The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

December 2, 2009

Interview with Tom Truszkowski on his fun scifi creation, Station V3!

(Click on the images to visit the site!)

Here's well-liked Scifi comic and it's no wonder- It's really nifty! Go check out Tom's work, you won't regret it. And it was cool hearing about Tom's favorite scifi inspirations! Hope you like our fun chat below. Enjoy...

The Xcentrikz Team: Hey there Tom, thanks again for the chat about Station V3. How about you pitch something cool about your fun scifi comic? Tell everybody what makes it extra nifty.

Station V3 is a daily sci-fi comic strip set on and around a small rest stop and refueling station in a distant solar system, with a crew that's not quite prepared to deal with all the problems they encounter (pirates, alternate universes, mind control plots, conspiracies, teams of consultants, space warps, etc.) There are also three spinoff comics set in (more or less) the same universe - Z7, Ebb's Children, and Silence in the Darkness on Q16.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How did you get started in doing comics?

The first thing that inspired me to draw comics was Peanuts. I started trying to draw the characters, and making my own comics with the characters I could draw well enough. Eventually I figured out Peanuts was already taken, and started trying to come up with original characters instead.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Is there anything special that got your imagination going, in the beginning of Station V3?

I had been working on a couple different comic strip ideas, none of which were working very well. One of them was set at a radio station, and I drew a little doodle of a robot at the microphone. That led to more doodles of robots and aliens, and eventually a space station to put them on. I kept coming back to the space station comic strip idea, and eventually just decided I should draw a "proper" versions of one of the strips I had doodled and put it online.

...And then I just kept drawing more of them!

THE XCENTRIKZ: What are some of your favorite moments in Station V3?

Some of my favorite moments are where I take some (or all) of the characters out of the space station setting for a while. Half the fun is disrupting the status quo, the other half is finding a way to get them back to it again, and somewhere in the middle you get strips like this one:

(Of course, I also like some of the moments on the station and the
planets nearby, or the comic wouldn't be set there!)

THE XCENTRIKZ: What inspired the Station V3 characters? Did any of your favorite scifi characters from movies or TV affect your creations?

The only regular character directly inspired by a TV show was the Plant, who was inspired by Ficus from "Quark." Like Ficus, the Plant is a thinking plant, but the similarity pretty much ends there, with Ficus being humanoid, and the Plant being planted in a pot and needing to be watered. Many of the characters just started out as random doodles and gradually picked up their names and characteristics. Some of the names were inspired more by music than sci-fi, with the robot Unit 6 being named after the group Unit 4+2, and Emmit the shuttle pilot being named after (but not spelled like) Emitt Rhodes.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Cool. What reactions did the comic get early on? Were viewers generally excited, critical, something else…?

At first I just had the earliest strips up on some web space provided by my ISP at the time, and the only people who knew about it were friends and family, who seemed to like it, and wanted me to keep going with it. Which I did (obviously), and moved to ComicGenesis (KeenSpace at the time) for a while, where more people found out about it, some of whom also liked it.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s something that really challenges you in doing Station V3?

Finding the time for it all! (Especially while also being married and having a full-time job as a computer programmer.)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Yea, that happens! In your opinion, what’s one of the coolest things about the comic?

The setting makes it easy for characters to come and go, and past characters and plotlines can come back at any time. (Sometimes when I'm not even expecting them!)

THE XCENTRIKZ: What are some of the disparaging things people say about Station V3? Did you think the comments were justified?

While some people like the simple art style, other people have said it's TOO simple. I've tried to take any useful feedback I can get from some of the negative comments - For example, when one of the complaints ended with "and it's not even in color," I tried adding color on a daily basis instead of just on Sunday like I had been doing, and decided that was something I could do that would improve the comic.

THE XCENTRIKZ: It did, so that's cool it's pretty easy for you. How’s it been promoting Station V3? What publicity opportunities have worked the best for you?

The basic things have all worked pretty well - guest strips, banner exchanges (though the one that worked the best is gone now), voting lists like TopWebcomics, and advertising on Project Wonderful. Advertising has worked especially well. I've also been part of the PodWarp: 1999 Sci-Fi/Webcomic podcast (http://pod.ghosthamster.com), which I suppose also counts as a publicity opportunity!

THE XCENTRIKZ: How about some fun personal questions… If you had a super sci-fi gadget for one day, what would it be, and what would you do with it?

A time machine might be nice... I'm not sure how well it'd work trying to go to the future to bring back some Station V3 strips already drawn, but maybe I could pick up a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac while I'm there. (Or maybe I could go try to convince my past self to put the comic online a couple years earlier?)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hahah yea. What do you think of life on other planets? What do you suppose it might be like? Do you think scifi authors are even close to what’s really out there?

With all the billions of solar systems out there in billions of galaxies, there's room for the sci-fi authors to be completely right AND completely wrong!

THE XCENTRIKZ: True, haha. Do you consider yourself part of a sub-culture? Geek, hippy, gamer, trekkie, something else…? Why or why not?

Some of those terms could be used to describe me (not so much "gamer" at this point, since most of my video game playing was on the Commodore 64), but if I am a part of any sub-culture, it's not a very active part. I used to post on some Doctor Who newsgroups a while ago, but not so much in the past few years. (I did recently become a member of the Doctor Who Information Network, though!)

THE XCENTRIKZ: How do you feel about life as a web-comic creator? The pros, the cons, the costs of time and resources. What makes it worth it to you, at the end of the day?

While it certainly does take time (and some money for the hosting, domain name, pens and paper, advertising, etc.), it's something I enjoy doing. I like seeing how my drawing has changed (maybe even improved a bit) since the beginning, and I like knowing that there are people out there reading and enjoying the strip (especially when the email me or post on the forum to tell me that).

THE XCENTRIKZ: Anything else to share? How about a clue as to what’ll happen next in your comic?

The station (and the system it's in) recently wound up in the Triangulum Galaxy, and the crew will be trying to either get back home or get used to their new location. (Or possibly a third alternative that hasn't occurred to them yet!)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Thanks a bunch for chatting with me. Keep up the nifty work and have fun. Go read Station V3 folks – Enjoy!

Thanks for inviting me to do the interview!

Back to the Index of The Xcentrikz Interactive Cartoon

Index Community News Ask an Xcentrik About Wall of Xcentrik Fame Media Kit Advertise Contact Us Terms Site Map

All The Xcentrikz interviews are © copyrighted property of Camellia Designs. Written permission from Camellia Designs must be granted before republishing any interview, in any part, in any media format.