The Xcentrikz - Interactive Comic

Interview with the amazing creator of The Zombie Hunters,

Jenny Romanchuk!

July 14, 2009

WOW! I just had the honor of chatting with the talented gal who created The Zombie Hunters. She's an exceptional writer and illustrator all rolled into one. So if'n'yas like zombies and horror you've just gotta check out her work. The content is rated by the author as follows: "THIS COMIC IS RATED R. This comic contains coarse language, gore, violence, and nudity. Viewer discretion is advised. " It's updated every Monday and the occasional Thursday. There also a couple books based on the comic which is fun. Hope you like the interview, tell me and Jenny what you thought of it! Thanks.

The Xcentrikz Team: Hello Jenny! Talking with me about The Zombie Hunters will be lots of fun, and I hope your readers out there have fun, too. We always like to share our viewers with other great comics. For new readers to The Zombie Hunters, how about you pitch something to them? What make the comic special in your opinion?

Why hello there! :D

I have a pitch all written up that I use for other things, but heaven help me when I try to remember it, I never am able to!

This webcomic, The Zombie Hunters, is a new look at an old theme. It is inspired by a post-apocalyptic vision of the future as well as past human history. This story follows a group of zombie hunters as they go though life as survivors of the undead outbreak. They reside on an island that is home to the Argus Research Campus (ARC). The hunters, like so many others on the island, are infected-- They carry a dormant strain of the undead virus, which will cause them to turn into one of several different types of undead when they die. The infected are marked and segregated from the rest of the inhabitants on the island, making a living by working offshore in the wastes, hunting zombies and collecting salvage, trading their freedom for safety. As the story unfolds you'll find out more about the characters and their sordid pasts and discover hidden secrets about them, their world, and the people that surround them. Got lots of gore, zombies, mystery, humor, guns, girls....need I say more?

THE XCENTRIKZ: Hey cool, thanks. You are exceptionally talented, especially so at a younger age. How did you get started in doing comics? What’s it been like to hone your skills over the years?

When I was little I used to write storybook comics, they were mostly about cats, or dinosaurs. Usually done on lined paper, each page was a panel, and the thing would go on for like... 100 pages that I would crudely staple together. The story's were mostly rip offs of The Land Before Time and Homeward Bound. And I had this fascination with my characters swimming and eating. I need to upload those old stories one day, they were so bad!

But other than that I would just doodle endlessly, I think I had about 80 unfinished stories before I rolled out of bed and went "Hey! I am going to make a webcomic!" I am surprised that I was able to stick with this project for so long.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Where you into comics and zombie-stuff when you were a kid? What did you like back then and how do you think it might influence your work now?

I wasn't into comics at all when I was younger, because I thought that all comics had to do with superheroes and I hated HATED most of the comic artwork out there, all the characters had muscles coming out of everywhere, and I could never like the characters. when I was in high-school I found there was a lot more out there, and by the time college rolled around I was a comic-a-holic.

I HATED zombies when I was younger, I used to be terrified of anything undead, zombie books and movies... I stayed as far away from as I possibly could. This may have helped in the long run, for coming up with some original ideas, but yeah, zombies scared me so much! When I decided to face my fears and actually do a comic on zombies, I think my liking for dinosaurs helped a lot for all the gory nom nom stuff the zombies do haha. And for coming up with the different classes :)

THE XCENTRIKZ: Anything in particular that got your imagination going, in the beginning of The Zombie Hunters? How’d you get started?

I literally rolled out of bed one day and was like "I am going to make a comic! Yaaaaaay!" there was no planning or foresight involved (which is bad I recommend to never ever do this!) But I got a lot of my inspiration from watching WW2 documentaries and listening to a lot of music that I felt created the mood of the comic. I'll often sit and daydream about the comic to music, making up scenes and music videos in my brain.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Well it's fun to hear what gets you excited. So we’ve heard that some of your characters are inspired off real people. Awesome! Could you tell me more about that, and also how you developed your totally fictional characters?

Sammie, Jenny (me, lol) Katie, Maureen, and Dan, are all based off of real people. As the story progressed the characters in the comic spawned a life of their own, the only things that the characters in the comic share with their real life counterparts is their first and last names, and that they 'sorta' look like us. The TZH characters kind of grew into their own people, as characters should. I have stopped using real people as main characters for personal reasons, but for the fictional characters I will use traits of people I know and implement them into the other characters, like Milo, Jasper, Charlie, Megan etc. I find that making up your own characters is a lot easier than using real life characters. Although it's fun making people I know into zombies! :D

THE XCENTRIKZ: Haha. Cool. What’s something that really challenges you in doing The Zombie Hunters?

Sometimes it's just the simple thing of working up the drive to draw, especially if you are feeling sick, or you just don't have the groove that day, but you just gotta do it.

Also, another challenge, and a BIG headache is that currently I am unable to go to any conventions I was invited to in the US, because we came across a border guard who was having a bad day, and decided that he didn’t like me, and he flagged my passport. So now I am unable to cross into the United States at all. Greg and I are currently working to fix that, but it’s going to take us a lot of time, and money to do this, which is keeping us from being able to go to any conventions at all in the US or in Canada. And because we cannot travel to these conventions, which is where we would make most of our money so we can make merch and comics…. It’s just a terrible cycle that we are struggling to break currently.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Bummer! Good luck on that. So what is one of the most rewarding things about doing the comic?

When people say that they are inspired to work on their own thing, or the comic gave them the push they needed to finish something that they have had on the backburner for a while. That’s like the best ego growing feeling: inspiring people to create.

THE XCENTRIKZ: That's great! How has it been promoting the comic to new viewers? How do you think it got as popular as it is today?

When we first started this in 2004 we had very few readers. A lot has changed since then. I think a lot of it's growth and popularity is attributed to the new site design overhaul that we did, making things easy for people to read and access the comic has helped a lot too. You have less than 2 seconds to catch someone's interest online and draw them in to your comic, so your website should always be easy to access, and nice to look at, also the site design should carry a certain feel for the comic, and what they should expect. Same with the advertising, we advertise on project wonderful so the ad buttons I always make sure they LOOK like something you would expect from a zombie comic :)

Also zombies seem to have exploded in popularity as of late, not sure why, but I would assume that contributes to TZH's sudden rise in popularity haha.

THE XCENTRIKZ: How about some fun personal questions… If you could go back in time to change something in your life, what might it be?

Oh I have no idea, I always felt that if you went back in time to change something things would be different present day. And I am pretty content with how things are now, so I don't think I would change anything =D

Although maybe I would have opened a high interest savings account when I was younger, that could have been useful! Haha.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Stranded on a desert island! What three items would you want to have?

A fishing rod, A boat (to get off of said island), fresh water.

:D I give myself like 3 days to live ahaha.

THE XCENTRIKZ: NOW you’re stranded on a desert island… WITH ZOMBIES! What single item, and one friend would you want to have with you?

I would like to have a gun, and I would like Greg (My webmaster) to be there, because he would know how to use said gun lol.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Haha! Okay so tell us, what’s a busy day in the life of Jenny like?

It's pretty mundane-- honestly, paint drying is more exciting than my day. When it's a comic working day I get up at about 8:00 every morning, I then clean the house and do the laundry, pay bills, do the dishes and all those other fun chores. After those are all done I plant myself in the office and work on comics, commission work, the website, respond to emails... there is a huge list of stuff to be done. I generally make a plan to figure out what needs to be done, just so I don't get overwhelmed, which can happen! I work until it's time to make supper, then I usually chill out for a few hours before getting back to work until about 10 or so, then I go to bed!

When it's a non comic day I tend to just mess around on the internet until one of my friends drags me out of the house :)

Very boring! Haha.

THE XCENTRIKZ: Boring, but sounds like a good life for a cartoonist! ... So what're your favorite foods and music?

I love all kinds of food, and I love trying new things. Lately I have been enjoying a lot of spicy foods though. Like curries and Thai stuff, it's just so tasty!

I have a diverse music collection, I know a lot of people say that, but on my playlist you'll find Britney Spears alongside various bluegrass songs, alongside some Marilyn Manson stuff. I dislike about 95% of rap though, and I hate that screamy rock music, ugh!

THE XCENTRIKZ: What’s one of the weirdest things that’s happened to you in doing The Zombie Hunters?

The weirdest? I am not sure, I have had some pretty strange fan encounters, but overall nothing really weird has happened haha. Probably after this interview I will think of a billion weird things!

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?

I like the life a lot, I have done a lot of jobs working for someone else and hated it.

I really like being my own boss. But it definitely comes with a price, you have to work ten times as hard as you would than at any old regular job, because you are handling all the financing, the banking, the legal stuff, and all that boring annoying stuff that goes with running a small business. But being able to stand back and go, "Wow, I did this! Look at all that I have accomplished!" Makes it so worth it haha.

THE XCENTRIKZ: What do you think of your readers?

They are pretty awesome I have to say! And most of them are pretty scary individuals ;) my audience consists of perhaps over 80% percent of males and people who are into the whole survivalist hobby, or are in the military, or involved in something related to guns, so they're all pretty tough customers who will defend me in a pinch. Or rather, I'll have a lot of people rescuing me when the zombies come!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Okay so what’s this I heard about an exciting RPG of The Zombie Hunters, AND a book? Will the book be a graphic novel of the comic as we’ve seen it so far, or something else?

The RPG won't be happening for a while I'm afraid but the graphic novel will be out as soon as pre-orders are complete! The book will contain chapters 1-4. 152 pages in total, the book will be printed full-colour, on a high-gloss paper. The book is softcover, notch and will be bound. :) Extras include never before seen concept art, more in-depth character analysis with pre-production art, footnotes and other information from the author (me) and stuff! Yay!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Yea, yay is right! Well anything else to share with your fans out there? How about a clue as to what’ll happen next in The Zombie Hunters?

Besides the fact that the fans are awesome? (Which I think they already know.) I really dunno what to say! Just keep reading I suppose haha. As for the clues? I am afraid I can't do that ;) people are just going to have to read and find out what's going to happen next!

THE XCENTRIKZ: Thanks again for the awesome interview Jenny, keep up the great work and have fun.

Let me know if you need anything else! Thanks for the interview! It was a lot of fun :D

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