Q. I don't get why it's called American007.
A. I'm not sure either. I was thinking of titles, and suddenly American007 popped up. I guess at first I wanted to make it a political comic. And it kinda...stuck.
Q. Why the cast of Fantasy Arc characters? Why did you change their personalities?
A.The comic was really meant to be a continuation off of other character's stories. Think of it like a sequel, where the official story for the characters end and a new one begins. I'll be squarely honest here, two of the American007's are heirs to the original. I'm talking about Yoshimitsu and Sub-Zero. Why would I give them an Australian accent or less brain cells if they were smarter and sounded a little wispy and eccentric? Because they aren't the same people. Mewtwo, Blackheart's, and Sakura's personalities pretty much match their game counterparts, especially Sakura's.(though Mewtwo's personality is a little more eccentric). Bowser and Amy are really the only characters who have seem to have gone through some changes. I can understand how (and yes, some people do) have problems with their changes, but don't forget, this is only a fantasy comic done by some hedgehog who has too much time on his hands, so it isn't real.
Q. What's the deal with multiple universes, isn't that a bad thing?
A. Yes, but there are certain ways to make it right. What I did was not the right way, that's why I remade it.
Q. Let's talk about the present comic. What about the present characters you have now?
A. For the present comic, I wanted to take the personalities I put with the fantasy A007 cast and shift it over to the newer characters. The characters just clicked and worked for me. Some of the characters, as time went and still goes on, I took their personalities and molded them on a whole new psychological level. Mostly from depression I went through, to odd things I experienced in my life, to people in my life, and so on. I think Tiffany, Raphael, Scott and Clyde represent that the most. Some characters were put there to vary the cast, like Samuko. Others I stuck there as a remnant of what American007 used to be, such as Tybalt and Cthulhu.
Q. How long have you been in the comic business?
A. Several years.
Q. How exactly do you make the comics?
A. Usually I spend several days thinking about the comic and the script. Once I have an idea, I begin the spriting process, making the custom sprites needed for any action sequences. Then, I begin the comic. I gather the resources needed and then start making the comic. Afterwards, I put on the additional touches, such as the mouths, brushes and word effects. After that, I write the dialogue and post the word balloons (with the text inside). After that, I save the comic and distribute it.
Q. Speaking of text, how do you make the text balloons?
A. It's a five step process. First, I open a black and white file on Paint Shop Pro 11. Second, I start typing the text onto the white document. I'll use the round rectangular preset tool and cut a the balloon itself off and paste it into the comic itself. Then I use chisel and set it to 4. And finally, I upload the Balloons from Blambot and cut the balloon tails off and paste it onto my balloons. Then I'm done.
Q. What graphics program to you use?
A. I use a program called Paint Shop Pro 11. I use lots of effects like motion blurs, high intensity blurs, and other mind boggling effects. One effect I used in my earlier issues is the Pixelate tool. It involves Gaussian Blurring, then Pixelating by 8 or 9 bits, and then resizing the character so he looks large from the waste up, and then pixelate him/her by 2. Of course, I discovered the genius of pixel resize, so I found the other method to be obsolete. But then again, this is unprofessional, you don't need this. Or do you?
Q. Where do I get sprites?
A. Although the sprites featured in my comic and some I made are featured in the Sprites section of the site, other great sites like The Shyguy Kingdom or The Spriters Resource are great resources for sprites like that.
Q. How often do you update?
A. I normally strive for twice a week. If for some reason I can't update twice, i'll go for once a day. But i's always weekly.
Q. Where did you get the inspiration for American007?
A. As far as graphics go, my inspirations are by comics like 8 Bit-Theatre, namely the close-ups and blurs. My other big inspiration is Kohta Hirano's Hellsing, which serves as inspiration for some wild action scenes. I know some people liken my comics to that of the much superior Heroes Inc.
Q. Besides American007, what other comics have you done?
A. Several. I know I had many nameless series before I just settled on A007. My most well known is the Chronicles of Noob-Smoke, which ended on August 2006. I had a few others, but they are not worth mentioning. I did many one-shot MK comics. I also did some guest comics as well, such as the one on Revenge of the Sprite Comics.
Q. Where did you get the idea for Amy's new look?
A. I was mostly inspired by Evangelion's Misato Katsuragi and her suit. In my mind she was the perfect lieutenant, and thus would be a great model for Amy's role.
Q. Where do you get these backgrounds?
A. Mostly hours of Google-Searching. However, I also gather some backgrounds by in-game renders, mostly 3D. If all else fails, i'll use a 2d background but blur it so it doesn't look so pixelated.
Q. What's up with Raphael's design, it doesn't make sense.
A. Well, Raphael's design is much like Shadow's. You need to look at it from perspective. The quills bend upwards, but they bend outwards as well. When you glance at his side view, the quills bend upward but there's a bit of a bend to the side. So, i'd say you need to look at it from a 3D perspective. A really good example of this is Teron's drawing of Raphael (posted in the Multimedia section and the banner in this section).
1.What made you want to become a spriter?
Well, not so much for the sake of spriting, per say, but it was all based around the idea of american007. Some strips I use for A007 require custom action sprites, based on the Charas formula.
2.How long have you been spriting?
I guess since I remade A007, I wanted to really try my hand at spriting and do things with something simple to work so I can construct custom limbs and action movements without having to go through so much costuming hassle. In short, about less than a year.
3.What type of sprites to you like to work with the most?
Definetly RPG Maker Charas Sprites, because they were the easiest to work with for me. They were absolutely perfect, easy to resize, easy to work with. Of course, they might look a little blocky, but that's a small price to pay when you imagine the possibilities.
4.Who's you favorite video game character (and why)?
God...that's a tough question. I guess that would be Heather Morris/Mason from the Silent Hill games. She's very strong, resilient, and she very much reminds me of myself, in a manly way of course.
5.Why are sprites special to you? (If they are special to you)
Sprites just help express my idea or concept without going through the struggles of drawing. With drawing, you're constantly going through erasings after erasings. Anybody who can draw well is talented, for sure. Obviously, I wake up, I drag my lazy ass throughout the day, haha...you could not get me, not in a million years, to make me learn how to draw. Not that I hate drawing, i'm just a lazy bastard.
6.Any final words for other fellow spriters?
I would tell you to not give up, follow your dreams, but instead i'll tell you: avoid being arrogant, listen to your critics. I know a lot of talented (and untalented) people who are completely arrogant and self-centered. That pisses people off. Spriters are typically subjected to much ridicule and prejudice as it is, don't give people a reason to hate you more. Basically, just strive to improve, and one day you'll look at your work and be able to be proud of it, to be confident of your work.
I understand the concept of sprite comics but I just don't like the feel of them because in general they feel so lifeless. American007 does do a fairly good job at battling that problem but still comes up a bit short. The main problem in my view is that American007 is an action based comic, which of course leads to action scenes. No matter how well one writes you can not coverup the short-comings of a character just standing there doing nothing when they are supposed to be doing something.
But with that being said I would like to say there are a few standout scenes that can only be created to the creators design. One that really stood out to me was from this page http://www.drunkduck.com/American007/index.php?p=210725 I love the setup of Shadow in this scene. It is, for lack of a better word, very epic. Really grabbed my eye.
At times the writing has way too many "witty" one-liners; to the point where conversations are just one-liners between characters. The biggest problem with this is that it takes away from the good one-liners that are in the strip because you get burntout of reading them. Good one-liners are a tool, I suggest using them like seasoning for your writing. Also, it can become a little hard to tell the difference between characters because they are all spitting snappy comebacks. I do like the tone and voice that Eggman has in this strip and think you can build characters well!
Even with my dislike of Sprite comics (and the fact that SEGA hasn't been the same in years) I found this comic to be overall pretty fun to read. If the conversations were cleaned up and the sprites could be made to perform action scenes, I think it would be a comic I would check out often.
3.5/5
EmeraldCity, Emerald City
Art: This is a sprite comic. I don't dislike sprite comics, in fact one of my favorite strips here on DD (Internet Supperbuddies) is a sprite comic, but there are definite limitations on what they can and can't do. The problem that afflicts most sprite comics are all here: the ugly and confusing close-ups, the lack of any expressiveness in faces, lack of any body language and limits on movement. I can see that you really make an effort to do the best he can with the medium, especially in the action sequences, which use motion blur and other effects to create have a sense of urgency and movement that is good for any comic, but stellar for a sprite comic. That said the action sequences are also extremely confusing. Although we get the sense of action, it is often really difficult to tell what exactly is going on, sprites lose their shape when you close-up on them and become less a figure than an abstract collection of colored blocks. Add in some similar looking characters (and a huge cast)and you've really got some confusion on your hands.
Story: The story didn't really catch my interest. So far its about this group, American 007, trying to save Sonic's girlfriend from Dr. Robotnic. It is for the most part a serious comic, but I really can't take any of these Sonic characters seriously. There are many other (non-sonic related) characters, so maybe that's not such a big problem. Maybe the real problem is you never really give us any reason to care about the protagonists, in fact, I don't think I could name a single one. So far, none of the protagonists seem to have any individual characteristics or personality. They are briefly introduced, then its right into the action, but the action won't be gripping if we're not rooting for anybody.
Also, I would recommend spacing out your expository information a little more. As it is its a bit dense for my tastes.
Overall: You put in a lot effort, but the sprite medium and some flawed story elements hurt it.
Art: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Overall: 2.5/5
Exzachly, Lastplacecomics.com
Clyde dressed up in pirate gear. Iago guest stars in it. Made by Zakeris
Got any fanart you'd like to show? Contact me with Fanart in the field name, your name, (optional) your website and the fanart itself. You can contact me through my e-mail, (NemesisTyrant316@aol.com).
Contacts:
You can reach me by...
Mail: NemesisTyrant316@aol.com
AIM: NemesisTyrant316
MSN: The Nemesis316@hotmail.com
