Q: When did you first discover Game Boy?
A: Man, when did the first one come out? No wait, don’t tell me...I’ll feel old. I had the first Game Boy, though...the huge one that went through like 12 batteries an hour and was roughly the size of a GameCube. I loved it loved it LOVED IT! I played tennis, Super Mario Land, Tetris...the fact that I didn’t have to stop playing Nintendo when my family left the house was just awesome. These kids today don’t know what it was like, having to go through withdrawal on family outings in the days before Game Boy!Q: What is your favorite Game Boy game?
A: My GameBoy is my little nostalgia machine. I’m really into all the old-school games, like I used to play on NES and SNES. Zelda! Super Mario Brothers! Dig-Dug! Tetris! It’s an amazing little machine, and as someone who grew up on Atari, I’m still blown away by the fact that all the graphically “advanced” games I played on NES and SNES are available in a hand-held format. God, I sound old, don’t I? All these “I remember...”s. I’m still young and hip and cool, I swear!
Q: You’re also a big Star Wars fan, do you like the games?
A: I’m a huge Star Wars nut. I can’t help it...it’s been ingrained in me since 1977! I really dig the Lego Star Wars game- I’m practically salivating for the upcoming Original Trilogy edition. The great thing about Star Wars games is simply the variety of gameplay, from the side-scrollers (like Super Star Wars, for example- man, those games are hard!) to racing games to strategy games- whatever style game you like, there’s most likely a Star Wars game out there in that category.
Q: What did you think of the new Star Wars flicks?
A: I thought they were a little clunky at times, but overall they make me very happy. The new trilogy got better with each installment, I think, and I really liked Revenge of the Sith a lot. I thought it tied in to the original trilogy quite well and there were a lot of nods to people who know and love the original movies so much. I totally nerded-out for that one and waited on line for the first showing at 12:01am on opening day- it was great! There were tons of costumed people wandering around, a life-size remote-controlled R2-D2 roaming the sidewalks, and everyone was really excited to be there. The last Star Wars movie- a big deal for a nerd like me!
Q: You are also the inker on another video game based comic, Bloodrayne. How did you get involved with that?
A: There’s a fantastic website out there for aspiring comic creators: Digital Webbing. You can post work for critique or hook up with other creators as well; there’s always writers looking for artists and vice-versa. When I was first starting out as an inker, I posted my work at the site and worked my way up the ladder, as it were. I started inking small projects and short stories for books like Digital Webbing Presents (yes, the website has a companion anthology). Digital Webbing has expanded from publishing only the anthology to publishing a small line of books, including BloodRayne. Because I’d made myself so visible on the site (and I guess my inks were good enough), DW head honcho Ed Dukeshire asked if I’d like to ink the BloodRayne books and I jumped at the chance. It’s a great character and the book is a blast to work on. I’m very fortunate to be a part of it!
Q: Can we expect more Game Boy and/or Mario inspired episodes of The Sticks in the future?
A: Oh, undoubtedly. I’m sure Link will make an appearance eventually, and there’s definitely more Mario adventures in the future. Hopefully something with Toad...I love that Toad. Hmm...maybe some Super Mario Kart action...and you know, I’ll have to play a lot of games for research. Yeah, that’s it! For research!
Q: You sure keep yourself busy, what else are you working on?
A: Things are pretty crazy right now, I must admit. I’m putting out a Toosday Toon strip every...uh, Tuesday (go figure), and a Star Wars strip every Saturday at The Sticks. I’m still chugging away at BloodRayne- the 3-issue mini-series Plague of Dreams hits shelves this August. I’m also manning art duties on a top-secret, soon-to-be-announced project that I’m REALLY excited about. I can’t spill the beans quite yet, though, so folks will have to check in at The Sticks for details in the days to come. I also run a little site where I get to write about another favorite interest of mine, horror movies. The site is called Final Girl and I do movie reviews, commentaries, essays, whatever I can come up with, really. In the 5 spare minutes a day I have, I try to feed my video game addiction! I mean, umm, do research...