Spotlight Comic Interview: Freefall by Mark Stanley

1) Name, site or sites that you create for, and location (State if in US, country if elsewhere)

Freefall is located at http://freefall.purrsia.com. There are mirror and translation sites, but the Purrsia is the only site I can update.

2) How long have you been creating comics? Have you stayed with a particular style of artwork, or have you evolved it over time (like switching from pens to digital, anime to realistic, etc)

I started drawing in my teens. It's been more of a hobby than something I've pursued as a profession. When it came to taking art or science classes, art took second place. When computer art and animation started showing up, then it was fun because the two fields combined. My style? Mostly from looking at newspaper cartoonists like Schultz (Peanuts) and Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes). With the net, I'm seeing a lot more art than I used to and I'm trying to learn more as I go. There's a whole lot of good artists out there. Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell) was the one who opened my eyes to using the web for comics. I know, others were there first, like Doctor Fun and Argon Zark, but it was Kevin and Kell that inspired me to take a shot at doing Freefall on the net.

3) What is the basic process behind the creation of your comic? Going from start to finish, approximately how many steps does a page take to completion and what time is usually involved?

I make a basic sketch on whatever happens to be available (typing paper, back of menus, etc.), scan that, and draw using a Wacom tablet and an ancient program called ProMotion (a port of the Amiga program Deluxe Paint to Windows). Part of the drawing style I chose was for compression. Freefall started before Broadband was widespread and a byte saved is a byte that doesn't have to be pushed down the wire. I use Photoshop Lite to cut the drawings down to three bit planes (Black, white, six grays) for further compression. It takes about three hours from start to finish.

4) Most comics have fans. What is some of the weirdest fanart/fanfiction that you've ever received? Got any specific pieces/fans that you might like to rave about for their talent?

I'll use the names the people use on the forum here. Won-Tolla has been doing Klifs. (Filk spelled backwards.) He flips the comic so the last frame is first and rewrites the dialog. It's pretty funny. He's up to over 500 comics now. Little Dragon has built the characters in 3D and has been doing ray traces. Static pictures, animation, and a really nicely done video of Florence dancing that I want to post as soon as I can get permission. (The music it's set to is copyrighted.) There's been art done by Patch and White Pony and others. It's a lot of fun, though a little intimidating when you see how much better other people can draw your characters than you can.

5) How difficult is it to come up with something funny on a routine basis? Are there any particular things that you find helpful to pull from (real life situations, other comics, news, etc)?

Coming up with funny stuff is easy. The George Carlin advice of "If you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before" works. I read a lot and watch a lot of science shows. The more things you have in your toolbox, the more things you can try to nail together. Except crescent wrenches. Still haven't found a way to nail them together.

6) What is the most frustrating thing about webcomics these days? Where do you see webcomics going in the future?

I don't have any frustrations with webcomics. I suppose things might be different if I were doing this as a profession rather than a hobby.

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Now for more specific questions about you, what you've seen, and your comic itself.

1) First of all, I have to tell you... I've been a fan of Freefall for a very long time. What are some of the biggest advances in the online comic world that you've seen?

Widespread broadband, making larger files workable. Easier to use paint and HTML editing programs, and the creation of sites like Keenspot and Keenspace that give space for people to post. Cheaper computers and scanners. No one thing making a huge difference, but a lot of little things adding up to make it easier for anyone who wants to try to put out their own work or collection.

2) You mentioned that you know a few of the heads of Keenspot. What do you think of the evolution of Keenspot and Keenspace?

I've e-mailed back and forth with a couple of the Keenspot folks, but don't know if that qualifies me as knowing them. I haven't met any of them in person yet. Big Panda tried making space for on line comics, but didn't quite make it. They were close. Keenspot and Keenspace was the first successful area that gave basically any cartoonist a place on the web to set up. They're responsible for there being thousands of webcomics out there today. Before Keen, there were probably less than a hundred.

3) As you also said, Keen itself was a pivotal moment for webcomics, allowing a free hosting site for people to use. In retrospect, how much impact do you think this has had over the webcomic community as a whole, especially with the recent additions of other hosting sites such as Drunkduck.com and the like? Do you think that Keen itself will continue to grow, or do you see more people migrating away from it in favor of other sites?

Hard to say. Server and bandwidth prices have dropped, making it easier to set up sites like Drunkduck and Blank Label. Keen has name recognition. I expect cartoonists will still go to Keen when they're trying to start up and make a name for themselves. But Keen needs to be more than a stepping stone, they need to find out why successful cartoonists are getting unhappy enough to leave and turn that around.

4) Finally, I'd like compliment you on both your comic and the fact that you were nominated (as of this writing) for the Web Cartoonists Choice Award for Outstanding Science-Fiction Comic. Was it a surprise to find out you'd been nominated, and what will you do if you win?

Thanks. It was a surprise. I found out I was nominated when it was posted on my forum. I think Schlock Mercenary will get it. It's a good comic, and Howard Tayler works harder at it than I do. Melonpool is another excellent comic, I've been reading him for a long time. Dicebox is well drawn, but it's on Modern Tales, so I wasn't able to go through the archives.

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