Paul Duffield: I've always been into comics, and drawn from a very early age (I can't even remember not drawing), but comics was just one of the many things that I tried when I was little. I don't think my real interest in them began until I was about 13, and I discovered first anime, then manga through a friend. From then I constantly tried to write and draw my own stories in various forms, but it all came together properly in College, where I met Kate Brown who introduced me to online comics and drew her own. [Mole Note: Kate Brown was the artist for SelfMadeHero’s Manga Shakespeare ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’]

PD: My influences are a pretty scattered bunch that span animation, illustration and comics. As far as animation goes, I'm greatly influenced by a Japanese production studio called Studio4°C, specifically two directors, Tatsuyuki Tanaka and Koji Morimoto. I also love the golden age of illustration, which encompasses artists like Rackham, Beardsley, Kay Nielsen, and others of a similar style. In terms of comics, I love a type of manga often called 'nouvelle manga' (because of its French influence), which includes Taiyo Matsumoto and Jiro Taniguchi, two of my favourite manga artists. I also love artists such as Erica Sakurazawa, Moto Hagio, Osamu Tezuka, Miou Takaya, Maki Kusumoto, Joshua Middleton, Craig Thompson, Becky Cloonan... (I could really go on for a long time).

PD: A long while ago now, I posted on Warren Ellis' old forum, The Engine, just saying hi and putting up a few pieces of my work like other people in the thread. After that I got an email from Jacen Burrows, who works as a penciller for Avatar Press (among many other things), saying he liked my work, and asking if I wanted an introduction at avatar. I leapt at the chance, and it turned out that my work suited the Freakangels project which was in search of an artist at the time. From there it was the normal process of submitting designs etc...

PD: I think this question would be better directed at Warren Ellis. Freakangels as far as I'm aware is a bit of an experiment in terms of publishing, to catch a different type of audience, and just to present a webcomic with professional production standards.

PD: The lines are all done in pencil, then scanned and coloured in Photoshop, with photographic tones added to give a grittier feel. Pencils are definitely my chosen medium, and I rarely use inks (or even touch pens in fact).

PD: It's very different for a number of reasons. First off, there's the nature of the deadlines. Instead of having an overall project deadline, there's a feeling of being 'chased' by the release of the comic itself (I'm working ahead of the actual release schedule so there's a buffer there if things should go wrong), which makes the pace of the project feel very different. In terms of the visuals, Warren has very deliberately chosen a straight forward layout format which suits the web. You'll notice the comic is normally presented in two tiers (of one or two panels each), each of which can be seen on the screen independently of each other. More complex layouts don't naturally suit the web, and it gives us a chance to really focus on the filmic nature of the story telling (it's really an extended storyboard when you think about it), and the detail and observation in each panel as its own illustration. Finally there's the technical details. Since Freakangels is actually ultimately intended for both print and the web, you'd expect these to be similar, but actually it works on classic American comic format, whereas all my previous work has been in a classic Japanese format, and the differences couldn't be greater (the size of the paper, the use of gutters, the different bleed margins, the technicalities of CYMK printing etc etc).

PD: Probably the excitement of getting each new script in before I start working on it, since I'm also reading and experiencing the comic as it goes along! It's also fantastic to see people's reactions in real time on the forums, and very encouraging when that reaction is a good one.

PD: Probably the way the creative process in handled. There's a substantial feeling of 'distance' between me and the rest of the parts of the project that I don't work on. This is partly because of the literal distance between the publisher in the states and me and Warren in the UK, meaning that the script has to go overseas to the editor, then come back overseas to me... but also because of a more 'American' way of doing things, where each step is kept very isolated from the last. It's a less extreme form of the production line style script writer, penciller, inker, colourist and letterer who never see each other or speak about the project... the only difference being that I'm the penciller, inker and colourist combined.

PD: Ooh... hard question. I quite enjoy drawing Arkady because I can really go wild with her mannerisms, but she's also very tricky to get right because she's so thin! (anatomy becomes tricky to get right once it's not the sort of anatomy you're used to). I like them all though, and it's good to flick between different characters, almost like going to visit a friend for a while.

PD: Depends if you want to go in for a series of funnies, or an epic story, but for those who are planning that epic, stop there! Start SMALL. Do a short, self-contained comic (10-20 pages is ideal if you want to work In that format) that people can easily digest, and that you can test your skills on, and get used to the medium with. Once you've whetted their appetites, you can go back to your epic with more experience and more readers.

PD: Mostly top secret I'm afraid, but I can say that me and Kate Brown have been trying to do several projects together including Deck and Rolighed ever since we left university, and we'll be damned if they're not published in the future. Unfortunately we don't know when that will be because we're both now engaged in other things.

PD: I like Ice Cream :)

Vicki Paull (aka. Wikivic) discovered comics in 2004, fell in love with them and started trying to create her own. In the four years since then she has devoured all the UK comics she could get her hands on, taken notes and written several reviews which are available to read freely on her website. She is now poking her head up out of her manga-styled burrow and is digging around like a comic-loving mole trying to find some fantastic western style UK webcomics to inspire her.

Vicki’s webcomic, Cute Loveable Mascot Training Academy, can be found here www.clmtrainingacademy.com
Her portfolio, reviews and other info can be found on her website here www.bumblemoo.com

Feed the comic mole! UK webcomic recommendations, comments or questions can be emailed to Vicki This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it