagine it being like?

Erin: Hopefully a lot of the continuity hiccups would be smoothed over. A lot of the storylines would probably be expanded or abridged to get each episode at a consistent length. There would be the obligatory onsen episode, using some convoluted excuse to get all the female characters together in nothing but towels.

Also, it would have already ended, (in spite of the fact that the comic is still going on), skipping the upcoming Battle Royale With Cheese in favor of a depressing showdown with a villain who has no genitals.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Neat! How much do you interact with the comic’s viewers?

Erin: I'm not a very social person by nature, so most of the interaction has been what the readers bring to me. I get a lot of email, which I try to reply to promptly (no promises, though), and I'll talk to people who IM me. One day a group of people created a fanlisting, which had a forum attached, and that's when I discovered there was actually demand for one.

These days there's an official ComicGen forum; I read everything posted there, and if people ask questions I'll usually answer, unless it involves spoilers. And once in a while I'll encourage discussion/speculation by offering cameos to whoever guesses an upcoming plot twist correctly. Plus there's a rotating poll on the front page, which lets me get an idea of how the general readership feels about whatever I happen to be asking about.

On top of the general conversation, I get sent a lot of useful material: interesting links, ideas for jokes, lyrics to Hellsing-themed parodies of songs. Most of these find their way into the comic eventually. I'm a creative omnivore; I'll sink my teeth into pretty much anything.

The most explosive reader-response situation has been the fangirl storylines, in which people send in brief profiles of themselves along with their best character-adoration rants, and get drawn in as fangirls and fanboys in a replication of the events of those first Shine strips. The first year I opened that up to submissions, I was overwhelmed with responses, and the storyline got noticeably unwieldy trying to fit everyone in. I've tried to make them more manageable since.

Oh, and the fundraisers! Can't forget about those! Once in a while I do some sort of charity thing, and see how much money the readership can raise. One year we bought a llama through Heifer International. Just this October we raised a thousand dollars for the American Cancer Society. It's pretty cool.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How important is recognition to you? Do you feel satisfied with the amount of viewers you already have, or do you wish the comic was more well known?

Erin: I do need some feedback to keep me motivated, but it's not a very high threshold. Before I put anything online, I built up a buffer of three months' worth of strips, running only on the amusement of the two close friends who were reading it in person.

I've been pleasantly surprised by all kind of feedback I've gotten, up to and including this interview request. More recognition might be cool, but it's not necessary. Although if you ask me after I've started working on something I can sell, you'll probably get a different answer.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What was it like in the beginning to publicize the comic? Do you still work hard at advertising?

Erin: The first bit of publicity I ever did was a post on the Hellsing LiveJournal community, which got maybe half a dozen comments. Some were amused. At least one was skeptical. If I had been in fandom longer, I think that might have been discouraging - but I had absolutely no sense that this might be impossible. From that point on, it was mostly word-of-mouth.

I've never made any organized effort to promote Shine. Okay, I've made entries for it on various webcomic-categorizing sites, I participate in ComicGenesis' internal advertising system, and I put a link in my signature on forums and such, and I leave cards around at Otakon (when I remember to print them). But it's not like I've ever done anything that requires a lot of effort. Or money.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do your friends and family think of your work? Do they give you ideas that you use?

Erin: I already mentioned how it was the enthusiasm of friends who got me started. These days I have a lot of friends I've actually met through the comic - and, as a bonus, it provides a handy way for people I've lost touch with to track me down again.

My family has been very supportive, if a bit confused at times. My parents are both academics, although Dad is an old-school sci-fi geek, so he's provided a lot of indirect ideas by, say, introducing me to Doctor Who. Mom isn't very fannish at all, but she's done some in-depth studying of Christianity, so I've drawn her into the strip a couple of times to explain the background when the Catholic and Protestant characters are fighting over hairy theological details.

And my brother is actually into anime, so he's a total it-getter. (He was eleven when I discovered Hellsing, though, so I didn't let him watch it for a while.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Wow neat! Well is there something you really can’t stand doing? How do you overcome (or avoid!) this problem?

Erin: In terms of comics, I've never liked dealing with backgrounds. Fortunately, I have the entire body of Hellsing anime and manga on my hard drive, which means that much of that job can be done through the magic of copypaste.

Crowd scenes are hard too, so a lot of the time I just cheat and draw a pile of grey vaguely-human silhouettes. Basically, whenever there's something I'm not interested in drawing and I want to get on to the fun bits, I try to find a way to simplify the task.

Outside of comics...well, I hate washing dishes. But it gets bearable if you put the laptop nearby and load up something entertaining on Netflix. Little Britain makes everything better.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Is Shine more of a hobby to you, or a job? If you have another occupation, tell us about it!

Erin: Well, it takes the time of a part-time job, but it pays like a hobby...

I've been a full-time student the whole time I've been drawing the comic, with occasional part-time jobs or internships along the way. Like the month I spent interning with Equality Maryland, the group in my home state that works for LGBTQ rights. And now I'm in my senior year of college, thoroughly ready to be done with school, but without much idea of what I'm going to do next - besides continue Shine, at least for a little while longer.

So, if any of you know of jobs in the Boston area that will be open starting next May, drop me a line?

THE XCENTRIKZ: If you had an “ideal day,” what would it involve?

Erin: Well, for starters, lots and lots of sleep. Left to my own devices, my sleep schedule tends to drift around until I'm falling asleep around eight in the morning and not waking up until four in the afternoon. (And people wonder why I like vampires.)

There would be some reading of good books. And good manga. And good fanfiction, freshly posted. And good webcomics - there are so many that I like but am way behind in reading.

Hang out with friends. Watch a movie. Play with some cats. Win the lottery. Eat a lot of meals featuring cheese.

Break in the evening for the Daily Show and Colbert Report, both of which would involve the hosts making out with each other on top of their respective desks. And spend the commercials making out with Integra. (...Look, you did ask for an ideal.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's pretty colorful! Have you ever fantasized that your real life could be more like your comic? Why or why not?

Erin: Oh, good grief, no. I'm an ordinary civilian, remember, and any Hellsing-based comic involves civilians dying by the truckload.

Any time someone asks me "What anime universe would you like to live in?", I tell them Pokemon. Not because I'm a huge fan, but because it's a world in which ten-year-olds can take cross-country trips on foot and never worry about food, clothing, or whether they're going to get mugged. Who wouldn't want real life to be more like that?

THE XCENTRIKZ: Haha, okay. If two of your characters had the ultimate fight, who would you pick, and who would win? Would be a physical confrontation or a battle of the words?

Erin: There have been a couple of epic fights already. Among the most dramatic so far: Integra versus a passel of ancient mystical forces; Seras versus Rip; Yomiko Readman (Read Or Die) versus Alucard (this one ended when Integra clued them in to the fact that they were on the same side; Alucard and Integra versus Crowley and Aziraphale (Good Omens); and the three-way battle between Yumie, Robin (Witch Hunter Robin), and Timothy (an OC) with the help of Anthy and the eponymous Utena.

Plenty more to come, of course. If you've read through the end of the Hellsing manga, you know some of the ones coming up, but with all the other series involved, they're already starting to change. For instance, a surprise character replaced Rip in Alucard's battle on the H.M.S. Eagle, leaving Rip alive to have a dramatic confrontation with someone else. (Reseda? Heinkel? Madeline? Who knows? I sure don't. But I'll figure it out soon enough.) Not to mention that mysterious shadowy figure the Major has been seen chatting with.

Most of these fights are physical, although my favorites are won with ingenuity rather than brute force. When there's a long battle sequence with nothing interesting going on, I tend to represent it with the characters playing Go Fish. (I mentioned that I cheat on the art a lot, right?)

THE XCENTRIKZ: If you suddenly had limitless resources and time to improve Shine, what would you do?

Erin: Actually, the first thing I would work on would not be Shine at all, but another fancomic, Pretty Knight Sailor Hellsing. It's an absolutely cracktastic fusion of the Sailor Moon and Hellsing storylines, and while I like the writing, the art is from 2003. But it's several hundred pages long, which means I would never have the time and energy to redraw it all now.

Then I would redesign the site, either by hiring someone or by taking a bunch of classes on how to do it right. It's functional now, but the elements are entirely cobbled-together, the HTML is outdated, the CSS is amateur at best, and there are a bunch of other accessibility issues.

Speaking of the site, a lot of the actual content needs updating. The character profiles on the Hellsing section don't take into account the last few volumes of the manga; the Emma section is only half-finished; and there's a stack of unsorted pictures on my hard drive that really ought to be in the gallery.

On a more fanciful note, if I really did have limitless time, I would make a thorough study of all the non-English languages spoken by Shine characters (including Japanese, Italian, German, French, Spanish, and Sanskrit) and learn to write in all of them. At the moment the only time I don't just write in English is when the characters are speaking French (as in conversations between Pip and Madeline, or young Pip and his grandfather), and even those always get much-needed corrections from helpful French-speaking readers.

Oh, and I would take a trip to India, and do some research there. Because I would love to do a storyline that dealt with the Indian half of Integra's family, but I don't even know enough to have any real ideas, much less do it properly.

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

Erin: The fact that anyone and their dog can put a comic online is a massive leveling of the playing field. On the one hand, that means Sturgeon's Law is in full force. On the other, for the ten percent of webcomics that are worthwhile, computers give them exponentially more artistic potential.

I didn't start to become aware of newspaper comics until a few years before Calvin and Hobbes ended. Fortunately, my great-grandfather is a long-time fan, and he eventually sent me the tenth anniversary collection. In it, Bill Watterson talks about his struggles with the newspaper syndicate just to break out of the "so many boxes, in so many rows" limitation for Sunday strips in favor of a single large field, which he could fill with any panel layout he felt like. Watterson also reminisced about the comics of fifty years earlier, when the whole front page of a newspaper could be filled with a single strip: one visually lush scene of Little Nemo in Slumberland, one poetic episode of Krazy Kat. I have collections of both of these strips, and even their oversized pages aren't large enough to do all the detail justice.

The Internet gives us the equivalent of an endless page - Scott McCloud's "infinite canvas" - along with infinite tolerance for experimentation. Most of Shine's daily strips are a simple three-panel layout, but I've drawn storylines at twice the height, in manga-page format, based on a children's book layout - not to mention the coloring, which can be fully shaded, pencil-shaded, colored-penciled, spot-colored - basically, if something completely different will suit the story best, I go for it. To say nothing of Sundays: they have no standard layout in the first place, and it shows. (The strip below this is a Little Nemo pastiche.)

Creative types are like goldfish: we'll expand to fit the bowl you put us in. And you won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big this particular bowl is.

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

Erin: Battles, for one thing. So many battles that I'm probably going to need a chart just to keep track of who's alive when - not to mention who's on what continent. I've already started making lists of all the crossovers involved, from the major players to all the little cameos. (You know Calvin and Hobbes aren't going to take a vampire attack lying down.)

Also, last-minute romance! Got to get a few tender moments in between certain couples before one or both of them die messily. Heinkel and Yumiko are due for a scene together soon, after the Christmas storyline, which is slated to be an Iscariot-themed takeoff on A Christmas Carol - Tiny Timothy and all.

If anyone's interested in speculating more, there's a Wild Mass Guessing page for the comic on TVTropes. (There's also a page for the comic in general.) Sometimes I'll even confirm or deny the theories, although for the most part I just like to keep people guessing.

Oh, and Integra is definitely going to get to kill the Major. You heard it here first.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Thanks for the cool spoiler there! Hey Erin, thank you for telling us more about your work! Please view this neat adventure comic, everybody.

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